- Surfshark has launched HeyPolo, a privacy-first location sharing application
- The app abandons continuous “always-on” tracking in favor of user-controlled, timed visibility
- A single subscription allows users to invite unlimited friends and family.
Location tracking apps are a double-edged sword for modern families, incredibly useful for physical security but often a complete nightmare for digital privacy.
Now, the cybersecurity team behind Surfshark, one of the best VPN services on the market, is looking to redress that balance with the launch of a brand new app called HeyPolo.
Announced today, HeyPolo is billed as a privacy-first alternative to conventional location tracking software.
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Instead of relying on the continuous, invasive monitoring that drives many existing tracker apps, HeyPolo is built entirely around user consent. Users decide exactly who sees their location, how accurate that location is, and exactly when sharing stops.
The launch marks another major expansion for the cybersecurity company, which already boasts a certified antivirus, a private search engine and the data removal tool Incogni.
Announcing the launch, Edvinas Sersniovas, CEO of HeyPolo, explained the personal motivation behind the project: “As a father myself, I wanted to create an app that could help me ensure the safety of my family while respecting and protecting their data.”
How HeyPolo tackles “ghost” tracking
The core differentiator of HeyPolo is its refusal to rely on default, always-on tracking.
In many conventional apps, users often forget to broadcast their coordinates, leading to inadvertent 24/7 surveillance.
To combat this “ghost” tracking, HeyPolo allows users to set specific start and end times for broadcasting their whereabouts. When the timer expires, tracking stops immediately and completely.
The app also offers tiered visibility options. Users are not forced to share their exact precision on a map; they can choose to show a general area or switch to a private mode entirely. Transparency is built right into the interface, ensuring you always know exactly who is seeing your location in real time.
“People want security, but they don’t want to sacrifice their autonomy or feel controlled by those they trust,” Sersniovas noted. “We’re changing the perception that location sharing must equal surveillance.”
A strict attitude towards data sales
Free location-sharing apps often make money by selling incredibly sensitive movement data to advertisers and third-party data brokers. Leveraging the privacy pedigree of the Surfshark and Incogni teams, HeyPolo promises a completely different business model that puts user security first.
The company expressly guarantees in its launch announcement that it will “never sell, monetize or exploit user location data,” noting that all location data is encrypted in transit.
This means that when your location data travels from your phone to the app’s servers, it is encrypted and unreadable by potential hackers or snoops.
Instead of secretly selling your data to keep the lights on, the service operates on a premium subscription model. Fortunately, a single subscription goes a long way: it allows a user to create unlimited groups and invite friends, partners and elderly relatives at no additional cost.
For those who want to try it out, HeyPolo is currently available for download on both the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store.
