Privacy Policy

While basic trail browsing is completely open and anonymous, active participation in our progression system requires establishing an identity:

• Authentication: We use passwordless verification via 8-digit One-Time Passwords (OTP) delivered to your email address.
• Profiles: We collect your chosen explorer handle (username), full name, and email address to manage rankings (Explorer, Pathfinder, Trailblazer, Vanguard) and compile contribution statistics.
• Rank progression: Your contributions are indexed to calculate points based on submissions and verifications, which are displayed publicly in community directories.

Geospatial intelligence is core to TrailX. Depending on how you interact with our mapping features, telemetry is processed in the following ways:

• Local Analyzing & Composition: GPX and telemetry file imports processed through the web-based Route Analyzer or Route Composer are calculated entirely within your browser session and are not uploaded to our servers unless you choose to publish them.
• GPS Recording (Mobile App): The TrailX mobile application requests foreground and background location access to compile navigation tracks (latitude, longitude, elevation, speed, and time). This location tracking operates only when you explicitly start a recording, saving telemetry locally to your device.
• Expedition Publishing: If you explicitly choose to publish a trail to the global directory, your geospatial path, associated difficulty ratings, conditions reports, and route metadata are recorded in our database and made visible to all users.

To deliver complete field utility, our mobile application requests access to specific hardware capabilities:

• Location Services: Essential for generating real-time coordinates, tracking routes, and displaying your location against topography.
• Push Notifications: With your approval, we collect push notification tokens to alert you of trail validation updates, community comments, or safety bulletins.
• Local Storage & Media: Used to export custom generated Poster Art (PNG and PDF formats) and cache map tiles for offline navigation in regions without cellular coverage.

We utilize secure third-party infrastructure and hosting providers to manage database storage, user authentication, and system email delivery. Additionally, our map displays are powered by open-source cartographic libraries and public map services (such as Leaflet, OpenStreetMap, and OpenTopoMap) which process anonymous requests to render geographic tiles.

You retain ultimate ownership of your expeditions and personal data:

• Route Moderation: You can edit or delete any route you have published to the public registry at any time.
• Account Deletion: You can initiate complete profile deletion at any time via the settings menu in the mobile application. When deleting your account, you can choose to either (a) permanently delete all your contributions, including trails, comments, and reviews, or (b) anonymize your contributions, in which case they will remain publicly visible but be marked as authored by `@deleteduser` and your user profile links will be disabled. This operation is permanent and cannot be undone.
• Manual Support: You can also request complete profile deletion by reaching out to us at query@trailx.io.

To maintain community safety, compliance, and prevent abuse on the TrailX platform:

• Content Filtering: Objectionable user-generated content, including comments and photos, is subject to automated and manual screening and filtering before being published.
• Administrative Deletion: App administrators actively review comments, reviews, and photo submissions, and reserve the right to delete them without prior warning or user consent if they are found to contain nudity, offensive language, harassment, or are otherwise deemed inappropriate.
• Abusive Users: App administrators reserve the right to suspend or permanently ban abusive users who violate these content and community guidelines.