Garitas
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Garitas

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: October 18, 2026

This policy explains what data Garitas uses on the website and in the Android, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch apps, why it is used, and the choices you have.

Garitas is the public developer name. For support, privacy questions or requests about your data, write to [email protected].

1. Data We Use

Garitas requires no Garitas account. We use data to show wait times, deliver the alerts you enable, protect the service, and understand product and website use through aggregate metrics.

  • No Garitas account: We do not ask for your name, email address, or registration to use Garitas. On Apple platforms, Apple manages the Garitas Pro purchase; Garitas does not receive your payment-card details.
  • Alerts on iPhone and iPad: If you enable alerts on iPhone or iPad, the app sends a random installation identifier, the Apple push-notification token, environment, language, and app version. We also store the crossing, lane, rule, and duration you select, plus the state needed to deliver and diagnose those notifications. These records remain linked to the app installation, even though Garitas has no user accounts.
  • Following a wait: When you start a Pro Live Activity, we receive the installation and session identifiers, a separate ActivityKit push token and environment, and your selected crossing, lane and expiry. We verify Apple-signed subscription proofs in memory and discard them without storing them. We retain the session authorization expiry derived from the verified Pro subscription, capped by the session limit. The technical records are linked to the installation for delivery and diagnostics. Aggregate session counts also support product metrics. The authorization expiry is used only to control Pro access, without advertising tracking.
  • Service requests: When the app or website contacts Garitas to check wait times or configure alerts, our servers receive the requested crossing identifiers and routine connection data, such as your IP address and client identifier (User-Agent). The iPhone app may also request public wait-time data directly from CBP, which receives routine connection data for that request. Garitas retains technical request logs to operate and diagnose the service, protect it, and limit abuse.
  • Product and website analytics: For Apple features, we use aggregate counts from server records, such as registered installations, alert rules, selected crossings and Live Activity sessions, to operate the service, understand feature use and improve Garitas. The underlying records remain linked to installations; aggregate reports do not make them anonymous. The iPhone and Apple Watch apps include no analytics SDK. Google Analytics measures website use only (see Section 7); we do not send these app service records to Google Analytics.
  • Recents in this browser: The website can remember the identifiers of the last three crossings you opened in this browser. This list is not sent to the server or analytics; use Clear under Recently viewed to remove it. We do not save what you type in search.
  • Location on iPhone and iPad: With your permission, the iPhone or iPad app uses a one-time location on your device to sort nearby crossings. For travel estimates or directions, Apple Maps may process your location and destination. These coordinates are not sent to Garitas. Android location is described in Section 8.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use that data only to:

  • Show the wait times, maps, and statistics you request.
  • Store your rules and deliver the wait-time notifications you enable.
  • Understand aggregate use of app features and the website to improve Garitas.
  • Secure and operate the service, provide support, and meet legal obligations.

3. Service Providers and Disclosure

We do not sell your data or share it with advertisers or data brokers. Apple processes App Store purchases, push delivery and Apple Maps requests; Google LLC processes website analytics on our behalf (see Section 7), and Google Maps processes Android map requests and data (see Section 8). Hosting and network security providers, including Cloudflare, process service connections to deliver and protect it. The iPhone app may also contact CBP's public wait-time service directly, as described in Section 1. We may disclose information when required by law.

4. Data Security

We use HTTPS and access controls to protect service data. No system is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

5. Your Choices

  • On iPhone and iPad, you can turn off or delete alerts in the app and change notification or location permissions in system settings.
  • You can turn off Google Analytics and design-test measurement for this browser with the control in Section 7. This does not delete app service records or disable the aggregate server metrics from app service records described in Section 1.
  • You can contact us with a privacy question or to request deletion of data we can identify. Garitas has no accounts. For Apple alerts and Live Activities, technical records are linked to a random installation identifier, not to a name or email supplied to Garitas, so we cannot locate an installation from those details alone. Android does not send Garitas an installation identifier of its own; a contact email alone does not identify its technical requests either.
  • On iPhone and iPad: Deleting an alert in the app deletes that rule and its delivery records. If an installation does not register with Garitas for 90 days, it is deactivated and stops receiving alerts; its inactive technical record is not automatically deleted based on age. Cleanup keeps the most recent 10,000 alert-delivery records across the service, rather than a fixed number of days.
  • You can stop following a wait from the app or a supported Live Activity control. Sessions last at most eight hours. While enabled, the cleanup worker removes the technical session record, including its cancellation record, once 24 hours have elapsed since its scheduled expiry.

Technical connection logs are separate from alert, Live Activity and Google Analytics records: their retention periods are not interchangeable. They are retained to operate the service, diagnose failures and limit abuse. Their duration depends on log rotation and the retention lifecycle of infrastructure and its copies, without a single age-based deletion period across all those layers. Clearing local app data does not delete those logs. Data received by Google Maps is retained under the Google policy linked in Section 8.

6. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be reflected on this page with a revised "Effective Date." Please review this policy periodically.

7. Website Analytics

The website uses Google Analytics 4, a measurement service provided by Google LLC, to understand aggregate usage and improve the site. Google Analytics is not included in the Android, iPhone or Apple Watch apps. Aggregate metrics from app service records are described separately in Section 1. For website analytics:

  • What Google Analytics measures: pages viewed, aggregate interactions with site features, technical device and browser details, and the approximate region derived from your IP address. We never send free-text searches, emails, coordinates, or identifiers of our own to Google Analytics.
  • Identifiers: Google Analytics sets first-party cookies (such as _ga) to distinguish visits. We never link them to your name, email, or any account.
  • What is permanently off: storing and using data for advertising (ad_storage, ad_user_data, and ad_personalization are set to denied), Google Signals, remarketing, and audiences. Your data is never used for advertising and never sold.
  • Retention: event data is kept in Google Analytics for 14 months — the minimum that still lets us compare border seasons year over year — then deleted automatically.
  • Your choice: measurement is on by default. You can turn it off manually using the control below. We save your choice in this browser and honor it across its tabs until you turn measurement back on or clear site data. All site features work without Analytics. Content blockers are honored too.
  • Design tests: a cookie per experiment keeps its variant for 90 days. While measurement is enabled, our server records sessions of up to 30 minutes per browser and experiment, and the views or clicks measured by that test, without results broken down by crossing or language. Temporary records are not linked to accounts or app installations and are removed after 90 days by scheduled cleanup. We retain each experiment’s description and grouped totals indefinitely to review earlier results, without per-browser records. The control below also disables this measurement; the visual variant can remain without recording activity.

Google processes this data on our behalf. For details on how Google handles data, see Google's Privacy Policy.

Measurement is disabled in this browser.

8. Garitas for Android

Garitas for Android lets you check wait times, save favorite crossings, view maps and charts, and add Home Screen widgets. This version requires no Garitas account and contains no ads, purchases or subscriptions. The Apple alerts, Live Activities and purchases described in this policy apply to Apple platforms, not to this Android version.

Service requests

Android queries our services over HTTPS to display wait times and statistics. Requests include crossing identifiers and, when applicable, the requested date. We receive the IP address and technical details such as the client identifier (User-Agent). The Android app does not send these APIs your name, email, an installation identifier of its own or coordinates obtained through the location permission. Technical logs are used and retained as described in Sections 1 and 5.

Optional location

With your permission, Android provides a one-time approximate location to sort nearby crossings and show your position on the map. You can deny or revoke permission and keep searching for crossings manually. The app does not request precise location or track you continuously or in the background. It temporarily keeps the point in memory while the picker needs it, without saving it in preferences or sending it to the Garitas API. To show your position and nearby area, it passes coordinates and the camera view to the Google Maps SDK.

Google Maps

Android uses Google Maps for maps and available traffic information. Google processes map requests and may receive the coordinates used to display them. Its SDK collects IP address, device and SDK metadata, its own pseudonymous identifier, crash metrics and stack traces, and camera interactions such as panning and zooming. Google uses these data to provide and improve its services. The Android app does not include Google Analytics; Maps telemetry is separate from the website analytics in Section 7.

These features are subject to the following Google policies:

Storage, backups and deletion

Favorites, their order, country and crossing type stay on the device until you change them or clear app data. Android may back up and transfer these preferences according to the system and selected backup provider settings. Each widget configuration and report caches are stored locally and excluded from the backups configured by this app. Widgets request wait times for the selected crossings without requesting your location.

You can remove favorites in the app, remove Home Screen widgets and revoke location permission in Android settings. Clearing Garitas storage in settings deletes its local data. System backups are managed separately through the relevant backup settings and services. For help with other data we can identify, use the contact email in this policy.

Opening a location in another app

When you choose to open a crossing in another app, that app receives the selected place and applies its own terms and privacy policy. The action sends the crossing location, not the location Garitas obtained with your permission.