Privacy policy
This policy covers equidistance.io. The short version: there are no accounts, no cookies and no adverts. Nothing you type is stored on our servers, because there is no server that could store it. The addresses you enter go straight from your browser to Google Maps, which is how the site works out where to send you.
Who is responsible
Equidistance is run by Daniel Pati, a sole operator based in the United Kingdom, who is the data controller for this site. For any privacy question, email [email protected].
What we do with the places you type
When you type an address, the text is sent from your browser to Google to suggest matching places. When you run a search, the coordinates of everyone’s locations are sent to Google to calculate travel times and to find stations and venues nearby.
These requests go directly from your browser to Google and do not pass through our servers. Google’s handling of them is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.
If you use the locate button
Pressing the locate button asks your browser for your device’s position. Your browser will ask permission first, and you can refuse. If you allow it, the coordinates are sent to Google to convert into a street address, which is then filled into the form. We ask for coarse rather than high accuracy positioning. Once you search, the coordinates are treated like everyone else’s, in the address bar and on your device as described below. Refusing simply means you type your address instead.
Your search appears in the address bar
After a search, the page address is updated to include everyone’s coordinates, the transport mode, the venue type, any arrival time you set and, for public transport and driving, the point the search was centred on. This makes the result shareable and lets someone opening the link run the same search.
Three consequences worth knowing. The coordinates are saved in your browser history like any other page address. Opening the link, or reloading the page, sends that address to our host, Cloudflare, as part of the page request. And if you share the link, whoever receives it can see where everyone in the search was starting from, because the page shows the nearest street address to each set of coordinates. Only share it with the people who were in it.
What is stored on your device
The site keeps a small amount of data in your browser’s local storage. It never leaves your device and we cannot read it.
- eq-search-cache-v2 and eq-venues-cache-v3 hold recent search results so that repeating a search does not re-run a paid Google lookup. Each result is filed under the starting points of everyone in that search, rounded to about ten metres, so anyone using this browser can see where recent searches started from. Entries are not reused after seven days, or after an hour for public transport searches with no arrival time set, because timetables change. Entries over seven days old are deleted when the site next saves a result to the same store, so if you stop using the site they stay until you clear them.
- eq-install-closed records that you dismissed the “Add to home screen” prompt, so it is not shown again.
You can clear all of it at any time through your browser’s settings for clearing site data. The site works normally without it.
These are not cookies, and we set no cookies of any kind. We do not ask for storage consent because this data is limited to delivering the service you asked for and remembering a choice you made, which the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations exempt from the consent requirement.
Analytics
We use Plausible Analytics, served from this domain, to count visits. It is cookieless, collects no personal data, does not follow you across sites and produces only aggregate figures. There is no advertising or profiling of any kind. Page addresses are sent to it with the search removed, so the coordinates in a results link never reach it.
Alongside page views we record seven counters: a search finished; no journey times could be worked out, counted separately for each of the two routing services the site uses; one of those services stopped working and the site switched to the other; the daily Google quota was reached; the app was installed to a home screen; and a visit came from an installed app. These are plain counts with no details attached.
We also record clicks on links that leave the site, and downloads of files linked from it, such as the data behind London’s most equidistant pub. Those counts include the address of the link followed, so for a result card it includes the map location of the venue we suggested. The addresses you typed are never recorded, and nothing ties a click to you beyond the aggregate figures described above.
Server logs
The site is hosted on Cloudflare Pages. Like any web host, Cloudflare processes request data including IP addresses in order to serve pages, absorb attacks and keep the site available. We do not use these logs for analytics and do not build any profile from them.
If you tip
The tip link goes to Ko-fi, which takes the payment through Stripe and pays it into our Stripe account. We never see your full card number. Ko-fi passes on your name or handle, your email address and any message you leave. Stripe shows us your name and email address, the bank that issued your card, its last four digits and part of its billing address. Ko-fi is a separate data controller and its own privacy policy applies once you are on its site. Stripe’s privacy policy covers the payment itself.
Who else is involved
- Google provides maps, place search and travel times.
- Cloudflare hosts and delivers the site.
- Plausible provides analytics, hosted in the European Union.
- Ko-fi and Stripe handle tips, only if you choose to send one.
Google, Cloudflare and Stripe are United States companies and data may be processed outside the United Kingdom. All three operate their own approved safeguards for international transfers.
Why we are allowed to do this
Under UK data protection law we rely on legitimate interests to run the search itself and to count visits in aggregate, because both are necessary to provide a working free tool and neither involves identifying anyone. Where your browser asks your permission, as it does for your device location, we rely on that consent, and you can withdraw it in your browser settings at any time.
How long anything is kept
We keep nothing about your searches or visits. Searches are not recorded, and the caches described above exist only on your own device. Analytics figures are aggregate counts with no personal data in them. If you tip, the record of the payment stays in our Ko-fi and Stripe accounts. Cloudflare, Google and Stripe apply their own retention periods to the data they process.
Your rights
You have the right to access, correct, erase, restrict or object to the processing of your personal data, and to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
In practice, unless you have tipped, we hold nothing that identifies you, so there is usually nothing for us to retrieve or delete. If your concern is about location data sent to Google, Google is the one holding it and its privacy tools are the place to act. Email [email protected] if you want help working out which is which, and we will reply within two working days.
Children
This site is not aimed at children and we do not knowingly collect anything from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, the revision date below changes with it. There is no mailing list to notify, because we do not have your email address.
This policy was last revised on 4 October 2026.