Privacy Policy for PathXplorer

Introduction

PathXplorer ("we," "our," or "app") is built privacy-first: no account, no ads, no selling of data — ever. Your tracks, photos and statistics are recorded and stored on your device, and by default they stay there.

Some features do need to send data off your device to work — weather needs your coordinates, group tracking needs your position, an SOS alert needs to reach your contacts. This policy describes exactly what leaves your device, when, to whom, and how you control it.

Device Permissions

PathXplorer requests certain device permissions to provide its features. You control each of them and can revoke them at any time through your device settings; the app keeps working with reduced features if a permission is denied.

• Location (including background location): The heart of the app — used to record your route, show your position on the map, and compute your live metrics. Background access lets recording continue with the screen off or the app minimized. Your location leaves the device only for the specific features described below.
• Camera: Used only when you take geotagged photos while recording. Photos are stored on your device.
• Physical activity: Used on-device for step counting, cadence and stride metrics. Activity data never leaves your device.
• Storage / media access: Used to save your tracks, photos and generated videos on your device (and to your gallery when you share). We do not access, upload or analyze your other files.
• Notifications: Used to show the recording status while tracking in the background.

Data Stored on Your Device

PathXplorer stores the following on your device:

• Your recorded tracks with all their metrics (speed, altitude, weather, lean angle, G-force, etc.)
• Geotagged photos taken while recording
• Videos, map snapshots and PDF reports you generate
• Automatically detected parking spots and their addresses
• Recently looked-up street addresses
• A short rolling log of your last few minutes of GPS positions (used only to include your recent trail in an SOS alert; it is capped at about five minutes and continuously overwritten)
• App settings and preferences
• Cached map tiles and recent weather data
• An on-device diagnostic log of technical events, which also holds your approximate last known position (rounded to about 1 km), your device model and your Android or iOS version (never transmitted unless you explicitly choose to send it to us)

Backups you control

Track backup (Settings › More) is optional. When you turn it on, copies of your tracks and photos are saved to a folder you pick on the phone or an SD card, and/or to a folder in your own Google Drive, which requires you to sign in with your Google account. We have no access to that folder.

Separately, Android’s automatic Google backup may store your tracks, addresses, diagnostic log and app settings (including the names, phone numbers and email addresses of your SOS contacts) in your Google account, under Google’s own privacy terms. You can switch it off in your phone’s Google settings. The SOS email password, if you set one, and the anonymous usage counters are never included.

You can delete all of this at any time by clearing the app's data in your device settings or by uninstalling the app. Copies kept in your Google Drive or Google account are yours to delete there.

Features That Send Data Off Your Device

Each feature below sends only the minimum data needed, only while you use it. All connections are encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS).

Maps — OpenStreetMap

Map tiles are downloaded from OpenStreetMap servers as you pan and zoom. Standard network requests occur, but no personally identifiable information is sent. You can cache maps for offline use. See the OpenStreetMap Foundation Privacy Policy.

Weather — WeatherAPI.com

Weather is part of the Fun edition. When weather features are available, your current coordinates (latitude and longitude) are sent through our relay server to WeatherAPI.com to retrieve local conditions — at most every 15 minutes while the app is active, less often later in the day. The relay receives your coordinates together with the random device identifier described below, forwards the request and does not keep your requests as a track; no name or account accompanies it, and the weather data received is stored only on your device. Weather is paused in Zero Data mode and refreshes less often in Min Data mode. See WeatherAPI.com's Privacy Policy.

Addresses, Destination Search & Routing — Nominatim and OpenRouteService

When you use the Nearest Address tile, search for a destination, or plan a route, your coordinates (and the search text you type) are sent through our relay server to the OpenStreetMap Nominatim geocoding service and/or OpenRouteService to resolve addresses and compute routes. The relay also receives the random device identifier described below and your edition (Free or Fun), which it uses to apply the daily route limits. These lookups happen only when you use those features, and their results are cached on your device so repeat lookups can be answered offline.

Speed Limits, Nearby Places and Events — our relay server

To show the speed limit of the road you are on, and the Attractions, Events and Fuel chips of the destination screen, the app asks our relay server for the data of your area, which means your coordinates reach it. The relay fetches the answer from open-data and event services (OpenStreetMap, OpenAgenda, Ticketmaster), keeps part of it in a cache so repeat requests cost nothing, does not keep your requests as a track, and passes them to no one except the service that answers them.

Group invitations — our server

When you share a group invitation, a small picture card (your avatar, your @nickname and the #group name over a city-scale map) is sent to our server so that the link can show a preview.

Live Group Tracking — our server

Group tracking is OFF by default. When you choose to join a group, the following is sent to our server over an encrypted connection: the group name, the nickname you picked, a random device identifier (generated by the app — not tied to your identity), and your live position while sharing is on. This is relayed to the other members of your group so you can see each other on the map.

SOS Emergency Alerts — our server

The SOS feature sends an alert only when you deliberately trigger it (press-and-hold plus confirmation — it cannot fire by accident). An alert always carries your name, your phone number, the time, your coordinates, your speed and battery level, and a random device identifier. You choose in advance whether it also includes:

• The nearest street address (the map link itself is always included)
• Streets you recently passed
• Your recent GPS trail (the last few minutes)
• Your most recent photos
• A snapshot of the map, the weather and a short note of your own

To deliver the alert, the selected content and the email addresses of your chosen emergency contacts (up to three, entered by you) are transmitted to our server, which sends the alert email and then does not use this data for any other purpose. Your contacts' addresses are stored on your device, not on our server. An SOS is sent over any available network, even in Zero Data mode; if Wi-Fi is blocked, the alert automatically retries over your cellular connection (on Android; on iPhone, iOS picks the available network). Once delivered, the alert lives in your contacts' inboxes like any email you might send them.

Server logs

Like any web server, ours keeps ordinary technical logs — time, IP address and the request itself, which can include coordinates — for security and troubleshooting. We do not use them to rebuild your movements.

Google Play services

• Play Billing: If you purchase the Fun subscription, the entire payment is processed by Google Play. We never see your payment details — Google provides us only an anonymous purchase confirmation. See the Google Privacy Policy.
• Play Integrity: To protect the service from tampered or counterfeit copies of the app, PathXplorer may ask Google Play to verify that it is a genuine installation. This check involves Google and our server but carries no personal information about you.

Newsletter

If you choose to subscribe to the newsletter (in the app or on funapps.biz), your email address and language are stored on our server so that we can send you a confirmation message and the letters themselves. Every message carries an unsubscribe link; unsubscribing stops the mailings. Subscribing is entirely optional and does not create an account.

Anonymous Usage Statistics

To understand which features are used and where new users get stuck, the app sends our server a small summary of the day’s counts only, sent when you open or leave the app (at most every couple of minutes) and replaced each time on our server: how many times the app was opened, how many trips were recorded and for how many minutes, how many destination searches, routes, photos, videos, reports and shares were made, which permissions were requested, granted or refused, and a few settings such as the data mode and the GPS interval. The summary also carries the app version, the Android or iOS version, the device memory size, the language, the country of your mobile network, the day the app was installed, how the app was found (a broad category only, such as “Google Play search” or “advertising campaign”, taken from the Google Play Install Referrer), whether the device is an emulator or a test robot, whether Google services are present, whether battery optimization is switched off for the app, how many dashboard tiles are shown, how many minutes passed between installation and your first use of each feature, and the same random device identifier used for group tracking (generated by the app and not tied to your identity).

This summary never contains a position, a track, an address you searched, a photo or any content. It amounts to a few kilobytes a day at most, is never sent over mobile data in Zero Data mode (it is sent only on an unmetered connection such as Wi-Fi, like the rest of the app in that mode), and is retained in raw form for thirteen months before being reduced to daily totals. You can turn it off at any time with the Anonymous usage statistics switch in Settings › Data; nothing is sent or kept while the switch is off.

Crash Reporting

PathXplorer uses Firebase Crashlytics (a Google service) so we can find and fix crashes. If the app crashes, a report is sent containing technical details (device model, Android or iOS version, app version, what the code was doing) and device identifiers used to group reports. These reports contain no tracks, no photos and no location history. Crash data is handled by Google under the Firebase privacy documentation and retained per its policy.

Separately, the app keeps a diagnostic log on your device. It holds technical events, your approximate last known position (rounded to about 1 km), your device model and your Android or iOS version. It is sent to us only if you explicitly choose to send it — from the Settings menu, or by answering Yes to the question the app may ask after a crash (answering No sends nothing) — typically when we’re helping you troubleshoot.

PathXplorer on iPhone and iPad

The iOS version works the same way and follows this whole policy, with Apple’s services in place of Google’s:

• Track backup — iCloud Drive: If you turn it on, copies of your tracks, photos and saved destinations are written to a “PathXplorer” folder in your own iCloud Drive, visible in the Files app. We have no access to it; it is stored by Apple under its own privacy terms, and you can delete it there at any time.
• Photos library: With your permission, a copy of each photo you take during a recording is kept in your Photos library, so a photo deleted from the app can be put back into its track. The app reads only the photos it saved itself.
• Motion & Fitness: used on the device for step counting; this data never leaves your device.
• App Store purchases: The Fun subscription, when offered on iOS, is processed entirely by Apple. We never see your payment details; Apple only confirms to the app that a subscription is active.
• App Attest: In place of Play Integrity, the app may ask Apple to confirm that it is a genuine copy before joining a group. This check carries no personal information about you.
• Crash reports: as on Android, Firebase Crashlytics sends a technical crash report (device model, iOS version, app version) — no tracks, photos or location history. The diagnostic log stays on your device and is sent to us only if you choose to send it.
• Every permission can be changed at any time in the iOS Settings app, and deleting the app removes everything stored on the device.

What We Never Do

• We never sell or rent your data to anyone.
• We never show ads or use advertising identifiers.
• We never upload your tracks, photos, videos or reports ourselves — sharing them is always your action, through the apps you choose, and the optional Track backup writes only to a folder, Google Drive or iCloud Drive that you own.
• We never require an account, sign-in or profile (signing in with Google is needed only if you pick Google Drive for Track backup).

Your Rights and Choices

• Zero Data mode: A single setting puts the app in fully offline operation on mobile data — recording works completely, nothing is transmitted over mobile data (except an SOS alert, or a diagnostic log, that you send yourself, and one small app-store check (Google Play or the App Store) for an update at most once every 30 days), and a built-in meter shows approximately how much data the app has used.
• Per-feature control: group tracking, SOS, Track backup and anonymous usage statistics can each be turned off independently in Settings; weather is paused by Zero Data mode; parking detection runs quietly on the device and its badges can be hidden from the ⋮ menu.
• Right to delete: Your data lives on your device — clear the app's data or uninstall it and it's gone, apart from any backup copies you made in your own Google Drive or Google account. Group-tracking data on our server is deleted automatically when you disconnect, and the newsletter stops, with its address removed on request, when you unsubscribe or write to us.
• Permission control: Every device permission can be revoked at any time in Android settings.

Because we hold no account or database about you, there is nothing for you to request a copy of and no account to delete — you already have direct control over all of it.

Children's Privacy

PathXplorer requires no account and collects no profile information, and is suitable for users of all ages. Parents should be aware that the group tracking and SOS features, when deliberately used, share the device's location as described above.

Changes to This Policy

When the app gains features that change how data is handled, this policy will be updated and the "Last updated" date at the top revised. Significant changes will also be highlighted within the app.

Contact Information

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact:

• Charles-Emmanuel Barcelo
• Email: pathxplorer@funapps.biz

This privacy policy reflects our commitment to transparency and to giving you control over your data while using PathXplorer.