Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Tripodia is made by Codenight LLC, a limited liability company registered in New Mexico, United States (“Codenight”, “we”, “us”). Codenight is the controller of the personal data described in this policy. You can reach us at support@tripodia.app.

2. Information we collect

Information you give us

• Account details. Your email address and name when you create an account. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive the name and email address that service shares with us (with Apple, this can be a private relay address). Passwords are handled by Firebase Authentication and stored only in hashed form; we never see them in plain text.
• Profile and preferences. Your username, an optional profile photo, the interests you choose during setup, your app language, narrator and map preferences.
• Travel activity. Places you check in to, the date and time of each check-in and the star rating you give, places you save, dismiss or add to a route, your saved routes, your travel journal pages and posters, and the progress of your traveler character.
• Content you add. Personal places you add to your map, places you suggest, reports about incorrect places, photos you upload of places, and photos you take or choose to ask about an object.
• Messages to us. What you send when you contact support.

Information collected automatically

• Location. See section 3.
• Device and app information. Device model, operating system and version, app version, language and an app installation identifier.
• Crash reports. If the app crashes, Firebase Crashlytics records technical details such as the error, the state of the app at the time and the device information above.
• App integrity checks. Firebase App Check uses Apple App Attest or Google Play Integrity to confirm that requests come from a genuine copy of the app. This helps us block abuse; it does not identify you.
• Server logs. Our servers record technical information about each request, such as the time, the IP address, the address requested and the response. For map requests this can include the coordinates of the map area being loaded.
• Usage limits. We count how often you use features with daily or monthly limits (for example, new stories or photo questions) so the limits can be applied.

What we do not collect

We do not use advertising identifiers (IDFA or Android advertising ID), we do not include analytics or advertising SDKs that track you across other apps and websites, and we do not access your contacts. The app requests the camera and microphone only when you record a video or take a photo, and photo-library access only when you pick or save an image.

3. Location

Location is central to Tripodia, so we want to be specific about it.

• While you use the app, we use your precise location to show places around you, sort them by distance, plan walking routes and confirm a check-in at a place you are actually visiting.
• In hands-free mode, which you turn on yourself, we also use your location in the background so a place’s story can start as you walk past it, including with the screen locked. Background location stops when you turn hands-free mode off. On iOS this requires “Always” permission; on Android it runs as a visible foreground service with a notification.
• What we store. We do not store a history of where you have been. When you check in, we store the place, the time and the location of your device at that moment, and we keep the most recent check-in location to detect impossible jumps (for example, checking in on two continents within minutes). Requests for nearby places contain coordinates, which may appear in server logs as described in section 9.
• Without location, you can still browse the map and listen to stories; features that depend on where you are will not work.

You can change location permission at any time in your device settings.

4. How we use information

• To provide Tripodia: show places, generate and play stories, plan routes, keep your journal, saved places and character progress, and sync them across your devices.
• To manage your account and your Premium or Premium Plus membership, and to verify purchases with Apple or Google.
• To personalise the places and stories we show you based on your interests, ratings and the places you dismiss.
• To keep the service safe and fair: prevent fraud, cheating and abuse, apply usage limits and review content you submit (for example, place suggestions and photo questions may be reviewed by our moderators).
• To fix bugs and improve reliability using crash reports and logs.
• To answer your support requests and send messages about your account, such as email verification or password resets. We do not send marketing email without your consent.
• To comply with law and enforce our Terms of Use.

We do not sell or rent your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.

5. AI-generated stories and photo questions

Stories in Tripodia are written by large language models using sources such as Wikipedia, and narrated by text-to-speech services. To create a story we send the AI service information about the place (its name, location, category and source texts), the language and the tone or length you prefer. We do not send your name, email address or account identifier.

Stories are generally shared between users: a story generated for a place in a given language may be played to other users who open the same place.

When you ask with a photo, the photo you take or choose, the place it was taken near and your question are sent to the AI service to identify what the photo shows. We store the photo and the result so you can see it later and so our moderators can review it before it is added to a place. Please do not include people in these photos.

Posters for your travel journal are generated by an AI image model from the names and positions of the places you visited that day.

Our AI providers process this data on our behalf under their business terms, which do not allow them to use it to train their models.

6. Service providers

We use the following providers to run Tripodia. They process data only to provide their service to us.

We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect the rights and safety of our users or the public, or as part of a merger or sale of our business, in which case this policy will continue to apply to your data.

7. What other users can see

Your profile, check-ins, journal, personal places and routes are private to you unless you choose to share them. Content you contribute to public places — such as an approved place suggestion, a place photo or an identified object — may be shown to other users, together with your username where we credit contributors. When you share a poster, video or keepsake, you decide where it goes.

8. Purchases

Premium, Premium Plus and trip passes are bought through the App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google processes the payment; we receive the product, the purchase and expiry dates, renewal status and a transaction identifier so we can unlock your membership and keep it in sync. We never receive your card details. Subscriptions bought earlier on our website are managed through Stripe.

9. How long we keep data

• Account, profile, activity and content: for as long as you keep your account, then deleted as described in section 10.
• Guest use: preferences are stored on your device and removed when you uninstall the app.
• Crash reports: up to 90 days.
• Server logs: up to 30 days, longer only when needed to investigate abuse or a security incident.
• Purchase records: as long as tax and accounting law requires.
• Stories and narrations: kept as part of the place, because they contain no personal data.

10. Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app under Profile → Personal Information → Delete My Account, or by emailing us from the address linked to your account. Deleting your account removes your sign-in, profile and profile photo, preferences, check-ins and traveler character, journal and posters, personal places, saved routes, reports, support messages, and the photos you sent with place suggestions or photo questions. Contributions that were approved for public places, and photos you added to a public place, may remain without your name attached. Copies in backups are overwritten within 30 days. A subscription bought on our website is cancelled automatically; an App Store or Google Play subscription is not, so cancel it in your store settings first. More details are on our account deletion page.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, correct it, delete it, receive a copy in a portable format, object to or restrict certain processing, and withdraw consent at any time. Residents of California and other US states have the right to know, delete and correct their information and not to be discriminated against for using these rights; we do not sell or share personal information as those laws define it. Residents of Türkiye have the rights listed in Article 11 of the Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK).

To use any of these rights, email support@tripodia.app. We will answer within 30 days and may ask you to confirm that the account is yours. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

12. Legal bases (EEA, UK, Türkiye)

• Contract: to provide the app, your account, your membership and the features you use.
• Consent: for location access, background location in hands-free mode, camera, microphone and photos. You can withdraw consent in your device settings.
• Legitimate interests: to keep Tripodia secure, prevent abuse, fix crashes and improve the service.
• Legal obligation: to keep purchase records and respond to lawful requests.

13. International transfers

Codenight is based in the United States, and our servers and most of our providers are in the United States. When we transfer personal data from the EEA, the UK, Türkiye or other countries, we rely on safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or our providers’ participation in the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, and on your explicit consent where the law requires it.

14. Security

Data is encrypted in transit, access to our systems is limited and protected, and our database rules prevent one user from reading another’s private data. No system is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we will notify you and the authorities of a breach as the law requires.

15. Children

Tripodia is not directed to children under 13 (under 16 in the EEA and UK). We do not knowingly collect personal data from them. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

16. This website

tripodia.app does not use cookies, analytics or third-party fonts. Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes standard request data such as IP address and pages requested to deliver and protect the site. Email sent to our tripodia.app addresses is forwarded through Cloudflare Email Routing.

17. Changes

We will update this policy when the app changes — for example, if we ever introduce advertising, we will say so here and ask for any permission it needs first. When a change is significant, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect. The date at the top shows when this policy last changed.

18. Contact

Codenight LLC · New Mexico, United States
Email: support@tripodia.app