offband

Privacy Policy

Short version: Offband has no servers, no accounts, and no telemetry. Your messages, contacts, and channels stay on your device. The app reaches out to a few third-party services only when you use the feature that needs them (maps, GIFs, offline translation, terrain, radio presets, and on non-iPhone builds the optional CoreScope setting), nothing else.

Last updated: 2026-10-31

Who we are

Offband is a personal, open-source project (MIT), not a company. There is no Offband account, no Offband backend, and no Offband analytics. We can’t see your data because it never reaches us. The one exception is CoreScope, an optional setting described below that isn’t available on iPhone.

What stays on your device

Your mesh data (direct and channel messages, contacts, channels, and communities) is stored locally on your device and travels over the LoRa mesh through your own radio. It does not pass through any Offband server. Deleting the app removes it, and on Android so does clearing its storage.

Third-party services (only when you use the feature)

The app connects to these outside services only when you use that specific feature. Each has its own privacy policy:

  • Maps (OpenStreetMap). When you open the map, tile images are fetched from OpenStreetMap tile servers, which reveals the general area you’re viewing. See OSM privacy.
  • GIFs (GIPHY). When you use the GIF picker, your search text is sent to GIPHY to return results. See GIPHY privacy.
  • Offline translation (Hugging Face). If you enable on-device translation, the language-model file is downloaded once from Hugging Face. Translation itself then runs entirely on your device, and your messages are not sent anywhere to be translated. See Hugging Face privacy.
  • Terrain / line-of-sight (Open-Meteo). If you use elevation or line-of-sight features, the coordinates you’re analysing are sent to Open-Meteo to look up terrain elevation. See Open-Meteo terms.
  • Radio presets (GitHub). When the app loads radio presets, it downloads public files from raw.githubusercontent.com. No user data is included. See GitHub privacy.

We don’t control these services and don’t receive anything back from them about you.

CoreScope (not available on iPhone). On Android and other non-iPhone builds, an Experimental setting can show how many observers heard a channel message you sent. It is off by default. When you turn it on, the app sends the hash of that message to the CoreScope server at map.okimesh.org. The message has already been broadcast over the mesh, and its text is not sent. This server belongs to OKIMesh, a regional mesh network, and Offband’s maintainer helps run it. It can see the IP address of the request, as any web server can.

Permissions and why the app asks

The app does not read your phone’s location on any platform. Positions on the map come from your radio and from other nodes.

On iPhone:

  • Bluetooth. To connect to and communicate with your MeshCore radio, including while the app is in the background.
  • Camera. Only to scan QR codes (contacts, channels). No photos are taken or stored.
  • Notifications. To alert you to incoming messages.

On Android:

  • Location. Requested only on Android 11 and below, because Android requires it for Bluetooth scanning. On newer versions, Bluetooth scanning is flagged neverForLocation and no location permission is requested.
  • Bluetooth / USB. To connect to and communicate with your MeshCore radio.
  • Camera. Only to scan QR codes (contacts, channels). No photos are taken or stored.
  • Notifications. To alert you to incoming messages.
  • Foreground service / wake lock. To keep the connection to your radio alive while the app runs in the background.

What we don’t do

No ads. No selling or sharing of your data. No cross-app tracking. No analytics or crash-reporting SDKs. No account or sign-up.

Data deletion

Offband is a personal, open-source app with no accounts and no server. All your data (messages, contacts, channels, and settings) is stored on your device, and Offband holds none of it. To delete your data:

  • Delete items in the app. Remove individual contacts, channels, or messages.
  • Clear the app’s data. Android: Settings → Apps → Offband MeshCore → Storage → Clear storage. This removes all of the app’s on-device data.
  • Delete the app. This removes all Offband data from your device. Android: uninstall it. iPhone: touch and hold the app, then choose Remove App → Delete App (Offload App keeps its data). Backups you made yourself, such as iCloud or computer backups, can keep a copy until they are replaced or deleted.

Offband does not retain any of your data on a server (there is none). The only data ever sent off your device is transient, for example map coordinates sent to look up terrain elevation, which is used in real time and not stored by us, so Offband holds nothing remotely to delete.

Children

Offband is a general-purpose networking tool, not directed at children, and does not knowingly collect data from anyone.

Changes

If this policy changes, we’ll update this page and the date above.

Contact

Questions: [email protected]