Yucts Travel｜iOS & iPadOSAvailable
Privacy & Permissions
This page explains the permissions the app uses and how it handles your data. For the full legal details, see the Privacy Policy.
App permissions
Each permission is requested only the first time you use a feature that needs it:
| Permission | When it's requested | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Notifications | After the welcome tour: the "Get the latest updates" explainer appears first, and the system asks only if you tap "Turn on notifications" | Forum and private-message alerts, departure and booking reminders, Yucts Plus expiry reminders, and more |
| Tracking (ATT) | After the notifications explainer: the "Your privacy is in your hands" explainer appears first, and the system asks only if you tap "Continue". Until you decide, it appears at most once per launch | Ad personalization |
| Camera | The first time you take a photo or scan | Taking receipt and travel photos, scanning boarding passes and booking barcodes, camera translation, and taking photos for forum attachments and avatars |
| Face ID | The first time you unlock the document vault | Protecting sensitive data such as passports, visas, and insurance policies |
| Location (while using the app) | When you use "Explore nearby", choose a place for a check-in, or tap "Get" under "Nearby" in Transit Planner | Searching nearby places, recording check-in locations, and finding nearby stations, bus stops and public bike stations; if allowed, the travel map also starts on your region. The app never uses your location in the background |
| Add to Photos (write-only) | The first time you save an image to Photos | Saving trip recap, pass, or chat images you choose. The app never reads your photo library |
- When you choose photos, the app uses the iOS photo picker, so it only gets the photos you select — no access to your whole library is needed.
- The app doesn't ask for calendar or microphone access; calendar imports use ICS files.
- "Profile & settings" → "App Permissions" shows the current status of "System Notification Permission" and "Ad Tracking", with a shortcut to iOS Settings; in some regions there is also "Ad Privacy Options" for changing your ad consent settings.
Where data is stored and synced
| Data | Where it's stored |
|---|---|
| Travel data (trips, places, bookings, expenses, lists, diary, companions, general document fields, etc.) | This device, synced through your iCloud private database to devices on the same Apple ID |
| Preferences and the "Quick Sync" of some travel data | iCloud key-value storage, controlled by the "iCloud Sync" switch |
| Confidential document vault fields | This device's Keychain only — never synced |
| Sign-in credentials | This device's Keychain only, not synced through iCloud Keychain; sign in separately on each device |
| My Bookmarks | This device, synced through iCloud key-value storage |
| Reading history | This device; cleared automatically after 90 days. You can choose to sync the latest 150 items under "iCloud Sync Items" |
| Color theme, layout, Home sections, forum boards, app icon, push preferences, notification sound | This device only by default; you can choose to sync them through iCloud key-value storage under "iCloud Sync Items" |
| Forum search history, offline article content, transport choices, chosen trains, recent transit searches, and extra flight details such as seats | This device only |
What the "iCloud Sync" switch covers
"Profile & settings" → "Travel & Sync" → "iCloud Sync" only controls "Quick Sync". When it's off, travel data still syncs through the iCloud private database. To stop syncing completely, go to iOS Settings → [your name] → iCloud and turn off iCloud for Yucts.
Data sent to the YUCTS server
These features send data to YUCTS servers, and most require signing in:
| Feature | Data sent |
|---|---|
| Remote push notifications (sign-in required) | Device push token, device identifier, app version, language, subscribed categories, and notification sound. Unregistered when you sign out or delete your account |
| Original trip photos (sign-in required) | Original photos with metadata removed, so your other devices and collaborators can download them |
| Itinerary share links (sign-in required) | The content you choose to share (the trip name, dates and places are always included) and up to 6 thumbnails; no confirmation codes, seats or ticket numbers; required expiry, revocable |
| Cross-Platform Trip Sync (sign-in and consent required; off by default) | Trips, places, bookings (without confirmation codes), expenses (without receipts), companions (without email), shopping lists and the travel journal (without photos), tied to your YUCTS account; you can turn it off and delete the cloud data anytime (see Getting Started) |
| Check-ins (sign-in required) | Place, notes and photos, stored on the forum; how much of the location others can see depends on the "Location precision" you choose |
| Cloud collaboration (sign-in required) | The shared trip's content and members |
| Import order (sign-in required) | The confirmation email text you paste, parsed by AI and not stored |
| Add to Apple Wallet (sign-in required) | Pass fields (excluding booking codes), for signing |
| Cloud AI assistant, AI Planning online mode (sign-in required) | Your questions, processed by an AI service provider; conversations are saved when "Sync conversations to account" is on |
| Cloud translation (sign-in required) | The forum post or article text to be translated (see below) |
| Phone and identity verification (sign-in required) | Your phone number; document images are kept in private storage and used only for manual review |
| Drafts and message pins | Forum drafts (expire after 24 hours) and pin settings |
| Forum online status (when signed in) | While you're signed in and the app is in the foreground, your "Last Activity" time on the forum is updated periodically (at least 30 seconds apart after you move to another section, otherwise every 120 seconds), along with the kind of section you're in (such as articles, the forum or Transit Planner — a fixed code only, without which item you viewed, titles, URLs or search terms). The online list on the forum website shows the section you're browsing in the app and your device type; you can hide your online status in the privacy settings on the forum website. Updates stop when you sign out or the app goes to the background |
| Transit Planner (no sign-in needed) | The stations, date and options you search; when you tap "Get" under "Nearby", your current location is rounded to about 100 m and used to find nearby stations, bus stops or public bike stations, and isn't stored; when you search trains for an itinerary leg, the locations of the two places (about 100 m precision) are sent to find stations and aren't stored either |
| Exchange rates | No personal data — only fetches daily rates |
| Newsletter subscription | The email and frequency you enter |
Translation may be sent to the server
On devices that don't support on-device AI translation (for example, iOS 18–25), translating forum posts and article text while signed in sends the content to the YUCTS server, where an AI service provider translates it. "Auto-Translate Articles" is on by default, so if your system language isn't Chinese, opening a forum topic may automatically send the main post for translation. If you don't want that, turn off "Auto-Translate Articles" under "Profile & settings" → "Language". See AI Assistant & Translation.
Other third-party services
- Weather: if Apple Weather (WeatherKit) is unavailable, the app switches to Open-Meteo and sends that location's coordinates to Open-Meteo.
- Map search and travel time estimates: Apple Maps.
- On-device translation, text recognition, and Apple Intelligence: all processed on your device.
Photo privacy when uploading
- Forum attachments: images are re-encoded and their EXIF data (including GPS) removed; videos and PDFs also have location and other metadata removed first, and the upload is refused if that can't be done.
- Check-in photos: location (GPS), device serial number, and edit history are never made public; checking "Don't keep EXIF data" also removes shooting settings.
- Share to YUCTS message: images are resized and stripped of location and similar information.
- Import Travel Info: boarding pass barcodes, booking codes, and passenger names are parsed on your device only and never uploaded.
Ads and tracking
- The app shows banner ads through Google AdMob; Yucts Plus members don't see ads (see Yucts Plus Subscription).
- You can change whether Yucts may track you anytime in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking. Declining tracking doesn't remove ads; it only means ads won't use your device's advertising identifier.
- When tracking isn't allowed, web pages opened inside the app don't keep cookies between sessions.
- In some regions you're asked for your ad consent settings first; you can change them later under "Profile & settings" → "App Permissions" → "Ad Privacy Options".
Managing and deleting your data
| What you want to do | Where |
|---|---|
| Clear the cache | "Profile & settings" → "Local Storage" → "Clear Re-downloadable Cache". This only removes cached articles, forum content, images, the user guide, and system status — not your trips, lists, expenses, diary, bookmarks, offline saves, drafts, pending shares, or sign-in status |
| Delete AI conversations | AI assistant → "Conversation history" at the top right → "AI Conversations", swipe left to "Delete" |
| Revoke itinerary share links | Itinerary share page → "My shares" at the top right → "Revoke" |
| Turn off Cross-Platform Trip Sync and delete the cloud data | "iCloud Sync" page → "Cross-Platform Trip Sync" → "Turn Off and Delete Cloud Data" |
| Revoke other devices or web sign-ins, delete passkeys | "Profile & settings" → "Account" → "Signed-in devices & passkeys" |
| Delete travel data | Deleting a trip or item in the app also deletes it on your other devices; you can also delete Yucts' iCloud data in iOS Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Manage Storage |
| Delete your account | "Profile & settings" → "Danger zone" → "Delete Account" — see Account & Sign-in. Deleting your account doesn't delete travel data on your device or in iCloud |