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Map Marker privacy policy

What this policy applies to

This privacy policy applies to all versions of the Map Marker app:

The Android app, available on the Play Store here
The iOS app, available on the Apple App Store here
The web app, available on the Map Marker website here

Introduction of this privacy policy

This privacy policy explains how Map Marker can access, use, store, or share your personal data. In short, Map Marker never accesses, uses or stores your personal data outside of your device or your cloud account. Some sharing features of Map Marker allow you to explicitly share some data outside of your device or cloud account, but except that explicit manual sharing process initiated by yourself, Map Marker never shares your data outside of your device or cloud account.

Definition of personal data

The personal data collected by Map Marker falls under different categories:

User geographic data: the list of geographic objects you can enter into the app which can contain geographic coordinates that as well as a title, a description, a phone number, a color and associated images or media.
Device location: the location of the user's device, obtained for example through the device's GPS module, after the user has granted permission.
User cloud account data: when explicitly granted access by you, Map Marker can have access to the your cloud account data, such as your email address, Google Drive files, or Dropbox files.
User search queries: the search queries entered by you when searching for places with a third party search engine.

This privacy policy page will focus on user geographic data, device location and user cloud account data only. When using the third party places search engines in Map Marker, depending on the search source you're using, you will need to refer to different privacy policies:

Here Search API: https://legal.here.com/en-gb/privacy
Google Places Search API: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Microsoft Bing Places search: https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-ca/privacystatement

How Map Marker accesses your data

User geographic data is collected by Map Marker when you input the data manually or import the data as files or though other apps sharing features into Map Marker.
Device location is collected by Map Marker when you grant Map Marker access to your device's location - note that while using the 'tracks recording' feature, the location data might be collected even when the app is closed or not in use.
User cloud account data is accessed when you grant Map Marker access and Map Marker will use that access by reading from or writing to your cloud account data.

How Map Marker uses your data

User geographic data is used locally on the device with the different Map Marker features (displaying the markers list, displaying markers on the map, etc.).
Device location is used exclusively for two purposes:

Display the device's location on the map.
Record tracks into the user geographic data when the 'tracks recording' feature is used.

User cloud account data is used to search for existing map files created by you or shared by others with you. When syncing map data, Map Marker will use the access to your cloud account data to download it on your device in order to be able to display it in the app.

How Map Marker stores your data

User geographic data is stored locally on the device, and into your cloud account data if you choose to sync your data into your cloud account.
Device location is stored into the user geographic data when the 'tracks recording' feature is used.
User cloud account data is stored in your cloud account and can also be copied locally on the device if you choose to sync your data from your cloud account.

Where your data lives

Your data lives on the device and on any cloud platform you explicitly configured Map Marker to sync to.

How Map Marker keeps your data

The data is kept on the device or on the cloud platforms as long as you don't delete it manually.

How Map Marker shares your data

Map Marker does not share your data externally unless you perform explicit actions to share or sync your data. In the case of you manually sharing data from Map Marker, the exported data could be sent to any app on the device you choose to share with. In the case of sync, Map Marker allows you to configure an automated sync with some cloud storage platforms: your data is then shared by Map Marker with those cloud storage platforms.

How Map Marker protects your data

Security procedures are in place to protect the confidentiality of your data:

The number of places where the data is stored is limited to the strict minimum: the data is only ever stored on your device or your cloud storage account (see the "Where your data lives" section)
All data transfers use encryption (e.g. https)
The data stored on your device is protected by your system's app storage sandboxing
The app requests the minimum amount of system permissions needed to function
The app provides several choices for access level to your cloud storage account:

Limited access: limits the app access to only files created by the app
Full access: allows to sync files shared by others, if needed

The user is encouraged to choose the "limited access" option unless they need more: "if in doubt, pick this option, you can easily change your mind later"
Third-party software components used within the app have been evaluated towards security and are updated regularly with latest security improvements and fixes

What cloud storage platforms Map Marker can use

Currently Google Drive or Dropbox. When you grant access to Map Marker to a cloud platform, that access is used solely to read/write geographic synced data between the cloud platform and your device, and for nothing else.

Contact me

You can contact me with any questions at [email protected]