Privacy Policy
1. What this policy covers
OpenCamp Atlas for iPhone, iPad, and Android.
The short version. The app has no sign-up and no analytics. Almost everything you create — saved sites, points, trips, notes, vehicles, photos — stays on your device and is never sent anywhere.
There is one exception, and it only happens when you choose it: if you submit a review or a condition report, that text is sent to our server so other travelers can eventually see it. Writing one and saving it as a draft sends nothing. Section 2.2 explains exactly where the line is.
The app also sends your location to a few map, routing, weather, and fire services so the map, directions, forecasts, and wildfire checks can work. Those requests are listed in section 4.
2. What we collect
2.1 Location
- While you are using the app only. Never in the background. The app
does not request "Always" location on iOS and does not declare
ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATIONon Android. - Used to centre the map on you, find nearby camping, fill in coordinates when you add a point, plan a route, and fetch a local forecast.
- Approximate location is enough. If your device offers a precise/approximate choice, the app works with approximate.
- The app is fully usable if you refuse. You can browse and search by place name instead.
- Your location is not stored on our servers. We do not operate a server that receives it. It is held on your device, and sent to the third-party services in section 4 only as needed to answer a request.
2.2 Things you create
Stays on your device, always. Saved sites, map points, trips, private notes, vehicle profiles, vehicle photos, and any review or report you save as a draft. None of this is ever sent to us. If you delete the app it is gone, and there is no copy for us to return or delete on your behalf.
On Android, the app excludes its database from Android Auto Backup and from device-to-device transfer, so your points are not copied to Google Drive.
Sent to us, but only when you press Submit. A review or condition report you submit is sent to our server so that, after a moderator checks it, other travelers can see it. What is sent is:
- the text you wrote, and the star rating if you gave one
- which campsite it is about
- the date you say you were there, for a condition report
- the time you submitted it
- an anonymous account identifier, described in section 2.3
Nothing else goes with it. Not your location, not your vehicle, not your saved sites, not your notes, not your photos.
Submitted content is public once a moderator publishes it. That is the purpose of submitting. Please do not put anything in a review that you would not want a stranger to read, including where exactly you are right now.
2.3 What we do not collect
To be explicit, because many apps in this category do collect these:
- No sign-up, and no email, name, or password. You never create an account, and we never ask for or store any way to contact you.
- An anonymous identifier, only if you submit something. The first time you press Submit, the app asks our backend for a random anonymous identifier and stores it on your device. It exists so that a moderator can tell one person's submissions apart from another's, so that you can edit or delete what you submitted, and so that someone who repeatedly posts dangerous or abusive content can be stopped. It contains nothing about you, it is not linked to your device or your other data, and it is never created at all if you never submit anything.
- No analytics or usage tracking. No SDK reports what you tap.
- No crash reporting at this time.
- No advertising identifiers, no tracking, no data sales. The app does not track you across apps or websites.
- No purchases. There is no paid tier or in-app purchase.
If any of these change, this policy and the app's store privacy labels must be updated in the same release.
3. How we use data
Only to make the features work: draw the map, show sites near you, save what you save, plan a route for your vehicle, and show a forecast. There is no secondary use, no profiling, and no sharing for advertising.
4. Third-party services that receive data
This is the part worth reading. The app calls the services below. Most of them necessarily see coordinates, because that is what the request is for. Only one of them — our own backend — ever receives something you wrote, and only when you submit it.
| Service | What it receives | When | Their policy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Maps / MapKit (iOS) | Map region being viewed; your location when the map shows your position | Whenever the map is open | Apple's Privacy Policy |
| Google Maps SDK (Android) | Map region being viewed; your location when the map shows your position | Whenever the map is open | Google Privacy Policy |
| USGS The National Map | The map tiles being requested, which reveal the area you are looking at | Only when you switch on the USGS Topo layer | U.S. government service |
| National Weather Service (api.weather.gov) | The coordinates of the site you are viewing, rounded to four decimal places. When you plan a route, also up to five points spaced along that route | When you open a site's detail screen, and when you plan a route | U.S. government service |
| Iowa Environmental Mesonet (mesonet.agron.iastate.edu) | The radar tiles being requested, which reveal the area you are looking at | Only when you switch on the Weather radar layer | Iowa State University, serving NOAA/NWS data |
| National Interagency Fire Center (services3.arcgis.com) | The coordinates of the site you are viewing, or the map area you are looking at, to find active wildfires there | When you open a site's detail screen, when the wildfire layer is on, and when you plan a route | U.S. interagency government service |
| Supabase (our backend, hosted in Oregon, USA) | Only what section 2.2 lists: the review or report you submitted and your anonymous identifier. Reading other people's published reviews sends no identifier and nothing about you | Only when you submit a review or report, or open a site that has published reviews | Supabase Privacy Policy |
| TomTom | Start and destination coordinates, and your vehicle's height, weight, and length when you have entered them | Only when you plan a route | TomTom Privacy Policy |
| GitHub Pages (noktirnal42.github.io) | Your IP address, as with any web request. No location and nothing about you — it is one fixed file, identical for every user | When you plan a route. Kept for a day while the app is running, so a fresh start may fetch it again | GitHub Privacy Statement |
Notes on the above:
- Vehicle dimensions are sent to TomTom when you plan a route. That is the only way a route can avoid a bridge your rig will not fit under. They are not sent anywhere else, and they are not sent at all if you have not entered them.
- Route weather sends points along your route. Showing you the weather where you will be in four hours means telling the weather service which places to report on. Samples are capped at five per route.
- Fuel prices are a fixed file, not a lookup about you. The app reads one published national-average file. It does not send your route, your vehicle, or your location to get it.
- Camping site and amenity data is bundled in the app, not fetched. Browsing the catalogue sends nothing to anyone.
- Weather radar is never stored on your device. It is also never requested unless you switch the layer on.
- Wildfire checks send a location. Finding fires near a campsite means telling the fire service which place to look at. Nothing about you or your vehicle is sent, and the wildfire map layer is only requested when you switch it on.
- Checking saved sites for warnings is off unless you turn it on. When it is on, opening the Save tab sends the coordinates of up to twelve saved sites to the National Weather Service. Nothing runs in the background.
- Forecasts are cached for 30 minutes, and fuel prices for a day, so the same request is not repeated while the app is running.
- We do not send your identity with any of these requests, because the app does not have one.
4.1 Links that leave the app
Some controls hand you over to another app or your browser. When that happens, you are on that service's terms and privacy policy, not ours:
- "View agency rules" opens the land manager's own website, such as the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, or the National Park Service.
- "Open in maps" hands the destination to Apple Maps, Google Maps, or whichever maps app you have set.
We do not send anything to these services in the background. Nothing is sent unless you tap the control.
5. Retention and deletion
On your device. Everything in the first part of section 2.2 lives on your device for as long as you keep the app.
- Delete individual items in the app.
- Clear the downloaded map cache in Settings → Offline data.
- Uninstalling removes all of it.
On our server. Only what you submitted, described in the second part of section 2.2.
- You can delete your own submission from the app, and it is removed from our database. If it had already been published, it stops being visible to others at the same time.
- Email us at FreeRangeLabs@drumnbus.com and we will delete everything associated with your anonymous identifier. Tell us the identifier, which you can read in Settings.
- Submissions we removed for breaking the Community Rules are kept, with the moderation decision, so that an appeal can be reviewed and so the same content is not simply posted again. Everything else is deleted on request.
- Uninstalling the app does not delete what you already submitted, and it destroys the anonymous identifier stored on your device, which is the thing that proves the submission was yours. If you want your submissions gone, delete them before you uninstall, or write to us first.
6. Children's privacy
Not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from them. Since the app collects no personal data and has no account, there is nothing for a parent to request removal of.
7. Your rights
Privacy laws including the GDPR and CCPA give rights to access, correct, delete, and port your data, and not to be discriminated against for exercising them.
Because the app holds no personal data about you on any server, these rights are satisfied directly: the data is already only in your hands, and deleting the app exercises the deletion right in full. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under the CCPA.
8. Security
On-device data uses the operating system's own app sandbox and storage protections. All network requests use HTTPS. Because there is no account and no server, there is no credential to steal and no central store to breach.
9. Offline data
Downloaded map tiles and the bundled camping catalogue are stored on your device and work with no connection. Nothing about which sites you view offline is reported anywhere.
10. Changes
We will update this page and the effective date when the app changes. A
change that adds a backend, an account, analytics, or purchases requires
updating this policy, the App Store privacy labels, the Play Data safety
form, and PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy in the same release.