Q: Why do a good turn daily?
A: If you have to ask, maybe this is not the right application for you. Doing a good turn is a way for you to be friendly, helpful, courteous, kind, and has many rewarding qualities. Simply put, do a good turn daily to be a nice person.
Q: Why is the app free?
A: It's my good turn for today.
The app and website will be free for as long as I can afford it to be. You will see some options for in-application purchases of different graphics, coins, which are not free. Purchasing these help support development and the Troop and Pack in Buxton.
Q: What are the "purchases" and why are they not free?
A: The purchases in the application give you different coins that you can use. When you purchase one you can then change which coin to display when you are doing your good turns. The coin you use when doing a good turn is recorded and posted to the web, if you have sharing enabled, for others to see.
These purchases are a method to give you the application for free and allow you to support further and be rewarded with some electronic bling.
The profits, after taxes, etc., from the purchases will be shared with my local Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, of Troop and Pack 349, Buxton, Maine.
Q: What's the spinning pinwheel for on the home screen?
The activity indicator is shown when the application is trying to get a lock on your location. When the application has a reasonable location for you, it will disappear.
If you like to have the location of your good turns recorded accurately, wait for the indicator to disappear before swiping or double-tapping. You can change the accuracy setting in the application settings.
Q: What data do you store (e.g. privacy concerns)?
The phone application uploads information about your good turn, but not much about you. Specifically the app uploads the following data for each good turn:
- uuid: a unique phone identifier, as returned by the phone's API to record turns by phone and identify them if needed. This is not shared with anyone.
- description: a description of the good turn. Currently this is not editable on the phone application and is nil.
- date: the date and time the good turn was recorded by you on your device.
- category: a category to assign to the good turn (e.g. Scouting, service, volunteer, etc.). Currently not editable in the phone application and is nil.
- location: where the good turn was done, latitude and longitude.
- notes: any notes taken as part of the good turn. Currently this is not editable on the phone application and is nil.
- coin used: the coin that was displayed when you did your good turn. If you have not purchased an add-on coin, then the default coin is recorded.
The following data about your uploaded good turns is sent out to other folks when they view the world map of good turns and on the website home and map pages:
- date: the date and time the good turn was recorded by you on your device.
- category: a category to assign to the good turn (e.g. Scouting, service, volunteer, etc.). Currently not editable in the phone application and is nil.
- location: where the good turn was done, latitude and longitude.
- coin used: the coin you used when doing your good turn.
The data you upload is used solely for display on the Good Turn Website and within the phone-based application. It is not intentionally distributed to anyone for any other reason. I have no desire to have nor use your data for anything other than promoting people do good turns daily. I am a security and privacy aware person and value my own security and privacy as well as the data you entrust to this site, and thus me. As a Cub Scout would say, "I do my best."
The website utilizes Google's App Engine for data storage and thus you should also refer to their terms of service if you want more detailed information, specifically "3. Service Policies and Privacy".
If you are concerned about uploading the location and other information about your good turns, you can disable the upload good turns feature in the application settings.
Q: I have a different question?
I'm not surprised, seeing as these FAQs are not questions anyone has asked me, they were made up.
If you have a real question, a bug to report, or need further help send email to support@stephenhouser.com. and you might just get your question and answer posted here!
Suggestions or other feedback, send email to feedback@stephenhouser.com.