Privacy Policy
Who we are
REFarm is an iOS app for real-estate agents who knock doors. It is operated by Chengcheng Liu (Vanessa Liu), Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. Contact: support@refarm.app.
What stays on your device
All of the following is stored only in the app's own storage on your iPhone and is never transmitted to us or to anyone else:
- the addresses you import or add
- owner names and phone numbers, where you have entered them
- your notes, tags and the outcome you record at each door
- your walk history — where you went, when, and what you marked
- your settings, including your saved start points and your area
If you delete the app, this information is deleted with it. We hold no copy, because we never received one.
What is sent to Google Maps, and exactly what it contains
REFarm uses Google Maps Platform to draw maps, order a walking route, suggest addresses as you type, and fetch a Street View photograph of a house. Those requests contain the following and nothing else:
| Feature | Everything that is sent |
|---|---|
| Route ordering | Latitude and longitude of each stop; your start and end address as text |
| Address suggestions | The characters you are typing, and a rough centre point to rank results near you |
| House photo | One latitude/longitude pair |
| Map tiles | The area of the map on screen |
Owner names, phone numbers, notes and door outcomes are never included in any request. Google receives locations. It does not receive who lives there or what you wrote.
Google's handling of that data is governed by the Google Privacy Policy.
How you can check this yourself
You do not have to take our word for it. iOS keeps its own record of every internet domain an app contacts:
Settings → Privacy & Security → App Privacy Report
Turn it on, use REFarm for a day, and look. You will see Google's map domains. You will not see a REFarm server, an analytics service, or any address belonging to us — because the app does not know of one.
Location
REFarm asks for your location while you are using it, so the map can show where you are, so it can tell which house you have stopped at, and so you can use your current position as a starting point. Your position is used on the device. It is not sent to us and it is not stored off your phone.
When you turn an address into a map position — for example when you set your area from where you are standing — REFarm uses Apple's geocoder, which runs through your device's own connection to Apple rather than through our Google account.
Google Drive, if you connect it
Connecting Google Drive is optional and off until you choose it. When it is on, recordings and your walk log are uploaded to your own Google Drive, using your own Google account, into a folder you name. We have no access to your Drive at any point. Disconnecting stops it; files already in your Drive belong to you.
What we collect about you
Nothing. REFarm has no account system, no login, no analytics, no advertising, no tracking identifiers and no crash-reporting service of our own. We do not know who has installed the app.
If Apple sends us anonymous crash reports through App Store Connect, those contain diagnostic information about the software — not your data.
Children
REFarm is a professional tool for licensed real-estate agents and is not directed at children.
Your responsibilities as an agent
The addresses and contact details you put into REFarm are yours, and you remain responsible for them under the privacy law that applies to you — in Canada, PIPEDA and your provincial equivalent — and under the terms of whatever board, association or data provider you obtained them from. REFarm is a tool for organising information you already hold. It does not supply property data, and importing data you are not permitted to use does not become permitted because it is in an app.
Changes
If the app's behaviour changes, this page changes with it, and the date at the top moves. Material changes will be noted in the app's release notes.