Expat Tracker

This app is a great idea and it worked without issue for me for a few months, but it’s not possible to leave it running in the background without checking on it occasionally to make sure it’s still doing what it’s supposed to. The entire appeal of this app is that you can leave it to track you without manually checking in. I didn’t open the app for a few months during a hectic season of summer travel, and then today opened the app to check the number of days I’ve been in my current country before my next trip and found the app wasn’t able to open and crashed continually, which I assume relates to iOS updates. I had to delete the app and re-download it to be able to use it, and when I restored my purchase I thought I’d see my summer travel dates autofilled in based on back location data—a major selling point for the price of this app is that user data is collected and backed up to a secure Swiss server, implying a reference to Switzerland’s cache for (mostly financial) data privacy. Location data is very sensitive and a private server was a big part of the reason I chose this tracker. Unfortunately and surprisingly, Expat Tracker did not track any of my locations since the last time I opened the app, and there is also no way to manually update my locations. It also did not send an alert email to notify me that my location wasn’t being tracked, and that I should log in again to get it back up and running. I’m really disappointed because the app’s simple design and the price of this app made it seem really promising, but it looks like my subscription price for a full quarter was completely wasted. When I tried to contact the developer, I was directed to a generic “contact us” form for Trifork, so I’m really not expecting much. It’s too bad—this is a great concept but it was a total waste of the subscription price during the time it wasn’t tracking my location. Quite disappointing.

This is the perfect solution for travelers who need to track their days in each country. But the price is completely unreasonable, perhaps it’s for the secure storage and management of the data. Perhaps do a cheaper version?