Privacy

Departures · Sydney train and Metro times · Updated 18 October 2026

Departures has no accounts and no analytics, and we don't sell information about you. The app shows one ad, which Google's AdMob supplies; the ads section below says what Google collects for it. With Departures Plus there is no ad and Google's ad code never runs.

What stays on your phone

• Your trips and settings are saved on your device and shared with the app's own widgets. If iCloud is on, your saved trips also sync to your other devices through your own iCloud account, which we can't see.
• Your location, if you allow it, is used on your phone to find the nearest station. The app never sends it anywhere, to us or to Google.
• Journey planning runs on your phone from a timetable downloaded to it.

What the app downloads

The app downloads the timetable and live train times from our server at departures.page. These requests contain only the timetable version, never your trips or location. As with any website, our server and Cloudflare, which carries its traffic, see your IP address to reply to you. We don't keep it with anything else or use it to identify you.

To make sure the timetable only goes to genuine copies of the app, the app uses Apple's App Attest: your phone creates a key that never leaves it, and our server keeps the matching public key. It identifies a copy of the app, not you, and is used for nothing else.

Ads

From when you install the app, people without Plus see at most one ad per screen on the home screen, departure boards, journeys and train runs. There are none in widgets, the Live Activity, Settings, search or the map. Google's AdMob chooses and shows them. When an ad loads, Google's ad code collects:

• your IP address, which Google may use to estimate your general location (city level);
• identifiers for your device: app- and developer-specific identifiers, and Apple's advertising identifier only if you have allowed apps to track you (Departures never asks);
• which ads you see and tap, and other interactions with the ad;
• diagnostic and performance data about the ad code, such as crashes and loading times.

Google uses this to show, measure and improve ads and to prevent fraud, as described in how Google uses information from apps that use its services and Google's privacy policy. We only see totals (how many ads were shown and what they earned), never anything about you.

In the European Economic Area, the UK, Switzerland and places with similar laws, the app asks for your consent before any ad is requested, and Settings › Ad privacy choices lets you change your answer at any time. Buying Plus removes the ads completely.

Purchases

Departures Plus is bought through Apple. Apple handles the payment; the app only learns whether you have Plus, and we never see your name or payment details.

Data sources

Timetables and live times contain data from Transport for NSW, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Departures is not made by or affiliated with Transport for NSW.

Children

Departures is a general-audience app, not made for children, and we don't knowingly collect anything from children.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, this page will say so and show a new date. Questions: [email protected] or the support page.