When you tap the From or To field, StaffTraveler suggests airports near you. Here is how that works, and what we do and do not do with your location.
Nearby airports work without any permission
By default we estimate your rough area from your internet connection. No permission is needed, we never ask, and nearby airports still appear.
When we do ask
In the airport search you may see a link reading Use my location for nearby airports. Tapping it is the only thing in the whole app that asks for location access. Ignore it and nothing changes.
Tap it, and your phone shows its own permission prompt. On iPhone it explains that StaffTraveler uses your location to find nearby airports and tips.
If you turned location off earlier, the link instead reads Enable location in Settings for nearby airports, and takes you to the right settings page.
Why it is worth allowing
An estimate from your internet connection can be off by a lot, especially on inflight wifi or a roaming connection. Sharing your location makes the nearby list genuinely nearby, which helps most when you are away from home.
What we ask for, and what we keep
On Android we request approximate location only, never precise
On iPhone we ask for reduced accuracy, not your exact position
We round the coordinates before storing them, so what we keep is roughly a one kilometer square, not a street address
We only use it while you have the app open, never in the background
A stored position older than a day is no longer treated as current
Changing your mind
You can turn location off for StaffTraveler at any time in your phone settings. Nearby airports fall back to the estimate from your internet connection, and everything else works exactly as before.