MetroMan Privacy Policy

Effective Date: January 29, 2026

Last Updated: October 12, 2026

1. Introduction

Welcome to MetroMan (Chinese name: 地铁通; software copyright registration name: 地铁通地铁换乘查询软件). This service is jointly operated by Expanse LLC (registered in Yokohama, Japan) and Beijing MetroMan Technology Co., Ltd. (北京迈特曼科技有限公司) (registered in Beijing, China), collectively referred to as “we,” “us,” or “MetroMan.”

This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) applies to the MetroMan official website (https://www.metroman.cn) and the MetroMan mobile applications for iOS, Android, and HarmonyOS (collectively, “our services”).

Responsible entities:

• If you download and use our services through Google Play or the Apple App Store, or access our services outside mainland China, Expanse LLC is the service provider and bears legal responsibility.
• If you download and use our services through mainland China app stores such as Huawei AppGallery, vivo, OPPO, HONOR, or Xiaomi, or through official fan-testing channels for users in mainland China, Beijing MetroMan Technology Co., Ltd. is the service provider and bears legal responsibility.

Features vary by platform, version, and distribution channel. The current Android releases for mainland China channels and official fan testing do not offer advertising, subscriptions, or purchases. They use analytics and diagnostics services to improve the experience. Other products enable only the services relevant to their actual features, as described in Section 3.

The current HarmonyOS version is in development and testing. For now, it offers no push notifications, in-app advertising, membership purchases, or subscriptions and does not integrate services or SDKs for those features. The app does not integrate Firebase Analytics or Crashlytics. The HarmonyOS disclosures below describe its current features. Websites you choose to open within the app may still use website analytics, advertising, cookies, or local storage under their own notices.

2. How We Collect and Use Your Information

You do not need to register an account to use MetroMan. Depending on the features you use, we process the following information to provide our services, improve the experience, and fix problems.

2.1 Information You Provide

When you contact our support email address (metromanchina@gmail.com), we process your email address, message content, and any attachments you choose to send to understand the issue and respond.

Clipboard information (Android app): When you use a search field, the app uses the system clipboard API to check the content type and determine whether pasting is available. If you select Paste, it reads the text being pasted and inserts it into the search field for searches performed on your device, such as finding cities or stations. This clipboard information is processed only on your device. It is not uploaded to servers or used for advertising or analytics.

2.2 Device, Usage, and Error Information

• Device and app information: Device model, operating system, app version, and similar information, used to support different devices and troubleshoot problems.
• Network information: IP address, network connection status, and similar information, used to serve web pages, retrieve city data, and maintain connections.
• Usage information: Versions with analytics enabled use Firebase Analytics to process app installation or instance identifiers, sessions, screen usage events, and similar information to understand how features are used. App instance identifiers distinguish separate installations; analytics results may also include approximate geographic areas. The website uses Google Analytics 4 to measure page visits and other usage, and may use cookies or similar technologies to record browser and visit identifiers.
• Error information: Versions with Firebase Crashlytics enabled process error records from crashes or unresponsive behavior, app state, device and system information, and installation and session identifiers to help us fix problems. Error records include crash stack traces, which are technical records used to locate the cause of a problem. When Analytics is enabled, diagnostic reports may also include records of screens or events preceding a crash.

The current Android releases for mainland China channels and official fan testing enable Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics after you agree to the app's privacy notice. We do not add your search terms, departure or arrival points, route records, or precise location as extra information for either service. Google Play versions enable basic analytics and diagnostics when the app starts; advertising privacy choices are managed separately.

2.3 Location Information

When you use city sorting by distance, nearby stations, or other features that need your current location, we request approximate or precise location permission as needed for the feature. You can decline permission and continue to select cities and stations manually. Ordinary metro route searches do not require location permission.

Maps and place search on iOS are provided by Apple MapKit, and website maps are provided by Google Maps. When you use these features, the relevant service processes the requests needed to display maps or find places. The current Android app uses local metro maps and a rail network view and does not integrate either of these map SDKs.

2.4 Advertising, Membership, and Push Services in Specific Versions

The advertising, membership, and push-notification processing described in this section does not apply to the current HarmonyOS version.

• Advertising: Only in versions that offer advertising, the relevant services process ad impression or click records, along with device, network, and applicable advertising identifier information, such as IDFA, GAID, or OAID. The use of identifiers depends on the platform, SDK, and your related choices. The current Android releases for mainland China channels and official fan testing do not display ads, and disable advertising identifier collection and use for ad personalization.
• Membership: Only in versions that offer membership features, the app store and RevenueCat process purchase or subscription status, transaction receipts, and associated app user identifiers to confirm and restore membership benefits. Payments are handled by the app store; we do not directly receive your bank card information.
• Push notifications: Only in iOS versions with push notifications enabled, Apple's push notification service and JPush process push tokens, push service identifiers, and necessary device and network information to send messages. Your system notification settings control whether notifications are displayed.

2.5 Processing Specific to HarmonyOS

• Location: After you tap a location or nearby-stations action, agree to its purpose notice, and grant system permission, Huawei Location Kit obtains a single foreground location. We do not request background location. City distance sorting and map positioning request approximate location; nearby stations request precise location. If you have already granted precise access to this app, the system may also return more precise coordinates for an approximate request. Location is used for that distance calculation, coordinate conversion, or map display, and is not written to app preferences, route history, or logs or uploaded to MetroMan's own servers. System location and Huawei mapping services process the location or coordinates needed for the feature used.
• Location cache and remembered choices: Agreement to the purpose notices for city distance sorting, nearby stations (including the nearest station on the metro map), and map positioning is stored separately on this device. Leaving a page or expiry of temporary system permission does not repeat the notice; system permissions are checked independently. During the current app process, city distance results can be reused from memory for 2 hours, nearby-station and distance results for 5 minutes, and the corrected map position and accuracy for 1 minute. These caches are not written to files, preferences, history, or logs and are discarded when the app process ends. Returning only reuses valid results; map restoration does not obtain a new location or recenter the view. A manual location action refreshes the result. Loss of permission clears the affected results, and withdrawal of app privacy consent clears these caches and purpose agreements. There is no continuous or background tracking.
• Maps and place search: Huawei Map Kit provides online maps, coordinate conversion, and place search. Place search sends your keywords, the selected city's public geographic area, and app language to Huawei, without obtaining your device's current location for that search. Ordinary city and station text searches and metro route calculations run locally. Online map loading also involves network connection information, basic app information, carrier information, and system settings. See Section 3 for Huawei's data processing notices.
• Content downloads: When retrieving city versions, data packages, planning maps, rankings, or new-line announcements, the website or cloud service processes your IP address, requested content paths, and necessary network request information. City updates use Alibaba Cloud OSS, with Microsoft Azure Blob as a fallback when the primary source fails or responds slowly. These requests do not include your device location, route endpoints, or search history.
• Feedback and support: Tapping feedback adds the app version, system version and API level, device model, current city and data version, and app language to a system email draft for troubleshooting. You can edit or remove this information and decide whether to send it. If the QQ group link cannot open, the app only copies the public group number to the clipboard; it does not read existing clipboard contents. Social links open the relevant app or website at your request; subsequent use is subject to that service's rules.
• Sharing and saving: Only after you request it does the app pass a copy of the selected route or image to the system share sheet, where you choose the receiving app or recipient. Saving an image requires confirmation in the system save dialog. The app does not automatically send shared content or request access to read your entire photo library.
• Platform analytics and quality diagnostics: Huawei's distribution and system platforms provide download, launch, usage-duration, and stability reports. Huawei states that APMS can automatically collect and analyze app faults through the system, including device model, app and system versions, crash or freeze events, and related stack traces, to help diagnose and fix problems. This app currently adds no custom behavior analytics or crash-reporting SDK. Platform processing follows Huawei's relevant service rules and system settings; in-app privacy choices do not replace system-service privacy settings. See Huawei's app usage analytics guide and APMS description.

3. Third-Party Services and SDKs

The table below lists third-party services used across MetroMan products. “Applicable platforms” does not mean that every version on that platform enables the service. Actual use depends on the version, distribution channel, and features you use.

The current Android releases for mainland China channels and official fan testing do not use the advertising, membership, or push services listed above. Android Google Play uses AdMob and UMP. UMP manages advertising privacy choices; it is not an additional advertising platform.

For more information about data processing for analytics and diagnostics, see the Google Privacy Policy and Firebase Privacy and Security information. Other third-party services process relevant information according to their own privacy notices.

On HarmonyOS, the app calls Huawei Map Kit and Location Kit for the features you use only after you agree to the app privacy notice. Device location also requires a separate purpose notice and system permission. Huawei platform analytics and system-level quality diagnostics follow the separate processing and settings described in Section 2.5. Depending on the interface used, Map Kit processes supplied locations, anonymized search keywords, and necessary network/Wi-Fi status and parameters, app, carrier, and system settings information. This does not mean that the app uses every capability of the service. See the Huawei Map Kit personal data notice and Huawei Location Kit personal data notice. This app does not use geofencing or activity recognition.

4. Your Control over Information and Data Deletion

• Permissions: You can manage location permissions in system settings. In versions that offer notifications or advertising tracking, you can also adjust those permissions in the relevant system settings. You can still select cities and stations manually after turning off location access.
• App privacy choices: In the new Android versions for mainland China channels and official fan testing, you can withdraw consent under “More → Privacy Policy.” Withdrawal turns off analytics collection, clears analytics data on your device, turns off the automatic crash-reporting setting, and requests deletion of reports awaiting upload. The app returns to a basic mode where you can view local metro maps. A crash diagnostics service that has already started may still temporarily store error records on your device, which may be sent if you agree again. These actions do not delete information previously sent to servers.
• HarmonyOS privacy choices: You can agree or decline at first use and later withdraw consent under “More → Privacy Policy.” Declining or withdrawing enters a basic mode that only displays the local metro map for the currently installed city; online maps, place search, location, and content downloads in the full app are disabled. You can still choose to open the policy and terms online. Withdrawal does not automatically delete installed city data, settings, or search history or revoke system permissions. You can choose to agree again from basic mode.
• Advertising privacy choices: In Google Play versions that provide this option, you can adjust your choices through “More → Ad privacy choices.” Whether this option appears depends on the applicable region and privacy requirements.
• Local records: City selection, language, appearance settings, search history, and similar records in the new app are stored on your device. You can clear the relevant records through available in-app actions, the system's option to clear app data, or by uninstalling the app.
• Data deletion requests: To delete feedback emails we have received, or request deletion of analytics, diagnostics, or other information relating to you, please contact metromanchina@gmail.com. After verifying the information needed to process your request, we will finish processing it within 15 business days and inform you of the result. For any information that must be retained by law or cannot be deleted at that time, we will explain the reason and how it will be handled next.

5. Data Storage and Security

• Storage locations: Our official website servers are located in China (Alibaba Cloud). Information processed by third-party services may be stored within or outside China, depending on the relevant service's data processing rules and actual configuration.

• Retention and deletion: You control whether to keep or clear local settings and records. Analytics and diagnostics information on servers is handled according to the relevant service's data retention rules. For example, under Firebase's current rules, Crashlytics crash stack traces and associated identifiers are retained for 90 days before removal from live and backup systems begins. Feedback information is retained only for as long as needed to resolve issues, provide follow-up support, and meet legal obligations.

• Security: We use measures such as HTTPS encryption to protect information in transit and restrict access to relevant information.

• HarmonyOS local data and system backup: City selection, language, theme, route forms, search history, and privacy choices are stored on your device. The app does not provide MetroMan account cloud sync. If you enable your device's system backup/restore service, the system may back up and restore app data under its settings and service rules. This is separate from downloading public cloud files for city updates.

• HarmonyOS image caches: Downloaded images are stored in app-private directories and can be managed through Clear Cache. Sharing copies are temporarily retained so the system or receiving app can read them. Copies at least seven days old that are no longer in use are cleaned during later use of the relevant feature or cache cleanup, rather than immediately upon expiry. Copies saved to your photo library or sent to recipients must be managed in the corresponding app.

6. Protection of Minors

We value the protection of minors' personal information. If you are a minor, please read this Policy and use our services with your guardian.

7. Contact Us

For any questions or complaints, please contact us through the following:

• Email: metromanchina@gmail.com
• Operating entities:
  • Expanse LLC (Yokohama, Japan)
  • 北京迈特曼科技有限公司 / Beijing MetroMan Technology Co., Ltd. (Beijing, China)

In the event of any ambiguity between the Chinese and other language versions of this Policy, the English version will prevail.