Privacy Policy

This policy explains what Trailfold collects when you plan backpacking trips with us, how we use it, and the choices you have. Trailfold is a web app for planning backpacking trips: drawing routes, marking campsites, and reviewing per-day mileage, elevation, and difficulty.

1. What We Collect

  • Account information. When you sign in with an email and password or with Google, we store your email address and, if you set one, a display name. Passwords are hashed; we never see them in plain text. Authentication is handled through Supabase Auth.
  • Your trips. The trips you create — route waypoints and geometry, campsite markers, trip names, and dates — are saved to your account so you can return to them.
  • Interest events. We log lightweight, roughly anonymous product-interest events, such as clicking an “Upgrade to Pro” button, so we can gauge demand for features that are not yet built.
  • Technical and usage data. Like most web apps, we may receive standard technical information (such as browser type, approximate region, and basic request logs) needed to operate and secure the service.

2. How We Use Your Information

  • To authenticate you and keep your account and trips available across sessions.
  • To render maps, snap routes, and calculate per-day distance, elevation, and difficulty for your trips.
  • To operate the “Discover” feed of trips that members choose to share publicly.
  • To understand which features are in demand (for example, offline maps) so we can prioritize what to build.
  • To maintain the security, reliability, and integrity of the service.

We do not sell your personal data.

3. Third-Party Services and Data Providers

Trailfold relies on third-party services to host our systems and to provide map, trail, elevation, and public-land data. When you view a map, search for a place, or snap a route, requests — which may include map coordinates and search queries — are sent to the relevant provider so the feature can work. These providers include:

  • Supabase — authentication and database hosting for your account and trips.
  • OpenStreetMap, Photon, and OpenTopoMap — map tiles, geocoding/search, and trail data.
  • BRouter — snapping your drawn routes to trails and paths.
  • AWS Terrain Tiles — elevation data and 3D terrain rendering.
  • U.S. National Park Service API and Recreation.gov API — permits, park information, campgrounds, and closure notices.

Each of these providers operates under its own terms and privacy practices. Map-tile and geocoding requests necessarily share the location or query you are looking at with the provider serving that request.

4. Data Sharing and Public Trips

Your trips are private by default. If you choose to share a trip publicly, it becomes visible to other Trailfold members in the Discover feed, including its route, campsites, name, and dates, along with your display name. You can make a shared trip private again at any time, though copies others have already saved or viewed are outside our control.

We share information with the service providers listed above only as needed to operate Trailfold. We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers.

5. Data Retention and Deletion

We keep your account information and trips for as long as your account is active. You can delete individual trips at any time, and you can delete your account, which removes your trips and associated personal data from our active systems. Some information may persist for a limited period in backups or where retention is required for legal, security, or fraud-prevention purposes.

6. Cookies and Local Storage

Trailfold uses cookies and browser local storage primarily to keep you signed in (your authentication session) and to remember basic preferences. We do not use third-party advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

7. Children

Trailfold is intended for people aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us information, please contact us so we can remove it.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as Trailfold evolves — for example, when the paid Pro tier and billing go live. We will update the date at the top and, where appropriate, notify you of material changes.

9. Contact

Questions about this policy or your data? Reach out through the contact link on ourhome page.