Last updated: 27 September 2026
Geòlas keeps your field notes to yourself. There is no Geòlas account, no Geòlas server, and no sign-in.
Your sites, samples, formations, notes, photos and voice notes are kept in a database inside the app’s own container on your device.
If you’re signed in to iCloud, the same data is also kept in your own iCloud account, so the same notes are on your iPhone, your iPad and your Mac. It goes into your account’s private CloudKit database. Apple encrypts it, the developer has no access to it and no way to ask for access, and no other Geòlas user can reach it.
Geòlas talks to the network for three things, all standard HTTPS:
None of this is linked to your identity by the developer, because the developer never sees it — these are direct requests from your device.
Camera and microphone are used only when you choose to attach a photo or record a spoken note to a site — nothing is captured otherwise. Location is used to place a site on the map and to centre the map on you; it is stored as part of that site’s own record, not tracked in the background.
The curated geological sites and the glossary are bundled inside the app and need no network connection to browse.
Exporting your sites as JSON or GeoJSON uses the standard share sheet, so the file goes wherever you choose to send it and nowhere else.
Geòlas has no accounts, no messaging, and no user-generated content visible to anyone else. It collects nothing from anyone of any age beyond what’s described above, which never leaves your own device and your own iCloud account.
Bedrock and superficial geology lookups currently cover Great Britain only. Sites can be logged anywhere.
If this ever stops being true, the policy will be updated before the change ships, and the date at the top will say when.
Questions about privacy, or about the app: 88_intake.troupes@icloud.com