Privacy policy
Last updated October 2026. Lode Maps (“Lode”, “we”) is built to work without collecting personal data. Here’s what stays on your phone, what has to leave it for the app to work, and what we never do.
- No account, no ads, and no analytics or tracking tools.
- We don’t keep a history of where you go.
- Saved places, recent searches, and routes stay on your phone.
- Live location and convoys are end-to-end encrypted. We can’t read them.
- We never sell data or share it for advertising.
Stored only on your phone
Saved places (Home, Work, Favorites), recent places, your parking spot, trip plans, saved routes, offline map areas, reports you made, and your settings. They aren’t sent to us. Clear them in Settings › Data, or delete the app.
What leaves your phone so features work
A maps app has to ask services for maps, places, and routes. Each request carries only what that feature needs, isn’t linked to an account or identity, and isn’t used by us to build a record of you. Like any internet request, each service sees your device’s IP address.
- Map display: the area you’re viewing, to load map tiles (OpenFreeMap). Satellite view loads imagery from Esri (ArcGIS).
- Search: what you type and your approximate location (Photon, OpenStreetMap).
- Directions: your start, stops, and destination (Valhalla routing servers, run by FOSSGIS e.V. or by us).
- Place details: the place you open, for hours, phone, and website (OpenStreetMap).
- Weather and alerts: points along your route and your approximate location (U.S. National Weather Service).
- Transit: your start and destination (Transitous).
- Live traffic: the map area around you while navigating (TomTom).
Each provider has its own privacy policy.
Features that use the Lode relay
Some features use a small server we run on Cloudflare. It doesn’t store IP addresses.
- Live location sharing (optional): encrypted on your phone. The key is only in the link you share, so the relay stores data it can’t read. Sharing stops when you end it or after a few hours.
- Convoy (optional): positions and the name you choose are encrypted with your convoy code, which never reaches the relay. Deleted after 12 hours.
- Road reports: only the report type, its location rounded to about 10 meters, and the time. No name, account, or device ID. Deleted after 3 hours, or sooner when other drivers mark them as gone.
Location
Used only while the app is in use, to show where you are and guide you. Never sold, never used for ads, and not stored by us.
Notifications
Evacuation alerts are created on your phone. We don’t run a push service or know who receives alerts.
Children
Lode isn’t directed to children under 13 and doesn’t knowingly collect information from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, we’ll update this page and the date above.