TouchGrass — Privacy Policy

Last updated May 2026

Data we collect

Location — requested only while the app is in use, to find natural places near you. It's sent directly to third-party nature and trail APIs (NPS, Hiking Project, iNaturalist, GBIF, eBird, and similar) to return relevant results, and is not stored on our servers. Those APIs receive only a coarse bounding box, never your precise coordinates.

Photos — if you share a trail photo, it's uploaded to Firebase Storage and associated with your anonymous account. You can delete your own posts at any time.

Anonymous usage identity — the first time you use social features, we create an anonymous Firebase Authentication account with no name, email, or identifying information, used only to associate your posts and saves with a session.

Saved places — bookmarks are stored locally on your device.

What we don't collect

Your name, email, or contact information (unless you voluntarily add a display name)
Precise real-time or background location tracking
Contacts, calendar, or health data
Payment or financial information
Advertising identifiers — there are no ads and no ad SDKs

Third-party services

Service	Purpose
Firebase (Google)	Social posts, photo storage, anonymous auth
iNaturalist, eBird, GBIF, IUCN Red List	Species and biodiversity data
Copernicus (ESA), OpenStreetMap	Land cover and place geometry
National Park Service, Hiking Project	Park and trail data
Unsplash	Place photography

Data retention

Location is never stored — used in-memory only, per search. Social posts and photos are retained until you delete them.

Contact

Questions about this policy or the app: open an issue on GitHub.