Privacy.

The app

Location

Location access is optional. ParkKing uses your location while you’re using the app, or in the background if you turn on End Parking Automatically (see Smart Parking). Your location is used on your iPhone to centre the map and find nearby curbs, and it is never sent to us. Looking up the address of a curb you check, including one ParkKing picks from your location, uses Apple’s MapKit (see Apple services). Without location access, you can still search any Toronto address.

Smart Parking (optional)

If you turn on Notice When I Drive Away or End Parking Automatically in Settings → Smart Parking, ParkKing reads your iPhone’s Motion & Fitness activity to tell when your parked car has driven away.

With End Parking Automatically on, it also uses your location in the background. It watches a small area (about 150 m) around your parked car. For two hours after the car drives off, it notes places you stop, so it can offer to save where you park next.

All of this happens on your iPhone. None of it is sent to us or anyone else. You can turn it off in the app’s Settings, or remove Motion & Fitness or Always location access in iOS Settings, at any time.

Notifications

If you allow them, ParkKing shows parking reminders (some marked Time Sensitive), “Which side of the street?” questions and “Did your car drive off?” questions. The app creates them on your iPhone. Nothing is sent to us to deliver them.

Stored on your iPhone

These stay on your iPhone and aren’t sent to us. Apart from the parking data, they’re also included in your iPhone’s backups, such as iCloud Backup. Deleting the app removes them from your iPhone:

• Recent searches and favourite places
• Your settings, the time you’re checking and the last map position
• Where you parked, while you’re parked
• The parking data
• Your savings history: each past stay’s street, side, times and estimated saving, plus the savings badges you’ve earned
• Names you give saved places
• Your parking settings, including permit areas, whether you hold an Accessible Parking Permit, and your vehicle type
• For Smart Parking, recent motion and place information about your parked car

The App Attest key described below is kept in your iPhone’s Keychain rather than with the app’s other data, so it may remain on your iPhone after you delete ParkKing. It stays on that iPhone and doesn’t move to a new one.

Parking data and updates

ParkKing downloads its parking data, built from City of Toronto Open Data, from our server at data.getparkking.com, which runs on Cloudflare. It does this the first time you open the app, then checks for updates at most every 12 hours, or whenever you tap Check for Updates in Settings. Automatic checks don’t use cellular data or Low Data Mode.

These requests only ask for the latest data. They don’t include your location, your searches or the curbs you look at: every lookup happens on your iPhone.

The app also downloads the City of Toronto’s current road closures from the same server. It does this about every ten minutes while you’re using the app, and sometimes in the background while a car is parked. These requests don’t include your location or the App Attest key.

So that only the real ParkKing app can download the data, the app uses Apple’s App Attest. It creates a key on your iPhone, and every data download carries that key’s identifier. Our server keeps the identifier and the key’s public half to check the app’s later requests, and deletes them about 13 months after they were last used. They’re never attached to your usage data.

Anonymous usage data

Unless you turn it off, ParkKing sends anonymous information about how the app is used. To turn it off, open Settings in the app and go to Privacy → Share Anonymous Usage Data. Anything not yet sent is dropped.

We use this data to fix problems, improve the app and estimate how much ParkKing users save. We don’t sell it or share it for advertising. It is stored with Cloudflare. Crash and performance reports are deleted after 180 days, and usage events after 24 months. After that, we keep only monthly totals of the estimated savings. Because usage data has no identifier, we can’t find or delete one person’s data. Like any web request, Cloudflare handles your IP address to deliver it, but our server doesn’t store it.

Emails you send us

If you tap “Rules look wrong? Tell us” or Contact Support, your email app sends us your message, including any details it fills in about the curb. We use it only to reply and to fix the data. Support email is forwarded by Cloudflare to Gmail (see Where data is processed).

Apple services

The map, address search, address lookups and walking routes use Apple’s MapKit. That means some information goes to Apple, not to us:

• What you type when you search, to suggest places.
• The coordinates of the curb you check, including one ParkKing picks from your location, to look up its address.
• When ParkKing suggests a nearby place to park, the coordinates of that spot and of the place you’re checking, to work out the walking route between them.
• The area of the map on screen, to load the map.

Apple handles this under Apple’s Privacy Policy.

Directions

If you tap Directions, the destination (its address, or its coordinates) goes to Apple Maps, Google Maps or Waze, whichever you choose. If Google Maps or Waze isn’t installed, its website opens in your browser instead. That app’s or website’s privacy policy applies.

Children

ParkKing isn’t directed at children under 13 and doesn’t knowingly collect their personal information.

This website

getparkking.com has information about ParkKing, support and this policy.

• Hosting. The website runs on Cloudflare Pages. Like any web host, Cloudflare may process technical logs, such as your IP address, browser and request times, to deliver pages and block attacks.
• No analytics, ads or cookies. Nothing is saved in your browser beyond its ordinary cache.
• Fonts. The pages load the Inter typeface from Google Fonts, so your browser requests it from Google’s servers.

Where data is processed

• Cloudflare. Cloudflare, a US company with servers around the world, runs the server that delivers the parking data and receives usage data, and hosts this website. Cloudflare Email Routing also receives email sent to support@getparkking.com and forwards it to our Gmail inbox.
• Google. Email to support@getparkking.com is kept and answered in Gmail, a Google service.
• Apple. MapKit requests go to Apple, as described under Apple services.

So your information may be processed and stored outside Canada, including in the United States, where the law may let authorities there access it.

Your rights and contact

ParkKing is operated by Joseph Hershkop, who is responsible for the personal information described in this policy. For anything about privacy, email support@getparkking.com.

• Your emails. Emails you’ve sent us are the only information we hold that identifies you. To ask for a copy, to correct them or to have them deleted, email us from the same address.
• Usage data. ParkKing sends usage data with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time: open Settings in the app and go to Privacy → Share Anonymous Usage Data. Because it has no identifier, we can’t find what has already been sent.
• Smart Parking. You can turn it off in Settings → Smart Parking. Its data never leaves your iPhone, so there’s nothing for us to delete.
• Complaints. If you’re not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or, if you live in Quebec, the Commission d’accès à l’information.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.