This policy explains what information Gander ("we", "us") collects when you use the Gander app and this website, why we use it, who we share it with, and the choices and rights you have.
Who we are
Gander is run by Gander Tour Company Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17377454), registered office 35 Path Head, Blaydon, NE21 4SR. We are the "controller" of your personal information under UK data protection law. You can contact us about anything in this policy at hello@gander-tours.com.
Information we collect
• Account information: your email address and name, and how you sign in (email and password, Google, or Apple). Sign-in is handled by Firebase Authentication. We never see your Google or Apple password.
• Profile details: your date of birth (so age-restricted offers are never shown to under-18s), your nationality if you choose to give it (to understand who uses our tours), your mobile number if you choose to give it, your app language, and your marketing preferences with the date you chose them.
• Mobile number: used to verify your account and keep it secure, for example by texting you a one-time code when you sign up or reset your password, and, only if you turn on text messages, to send you occasional offers by text.
• Trip and plans: if you tell us you are visiting, roughly how much longer you are staying, and what you plan to do after a tour, so the suggestions we show fit your trip.
• Questions to the AI guide: the questions you ask in the tour Q&A and the answers given. Answers are kept with your account so you can read them later, and questions are logged without your identity to help us improve tours. Messages that appear abusive, hateful or harmful are flagged and kept with your account so our team can review them under our Terms of Use.
• Reviews: if you review a tour, your star rating, your comment and your first name.
• Tips: if you leave a tip, the amount, the date, and the store's purchase reference. Payment is handled entirely by Apple or Google; we never receive your card or bank details.
• Notifications: if you allow them, a device token so we can tell you when an answer or a translated tour is ready.
• Location: with your permission, we use your device location to show you tours near you and to guide you along a route. When you open the app, it also checks with our servers whether you're near a venue whose offer you've saved or that we recommended after a tour. If you are, we record that visit (which venue and when, not your exact position) so the venue can see how its sponsorship is doing. Your exact location is never stored on our servers.
• Tour activity: which tours you view, start and complete, and any offers you add to your wallet, present to a sponsor or redeem, so those features work and so sponsors can see overall redemption numbers for their own offers.
• Downloads: tours you download for offline use are stored on your device only.
• Diagnostics: basic app usage analytics and crash reports (via Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics) to help us find and fix bugs and understand which features are used. We also record how much of each stop's audio is listened to, finished or skipped, without your name or account, so we can see which stories people enjoy and write better tours. We don't use advertising networks, and we don't use your activity to show you targeted ads.
• Waiting list, enquiries and messages: if you join our waiting list on this website, your email address and, if you give them, your first name and the city you'd like a tour in. If you enquire about sponsoring a tour, your business details and contact details. If you contact us, your name, email address and message, which we keep so we can reply and follow up.
• Emails we send you: to set up and look after your account we send you emails, such as confirming your email address, welcoming you, and resetting your password. These are not marketing.
How we use your information, and why
We only use your information where the law allows. In practice that means:
• To provide the app you've signed up for (contract): your account, tours, audio, the Q&A guide, completed tours, your wallet and offers, bookings, tips, and account emails.
• With your consent: location, notifications, marketing emails and texts, and the waiting list. You can withdraw consent at any time (see "Your choices").
• For our legitimate interests: keeping Gander safe (including moderating abusive messages), fixing bugs, understanding which features are used, improving our tours, and preventing fraud with offers. We balance these against your rights and keep only what we need.
• To meet legal obligations: for example keeping financial records of tips, or responding to lawful requests from the police or other authorities.
Some offers and recommendations in the app come from partner businesses who pay to be featured, such as a café sponsoring a tour, or who pay us a commission if you book with them. We show them because they're relevant to the tour you're on, not because of anything we know about you.
We do not sell your personal information.
Who we share it with
• Service providers who run Gander for us: Google Firebase and Google Cloud (sign-in, database, file storage, analytics, crash reports and notifications), Google Workspace (sending our emails), and Google Maps and Mapbox (maps). They only use your information to provide their service to us.
• AI providers: questions you ask the tour guide are answered by AI models (Google Gemini and Mistral, both run on Google Cloud in Europe). Your questions are not used to train those models. We also use AI (Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini) to research, write, translate and check tour content; no personal information is sent for this.
• Apple and Google: if you sign in with Apple or Google, or leave a tip, they handle that under their own privacy policies.
• Venues you book: if you book a table through Gander, we share your name, mobile number and booking details with that venue so they can hold your table and contact you about it.
• Sponsors: when you present or redeem an offer, the sponsor can see that a redemption happened for their offer, and how many visits their venue has had from Gander travellers. Sponsors do not receive your name, email address or location.
• Other travellers: reviews are public. Your rating and comment are shown with your first name only, never your surname or email address.
• Booking sites: some suggestions link to sites such as GetYourGuide or Viator. If you book there, their privacy policy applies. They tell us a booking was made so we can be paid a commission, but not who you are.
• Anonymous statistics: we may share combined figures, such as how many people took a tour or which countries visitors came from, with partners like venues and tourist boards. These never include anything that identifies you, and we don't report figures for very small groups of people.
• Police and authorities: where a message may be a criminal offence, such as threats, harassment or stirring up racial or religious hatred, we may share it and the related account information with the police or other authorities, as the law allows or requires.
Where your information is stored
Our database and files are stored in the UK (London) and the questions you ask are processed in Europe. Some of our providers, such as Firebase sign-in, analytics and crash reporting, may process information in other countries, including the United States. Where that happens we rely on the safeguards UK law requires, such as adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.
How long we keep it
• Your account, profile, saved answers and history: until you delete your account.
• Flagged messages: for as long as needed to deal with the issue and any legal claims, then deleted. After you delete your account they are kept without your identity.
• Records of tips: six years, as UK tax law requires.
• Waiting list: until you unsubscribe, or we no longer need it after launch.
• Anonymous question logs and statistics: these no longer identify you, so we may keep them to improve tours.
Your choices
• Marketing: turn offers, news and texts on or off at any time in the Account tab, or use the unsubscribe link in any marketing email.
• Location and notifications: turn them off at any time in your device settings. You can still browse tours and search by town or postcode.
• Reviews: edit your review in the app at any time. If you'd like your name removed from a review (it will then show as "Traveller"), or the review deleted, email us at hello@gander-tours.com.
• Account deletion: permanently delete your account from the Account tab at any time, or see how to delete your account without the app. This deletes your profile, wallet, saved answers and completed-tour history. Flagged messages are kept without your identity for our moderation records, and we keep a basic record that an offer was redeemed (without your profile) for sponsor billing and fraud prevention.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to: give you a copy of your information; correct it; delete it; restrict or object to how we use it; or send it to you or another organisation in a portable format. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. To use any of these rights, email hello@gander-tours.com. We'll reply within one month.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Children
Gander is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us their information, contact us and we will delete it.
This website
This website does not use advertising or tracking cookies. It remembers the language you choose in your browser, loads fonts from Google Fonts, and the business enquiry form uses Google Maps to look up addresses.
Changes to this policy
If we make important changes to this policy, we will update the date above and, where appropriate, tell you in the app.
Contact us
Questions about this policy or your information can be sent to hello@gander-tours.com.