Your travel history isn’t a product. It’s just yours.

The SnapTrail iOS app does not require an account and stores everything on your device. This website is a small companion that lets you build curated lists of places (mountain peaks, filming locations, road-trip routes) and export them as GeoJSON files for the app to import. The list-builder requires a sign-in so we can associate lists with your account and let you share them with a link.

On the website specifically, we collect only what’s needed for sign-in and to store your lists:

• Your email address — used to sign you in (via a magic link, Apple, or Google). Stored in our database.
• Your lists — the places you draw, the names you give them, and any descriptions you add. Stored in our database so you can come back to them.
• A share token, if and only if you choose to publish a list. It’s an unguessable string in the URL. Switching the list back to private rotates the token and the old URL stops working.

We do not use any analytics, tracking pixels, or third-party advertising services on this website. We do not sell or share data. The only third parties involved are the providers you choose for sign-in (Apple, Google, or Resend for the email magic link) — and only as needed to authenticate you. Lists you build on the web are yours: you can delete them at any time, you can download them as GeoJSON, and deleting your account removes all of them.

SnapTrail is designed with your privacy in mind. Your data is under your control. The app does not collect, transmit, or store any personal data on the developer’s servers. Data is stored on your device and, when iCloud Sync is enabled, in your personal iCloud account.

All information — including visited locations, photo records, trips, favourites, personal places, and places to see — is stored on your device using on-device storage. No data is sent to the developer’s servers.

When iCloud Sync is enabled (the default), your data is also synced to your personal iCloud account via Apple’s CloudKit service, allowing it to be kept in sync across your devices. This data is stored in your private iCloud database and is not accessible to the developer or any third party. You can disable iCloud Sync at any time in Settings.

SnapTrail requests access to your photo library to read location metadata (GPS coordinates) and dates from your photos and videos. Your actual photos and videos are never copied or uploaded — only the embedded location and date metadata is read.

The Geotag Tool can also write GPS coordinates to photos and videos in your library that are missing location data. This only occurs when you explicitly use the tool and select which media to update.

The Trip Montage feature temporarily accesses full-quality images from your photo library to generate a video on your device. The generated video is saved locally and is not uploaded anywhere.

SnapTrail requests “when in use” location permission to access your device’s current location. This is used to set your home location, find nearby places, and detect your current country when exploring. Location access uses coarse accuracy (approximately 100 metres) and is only requested while you are actively using the app — SnapTrail never accesses your location in the background.

GPS coordinates extracted from your photos are used to match photos to countries and points of interest, display your travel history on the map, detect trips, and generate trip itineraries. Country matching is performed entirely on your device using bundled geographic data. This data is stored locally and is not sent to external servers (unless iCloud Sync is enabled, in which case it syncs to your personal iCloud account).

SnapTrail uses the following Apple services. When these features are used, data is sent to Apple’s servers and handled under Apple’s privacy policy:

• MapKit — GPS coordinates are sent to Apple for reverse geocoding (converting coordinates to place names), location search (address autocomplete), nearby points of interest (for trip itineraries), and loading map tiles.
• WeatherKit — trip location coordinates and dates are sent to Apple to retrieve weather data for your trips.
• CloudKit / iCloud — when iCloud Sync is enabled, your visited locations, trips, photo records, and other data are synced to your personal iCloud account. This data is stored in your private CloudKit database.
• HealthKit — if you grant permission, SnapTrail reads step count, walking distance, and flights climbed from Apple Health to display activity statistics for your trips. SnapTrail never writes data to HealthKit.

SnapTrail does not send your data to any service other than Apple’s.

SnapTrail may download regional point-of-interest data packs from Apple-hosted servers to provide location data for different countries and regions. These downloads contain geographic data only and do not include any of your personal information.

When you create a backup, the file is generated locally on your device. The backup contains your visited locations, photo records (including GPS coordinates), trips, personal places, and places to see. You choose where to save or share the file — SnapTrail does not upload backups to any server. Be aware that if you save a backup to a cloud service, your location history will be stored on that service.

SnapTrail does not integrate with any third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking services. The only external services used are Apple’s own services (MapKit, WeatherKit, CloudKit, and HealthKit), as described above, plus — on the website only — the sign-in provider you choose (Apple, Google, or Resend).

SnapTrail is developed by an independent developer based in the United Kingdom. As SnapTrail does not collect or store any personal data on its own servers (other than the limited sign-in/lists data described in “About this website” above), the developer does not act as a data controller for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, beyond what’s needed to run the optional website features.

Where SnapTrail processes personal data on your device (such as photo GPS coordinates and location history), the legal basis is your consent, which you provide by granting photo library and location permissions through the operating system. You can withdraw consent at any time by revoking these permissions in your device’s Settings app. Processing of health data via HealthKit is based on your explicit consent, which can also be withdrawn at any time.

For the website, the legal basis for processing your email and list data is the performance of a contract — providing the list-builder service you signed up for.

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to access, correct, and delete your personal data. Because most data is stored on your device, you can exercise these rights directly:

• Access — view your data within the app or website at any time
• Deletion — use “Reset All Data” in the iOS app to delete all in-app data, delete the app entirely, or delete your website account to remove your stored lists
• Portability — use the Backup feature in the app, or the Export GeoJSON button on the website
• Withdrawal of consent — revoke photo, location, or health permissions in your device’s Settings app, or sign out of the website

SnapTrail is not directed at children under the age of 13. The developer does not knowingly collect personal data from children.

Any changes to this privacy policy will be reflected in an app update or on this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

If you have questions about this privacy policy, please contact us at hello@snap-trail.app.