Privacy Policy

Last updated September 15, 2026

OurHike is a small, volunteer-built offline map for hikers, currently in public beta. This page explains what information we collect, why, and what you can do about it — in plain language, not legalese. If something here is unclear, open an issue and ask.

You can use the core map — the trail, water, shelters, and campsites, even offline — without creating an account or handing over any personal information at all.

Information we collect

Account information

Creating an account is only needed to submit a trail report or contribute in other ways — not to use the map. If you sign in, we (through our authentication provider, Supabase) collect:

Your email address, whether you sign in with a code we email you, or with a Google or GitHub account you already have.
If you sign in with Google or GitHub, the basic profile information that service shares to verify your identity (your email address, typically nothing beyond that).
There is no password. Signing in with email sends a 6-digit code to your address, and typing it into the app is what signs you in. Supabase issues and checks that code; we never see it.
A trail name you choose yourself, and the kind of hiker you say you are (thru, section, day, or maintainer). Your trail name — not your real name or email — is what other hikers see if you post a report.

Location

OurHike can use your device's GPS to show your position on the map. That location is used on your device only and is not sent anywhere unless you choose to attach it to a report you submit — for example, to mark exactly where a blowdown or a water source is.

Nothing watches your position in the background. OurHike reads your location while you have the app open and are using a screen that needs it — the map, or a walk you are following — and it does that entirely on your phone. Your track is not uploaded, not stored on our side, and not used for anything else.

One feature keeps a record rather than forgetting it. Under Settings → Safety & privacy there is Record a GPS trace, a tool for measuring how accurate your phone's GPS actually is on the trail. While it is running it writes down where your phone thinks you are, several times a minute, and keeps that list on your phone until you delete it — which is the button directly beneath it. Everything else about location on this page still holds: the trace is never uploaded, is never attached to a report, and there is no way for us to ask for it. The only way it leaves your phone is if you save it to a file and send it somewhere yourself. It records nothing until you press start, and nothing at all if you have not turned on Use my location.

Notifications

OurHike sends no notifications at all. Not news, not reminders, not marketing, not "come back and use the app" — and not alerts either. Nothing this app does puts anything on your lock screen. That is a rule in the code rather than a promise here: an automated check reads every module the web app ships and fails the build if any of them reaches for the browser's notification or push machinery. It does not read the iOS and Android wrappers, which are not written in the same language — so that is the one place this page is telling you what we intend rather than what a test proves.

This page used to say something weaker — that there was exactly one notification, an off-trail alert. That feature was built and then removed before anyone was using it, and this paragraph did not come back for the sentence. It says so here rather than quietly, because a privacy policy that overstates what an app does with your attention and your position is wrong in the direction that matters.

Reports you submit

If you report a trail condition (a blowdown, flooding, a shelter needing repair, and so on), we collect what you put in it: the category, any note you write, the location if you include one, and the time you wrote it. A report may in the future let you attach a photo, in which case that photo is collected too.

Reports about other people ("bad hikers") are handled more carefully than trail-condition reports: they go only to safety moderators, never shown publicly.

Information kept only on your device

The downloaded map data, your app preferences, and any report you've written but haven't yet been able to send (there's often no signal on the trail) are stored locally on your phone using your browser's on-device storage. We don't have access to this until a report is actually sent.

Standard technical information

Like almost any website, the infrastructure that serves OurHike (GitHub Pages, Cloudflare, and similar) may log ordinary technical details — such as IP address and browser type — as part of normal operation. We don't collect this ourselves or use it to identify you.

Usage analytics

We don't currently run any analytics or event-tracking tool in the app. We're likely to add some limited, aggregated analytics in the future — for example, which screens or features get used — to help us understand what's working and prioritize what to build next. If we do, we'll aim to keep it as non-identifying as we reasonably can, and we'll update this page when it happens rather than after the fact.

How we use this information

To run the app: show your position, sync your account, and let you submit and track reports.
To keep the trail community trustworthy: moderators use report details to verify conditions and act on safety concerns.
To improve OurHike: understanding what's used and what isn't, in aggregate.

We do not sell your personal information, and we don't run advertising in the app.

Who we share it with

Supabase, our authentication provider — handles sign-in and stores your account credentials on our behalf.
Trail clubs and maintainers may see reports relevant to the sections they maintain, and public reports are visible (by trail name, not real name or email) to anyone using the app.
We may disclose information if required to by law, or to protect the safety of someone on the trail.

Map tiles come from three places, and asking for a tile says roughly where you are looking. The trail data and the downloadable offline maps come from our own storage at Cloudflare. The default background map comes from OpenFreeMap (tiles.openfreemap.org), and the hillshading and contours from AWS Terrain Tiles (s3.amazonaws.com). None of those requests carries your account, your trail name or anything else that identifies you — but the servers involved do see which part of the map was fetched, in the ordinary way any website sees which page you asked for.

If you would rather not fetch tiles at all while you walk, downloading the map for offline use is the answer: once it is on your phone, the map draws from your own device and asks nobody anything.

Your choices

Browse the map, water, shelters, and closures with no account at all.
Ask us to see, correct, or delete the account information we hold by opening an issue — no need to put personal details in the issue itself, just ask and we'll follow up.
Clear locally stored map data and preferences any time from your device or browser settings.

Children's privacy

OurHike isn't directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 13.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold, but no method of storage or transmission is completely secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the app changes. We'll update the date at the top when we do, and for meaningful changes we'll try to call it out on the app's GitHub page.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: open an issue on GitHub.