Privacy policy

Information we collect and why

Account information. When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and password. We store only a one-way hash of your password, never the password itself. Your name shows who you are to other users. Your email address is how you sign in, and we use it for messages about your account, such as password resets. We do not send marketing email.

What you add. We store the trips, photos, recommendations (name, category, verdict, and note), wishlists and their items, friend requests, and friendships you create, and which friends you share each wishlist with.

Location. Locations are optional. You can tag a photo, recommendation, or wishlist item with a place by searching for it, entering coordinates, or using “Show places near me,” which asks your browser or phone for its current location for that search; we keep a location only when you save it on something. If you upload a JPEG photo with GPS data and have not set a location, we copy its coordinates onto the photo. Before storing any upload, we remove its embedded metadata, including GPS position, camera details, and capture time; JPEG photos keep only their orientation.

Security and technical information. To protect accounts, we record failed sign-in attempts (ten in a row lock the account for a day), password-reset requests, and the sign-in keys behind staying signed in. Our hosting provider logs each request to the Service, including the IP address, the page requested, and the time; we use these logs to run, secure, and troubleshoot the Service.

We use this information to provide the Service you ask for, to keep it secure, and to meet legal obligations. Your name, email address, and password are required to have an account; everything else is optional, and leaving it out only means the related feature is not used. We do not use analytics or advertising services, we do not sell your personal information or share it for targeted advertising, and we do not use your content to train AI models.

Cookies and similar technology

A cookie is a small piece of information stored by a browser. The Service sets two cookies, both needed to sign in, and neither is used for advertising or analytics. A session cookie keeps you signed in and protects forms against forgery; it ends when you close your browser. A “remember” cookie keeps you signed in on that device for up to a year after you last use the Service and is removed when you sign out. Blocking them prevents signing in.

The map loads its images directly from the OpenStreetMap Foundation's tile servers, which receive your IP address and the area of the map you are viewing, as described in the OpenStreetMap Foundation's privacy policy.

Who can see your information

Other users. Any signed-in user can see your name, for example in the list of people to add as a friend. Only you and your accepted friends can see your trips, photos, and recommendations and their locations, and photo images are delivered only to you and your accepted friends. Your wishlists are visible only to you, unless you share one with particular friends, who can view it while you remain friends. Your email address is not shown to other users.

Us. As the operator, we can access the stored information, and do so only to run, secure, and fix the Service, to respond to your requests, or when the law requires it.

Service providers. Render hosts the Service and keeps its request logs. Neon stores the database. Cloudinary stores uploaded photos. Photon, a place search run by Komoot, receives the place names you search for and the coordinates used to find nearby places; these requests are sent from our servers without your name or email address. The OpenStreetMap Foundation provides map images, as described above. Resend sends account email, such as password resets, and receives your email address and the message. We will update this list before adding another provider.

We may also disclose information when required by law, to protect the rights or safety of users or others, or as part of a transfer of the Service to a new operator, who would remain bound by this policy until it is changed as described below.

If you follow a link to another service or choose to provide information to another provider, review that provider's privacy notice as well. This notice does not establish the practices of an independent third party.

Retention, removal, and account closure

We keep your account and what you add until you delete it or close your account. Deleting a photo deletes its file. Deleting a trip keeps its photos and recommendations, no longer filed under the trip. A password-reset link expires after a day, and the record of each reset email sent (kept to limit them to five a day) is deleted about a day later. An account lockout ends after a day, and the count of failed sign-in attempts is cleared at the next successful sign-in.

You can close your account at any time from Account, then Delete account, by confirming your password. Closing is immediate: it deletes your account, trips, photos and their files, recommendations, wishlists and their shares (including other people's wishlists shared with you), friend requests and friendships, and sign-in records. Photo files are removed from Cloudinary by a background job shortly afterward. Copies remain in the database's restore history for up to six hours, and request logs remain with our hosting provider for its limited retention period, after which they are deleted. We may keep information longer only where the law requires it.

Security and processing locations

No online service can promise complete security. Connections to the Service use HTTPS. Passwords are stored only as hashes, repeated failed sign-ins lock an account temporarily, and photos are delivered through the Service only to people allowed to see them rather than from public links.

The Service and its database run in the United States (Render and Neon, in Ohio), and Cloudinary stores photos in the United States. Place searches are processed by Komoot in Germany, and map images come from the OpenStreetMap Foundation, based in the United Kingdom, and its content delivery network. Resend sends email from the United States. If you use the Service from outside the United States, your information is transferred to and processed in these countries.

Your choices and rights

Depending on applicable law and the circumstances, you may have rights to access or obtain a copy of personal information, correct it, request deletion, restrict or object to particular processing, withdraw consent for processing based on consent, or receive information in a portable form. Rights may be subject to conditions and exceptions; their availability depends on the law that applies to you and the relevant processing.

In the Service, you can change your name, email address, and password on the Account page, edit or delete anything you have added, stop sharing a wishlist, and close your account.

For anything else, including a copy of your information, contact wayfarerappadmin@gmail.com. We may ask you to confirm that you control the account's email address, and we will respond within one month. Do not send passwords in a privacy request. If you are in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Audience and changes to this policy

The Service is for people who are 16 or older. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. If you believe someone under 16 has an account, contact wayfarerappadmin@gmail.com and we will delete it.

When we change this policy, we will post the new version here with a new effective date. For a significant change, we will tell you in the Service or by email before it takes effect, and ask for your agreement where the law requires it.

Questions about this policy or personal information: wayfarerappadmin@gmail.com.