MassRoam helps you discover and check in to Massachusetts’s historical sites. This policy explains what we collect, why, the legal bases we rely on, and the control you have over your data. It covers the MassRoam apps for iPhone and iPad and the web app at massroam.com — they share one account and one set of data, so signing in on any of them is the same account. We do not sell your data, share it with data brokers, or use it for advertising or cross-app tracking.
Who is responsible for your data
The data controller is Mike Verinder (the “we” in this policy). For any privacy question or request, contact support@massroam.com.
What we collect
Account (Sign in with Apple). When you sign in, Apple gives us a stable account identifier and, only if you choose to share them, your name and email (which may be Apple’s private-relay address). This is what lets your progress sync across your iPhone, iPad, and the web and survive a reinstall.
Location. See the dedicated section below — this is the most sensitive data we handle, and it’s always under your control.
Your visits. The historical sites you check in to, and any sites you mute, so your map, points, and ranks stay in sync across your devices.
Reviews & photos you post. If you choose to add a rating, written review, or photo to a marker, tour, or trail, we store that content (and, for photos, the image itself) so we can review it and, once approved, show it to others.
Sign-in & device info. Each time you sign in we record the date, platform (iOS or web), app version, OS version, and device model, plus a coarse, city-level location derived from your internet (IP) address by our infrastructure provider. We store the IP only as a salted one-way hash, never the raw address, and use it to keep the service secure and to understand aggregate usage.
Location, in detail
MassRoam uses location in two ways, and only with your permission:
“Near me” on your device. When you tap to find sites near you, the app reads your device location to center the map and list nearby markers. This happens on your device; it is not sent to us unless you check in.
Check-ins. When you mark a site as visited, we save that you visited it. If you have granted location, we may store the approximate location of the check-in alongside it.
MassRoam only uses location while you are using the app — there is no background tracking and no continuous monitoring of your movements. You can grant or revoke location permission at any time in your device Settings, and most of the app works without it. Precise device location is only ever stored on our servers if you’ve allowed location and chosen to check in; otherwise we hold only the coarse, IP-derived city above.
Why we use it (legal bases)
For users in the EEA and UK, the GDPR requires us to name a legal basis for each use:
Performance of our agreement with you — creating your account, saving and syncing your visits, points, and ranks, showing nearby sites, and publishing the reviews and photos you choose to post. Without this we can’t provide the features you signed in for.
Your consent — using your device’s precise location. You give this through the system permission prompt and can withdraw it at any time in Settings; doing so doesn’t affect anything we already did with your consent.
Our legitimate interests — keeping the service secure, preventing abuse, moderating user content, fixing problems, and understanding aggregate, non-identifying usage so we can improve MassRoam. We balance these against your privacy (for example, by hashing IP addresses rather than storing them).
Where your data is stored & international transfers
Your data is stored on Cloudflare infrastructure in the United States and is transmitted over encrypted (HTTPS) connections. If you are in the EEA or UK, this means your data is transferred to the US; that transfer is covered by the data-protection terms and Standard Contractual Clauses in our agreement with Cloudflare. Sign in with Apple is operated by Apple under Apple’s own privacy policy.
How long we keep it
We keep your account, visit data, and posted reviews/photos for as long as your account exists. Sign-in/device records are retained on a rolling basis for security and analytics and then fall away. When you erase your data or delete your account (below), the corresponding records are removed promptly from our live database.
Your controls — access, erase, delete
You can act on your data directly inside the app, under Profile:
Erase my data — wipes all your visits, points, ranks, mutes, and posted reviews/photos from every device while keeping your account, so you can start fresh. This can’t be undone.
Delete account — permanently erases your account and all associated data (visits, ranks, reviews, photos, and sign-in history) from our servers. This can’t be undone.
To request a copy of your data (a portable export), or to exercise any other right below, email support@massroam.com and we’ll respond within the time the law requires (within one month under the GDPR).
Your rights
Depending on where you live (including under the GDPR in the EEA/UK and the CCPA in California), you have the right to: access the data we hold about you; correct it; erase it; export/port it; restrict or object to certain processing; and withdraw consent you’ve given. We don’t sell personal information or use it for targeted advertising, and we won’t discriminate against you for exercising any right. To use any of these, use the in-app controls above or email us. If you’re in the EEA or UK and believe we’ve mishandled your data, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection supervisory authority.
Children
MassRoam is not directed to children. We don’t knowingly collect data from children under 16 in the EEA/UK or under 13 elsewhere. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we’ll delete it.
Changes
If this policy changes, we’ll update the date above and post the new version here.