Cyprus Bus — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 4 August 2026

Cyprus Bus shows live and scheduled public-transport times for Cyprus, published by BotSquash. This policy explains how the app handles your information. Short version: no account, no analytics, your location never leaves your device, and the only outside data sharing is with Google AdMob (for ads) and Google Play Billing (for the optional Remove Ads purchase) — both described in full below.

Data we collect

None, ourselves. Google AdMob and Google Play Billing — described below — are the only outside parties involved, and only for the purposes described.

• The app has no account or login.
• Your favourite stops and settings are stored only on your own device. They never leave your phone.
• The app does not use analytics, crash reporting, or tracking SDKs of its own.

Advertising

Cyprus Bus shows banner ads served by Google AdMob, placed at the bottom of the Home screen and the Stop Detail screen — never as a full-screen interstitial, and never overlapping or covering the live departures list you're reading. To serve and measure ads, AdMob:

• Uses your device's advertising ID (a resettable, non-permanent identifier — you can reset or opt out of its use for personalised ads any time in your device's system settings) for ad personalisation and measurement.
• May collect technical data such as device type, approximate (IP-based) location, app version, and ad interaction data, per Google's own advertising data practices.
• Is subject to Google's Privacy Policy — we do not receive, store, or see the data AdMob collects; it goes directly to Google.

If you purchase "Remove Ads (1 Year)" (see below), no ads are shown — and therefore no data is shared with AdMob — for the duration of that purchase.

EEA/UK/Switzerland consent choice: if you're in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, Cyprus Bus asks for your consent (via Google's User Messaging Platform, the standard IAB/Google consent mechanism) before loading any personalised ads, in line with GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive. You can review or change that choice at any time from Settings → Privacy options inside the app.

Location

If you grant location permission, Cyprus Bus uses your device's GPS to find bus stops near you. Your location is used entirely on your device — it is compared against the app's own bundled/downloaded stop database locally and is never sent to us or to any server. Location permission is optional: the app's search, favourites, and schedule features all work fully without it.

Why the app requests Internet access

Cyprus Bus contacts two official Cyprus public-transport open-data endpoints (operated by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works, via motionbuscard.org.cy) to:

• download bus route and timetable data so schedules work offline afterward, and
• fetch live vehicle position updates so arrival times can be shown as "live" rather than just scheduled.

These requests contain no personal information — no account identifier, no advertising ID, nothing that identifies you. They are the same kind of request any transit map or timetable website makes to read public data.

Permissions

• Internet: fetches public transport schedule and live-position data (see above), loads AdMob banner ads, and processes the optional Remove Ads purchase via Google Play Billing.
• Location (optional): used on-device only, to find nearby stops. See "Location" above.
• The app does not use contacts, camera, or microphone, and stores nothing beyond its own app data. The advertising ID is used only by Google AdMob, as described in "Advertising" above.

Home-screen widget

The optional home-screen widget shows the next departure for your favourite stops. It reads data your device already downloaded and displays it locally — nothing is transmitted to make the widget work.

Third-party data source

Bus schedule and live-position data is sourced from the Cyprus National Access Point / the Department of Public Works, Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works (motionbuscard.org.cy), published as open data under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC-BY 4.0) — full licence text at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Cyprus Bus is an independent app and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the Cyprus government or Motion.

In-app purchase

The optional "Remove Ads" subscription (product id remove_ads_annual) is sold and processed entirely through Google Play Billing as an auto-renewing annual subscription — it automatically renews each year unless cancelled, the same as any Play Store subscription. We never see or store your card or payment details; your subscription status is managed by Google Play and can be viewed, changed, or cancelled at any time from your Google Play subscriptions page. Cyprus Bus checks your subscription status with Google Play (and syncs a local record so ads stay off even offline) rather than relying on any on-device timer. The Settings screen always shows whether it's currently active and offers a "Restore purchases" button if you reinstall or switch devices.

Your rights (GDPR / EEA, UK, and Switzerland users)

Cyprus Bus itself holds essentially no personal data about you — no account, no server-side profile, nothing beyond what's described above. To the extent any data processing does apply to you (mainly through AdMob and Google Play Billing, both Google's own processing described above), you have the following rights under the GDPR:

• Right of access — you can ask what data, if any, is held about you.
• Right to erasure — you can ask for any such data to be deleted. For AdMob, resetting your device's advertising ID (in your device's system settings) or uninstalling the app achieves this on our side; for anything Google holds directly, use Google's own account privacy controls.
• Right to object / withdraw consent — you can withdraw ad-personalisation consent at any time via Settings → Privacy options in the app, or object to processing by contacting us (below).
• Right to lodge a complaint — you can complain to your local data protection supervisory authority at any time. In Cyprus, that's the Office of the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection; if you're elsewhere in the EEA, your own country's supervisory authority applies instead.

To exercise any of these rights regarding data we could plausibly hold (there is very little, since the app has no account or server-side storage), contact us at the email below.

Children

The app collects no personal data from anyone, including children.

Changes

If this policy changes, the "Last updated" date above will change. Continued use of the app means you accept the current policy.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email [email protected].