Privacy Policy

1. What we collect

Account data: name, username, email, and a hashed password. Trip content: the messages, photos, GPS coordinates, and elevations your inReach device sends to your SatJourney number, plus trips, comments, and likes you create on the site. Device linking: your inReach messaging number. Follower contact info: phone numbers you invite for SMS updates and the emails of registered followers. Technical basics: logs and cookies/tokens needed to keep you signed in. We measure site usage with our own self-hosted, cookieless analytics (Umami) that collects no personal information; we do not run third-party advertising or analytics trackers.

2. Location data is the product — treat it accordingly

SatJourney’s purpose is publishing your location and photos as a trip journal. Anything you post to a public trip is visible to anyone on the internet, including search engines, in near real time. Use unlisted trips (hidden from listings and search, visible only by link) when you want a quieter audience, and remember that sharing your live location has inherent personal-safety implications — for example, it can reveal that you are away from home.

3. How we use data

To operate the service: rendering trips, sending the notifications you and your followers opted into (email verification, password resets, follower updates, digests), preventing abuse, and improving the product. We do not sell personal data.

4. Who processes it

We use service providers to run SatJourney: DigitalOcean (hosting and storage), Backblaze (encrypted backups), Mailgun (email), Twilio (SMS), Mapbox (maps), and Garmin’s messaging network (message transport), with Stripe to follow for payments. Each receives only what it needs for its function.

5. SMS consent

SMS trip updates are sent only to phone numbers that have opted in by replying YES to a single invitation message (double opt-in). Message frequency varies with trip activity. Message and data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help or STOP at any time to stop all messages. Phone numbers and SMS opt-in consent are used solely to deliver trip updates and are never shared with, sold to, or transferred to third parties or affiliates for marketing or any other purpose.

6. Retention and deletion

Content you delete is hidden immediately and purged from backups on a rolling ~30-day cycle. You can delete trips and posts yourself; to delete your entire account and its data, email us and we will complete it within 30 days, subject to legal retention requirements.

7. Your rights

You can access and correct your data in Settings, export your content on request, and request deletion (California residents: this also serves as your CCPA notice — we don’t sell data, and you may exercise access/deletion rights without discrimination). EU/UK visitors: we process data to perform our contract with you and for legitimate operational interests; contact us to exercise GDPR rights.

8. Children

SatJourney is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data.

9. Security and changes

Data is encrypted in transit, passwords are hashed, media storage is private with expiring links, and production access is restricted. No system is perfectly secure — report concerns to security@satjourney.com. We’ll announce material changes to this policy on the site or by email. Questions: privacy@satjourney.com.