Terms and Privacy

Last updated: June 20, 2026

This page describes the terms and privacy policy for the app Pontjes. The app is offered by Jurre Houtkamp. For questions, you can email jurrehoutkamp@gmail.com.

1. About Pontjes

Pontjes helps you view departure times, routes, favorite ferries, notifications, and disruptions for ferry connections. The app uses public and external travel information. Pontjes is not an official service of the municipality of Amsterdam, GVB, Vervoerregio Amsterdam, or any other transport operator.

The information in the app is intended as a helpful tool. Departure times, disruptions, and routes may change or be temporarily incorrect. In case of doubt, always check the information provided by the transport operator or on-site.

2. Use of the App

You may use Pontjes for personal, normal use. You may not use the app to abuse the service, disrupt it, bypass security, send large volumes of automated requests, or reverse-engineer the app or server in a way that causes damage.

Pontjes may modify, temporarily disable, or stop features if necessary for maintenance, security, reliability, cost management, or changes in data sources.

3. No Warranty

Pontjes tries to display up-to-date and useful information, but does not guarantee that all information is complete, accurate, or always available. The app may depend on data sources, internet connections, Apple services, Cloudflare services, and notification services that are beyond the control of Pontjes.

You remain responsible for your travel decisions. Pontjes is not liable for missed ferries, delays, damages, costs, or other consequences of using the app, except to the extent that liability cannot be legally excluded.

4. Privacy in Short

Pontjes tries to process as little data as possible.

The app does not use advertisements, tracking across other apps or websites, or ad IDs, and it does not sell data. Pontjes does not share data with data brokers.

Most data remains only on your device, such as your local favorites, settings, and app preferences. Limited data is sent to the Pontjes server only for features that require a server, such as push notifications for favorite ferry disruptions when the app is closed and anonymous usage statistics.

5. What Data Does Pontjes Process?

App Data on Your Device

Pontjes can store the following data locally on your device:

  • favorite ferries and the order of favorites;

  • app settings, such as notification preferences;

  • temporarily stored departure times, routes, and disruption information;

  • data for widgets and live activities;

  • feedback text and an optional screenshot when you send feedback yourself by email.

This data is normally not sent to the Pontjes server, except where explicitly stated below.

Location

If you grant location permission, Pontjes uses your location to show nearby ferries and to automatically stop a followed ferry when you reach the other side.

Your location is not sent to the Pontjes server for notifications, analytics, ads, or tracking. You can change location access at any time in the iOS settings.

Push Notifications for Favorite Ferry Disruptions

If you enable notifications for favorite ferry disruptions, Pontjes can send notifications when a disruption starts or ends on one of your favorite ferries. To make this work even when the app is in the background or closed, the Pontjes notification server processes the following data:

  • an anonymous installation ID;

  • your Apple push notification token;

  • your notification preferences, such as notifications for started disruptions and/or resolved disruptions;

  • your favorite ferry routes, including route ID, boarding point name, destination, and order;

  • technical security data to verify signed requests and prevent abuse.

This data is only used to deliver and secure ferry disruption notifications for your favorite ferries. It is not used for advertising, tracking, or profiling.

You can disable these notifications at any time in the app settings or via the iOS settings. If you disable notifications in the app, Pontjes will stop future notification updates for your device and your favorite routes will no longer be active for server notifications.

Feedback by Email

If you send feedback, Pontjes opens an email message. The content of your message, technical metadata, and any screenshot will only be sent if you send the email yourself. This email is used to read your feedback, investigate problems, and reply if necessary.

Anonymous Usage Statistics

Pontjes can collect anonymous usage statistics to understand how the app is used and which features are helpful. This feature is enabled by default. You can disable anonymous usage statistics at any time in the app settings.

For this, the app generates a random anonymous installation ID. That ID is not linked to your name, email address, Apple ID, ad ID, location, or contacts.

Pontjes can process the following current status per installation:

  • app version, build number, major iOS version, and device type in a generic form, such as iPhone or iPad;

  • whether you have favorites and the number of favorites as a group, such as 0, 1, 2-3, or 4+;

  • which route ID and direction are saved as a favorite;

  • whether notifications for favorite ferry disruptions are turned off, turned on only for started disruptions, turned on only for resolved disruptions, or both;

  • whether the “Open to favorites” setting is enabled;

  • whether travel time is displayed as walking or cycling.

Additionally, Pontjes can keep track of simple daily counters for actions, such as:

  • app opened;

  • tab or screen viewed, such as all ferries, favorites, disruptions, search, settings, or route details;

  • search function or boarding filter used, without saving search terms;

  • favorite added, removed, or reordered;

  • disruptions opened or a disruption link opened;

  • manually refreshed;

  • Live Activity started or stopped;

  • widget information, feedback, review, or sharing used.

These statistics are used to improve Pontjes, find bugs, track performance, and make product decisions. They are only viewed in a privately managed dashboard. They are not used for advertising, tracking across other apps or websites, selling data, or profiling individual users.

Pontjes does not store search terms, exact location, APNs token, IP address, ad ID, exact route order, or full individual event history for usage statistics. The server stores the last anonymous status per installation and aggregated daily counters.

If you turn off anonymous usage statistics, Pontjes will stop future analytics requests and the app will delete local analytics events that have not yet been sent. Previously sent aggregated daily counters and existing server status will not be automatically deleted.

6. Purposes and Legal Bases

Pontjes processes data for these purposes:

  • providing app functionality, such as favorites, departure times, widgets, and settings;

  • delivering push notifications for favorite ferry disruptions if you enable them;

  • creating anonymous usage statistics to improve the app;

  • security, bug tracking, abuse prevention, and reliability;

  • processing feedback if you contact us yourself.

Where consent is required, iOS or Pontjes will explicitly ask for it, for example for location and push notifications. For technical security and reliability, Pontjes may process limited data based on a legitimate interest to keep the service secure and working.

7. Sharing with Third Parties

Pontjes does not sell your data and does not share it with data brokers.

However, service providers may be used for the functioning of the app:

  • Apple, for iOS, APNs push notifications, widgets, live activities, and App Store distribution;

  • Cloudflare, for hosting the Pontjes server, storing notification subscriptions, anonymous usage statistics, and executing server logic;

  • your email provider, only if you send feedback by email yourself.

These parties process data only for the technical operation of the app or according to their own terms when you use their services.

8. Security

Pontjes takes technical measures to protect notification data:

  • the installation ID is anonymous and is separate from any account;

  • the secret client key is stored on your device in the iOS Keychain;

  • requests to the notification server are cryptographically signed;

  • replay attacks are mitigated with timestamps and nonces;

  • APNs tokens are stored encrypted on the server;

  • server secrets, APNs keys, and encryption keys must not appear in source code or logs;

  • logs must not contain APNs tokens, installation IDs, request bodies, or full favorites lists.

No security measure is perfect. If you find a vulnerability, please report it via jurrehoutkamp@gmail.com.

9. Retention Periods

Local app data remains on your device as long as you use the app or until you delete it, delete the app, or iOS cleans it up.

Server data for push notifications is retained for as long as notifications for favorite ferry disruptions are active, or as long as necessary for security, debugging, and abuse prevention. When you disable notifications, Pontjes stops future notification updates for your device. Favorite routes for server notifications will then no longer be used actively.

Anonymous usage statistics are stored as the last status per anonymous installation and as aggregated daily counters. Raw individual event history is not saved. Temporary technical keys may be used briefly to prevent duplicate counts during network retries.

Technical logs are kept as minimal as possible and are only retained as long as necessary for operation, security, and debugging.

10. Your Choices and Rights

You can:

  • disable push notifications in Pontjes or in the iOS settings;

  • disable location in the iOS settings;

  • delete favorites in the app;

  • disable anonymous usage statistics in the app settings;

  • delete the app to remove local app data;

  • contact us via jurrehoutkamp@gmail.com for access, correction, deletion, or other privacy questions.

Because Pontjes does not use accounts, you may need to provide additional information to match a request to the correct anonymous installation.

If you feel that your privacy question is not being handled properly, you can submit a complaint to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens).

11. Children

Pontjes is not specifically aimed at children and does not knowingly request data from children. The app can be used without an account.

12. Changes

These terms and this privacy policy may be updated when the app, legislation, infrastructure, or features change. The date at the top of this page shows when the text was last updated. In case of significant changes, Pontjes may additionally inform users via the app or website.

13. Contact

For questions about these terms, privacy, or security:

Jurre Houtkamp
Email: jurrehoutkamp@gmail.com
Website: https://jurrehoutkamp.com