TrackMyTour Privacy Notice & Cookie Policy

Last Updated: 6 November 2024

We have updated this document to provide you with a better understanding of what data we collect, how we use it, and why.

Who we are

TrackMyTour is a global website and service run and owned by Christopher Meyer of Red House Consulting GmbH. The website, iOS, and Android apps are developed and managed on an Apple computer in a small town in central Switzerland.

At TrackMyTour we are committed to maintaining your trust and confidence in our service. We are not in the business of selling, trading, or sharing your data with anyone for marketing or any other purpose outside the scope of our service. However, due to the nature of our service, we do collect, store, and use some personal data. This page will discuss what we collect and why.

Data collection and what we do with it

Anonymous and Registered Users

The TrackMyTour website can be browsed anonymously without submitting any personal data. However, if you'd like to create content on TrackMyTour (e.g., use TrackMyTour to blog your next vacation) then you must create and sign in with an account. The account is associated with you, and requires some personal information to be provided.

Cookies

TrackMyTour uses cookies for authentication (including Facebook Login, Sign in with Apple, & Sign in with Google), authorisation, to assist in the prevention of Cross-site request forgery attacks, and to personalise the user experience. Authentication cookies originating from our service are placed on your device when you sign in and are removed when you sign out.

Cookies are also used by Google Analytics (see below).

Generally speaking, cookies make your online experience better. However, you're welcome to delete or block cookies on this or any other site. Have a look at the "What Are Cookies?" website for instructions on disabling them in your browser. Just keep in mind that deleting or blocking cookies may cripple or break the usability of the website.

Access Token

The iOS and Android apps use an access token to maintain your identity between the TrackMyTour website and the app running on your device. It is conceptually analogous to an authentication cookie.

See the Access Token Wikipedia page for more information.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to log and understand general website usage and trends. It helps us understand things such as how many visitors we receive each month, how long users remain on the site, which pages are popular, and how visitors found the service.

Events are logged anonymously, which prevents us from associating specific actions to a user.

Google Analytics uses cookies for tracking your actions. If this is something you'd like to prevent then consider installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on from Google.

You can read about Google GDPR Compliance on their website.

Google Fonts

TrackMyTour uses Google Fonts to render fonts on the website. This requires your browser to make requests to Google, where Google may log and process your IP address.

You can read about Google GDPR Compliance on their website.

Website Logging

TrackMyTour creates a standard web server access and error log, which contains information on each request including:

the date and time of the request,
the URL of the request,
the client user agent (as defined in the User-Agent request header),
IP address, and
errors, if applicable.

This information is used by us for security and troubleshooting purposes, and is purged after fourteen days.

Personal User Data

You are required to submit some personal information when you register an account. This includes:

a username, to uniquely identify your account (does not have to match your real name);
a password, to secure access to your account; and
an e-mail address, which helps verify your identity and provides a means to reset a forgotten password.

Your first and last name are optional.

Your e-mail address may be used by us to:

send you a welcome e-mail (once you have registered),
send you a confirmation e-mail if your e-mail address has changed,
send you a password reset e-mail (if requested), and
send you an e-mail if extraordinary circumstances require it.

At the moment we have no newsletter or mailing list, but this may change in the future. If this happens you will be given the choice to opt-in.

We also track the date you joined TrackMyTour and when you last made a request to the service.

None of this data is shared or made public with the exception of the username, which is displayed alongside content you create on the site or app (i.e., maps, comments, or reactions).

Facebook Login

Users have the option of using Facebook Login, which provides an alternative way to authenticate without having to remember a username and password. TrackMyTour is configured to gather the minimum amount of personal information from your Facebook account, which includes no more than:

your full name,
preferred locale,
gender,
time zone,
Facebook user ID,
public profile picture,
e-mail address, and
whether your account is verified.

This information is used for authentication. It does not grant TrackMyTour access to post to Facebook on your behalf, or see other data on Facebook associated with you. Your public profile picture might be visible on the website and in the app.

Facebook Login creates a default TrackMyTour username based on your first and last name. This can be changed via the website or app.

Please see the "Personal User Data" section to understand how we use your username and e-mail address. All other data from Facebook is kept private and is not used for any other purpose.

Sign in with Apple

Users have the option of using Sign in with Apple, which provides an alternative way to authenticate without having to remember a username and password. TrackMyTour is configured to gather the minimum amount of personal information from your Apple account, which includes:

e-mail address

Sign in with Apple gives you the option of obscuring your e-mail address from us. A unique e-mail address to relay e-mails between TrackMyTour and you is created if you select this option.

Please see the "Personal User Data" section to understand how we use your e-mail address.

You can learn more about Sign in with Apple & Privacy on their site.

Sign in with Google

Users have the option of using Sign in with Google, which provides an alternative way to authenticate without having to remember a username and password. TrackMyTour is configured to gather the minimum amount of personal information from your Google account, which includes your:

full name,
preferred locale,
public profile picture, and
e-mail address.

This information is used for authentication. Your public profile picture might be visible on the website and in the app.

Sign in with Google creates a default TrackMyTour username based on your first and last name. This can be changed via the website or app.

Please see the "Personal User Data" section to understand how we use your username and e-mail address.

Peecho

TrackMyTour integrates with Peecho B.V. to provide book printing services.

TrackMyTour manages the book editing and rendering process, and shares the resulting book data (as a document) with Peecho to finalise printing, shipping, and payment collection.

Peecho requires payment information and a postal address to be provided. This information is stored on the Peecho servers. See Peecho's privacy policy and Data processing agreement customers for more information.

TrackMyTour is given access by Peecho to your postal address and order status.

App Crash Analytics

The app uses Firebase Crashlytics to gather diagnostic information when a crash occurs. This information is sent from your device to Firebase and is made available to us for analysis.

Crash logs contain information on your device such as the device model, version, orientation, etc. It also includes your TrackMyTour username, which can be used to identify you. This information is collected for debugging purposes only.

For further details read the Crashlytics and App Distribution Data Processing and Security Terms.

Push Notifications

Users who have enabled push notification on their iOS or Android device will have a device-specific token generated and saved on the TrackMyTour server. This token is used by the server to send notifications to your device.

At present we use push notifications for the following events:

notification of map updates,
anniversary notices of previous tours,
notification of new comments,
notification of reactions, and
occasional notifications of TrackMyTour discounts and offers.

This list may change in the future.

Users can disable push notifications for TrackMyTour (or any other app) in the device settings.

iOS & Android Devices

A record is kept about each iOS & Android device that uses the TrackMyTour app. This includes:

an identifier unique to the TrackMyTour app and physical device,
the date and time of the last request,
the device type (e.g., iOS or Android),
TrackMyTour Premium status (e.g., whether the app has the paid upgrade applied),
OS version, and
TrackMyTour app version.

This information is used by us when resolving support tickets, and to help understand usage trends.

E-mail sent to us

E-mails sent to any @trackmytour.com address is sent to the TrackMyTour server before being stored on a Google Gmail account.

E-mails sent to support@trackmytour.com are also forwarded and stored in our ticket support system.

User Content

TrackMyTour stores your location, photos, captions, comments, and reaction data associated with your maps and account. This data is made available for you to share with friends and family in a public or limited way.

Each TrackMyTour map is given a unique URL in the form https://trackmytour.com/NNNNN, where NNNNN is a unique alphanumeric string (or text).

Maps marked with "Public" visibility are made available for other users to discover, view, share, and follow.

Maps marked with "Limited" visibility are not linked openly from anywhere on the TrackMyTour site, but are technically visible by anyone who has the URL. These maps are also configured with the noindex directive, which is an indicator to search engines to not index the page. This is conditional on the search engine recognising and respecting the directive.

We are unable to prevent users who have access to your map from sharing the URL with other users or on social media sites.

Data Caching

Users who view your map (whether with a browser or with the app) may have data about your map cached on their device. This is done for performance reasons, and is transparent to the user.

Where is the data stored?

The TrackMyTour site and database are hosted by Akamai Connected Cloud (formerly Linode) in Frankfurt, Germany.

Photos uploaded to TrackMyTour are stored with Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Daily backups of the databases and photos are stored at the TrackMyTour office in Switzerland. An encrypted offsite backup is made to a location in Switzerland.

Retention, Correction, and Right to be Forgotten

Your data is stored indefinitely such that it is available whenever you want to access it.

Incorrect data can be changed at your convenience via the website or app.

You can request your account and associated data be deleted by sending us an e-mail to the contact address below. Data may remain on backups until it is purged by the backup retention policy.

Right of Access

Users may request a copy of all personal data stored on the TrackMyTour website. For security reasons this can only be fulfilled if the request is made from a verified e-mail address. There is no cost to this request.