Lost Atlas is a map for keeping and sharing the places you find. It is private by default: what you save is visible only to you unless you choose to share it. This page explains what we collect, why, who else handles it, how long we keep it, and how to delete it. It covers the website at lostatlas.org and the Lost Atlas iOS app, which is a client of the same service.
We do not sell your data, we do not show ads, and we do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
What we collect
Your account
- Username, email address, and whether the email is verified.
- Your password, stored only as a one-way hash. When you set a password we check it against the Have I Been Pwned breach list by sending the first five characters of its SHA-1 hash, never the password itself.
- Sign-in sessions: a session token, its expiry, and the IP address and browser or app user-agent that created it. Sessions expire after 7 days of inactivity.
- Your settings, such as whether navigational fog is on, and any developer API tokens you create (stored hashed).
You can use parts of Lost Atlas without an account. We then create an anonymous guest identity held in a cookie on your device. Anything you make as a guest is tied to that cookie and can be moved into an account if you sign up later.
What you create
- Posts (places) with their title, description, coordinates, dates and times, and any linked place from a places provider.
- Lists, their descriptions and articles, colours and icons, and which posts they hold.
- Photos you attach. Before upload the app makes resized copies; the full-size copy may keep the metadata the file already had, which can include where and when a photo was taken.
- Comments, friendships, list shares and share links, bookmarks, hidden lists, and notifications about activity on your content.
- If you import from Google Maps: the Takeout archive you upload, and the saved places and lists parsed from it.
Each list has an access level (private, friends, unlisted or public). Other people can only see what its access level, or a share you made, allows.
Location
- Device location is used only when you ask for it, for example to centre the map on you, get directions, or let the assistant answer “what’s near me”. Your browser or phone asks for permission first, and the iOS app uses location only while it is open.
- Navigational fog is off by default. If you turn on recording, we store the set of map hexagons (each roughly 0.7 km²) you have been in while Lost Atlas had your location, with no times attached, so no timeline of your movements exists. Turning recording off deletes all of it immediately.
- Places search sends what you type and the centre of the map you are looking at to our places providers so results are nearby. That is the map view, not your device location.
- Directions send the start and end points of a route to a routing service.
The assistant
If you use the built-in assistant, your messages, the conversation so far, and your location if you choose to share it are sent to an AI model provider to produce a reply. The assistant can search the web, which sends its search queries to a web search provider. Conversations are not saved to your account; they last only as long as the open page.
Usage and technical data
- Server logs on our host record requests, including IP address, user-agent and the page or API path. Sign-up, log-in and log-out events are logged with the user id and IP address to investigate account compromise.
- We count page views with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which does not use cookies or build profiles of individual visitors.
- Map tiles are loaded directly by your browser or app from our map tile providers, which see your IP address and the area being viewed.
- The iOS app tells us its version on each request so we can tell you when an update is required.
The waitlist
If you join the waitlist we store your email, the interests you picked and any message you wrote, and use them only to send you updates about Lost Atlas.
Cookies and device storage
The website uses only first-party cookies needed to work: your sign-in session, and the guest cookie if you are not signed in. The iOS app keeps its session token in the device keychain rather than in plain storage. Neither uses third-party advertising or tracking cookies.
Who else handles your data
We use the following service providers to run Lost Atlas. Each receives only what it needs to do its job.
- Railway hosts the application and its database, so it stores all of the data above and our server logs.
- Amazon Web Services (S3 and CloudFront) stores and serves uploaded photos, holds Google Takeout archives while an import runs, and stores encrypted database backups.
- Resend delivers our emails (verification, password resets, notices), so it sees your email address and the message.
- Cloudflare provides DNS and network protection for lostatlas.org, the Turnstile check at sign-up that tells people from bots (it sees your IP address and browser signals), and page-view analytics.
- Foursquare, Radar and Photon (an OpenStreetMap search engine) answer places searches with your search text and the map centre.
- Google Places is used during a Google Maps import to look up the address of saved places from their Google place ids.
- A Valhalla routing service (the FOSSGIS public server or Stadia Maps) receives route start and end points.
- Anthropic, Google and OpenAI run the AI models behind the assistant and receive assistant conversations.
- Tavily and Brave Search receive the assistant’s web search queries.
- Have I Been Pwned receives a five-character hash prefix when you set a password, as described above.
- OpenFreeMap and CARTO serve map tiles to your browser or app.
Apart from these providers, we share your data only when you choose to (by making something visible to others), or when the law requires it.
How long we keep it
- Account data and what you create: until you delete it or your account.
- Sign-in sessions: 7 days after last use.
- Photo uploads that never get attached to a post: about 6 hours.
- Google Takeout archives: deleted when the import finishes, and in any case within about 2 days of upload.
- Database backups: 35 days, then automatically deleted.
- Navigational fog: until you turn recording off.
Deleting your data
You can delete individual posts, lists, photos and comments at any time. You can delete your whole account from Settings, in the app or on the website. Deleting your account permanently removes your profile, posts, lists, photos, comments, friendships, shares and location history. Copies may remain in database backups for up to 35 days until those expire. You can also ask us to delete your account by emailing [email protected] from the address on the account.
Your rights
Depending on where you live you may have the right to see, correct, export or delete your personal data, or to object to how we use it. Email us and we will help. If you are in the EU or UK you may also complain to your data protection authority.
Children
Lost Atlas is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child has an account, contact us and we will delete it.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit. Photos are stored in a private bucket and served through short-lived signed links. Passwords and API tokens are stored only as hashes. No system is perfectly secure; if we learn of a breach affecting you we will tell you.
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top, and tell you in the app or by email if the change is significant.
Contact
Questions or requests: [email protected].