Water Ops Privacy Policy
Water Ops is a field app for the staff of water utilities, made by Adam Taylor. This policy says, in plain terms, what the app does with information.
The short version
- The app has no advertising, no analytics and no tracking. It does not sell information to anyone.
- What staff enter goes to their own utility's Water Ops server, and nowhere else.
- Guest mode keeps everything on the phone. Nothing entered there is sent anywhere.
- You can delete your account from the app at any time: Settings, then Delete My Account.
Guest mode
Guest / Explorer opens sample records stored on the phone only. Anything you enter stays on the phone and is gone when you leave guest mode. Nothing is sent to any server, and nobody is signed in.
Staff accounts: what is kept
Accounts come from each utility's administrator; the app has no public sign-up. When you are signed in, these are kept in your utility's records:
- Your name, email address and, if you add one, phone number, to sign you in and to show who kept each record.
- The records you enter: meter and chlorine readings, tank levels, notes, work orders, maintenance, stockroom counts and locate responses.
- Photos you choose to attach to a record.
- A location, only when you choose to capture one for a record or a GPS spot. The app never tracks where you are.
- A history of changes: who changed which record and when, because a utility's records often have to show that.
- An alert address for your phone, if you allow alerts. The people in the roles your utility chooses to tell are asked (owners, administrators and supervisors, unless it changes that), so the utility's server can tell them about a new 811 locate, its deadline or a new work order. It is removed when the phone is revoked or the account deleted.
Where it is kept
On your utility's Water Ops server, available to your utility's staff according to their roles. Your utility decides how long records are kept; many are records it must keep by law.
On the phone, your sign-in is kept in the iOS Keychain, and a reading taken with no signal is kept on the phone until it can be sent, then removed.
Passwords for your utility's own computers
A utility can keep the password of one of its own computers in Water Ops, such as the one AnyDesk asks for to reach a control-room computer. It is kept encrypted on the utility's server, shown only to the staff the utility's administrator chose, copied only when one of them taps Copy, and every copy is recorded with who made it and when.
Permissions the app asks for
- Camera: only when you scan a code or take a photo to attach to a record.
- Photos: only when you attach an existing photo to a record.
- Location, while using the app: only when you choose to capture a position. Never in the background.
- Notifications: only the people in the roles your utility chooses to tell are asked (owners, administrators and supervisors, unless it changes that), for alerts about new 811 locates, their deadlines and new work orders.
You can change any of these at any time in the iPhone's Settings. The rest of the app works without them.
Sharing
Information is not sold, rented or shared for advertising. It is handled only by your utility and the companies your utility uses to host its server and carry the connection to it, on the utility's behalf.
Alerts are carried to the phone by Apple's push notification service and by Expo's push service (expo.dev), which see only the alert's words and the phone's alert address.
Deleting your account
In the app: Settings, then Delete My Account. On the laptop: Your profile, then Delete my account.
Your sign-in, your name, email address and phone number, and your access to the utility are deleted, and the phone's alert address with them. The records you kept stay with your utility, because they are its records, and show as a former member's.
The only owner of a utility is asked to make another member an owner first, so the utility is not left with nobody able to run it.
Changing your information
You can change your name and phone number yourself, on the laptop under Your profile, and your password under Settings. Your utility's administrator can correct your email address or remove your access. For anything else, write to the address below.
Children
Water Ops is a work tool for utility staff and is not directed to children.
Changes to this policy
Any change is posted here with a new effective date.
Contact
Adam Taylor: adam656677@yahoo.com