This policy explains what information WaTrips collects, how it's used, and the controls you have over it. It covers the WaTrips mobile app and the services it connects to.
1. Information we collect
Account information you provide when you sign up: name, username, email address, bio, and profile/banner photos. You can sign in with email and password, Google, or Apple.
Location and check-ins. When you check in somewhere, we record the GPS coordinates, the resulting city/state/country, the time, and anything you choose to attach — a note, a rating, or a photo. Location access is only used at the moment you check in; WaTrips does not track your location in the background.
Social and travel content: friend connections, rider groups and group trips you join or organize, solo trips and trip plans you create, vehicles you add to your profile, and community posts you choose to share.
Business and verification content. If you list a travel agency, home stay, or vehicle rental business, we collect the business details you provide and any verification documents you upload to confirm ownership.
Device information: a push-notification token so we can deliver notifications (friend requests, waves, trip activity), tied to your device, not to any advertising identifier.
2. How we use your information
- To operate the core features of the app — check-ins, trip planning, groups, friends, and your Digital Passport.
- To show you content according to the privacy settings you choose (see Section 4).
- To send you push notifications you'd reasonably expect (friend activity, trip updates) — you can disable these in your device settings at any time.
- To verify business listings before they appear to other users.
- To detect and prevent spoofed or fraudulent check-ins (for example, flagging check-ins that would require impossible travel speed between two locations).
3. Who we share information with
We don't sell your personal information. We share limited data with the services that make the app work:
- Firebase (Google) — authentication and push notification delivery.
- Google Maps Platform — converting your check-in coordinates into a place name, city, and country.
- Google AdMob (advertising) — the app shows a small number of clearly labeled "Sponsored" native ads within feeds. These ads are served by Google AdMob, which may collect and use your device's advertising identifier (IDFA on iOS, Advertising ID on Android), IP address, and basic device and usage information to deliver, measure, and — only if you allow it — personalize ads.
- Google AdSense (advertising on our website) — watrips.com and our trip blog pages may show ads served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners use cookies (or similar technologies) to serve and measure these ads, which may be based on your previous visits to this and other websites. Visitors in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland are asked for consent before personalized ads are shown.
Advertising, cookies and your choices
On iOS, ads are only personalized using your advertising identifier if you have allowed tracking for WaTrips — you can review this anytime in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking. On Android, you can reset or delete your Advertising ID or opt out of ad personalization in Settings → Google → Ads.
Learn how Google uses data when you use apps that show its ads at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and manage Google ad personalization at adssettings.google.com. On our website, you can opt out of personalized advertising from Google at adssettings.google.com, and from many other ad networks at aboutads.info/choices or youronlinechoices.eu. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings. WaTrips never sells your personal information, and your check-in locations are never shared with advertisers.
Content you mark as public or friends-visible is, by design, shown to the audience you chose — that's not third-party sharing, it's the feature working as intended.
4. Your privacy controls
WaTrips gives you granular control over almost every part of your profile, independently: your photos, bio, stats, countries visited, timeline, rider activity, solo trips, vehicles, and Digital Passport can each be set to Public, Friends, or Private. You can also set a default visibility applied to new check-ins going forward.
Additional controls available in the app:
- Discoverable mode — an opt-in, time-limited toggle that lets nearby strangers find and friend-request you; off by default.
- Data export — download every check-in, friendship, group, trip, and vehicle tied to your account, in full, at any time.
- Account deactivation — temporarily hides your profile from search; automatically reversed the next time you sign back in.
- Account deletion — permanently deletes your account and all associated data. This cannot be undone, with one exception: see "Data retention" below.
5. Data retention
We keep your account data for as long as your account is active. Community posts expire automatically after a configurable window. If you delete your account, your data is removed immediately and permanently — unless your account or its content has been reported for violating our Terms of Service or Community Guidelines. In that case, we retain a limited record (your account identifier and the reported content) for safety, fraud-prevention, and legal-compliance purposes, and anonymize the rest of your personal information (name, email, photos) rather than deleting the record outright. This is the same approach used by most major platforms, and reflects a recognized exception to data-deletion rights for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims and for safety enforcement.
6. Children's privacy
WaTrips is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
7. Changes to this policy
If we make material changes to this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify you in the app.
8. Contact us
Questions about this policy or your data can be sent to support@watrips.com, or visit our Support page.
