Privacy Policy

Paddle Explorer ("the app") is a private, non-commercial, invite-only web application that helps a small group of friends find good times and places to paddle, using tide, weather, UV, and water-quality information, and can optionally add chosen outings to a user's Google Calendar. It is self-hosted by the site operator at bisonfoundry.com/paddle. This policy explains what information the app handles and how.

Operator contact: jonnygrip@gmail.com  (the individual who operates this instance of the app).

1. Information the app handles

• Account information. When you register, the app stores your chosen username and a cryptographically hashed (scrypt) form of your password. Your password is never stored in plain text.
• Session cookie. A single signed, HttpOnly cookie is used to keep you signed in. It is essential to the service and is not used for tracking or advertising.
• Technical & security data. The app stores your most recent IP address, a description of your browser/device (user agent), and your last-seen time, and it keeps a log of recent sign-in attempts (success or failure, with IP address) for security and to help the operator administer the site. Standard web-server logs may also record request times, paths, and IP addresses.
• Feedback you submit. If you send feedback, a bug report, or a feature request, the app stores your message together with your username so the operator can read and act on it.
• Searches you make. Place names and map locations you search are sent to the third-party mapping, weather, and water-quality services listed below to return results. The app does not build an advertising profile from them.
• Google account data — only if you choose to "Connect Google":
  • Your Google email address, stored to show you which account is connected.
  • OAuth access and refresh tokens, stored encrypted at rest so the app can act on Google services on your behalf until you disconnect.

2. How the app uses Google account data

If you connect your Google account, the app uses only the permissions (scopes) you approve, and only to provide these features:

• Google Calendar (calendar.events): to create the paddle outings you select as events on your primary calendar, and to find and remove paddle events the app itself previously created (the "Unschedule" feature). The app does not use your other calendar events for any other purpose.
• Google Contacts (contacts.readonly, contacts.other.readonly): when you type in the "email invitations" box, the app searches your contacts to suggest matching names and email addresses. Contacts are not stored by the app — suggestions are shown only to you and then discarded.
• Basic profile (openid, userinfo.email): to identify the connected account by its email address.

3. How the app uses other information

Account and technical data are used only to authenticate you and keep you signed in, to provide paddling conditions and recommendations, to create the calendar events you choose, to suggest invitees when you ask, and to protect the service (for example, limiting failed sign-in attempts). The app does not use your information for advertising and does not sell it.

4. Google user data — Limited Use

The app's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Specifically: Google user data is used only to provide the user-facing features described above; it is not sold; it is not transferred to others except as needed to provide those features through Google's own APIs (and except calendar guests you explicitly choose to invite); it is not used for advertising; and it is not used to develop, improve, or train generalized artificial-intelligence or machine-learning models.

5. How information is stored and protected

The app is self-hosted on the operator's private computer. Your data is kept in a local database on that machine rather than handed to a separate cloud provider. Passwords are stored only as scrypt hashes, and Google OAuth tokens are encrypted at rest. All traffic between your browser and the app is encrypted in transit over HTTPS (TLS).

6. Sharing and third-party services

The app does not sell your data or share it for advertising. To provide its features, it sends the locations and queries you make (not your identity) to the following third-party services, each governed by its own privacy policy:

• OpenStreetMap / Nominatim and Overpass — geocoding and launch/rental locations
• NOAA Tides & Currents — tide predictions
• Open-Meteo — weather and UV index
• U.S. EPA Water Quality Portal and BEACON — water-quality data
• Mapillary — street-level imagery (only if enabled by the operator)
• Google — Calendar and Contacts (only if you connect your Google account)

If you add email invitations to an event, those guests will receive a Google Calendar invitation containing the event details you scheduled.

7. Data retention and your choices

• You can disconnect Google at any time using the "disconnect" link in the app, which deletes the stored Google tokens for your account from the database. You can also revoke the app's access from your Google Account permissions page.
• You can delete your account at any time from the Account menu in the app. This removes your account and your stored Google tokens; any feedback you submitted is disassociated from your identity. You may also contact the operator at the address above.
• Calendar events the app created can be removed with the in-app "Unschedule" buttons or directly in Google Calendar.

8. Children

This app is intended for adults and is not directed to children.

9. Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated; the "last updated" date above will change to reflect any revision. Material changes will be reflected on this page.

10. Contact

For any privacy question or request, contact the operator at the email listed near the top of this policy.