Privacy Policy
The short version: Rainbow’s End Anchoring sends nothing anywhere. Everything you enter — and, if you use the anchor watch, your GPS position — stays on your device. The exceptions are yours to switch on: the remote watch, which copies the watch to your own iCloud so your other devices can monitor it, and sharing with crew, which publishes the watch encrypted under a code you hand out, readable by nobody without it.
What the app stores, and where
Everything you put into Rainbow’s End Anchoring — boat particulars, anchors and rodes, saved boats, unit preferences, and the conditions you enter — is stored only in the app’s local storage on your own device. It is never transmitted anywhere: the app has no server and no account system, and it makes no network requests of its own. The single optional exception is the remote watch described below, which carries the anchor watch to your own iCloud and nothing else.
Deleting the app deletes this data. If you back up your device, your backup may include the app’s data like any other app’s; those backups are managed by Apple or Google under their own terms, and we never see them.
Location — the anchor watch
Since version 1.2.0 the app includes an optional anchor watch: it draws a fence around your anchor and sounds an alarm if the boat’s GPS position leaves it. If you use this feature, the app asks for location permission (“while using the app” only) and reads your position from the device’s GPS.
Your position is used on the device and only on the device: it is compared against the fence, shown to you on screen, and the fence itself is kept in the app’s local storage so the watch survives an app restart. The trail on the Watch tab is kept only in the app’s memory while the watch is armed. No position is transmitted or shared — GPS works from satellites alone — unless you switch on the remote watch described next, which copies it to your own iCloud and nowhere else. Disarming the watch stops all use of location, and you can revoke the permission any time in your device settings. If you never use the anchor watch, the app never asks for or touches your location.
iCloud — the remote watch
Since version 1.3.0 an armed anchor watch can be shared with your other devices. This is off unless you turn on “Share to my other devices” on the Watch tab, and it needs an iPhone or iPad signed into iCloud. When it is on, the boat device writes the state of the watch to the private part of your own iCloud account, and any other device signed into the same Apple ID can read it back and show the watch, with an alarm ashore if the boat breaks out of her fence or falls silent.
What is written is what the Watch tab shows, and nothing more: the fence and the way you anchored, when the watch was armed, the boat’s current position and GPS accuracy, how far she has ranged, whether she is inside or outside the fence, the time of the report, and a thinned recent trail of at most 200 points. It is one small record, overwritten in place about every 20 seconds while sharing is on, so no history accumulates. Your boat particulars, gear, and saved boats are never included.
That record is stored by Apple under your Apple ID and Apple’s iCloud terms, in your private iCloud database: the app has no server of its own, we cannot read the record, and no other iCloud user can. Turning sharing off, or disarming the watch, stops the writing and deletes the record from your iCloud, so nothing lingers between watches. If the boat device has no signal at that moment the delete cannot go through, and the last record stays until the next shared watch replaces it; you can also remove it yourself, with any other app data, from your device’s iCloud storage settings. If you never turn sharing on, the app never touches iCloud.
Sharing with crew — the code
Since version 1.5.0 an armed watch can also be shared with people who do not share your Apple ID: crew, guests, family ashore. This is off unless you turn on “Share with crew” on the Watch tab. When it is on, the boat device writes the same watch record, plus the boat’s name, hull color and, if you have added one, a photo of her, to the app’s public iCloud database — a store Apple hosts for the app rather than for any one account — encrypted with a key derived from an eight-character code the app shows you. Anyone you give the code to can read the watch and find the boat in the free companion app, Rainbow’s End Monitor. Anyone without it sees only ciphertext, filed under a name that is a hash of the code. Apple holds the ciphertext; the app has no server; we cannot read the record. The code never leaves your device except as you choose to share it.
The code stays the same on that device until you choose “New code”, so a crew who joined at the dock still find the boat the next day. Turning “Share with crew” off, or disarming the watch, deletes the record, and only the boat device can change or delete it. If the boat has no signal at that moment the record stays until the next shared watch replaces it, and the Monitor app treats a record older than a day as a watch that ended. The Monitor app never learns where crew are: their own position is used on their own phone, for the arrow, and goes nowhere.
What the app does not do
Rainbow’s End Anchoring contains no analytics, no advertising, no tracking of any kind, and no third-party data-collection software. It does not read your contacts or anything else on your device; the one photo it ever uses is the one you choose for your boat, and that leaves the device only with crew you have given the code. It works offline — by design, because it is meant to be used at anchor, where there is often no signal. The remote watch and sharing with crew are the two features that need a connection, and both are optional.
Purchases
Buying the app is handled entirely by the App Store or Google Play. We receive no payment details, no card numbers, and no personal information from your purchase.
Children
The app collects no data from anyone, children included.
Changes to this policy
If a future version of the app ever changes any of the above — for example, by adding an online feature — this policy will be updated first, with the effective date above revised, and the change described plainly rather than buried.
August 29, 2026: added the Location section for the anchor watch introduced in version 1.2.0. It is the app’s first and only use of location, it is optional, and position never leaves the device. Nothing else changed.
September 2, 2026: added the iCloud section for the remote watch introduced in version 1.3.0. It is the app’s first and only network feature, it is opt-in, and what it shares goes to your own iCloud account and nowhere else. The short version at the top, the Location section, and “What the app does not do” were reworded to say so. Nothing else changed.
September 3, 2026: added “Sharing with crew — the code” for version 1.5.0: the same watch, encrypted under a code, readable by anyone you give the code to in the free Rainbow’s End Monitor app. The short version at the top was reworded to say so. Later the same day: the crew section now names the boat photo, which travels with the crew record when you have added one, and “What the app does not do” says the app reads only that photo. Nothing else changed.
Contact
Questions about this policy: support@RainbowsEndMarine.com.
Rainbow’s End Anchoring is an aid to judgment, not a substitute for it — see the disclaimer inside the app.