Kav

Privacy policy ​

Kav has no ads, no account, no analytics and no crash reporting. Nothing in it reports on how you use it. This page lists every place the app talks to, and what each one gets. It applies to the Kav app from GitHub, Kav's server and this website.

Kav's server ​

When you pick Kav for live buses, planning or timetables, the app asks Kav's server for:

  • live buses on the lines, stops or rough area you're looking at;
  • trips between the start and end you plan, and the time;
  • the server's status.

Requests go through Cloudflare, so the server sees Cloudflare, not you: your IP address and your browser's name are taken out before a request reaches it, and it keeps no log of requests. It doesn't know who asked, and has no account to tie requests together. Cloudflare, like any network provider, handles the connection itself.

If you set up a server of your own, the app asks that one instead, and Kav's server isn't asked at all.

Shared trips ​

Sharing a trip with a Kav link stores the trip you picked and the look you chose for its page (and the picture chats show with the link) on Kav's server, behind a random seven-character code. Nothing about you is stored with it. Links last 7 days unless you choose 3 or 30, and expired trips are deleted.

Someone opening the link sees a page that loads the map library Leaflet from unpkg and map pictures from Esri; both receive their IP address, and Esri sees the map area.

Services you choose ​

Some features ask a service directly. They receive what's needed for the request, and your IP address, like any website you visit:

  • Trip planning, live buses and timetables from another provider, when you pick one in Settings: He who shall not be named's public website, Bus Nearby or EGG (Bus Nearby and EGG are run by HopOn). Only the providers you picked are asked. Sharing a trip one of them planned also asks it for its own link to that trip.
  • Searching for a place: Google's public web search, without a key, an account or cookies. It gets what you typed and the area around you: with private search (on by default) only the centre of your town, or a place you pick. Addresses Google doesn't know are looked up on GovMap, the Survey of Israel's map, with just the typed text.
  • Stop photos and Street View: Google, for the stop being shown, unless stop photos are off in Settings. Place photos also come from Google.
  • Train times and platforms: Israel Railways, with the two stations and the day, when you open that card or trip.
  • Satellite map: Esri, for the area on screen.
  • Paying for a ride, if you want to: Rav-Pass, the Ministry of Transport's payment service run by HopOn, with your own Rav-Pass account. It gets your location only at the moment you scan or pay, never in the background. Nothing else in Kav uses that account.
  • Reporting a driver, bus, inspector or train: the Ministry of Transport's own form, which you check and send yourself. Your details stay on the phone until then.

GitHub ​

Kav downloads its offline map, the timetable and its own updates from GitHub, and checks GitHub for new versions; daily timetable updates can be turned off in Settings. Once a day it also reads the signed search recipe Vela Maps publishes on GitHub. GitHub sees your IP address for these downloads.

On your phone ​

Your places, favourites, recent trips and settings stay on your phone. Backups are a .kav file you save where you choose. Location is used on the phone to plan from where you are and to follow your trip; it isn't sent anywhere except as described above.

This website ​

kavapp.link uses no cookies, no analytics and no fonts or scripts from anyone else, and keeps no access logs. The Download button and the version history ask GitHub's API for the latest release from your browser, so GitHub sees that request. The APK itself downloads from GitHub.

Questions ​

Kav is open source, so all of this can be checked in the code. Questions and corrections are welcome as an issue on GitHub.