Privacy Policy

👋 Overview

Map It! ("we," "our," or "us") is a social travel app that lets you create geotagged trip albums, share photos and videos with friends, and discover the world through other people's adventures.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. By using Map It!, you agree to this policy.

📋 Information We Collect

Account information — When you register, we collect your email address, username, display name, optional profile photo, bio, and city/state. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email, and profile photo from Google.

Trip and media content — When you create a trip you provide a location (latitude/longitude) and upload photos and videos. We also extract and store:

• EXIF metadata embedded in your photos (date taken, GPS coordinates, camera model)
• Video metadata (duration, resolution)
• The iTunes song you choose to attach to a trip (track name, artist, album art, and a 30-second preview URL from Apple's public API)

Social activity — We store the content of likes, comments, follow relationships, direct messages, and notifications you send or receive.

Device information — We collect your device's push notification token (FCM token) to send you in-app notifications. We do not collect device identifiers for advertising purposes.

Usage information — Firebase may automatically log basic usage signals (e.g., app crashes). We use this only to improve stability.

🎯 How We Use Your Information

• Display your profile, trips, and media to you and others (according to your visibility settings)
• Plot trips on the interactive map using the location you provide
• Show EXIF-derived dates and locations on individual media items
• Enable social features: follow, like, comment, and direct message
• Send push notifications for likes, comments, follows, and messages
• Provide customer support when you contact us
• Detect and prevent abuse, spam, and unauthorized access

🔒 Visibility & Sharing Controls

You control who sees each trip:

• Public — Visible to all users
• Friends — Visible only to your followers
• Specific people — Visible only to users you choose
• Private — Visible only to you

You can also set your account to private, which requires your approval before someone can follow you.

🤝 Third-Party Services

Map It! uses the following third-party services. Each has its own privacy policy:

• Google Firebase (Authentication, Firestore database, Cloud Storage, Cloud Messaging) — firebase.google.com/support/privacy
• Cloudflare R2 (media file storage and CDN delivery) — cloudflare.com/privacypolicy
• Mapbox (interactive maps and static map images) — mapbox.com/legal/privacy
• Apple iTunes Search API (music search; no personal data is sent) — apple.com/legal/privacy
• Google Sign-In (optional login method) — policies.google.com/privacy

📍 Location Information

Map It! uses location in two ways:

• Trip location: You manually select or search for a location when creating a trip. We store this as a latitude/longitude pair and display it on the map.
• Photo EXIF GPS: If your photos contain GPS coordinates in their EXIF data, we extract and display them per-photo in the trip detail view. You can remove this by stripping EXIF data from photos before uploading.

We do not continuously track your device location in the background.

🧒 Children's Privacy

Map It! is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

🗑️ Data Retention & Deletion

Your data is retained for as long as your account is active. You can delete individual trips and media at any time within the app.

To request complete account deletion (including all trips, media, profile data, messages, and followers), email us at mapit.app.business@gmail.com. We will process your request within 30 days.

🔄 Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will update the "Effective date" at the top of this page. Continued use of Map It! after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.