Privacy Policy.

Overview

Park Alerts ("the app") is a free iOS app that delivers wait-time pings and showtime reminders for the four Walt Disney World theme parks. The app is published by Macintology, an independent studio. We are not affiliated with The Walt Disney Company or any park operator.

This policy describes what data the app handles, where it goes, and what your choices are. It applies to the iOS app and the small backend that delivers wait-time push notifications. There is no Park Alerts website account.

What we collect

The app and its backend handle a deliberately small amount of data. Here is the complete list:

From your device, when you enable an alert

On your device only (never sent to our backend)

From general HTTP requests to our backend

When the app fetches wait times or registers an alert, the request hits AWS infrastructure. Standard request metadata (IP address, user-agent, timestamp) appears in CloudWatch access logs and is retained for up to 30 days for operational and security purposes. We do not link this metadata to a user identity or to your alerts.

Anonymous usage analytics (TelemetryDeck)

The app sends anonymized usage signals to TelemetryDeck, an Austria-based, GDPR-by-design analytics service. Signals are limited to product events such as Alert.Created, Alert.Fired, Reminder.Created, and App.Launched, plus a small set of non-identifying parameters (e.g. which park, which alert source — "browse" vs. "suggestion") and platform metadata (iOS version, app version, locale).

TelemetryDeck does not see your name, email, IP address, advertising ID, or any other personal identifier. Signals are tied to a non-reversible per-app, per-device hash that TelemetryDeck computes on-device before sending — we cannot use it to identify you, and TelemetryDeck cannot use it to identify you across apps. Their privacy approach is documented at telemetrydeck.com/privacy.

What we don't collect — at all

• No name, email, phone number, or account information. There is no account.
• No real-time location. The optional "auto-detect closest park" feature uses iOS's coarse location and runs entirely on-device — your location never leaves the phone.
• No advertising identifiers (IDFA, GAID). The app does not show ads.
• No advertising, attribution, session-replay, or behavioral-profiling SDKs. No Firebase Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Segment, AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch, FullStory, Heap. The only analytics we use is TelemetryDeck, described above.
• No social login, contacts, photos, microphone, or camera access. The app doesn't request those permissions.
• No cross-device sync. Each install is independent.

How the data is used

The data we do collect is used for one purpose: to deliver the alerts and reminders you asked for.

• Notification token + alert configuration — to send you a push when the queue you're watching crosses your threshold.
• Cached wait times on the device — to render the in-app charts and the daily recap.
• Operational logs — to keep the service running, debug crashes, and detect abuse.

We do not profile users, build advertising audiences, or sell anything to anyone.

Where the data lives

• Your device — show reminders, cached schedules and recaps, and your selected park.
• Our backend (AWS, US East region) — DynamoDB stores active wait-time alerts, keyed by entity ID and notification token. AWS Lambda processes alert events. AWS S3 caches wait-time and schedule data fetched from ThemeParks.wiki. Everything is in us-east-1.
• Apple's servers — Apple Push Notification service relays the push from us to your device. APNs has its own privacy terms (see Apple's policy).
• TelemetryDeck (EU) — anonymized product event signals. No personal data leaves your device unhashed.

Third parties we use

We use a small, deliberate set of third parties. None of them receive a user identity from us — they receive at most a notification token and an entity ID.

• Apple — App Store delivery and Apple Push Notification service.
• Amazon Web Services — Lambda, DynamoDB, S3, and CloudWatch in us-east-1. Acts as our data processor under a standard AWS Data Processing Addendum.
• TelemetryDeck (Austria, EU) — anonymous usage analytics. Receives product event signals and a per-app per-device hash; never receives a name, email, IP address, or advertising ID. GDPR-by-design.
• ThemeParks.wiki — public theme-park data API. Our backend fetches wait-time and schedule data from this source. Outbound requests carry a park ID; they do not carry anything about you.

We do not use advertising, attribution, or session-replay services. The only analytics third party is TelemetryDeck, described above.

Notifications & alerts

Two kinds of notifications are sent:

• Wait-time alerts are sent from our backend through Apple Push Notification service. Setting one stores your notification token, the entity ID, and the threshold on our backend so the push can fire when the queue drops. Removing the alert deletes the record immediately.
• Show reminders are scheduled locally on your device with iOS's UNUserNotificationCenter. The backend never sees them.

You can disable notifications at any time in iOS Settings → Park Alerts → Notifications. You can remove individual alerts in the app with a swipe.

Location data

Park Alerts does not require your location, and your location is never sent to our backend or to any third party.

The app offers an optional "closest park" feature that uses iOS's coarse location to surface the nearest WDW park when you enter the resort. It runs entirely on-device — the comparison happens on your phone, the result is "which of four park buttons should be selected," and that result never leaves the device. iOS will ask for location permission the first time; you can decline (the app works fine without it) or revoke it later in iOS Settings.

Security

All requests between the app and our backend are over TLS 1.2+. AWS DynamoDB encrypts data at rest using AWS-managed keys. Notification tokens are treated as opaque identifiers and are never combined with any other identifier.

If we discover a security incident that affects your data, we will publish a notice on this page and email privacy@macintology.org subscribers within a reasonable timeframe consistent with applicable law.

Retention & deletion

• Active wait-time alerts are deleted from our backend the moment you remove them in the app, and automatically expire (TTL) when the alert fires or after a configurable maximum age — whichever comes first.
• Show reminders are stored on your device only and are gone the moment you delete them or uninstall the app.
• Operational logs (request metadata) roll off after 30 days.
• TelemetryDeck signals are retained per TelemetryDeck's own retention policy. Because signals are not tied to a personal identifier, there is no per-user record to delete; aggregate counts cannot be reversed back to you.
• Uninstalling the app invalidates your notification token at Apple. Any remaining server-side records associated with that token become inert and are aged out.

Children's privacy

Park Alerts is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. The app does not require any personal information at all, and there is no profile or account that a child could populate. If you believe a child has somehow provided personal information through the app, please email privacy@macintology.org and we will look into it.

Your rights and choices

Because the app collects so little, most rights are exercised directly in the app:

• See what's stored: the alerts you have set are visible on the Alerts tab. There is no separate user record beyond those.
• Delete it: swipe to remove any alert. To remove everything at once, uninstall the app — that ends our ability to send pushes to your device.
• Disable notifications: iOS Settings → Park Alerts → Notifications.
• Disable location: iOS Settings → Park Alerts → Location. The app continues to work normally.

Residents of the EU/EEA, UK, California, and other jurisdictions with comprehensive privacy laws have additional rights including access, correction, portability, and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. To exercise any of these, email privacy@macintology.org with enough context (e.g., your notification token from Settings → About, or the approximate date you set up an alert) for us to locate any record we may hold. We don't require government ID — we just need to be able to find what we're being asked to act on.

Changes to this policy

If we make a material change, the date at the top of this page will update and the in-app About screen will surface a notice the next time you open the app. Substantive changes will take effect no sooner than 14 days after notice.

How to reach us

• Privacy questions or data requests: privacy@macintology.org
• General support: support@macintology.org
• Studio: Macintology, United States.

Terms of service

By installing and using Park Alerts you agree to these short terms.

What Park Alerts is

Park Alerts is a free iOS app that displays publicly-available theme-park wait-time and schedule data and sends you notifications based on alerts you configure. It is provided as is, on a best-effort basis. We don't guarantee uninterrupted service, and we don't guarantee that any particular alert will fire — push delivery depends on Apple, your network, your device, and the upstream park data feed all working at the moment a queue drops.

Wait-time accuracy

Wait-time data comes from publicly-available park APIs. We pass it through unchanged. The actual queue you stand in may be longer or shorter than what the park reports. Don't make a non-refundable plan based purely on a Park Alerts notification.

Acceptable use

Don't try to break, scrape, overload, or reverse-engineer the backend. Don't use the service in a way that disrupts other users or the upstream park feeds. Don't impersonate Park Alerts or imply that we're affiliated with any park operator.

No affiliation

Park Alerts is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, or any other park operator. All park names, ride names, character names, and trademarks belong to their respective owners and are used for descriptive purposes only.

Intellectual property

The Park Alerts brand, app design, code, and copy are © 2026 Macintology. The wait-time and schedule data is drawn from publicly-available sources and remains the property of its respective owners.

Disclaimer and limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Park Alerts and Macintology disclaim all warranties, express or implied, and will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of your use of the app — including, with apologies, missed showtimes, missed ride windows, or trips that didn't go the way you'd hoped.

Changes & termination

We may change or discontinue any feature at any time. We may suspend access if a user is abusing the service. You may stop using the app at any time by uninstalling it.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the State of California, without regard to conflict of laws principles. Any dispute will be brought in the state or federal courts located in California.

© 2026 Macintology. Park Alerts is independent and not affiliated with any theme-park operator. Wait-time data is provided as-is from public park APIs; actual queues may differ.