Privacy
HOWSTOP is designed to minimise personal-data collection while still measuring whether the product is useful and reliable.
Privacy by design
The service is being designed to answer travel questions without requiring a traveller to identify themselves. The core trip checker uses travel context such as passport country, destination, transit and dates; it does not ask for a passport number, full legal name, home address or phone number.
Saved trips and requirement baselines
Saved trips are optional and stay in this browser using local storage. A saved record contains only the share-safe route context and a public-result baseline used to compare changes when you return. Residence, existing-permission answers, programme confirmations and passport dates stay session-only and are not kept in persistent trip storage. Saved records automatically expire after 180 days.
First-party usage measurement
To understand whether the site is useful, the development build includes a minimal first-party analytics system. A random identifier is held only for the current browser session and is converted on the server into a keyed one-way hash. It is not used as a persistent cross-session identifier. Analytics records are restricted to low-cardinality events such as page views, trip checks, destination views, flight searches, flight tracking, refresh requests and outbound clicks.
The analytics layer is designed not to store names, email addresses, phone numbers, passport numbers, passport dates, residence answers, existing-permission answers, programme confirmations or raw IP addresses. Detailed analytics events are automatically pruned after 30 days. Hosting/security infrastructure may still create ordinary server logs as part of operating the website.
Coverage requests
If a destination is not yet supported, a visitor may request coverage. These requests are aggregated to help prioritise expansion. They do not create a support ticket or a promise of an individual reply.
Local browser storage
The site may use local browser storage for an anonymous analytics identifier and, later, optional trip convenience features. Core information should remain usable without a customer account.
External services and links
Official government links, airlines, accommodation platforms, eSIM providers and other third-party services have their own privacy practices. Opening those services leaves this website and may allow the third party to process information under its own policy.
Advertising and consent
This package does not enable third-party advertising by default. If advertising or other consent-requiring technologies are activated later, the required consent and privacy controls should be implemented for the jurisdictions served.