Privacy Policy
Mallo Map is an outdoor navigation app for iPhone, with a companion website at map.geoffmallinson.com. It is built and operated by Geoff Mallinson, an individual developer based in New South Wales, Australia. In this policy “we”, “us” and “our” mean Geoff Mallinson; “the app” means the Mallo Map iOS app and the Mallo Map website together.
This policy describes what the app actually does with your information. We do not sell your data, we do not show advertising, and we do not use any analytics, attribution or crash-reporting services.
Information we collect
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Precise location — latitude, longitude, altitude, GPS accuracy, speed and timestamp | To show your position on the map and to record GPS tracks. While you are recording a track, location is collected in the background, including when the app is not on screen, until you stop the recording. |
| Email address, and a first and last name | To create and identify your account. If you do not supply a name, one is derived from the part of your email address before the “@” symbol. |
| Content you create — waypoints, notes, folders, saved views, map drawings and trips | To store your data and sync it between your devices. |
| Photos you attach to a waypoint | To display them alongside that waypoint. See Photos below — these are stored at public URLs. |
| Device information — device model, iOS version and app version | Sent with each track you sync, so that data recorded on different devices can be told apart and diagnosed. |
| Push notification token | To notify you when someone invites you to a trip. Collected only if you have a named (non-anonymous) account and you allow notifications. |
We do not collect health or fitness data, motion or step data, contacts, calendars, microphone or camera input, your advertising identifier, or your browsing activity in other apps.
Where your information is stored
Data you create is stored locally on your device and, when you are signed in, synced to our backend, which is hosted by Supabase. Supabase acts as our data processor and stores the database, the authentication records and uploaded photos. Access to your rows is restricted to your account, except where you deliberately share or publish content as described below.
Anonymous accounts
The app can create an anonymous account so you can start using it without signing up. Please note that data recorded under an anonymous account is still synced to our backend, not kept only on your device. Because an anonymous account has no email address attached, we have no way to verify who owns it, recover it if you lose the device, or action a deletion request for it. Create a named account if either matters to you.
Photos
Photos you attach to a waypoint are uploaded to our storage bucket and served from a public URL. This means anyone who has, or who correctly guesses, that URL can view the image without signing in. Photo file names are randomly generated, which makes guessing impractical, but the URL is not otherwise protected — please treat attached photos as potentially public and avoid attaching images you would not want seen by others.
Photos are uploaded as supplied by the iOS photo picker. We do not strip embedded metadata such as EXIF, which may include the time and the location at which the photo was taken.
Sharing and publishing
Nothing you create is shared with anyone else unless you choose to share it. When you do:
- Sharing an item with someone — you look them up by email address. Doing so reveals that person’s name and email address to you, and reveals your name or email address to them alongside the item you shared.
- Trip members — everyone in a trip can see the name and email address of every other member, and the content added to that trip.
- Public trips — marking a trip public gives it a web address that anyone on the internet can open without signing in, including downloading the trip’s tracks and waypoints as a GPX, KML or GeoJSON file. Making a trip private again stops future access, but cannot recall files already downloaded.
Third-party services the app contacts
Maps and related features are drawn from external providers. When the app requests data from these services, they receive the information listed below and handle it under their own privacy policies. None of them receive your account details or your saved content.
- Map tile and terrain providers — receive the coordinates of the map area you are viewing, which indicates your approximate location. These are OpenStreetMap, OpenTopoMap, OpenFreeMap, our own map server at
mapserve.geoff-7a5.workers.dev, Esri, and the government mapping services of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Geoscience Australia. - Open-Meteo — receives coordinates when the app looks up an elevation or a weather forecast.
- Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) — receives your search text when you search for a place on the website.
- OpenRouteService — receives start and end coordinates when calculating a route. Routing is not enabled in the current version of the iOS app.
- Apple Push Notification service — delivers trip notifications to your device.
Opening a location in Google Maps from a waypoint is a manual action you take, and passes those coordinates to Google.
Tracking
The app does not track you. We do not use advertising identifiers, we do not build advertising profiles, and we do not share or combine your information with data from other companies for advertising or measurement. The app contains no analytics or crash-reporting software of any kind.
How long we keep your information
Content you create is kept until you delete it or delete your account. Deleting a track, waypoint, folder or trip in the app removes it from our backend. Push notification tokens are replaced each time your device registers, and become invalid once you uninstall the app.
Deleting your account
You can ask us to delete your account and everything in it at any time. See Delete your account for how to request this and exactly what gets removed.
Your rights
We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. You may ask us to give you a copy of the personal information we hold about you, correct it if it is wrong, or delete it. Email us at support@geoffmallinson.com and we will respond within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.
Children
Mallo Map is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.
Security
Connections between the app and our backend are encrypted in transit, and data is encrypted at rest by our hosting provider. No system is perfectly secure, and the public URL behaviour for photos described above is a deliberate limitation you should be aware of.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page and, where the change is significant, tell you in the app.
Contact
Geoff Mallinson, New South Wales, Australia — support@geoffmallinson.com