Privacy Policy

Aus Trails is operated by Aidxn Design (Aiden Wood), an independent Australian developer. This policy explains what data Aus Trails collects, why, and what your rights are. If anything here is unclear, email hi@aidxn.comand we'll answer directly — no support ticket system, just a real reply.

What we collect

We only collect data tied to a feature you actually use:

• Account details — if you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address and profile photo URL from Google, via Supabase Auth. We never see or store your Google password.
• Live location — used in your browser to show your position on a trail map and to power the free off-route alert. While you have an active tracked hike running (see "Family/friend hike tracking" below), your current position is also sent to our database so the buddies you've linked can see it. Location is never collected in the background or outside an active map/hike session.
• Comments, photos and plant/wildlife sightings — any comment, photo or sighting pin you submit is stored and shown publicly on that trail's page, attributed to your account.
• Family/friend hike tracking — the email address you enter to link a buddy (used only to find their existing account — we never expose a directory of other users), plus the accepted connections themselves, and any hike plan you start: expected start/finish time, live status, and position updates while active. This is only ever visible to the specific buddies you've linked and accepted.
• Push notification subscriptions — only created if you opt in to hike-tracking alerts; used solely to deliver those alerts.
• Saved trail collections — the trails you save, for your account only.
• Billing information — if you start a Pro trial or subscription, payment is handled entirely by Stripe. We never see or store your card number — only your subscription status (trialing, active, canceled) so we can unlock Pro features on your account.

Who we share it with

We don't sell your data, and we don't run ads. Data is shared only with:

• Supabase — hosts our database, authentication and photo storage.
• Stripe — processes Pro subscription payments.
• Any hikers browsing the site, for the specific content you choose to make public (comments, photos, sightings) — and your linked buddies, for hike-tracking status.

We also pull real trail, elevation, satellite, weather and place-name data fromfree public sources — OpenStreetMap, SRTM/AWS elevation tiles, Esri satellite imagery, RainViewer and OpenFreeMap — but nothing about you is ever sent to these providers.

AI-assisted development

Aus Trails is built and maintained with the help of AI coding assistants (including Anthropic's Claude). As part of that development and maintenance process, these tools have technical access to our database — its structure, and in some cases real stored data — in order to build features, fix bugs, and manage the schema safely. They operate under the same confidentiality expectations as any other tool we use to run this product, and are not a separate data recipient we share your information with for any other purpose.

Cookies & local storage

Aus Trails does not use tracking or advertising cookies. The only things stored in your browser are:

• Your login session (via Supabase Auth), so you don't have to sign in every visit.
• Offline trail maps and data, cached so the app keeps working with no signal — this is the whole point of Aus Trails being a real offline-capable app.
• A queue of comments/photos/sightings you've submitted while offline, held locally until you're back online.
• Your acknowledgement of this notice, so we don't show it again.

All of the above is essential to the app working — there's nothing optional to opt out of.

Data retention & deletion

You can delete your own comments, photos, sightings, saved trails and buddy connections at any time from within the app. To delete your entire account and all associated data, email hi@aidxn.com — we'll action it within a reasonable time and confirm once it's done.

Your rights

Aus Trails is an Australian service and handles personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). You can ask us what data we hold about you, correct it, or request deletion, by emailinghi@aidxn.com.

Children's privacy

Aus Trails is not directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we'll remove it.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we'll update the "last updated" date above. For material changes — anything that changes what we collect or who we share it with — we'll make it obvious in the app, not just bury it here.