Camino Wayfinder Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 13, 2026

Camino Wayfinder is an offline-first planning app for Camino de Santiago pilgrims. Core maps, route data, stages, checklist, budget, emergency references, and the private journal work without an account. Optional account and community features use an online service only in app versions where those features are enabled.

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Information Stored On Your Device

The app stores the following locally so it remains useful offline:

• Selected route and stage, map marker, saved route packs, planner settings, and map preference.
• When you explicitly start a walk, an optional exact walking-session record containing latitude, longitude, accuracy, observation time, and optional device altitude.
• Completed stages, packing checklist, budget values, credential progress, and rosary settings.
• Private journal entries, note text, spend, stamp counts, and optional attached photos.
• Optional baggage-recovery cards containing the provider, an opaque local card id, provider reference, route stage, transfer date, bag count, manually recorded status, provider links, and last update time.
• Community drafts/outbox items and cached public tips or chat history.

Cached community information may be stale. Clearing app/browser storage or uninstalling the app can remove local-only information. Journal note text and journal photos are not uploaded by the account-sync feature.

Optional Account Information

If you sign in with Apple or Google, the community service receives the provider's stable account identifier, an email address when the provider supplies a verified address, and the pilgrim display name you choose. The provider identifier and email are private. Other users see only your display name and community content. Authentication tokens are verified by the service; native sessions are stored using iOS Keychain or Android Keystore, while website sessions use browser session storage.

Community Content And Support

When you use optional online features, the service may store:

• Trail tips with route, town, optional stage, rounded kilometer bucket, linked route/place/lodging/service context, category, text, finite validity, timestamps, and aggregated “still true” or “no longer true” verdict counts.
• Chat room membership and messages in route, town, stage, nearby, or ahead rooms.
• Your individual tip verdicts, route/category follows, body-free in-app update records and read times. Push notification tokens are not collected while push is unavailable.
• Reports, blocked-profile relationships, moderation records and, when applicable, moderation appeals and their public resolutions.
• Time-limited local-expert verification scope and label. Internal verification references are not shown publicly.
• Bug reports, route-data corrections, and support feedback. Feedback may be submitted without signing in.

Tips and chat messages are public to the relevant app audience and should not contain private contact information, precise locations, or sensitive personal details. Content is filtered and may be reported, hidden, deleted, or associated with an account suspension under the Community Standards.

Location And Trail Presence

Location permission is optional. Device location is used on the device to estimate the nearest point on the selected route and off-route distance. Camino Wayfinder does not upload exact device latitude or longitude for public presence.

Starting a walk can save exact location points for that walking session on this device. Exact walk points are not synced, exported, added to analytics, or sent to the community service. Pause, confirmed Stop, and Mark arrived stop the active location watcher. The current build does not install a background-location service. Local walking-session points remain until you clear app/browser storage or uninstall the app.

If you separately opt into Nearby or Ahead features, the service receives the route, town, stage, and a route bucket rounded to the 5, 10, or 25 kilometer radius you choose (10 kilometers by default). This approximate presence expires after 30 minutes and can be cleared at any time. Other users are not shown exact coordinates.

Optional Personal-State Sync

A signed-in user can sync selected route, completed stages, checklist state, budget values, and limited journal metadata: entry id, route, town, spend, stamp count, and creation time. Journal note text and photos remain local. Synced personal state is private to the account and is not shown to other users.

Service Providers

• Apple and Google process authentication when you choose their sign-in option.
• Cloudflare hosts the optional community API, database, chat connections, security controls, and operational logs.
• Google Maps may process map requests when a Maps key, network connection, and Google map layer are used. The bundled backup map does not require Google Maps.
• OpenStreetMap data provides the bundled offline directory for bathrooms, drinking water, food, lodging, and other practical stops under the Open Database License. Opening an OpenStreetMap source record follows that provider's policies.
• CJ Affiliate processes clicks on disclosed Booking.com affiliate handoffs. The redirect contains the Booking.com destination (including selected town, dates, adults, and room count) and a route-scoped campaign value such as frances that does not directly identify the pilgrim. The value does not contain a Camino Wayfinder account id, name, exact GPS position, journal content, or community profile data, but CJ receives ordinary network and browser/device information needed to process the click and may associate the click with subsequent conversion information from the partner under their policies.
• Booking.com may process the selected destination and town coordinates, dates, party size, a normalized two-letter country inferred by the trusted network edge, the broad device platform (such as iOS, Android, mobile, tablet, or desktop), and subsequent booking activity when you choose live partner search or open Booking.com. Country and platform are used to request the legally appropriate price display and deal eligibility. Camino Wayfinder does not send exact device location, private journal content, or community profile data to Booking.com.
• Correos, Caminofácil, Pilbeo, Jacotrans, or Tuitrans may process transfer details and booking activity only when you choose to open or contact that provider. Transfer-form accommodation names and bag details stay on your device until you copy, re-enter, or send them yourself.

Booking completion occurs on Booking.com, not inside Camino Wayfinder. Booking.com or the property handles payment according to the offer, plus reservation details, cancellation terms, and customer service for a completed booking. Disclosed Booking.com destination-and-date search links may pass through CJ Affiliate, and Camino Wayfinder may receive a commission after a completed partner booking. Saved-property websites and live Demand API offer URLs remain direct and are not double-wrapped. Commission never changes neutral result ranking. OpenStreetMap source/correction links remain unmodified. Camino Wayfinder does not store payment-card information or the personal details entered during partner checkout.

Native Camino Wayfinder apps do not load web AdSense advertising. The caminowayfinder.com website may load Google AdSense only when advertising is explicitly enabled; in that case Google may process device and usage information under Google's policies. Private journal content, account sync data, and exact location are not provided for advertising.

Analytics, Tracking, And Sale Of Data

The native apps do not include an app analytics SDK, cross-app tracking SDK, or data-broker sharing. Camino Wayfinder does not sell personal information. Operational server logs are limited to service reliability and security information such as request id, method, path, status, and duration; request bodies and authentication tokens are not included in application request logs.

Community operational metrics use aggregate daily counts and timing buckets. They do not include exact coordinates, tip or message text, private booking details, journal content, or the identity of an individual pilgrim's verdict. These aggregates are used to measure availability, response time, moderation performance, and route-level participation.

Retention, Export, And Deletion

Account and community data is retained while the account is active or as needed for safety, moderation, appeals, legal, and service-operation purposes. Approximate presence expires after 30 minutes. Community tips have category-specific validity windows; an expired tip is not shown as current. Signed-in users can export account data from the Account view.

Deleting an account revokes its sessions, removes presence, synced personal state, room membership, tips, messages, verdicts, follows, in-app update records, expert-verification records, and block relationships, and erases provider identifiers and email. The user's export includes their verdicts, follows, in-app update records, expert-verification history, and moderation appeals. Support feedback or moderation records may be retained only after they are disconnected from the account and the profile is anonymized. Appeal/audit records that must be retained for safety or legal reasons are similarly disconnected from the deleted identity. Local-only data remains on the device until the app/browser storage is cleared or the app is uninstalled.

Baggage-recovery cards remain only on the device until you remove a card, clear app/browser storage, or uninstall the app. They are not included in account sync or analytics. Removing a local card does not cancel a reservation with the provider.

Security And Safety

Camino Wayfinder uses provider token verification, signed sessions, secure native token storage, encrypted HTTPS transport, rate limits, content filtering, report/block tools, and moderator-only administration. No system can guarantee absolute security. Do not use Camino Wayfinder as an emergency dispatch service or as the sole authority for trail, weather, lodging, or medical safety.

Contact

For privacy, account, deletion, or support questions, email tommaciejewski@yahoo.com or visit Camino Wayfinder Support.