Privacy policy

• There are no accounts or sign-up: we don’t ask for your name, email or phone number.
• There are no ads inside Garita.
• We measure how the app is used to fix what isn’t clear. We never know who you are.
• If a measuring tool uses cookies, we ask you first. If you say no, it doesn’t load.
• If you choose a language (“En español / Em português / In English”), we save it in a Garita cookie, garita-idioma, which only says the language and lasts a year. If you don’t choose, we use your phone’s language and save nothing.
• To request the data, the app uses a technical cookie, gf: a random key that changes every half hour and doesn’t say who you are.
• Your location is used on your phone and isn’t sent to our server, unless you report a problem and tick “Also send my location”.
• If you tell us something is wrong, we get the time, the stop or the bus, what the map was showing, and the browser, screen, language and connection you were using. Your WhatsApp or email, only if you type them in.
• If you ask to be alerted with notifications, we keep the stop, the line, how long is left and your phone’s technical address to send the notification to, until the bus arrives, two hours at most.
• We don’t sell or share anyone’s data.

It’s only asked for if you tap “where am I”, and only if your browser grants permission. It’s used on your device to center the map and suggest the closest stop. It isn’t sent to our server or saved, except in the case below.

When the map centers on where you are, your browser asks the map service (CARTO) for the images of that area, just like when you move the map with your finger.

If you report a problem and tick “Also send my location”, it goes with the report, rounded to about a hundred meters.

You can remove the permission whenever you want, in your browser or phone settings.

With the map open, the app asks every few seconds where the buses are and, if you tap a stop, which buses are coming to it. Those requests carry nothing that says who you are: only the key in the gf cookie, plus whatever any web request carries (your IP and browser type). The app asks for it when it opens.

We count how many requests arrive per type of browser. To stop anyone from scraping the data in bulk we keep a fingerprint of your IP address. The fingerprint is computed differently each day and can’t be turned back into the IP. It’s deleted after 15 days.

To prevent abuse, the server counts how many requests arrive from each IP address during one minute. That count lives only in memory and clears itself. For problem reports, the count is per hour.

If you tap “Let me know” and accept notifications, your browser gives us an address to send them to. That address belongs to your phone’s or browser’s notification service (Google, Apple, Mozilla or Microsoft), which is what every alert goes through. We keep it with the stop, the line and how long is left, and nothing else: not your IP, nor anything that says who you are.

It’s deleted when the bus arrives, when you cancel the alert or after two hours, whichever comes first. You can remove the notification permission whenever you want, in your browser or phone settings.

Garita is free and we make it ourselves, so the only way to know whether something is clear is by looking at how it’s used. None of this carries your name, email or phone number, because we don’t have them.

• A count of how many people visit and which pages they open. It runs on our own server, sets no cookies and doesn’t follow you to other sites. It also counts what gets used, like opening a stop or choosing a line, without saving which, and which department you’re looking at on the map (the one you chose, not your location). And how long it takes to open and to respond when you tap something, rounded. If your browser asks not to be tracked, it counts nothing. Until March 2027, to know how many different people use Garita and how many come back, your phone keeps a random number and the day of your first visit, and the count receives both. Your phone makes up that number: it doesn’t say who you are and we don’t use it for anything else. It goes with the count, not with the question below, which is about outside tools. To remove it, turn on «Don’t count my visits on this device» at the end of this section.
• Google Analytics, to know where people come from and what they search for before finding us.
• Microsoft Clarity, which makes heatmaps and keeps a replay of what’s tapped on the screen, to see where people get stuck. It’s the app, not you: it doesn’t record the camera or the microphone, and anything you type —in the stop search— is masked.
• The Meta pixel, which is a different kind of thing: it doesn’t look at how you use Garita. It tells Meta that someone came in, to know whether the ads we run on Instagram and Facebook are useful to anyone. Meta may link that with your Instagram or Facebook account; we don’t see who you are. That’s why we ask about it separately.

The last three set cookies, so we ask you first and they don’t load until you say yes. If your browser already asks not to be tracked, we respect that and don’t even ask.

If you say no, besides not loading, we delete any cookies left behind: “_ga” and “_ga_” followed by some letters, which are Google’s, “_clck” and “_clsk”, which are Clarity’s, and “_fbp” and “_fbc”, which are Meta’s.

And it isn’t kept forever. Google deletes what you did after 2 months, and after 14 what tells you apart from another visitor. Clarity replays last a limited time, set by Microsoft. What Meta receives is kept by Meta, for as long as Meta decides. Our own count stays on our server: it has your phone’s random number, but not your name or anything that says who you are.

You can change your mind whenever you want: you haven’t answered yet, so we’ll ask you.

Don’t count my visits on this device

• That you’ve already seen the help, so it isn’t shown every time.
• A random number, made up on your phone, to count how many different people use Garita and how many come back. It doesn’t say who you are. It deletes itself in April 2027, or sooner with "Don’t count my visits on this device".
• The day of your first visit (just the day), to count whether people come back.
• Whether you chose light, dark, follow the sun or like your phone, in the settings.
• That we already counted that you have the app on your home screen, so it isn’t counted twice.
• That you closed the notice to open Garita in your browser, if you opened it from Instagram or Facebook.
• That you tapped "Don’t show again" on the notice to install Garita, so it isn’t shown anymore.
• The stops you saved with the star, to see them under Favorites. They are per department: when you change department they change, but they are not deleted.
• The names you gave your favorite stops, to remember them. They only show under Favorites.
• The lines you saved with the star, to see them under Favorites. They are per department: when you change department they change, but they are not deleted.
• How long a notice stays on screen if you don’t close it: until you close it, 10 seconds or 1 minute, in Settings.
• What you chose in Accessibility: text size, contrast, accessible buses, calm screen.
• That we already offered you the accessibility options.
• How many times you’ve visited, so the accessibility options are offered only on the third.
• That you’ve already seen the welcome, so it isn’t shown every time.
• The alert you asked for with “Let me know”, so you can see it and cancel it when you come back. It’s deleted when it ends.
• What you answered about measurement, so we don’t ask again. If you said no, we ask just one more time. And if you said yes, the cookies in section 4.
• A copy of the app’s files, so it opens faster and works offline. Never the bus positions.

You can delete everything in your browser settings, by clearing the data for garita.uy.

Garita uses these services. Those that receive requests from your browser (all except Resend) receive your IP address and technical data from each request — like the browser and the time —, and handle them under their own policy:

• Vercel, which hosts the site.
• CARTO, which provides the map images, with data from OpenStreetMap.
• Google Fonts, which provides the font on the home page.
• Resend, which emails us the problem reports. It gets no requests from your browser: it only receives, from our server, the email for that report, without your IP.
• Google Analytics, only if you gave the permission in section 4.
• Microsoft Clarity, only if you gave the permission in section 4.
• Meta, for the pixel, only if you gave the permission in section 4.

The visit count isn’t on this list because it isn’t a third party: it runs on our own server and the data doesn’t leave it.

The bus positions are published by the companies and intendencias shown on the map: in Maldonado, CODESA, Maldonado Turismo, Micro LTDA and Guscapar; in Montevideo, CUTCSA, COETC, COME and UCOT; in Colonia, Sol Antigua; in Rivera, Micro LTDA; in Rocha, the Intendencia de Rocha; and also the lines in Canelones, San José and the intercity buses. We keep them to improve our estimates of how long until they arrive. They’re data about the vehicles and their routes, not about the people riding them.

If you send us an email, we use your address and what you tell us only to reply.

If you tell us from the app that something is wrong, we keep the report to look into it: the time, the stop or the bus, what the map was showing, and the browser, screen, language and connection you were using. We don’t keep your IP address: with the report we keep a fingerprint that doesn’t let anyone know what it was, which changes every day and is erased after 15 days. If you leave a WhatsApp or an email, we use it only to reply.

Vercel, CARTO, Resend, Microsoft, Meta and Google process this data on servers outside Uruguay, for example in the United States. By using Garita you accept that transfer, under Uruguay’s Law 18.331 on Personal Data Protection.

Law 18.331 gives you the right to request access to your data, and to have it corrected, updated, completed or deleted. Since Garita keeps very little data about you, only what you leave in an alert (your WhatsApp or email, if you leave them, and the notification subscription, if you accept), there’s usually nothing to show or delete; you can still write to us at alex@nosto.studio.

You can also file a complaint with Uruguay’s Unidad Reguladora y de Control de Datos Personales.

Garita doesn’t ask anyone for personal data to use it, so it doesn’t ask minors either.

Everything that travels between your browser and Garita is encrypted with HTTPS. Since there are no accounts, there are no passwords or profiles to protect.

If this policy changes, you’ll see it in the date at the top. If the change is important, we’ll also say so in the app.

Controller: nosto.studio, Maldonado, Uruguay. For any privacy question, write to us at alex@nosto.studio.