Surfshark launches Hey Polo, a privacy-first location sharing app to kill "always-on" tracking | Tech Radar

Overview

Surfshark launches Hey Polo, a privacy-first location sharing app to kill "always-on" tracking

The cybersecurity giant behind one of the world's top VPNs is taking on conventional location trackers with an app that puts user consent front and center.

Details

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Surfshark has launched Hey Polo, 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 safety, 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 fix that balance with the launch of a brand-new app called Hey Polo.

Announced today, Hey Polo is billed as a privacy-first alternative to conventional location-tracking software.

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Rather than relying on the continuous, invasive monitoring that powers many existing tracker apps, Hey Polo is built entirely around user consent. Users get to decide exactly who sees their location, how accurate that location is, and exactly when the 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 at Hey Polo, explained the personal motivation behind the project: “As a father myself, I wanted to create an app that could help me ensure my family’s safety while respecting and protecting their data at the same time.”

The core differentiator for Hey Polo is its refusal to rely on default, always-on tracking.

In many conventional apps, users often forget they are broadcasting their coordinates, leading to accidental, round-the-clock surveillance.

To combat this "ghost" tracking, Hey Polo allows users to set specific start and end times for broadcasting their whereabouts. Once the timer expires, the tracking immediately and completely stops.

The app also offers tiered visibility options. Users aren't forced to share their exact pinpoint on a map; they can opt to show a general area or switch to a private mode entirely. Transparency is baked directly into the interface, ensuring you always know exactly who is viewing your location in real-time.

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“People want safety, but they don’t want to sacrifice their autonomy or feel controlled by those they trust,” Sersniovas noted. “We are changing the perception that location sharing must equal surveillance.”

Free location-sharing apps often monetize by selling incredibly sensitive movement data to advertisers and third-party data brokers. Hey Polo, leveraging the privacy pedigree of the Surfshark and Incogni teams, promises a totally different business model that puts user safety first.

The company explicitly guarantees in its launch announcement that it will "never sell, monetize, or exploit user location data," and notes that all location data is encrypted while in transit.

This means that as your location data travels from your phone to the app's servers, it is scrambled and unreadable to 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 older relatives at no extra cost.

For those wanting to give it a try, Hey Polo is currently available to download on both the Google Play Store and the i OS App Store.

Share your location securely with Hey Polo, a new, secure, location-sharing service from the team behind Surfshark VPN. One plan is all you need, starting from

Rene Millman is a seasoned technology journalist whose work has appeared in The Guardian, the Financial Times, Computer Weekly, and IT Pro. With over two decades of experience as a reporter and editor, he specializes in making complex topics like cybersecurity, VPNs, and enterprise software accessible and engaging.

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Key Takeaways

• Surfshark launches Hey Polo, a privacy-first location sharing app to kill "always-on" tracking

• The cybersecurity giant behind one of the world's top VPNs is taking on conventional location trackers with an app that puts user consent front and center

• When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission

• Surfshark has launched Hey Polo, a privacy-first location-sharing application

• The app abandons continuous "always-on" tracking in favor of user-controlled, timed visibility