Candle is a haptic compass empowering visually impaired users through intuitive navigation. Harnessing advanced haptic feedback, it delivers real-time direction for confident exploration. Discover a new world of independence with Candle's groundbreaking approach to accessible travel.
Last updated: 30 September 2026
Candle is an open-source navigation app for blind and visually impaired people, developed by Andreas Herz (FreeGroup) and provided free of charge. Candle has no user accounts, no advertising, no analytics and no tracking. This policy explains which data leaves your device, where it goes and why.
Your saved locations, routes, recorded tracks and location notes (short texts attached to a spot) are stored only on your device. They leave it only when you share them yourself, e.g. as a .candle file.
To show places, maps and routes around you, the app sends your location (or the location you searched for) to these open services. They receive your location and, as with any internet request, your IP address. Candle sends no name, account or other identifier with these requests.
Please refer to the privacy policies of these services for how they handle requests.
Some features use the Candle server, operated by us at Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany. So that the server can protect itself against abuse without user accounts, each installation of the app registers anonymously: it receives a random installation ID that is not linked to your name, phone number or any other account. To prove that requests come from the genuine app on a real device, the app uses the device check of your platform (Apple App Attest on iPhone, Google Play Integrity on Android); Apple or Google only confirm whether app and device are genuine.
The server does not store your location. Its log files contain the IP address, time and requested function of each request; they are used only to keep the service secure and are deleted after 14 days.
Where the app finds the server is published at https://freegroup.github.io/candle/api.json (GitHub Pages, GitHub Inc., USA); loading this file transmits your IP address to GitHub.
When you dictate text (e.g. an address search), the app uses the speech recognition of your phone. Depending on your phone's settings, Apple or Google may process the audio on their servers. No audio is recorded or stored by Candle; location notes are kept as text on your device only.
Candle needs your location while you use it, for navigation, the compass to a destination and places nearby. Route recording is optional and only runs after you start it. On iPhone you can additionally allow location access "Always" in the app settings, so that a recording continues while the screen is locked. The recorded track stays on your device.
Data is processed to provide the functions you use in the app (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) and, for the server log files and the device check, based on our legitimate interest in a secure, abuse-free service (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
You have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and to object to processing, and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. As the Candle server stores no data linked to your person, uninstalling the app removes everything we could associate with your installation.
All connections of the app use encrypted HTTPS.
The source code of the app and the server is public, so anyone can verify these statements: https://github.com/freegroup/candle.
Candle is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect data from them.
We update this policy when the app changes. Changes are effective when they are posted on this page.
Andreas Herz (FreeGroup), e-mail: candle@freegroup.de, or open an issue at https://github.com/freegroup/candle.