Roadtrip CopilotRoadtrip Copilot is an iPhone guide to historic roadside markers and National Park Service sites. It needs your location to work, and it stores only what you choose to share. It has no ads and no tracking, and it doesn't sell anything about you.
At a glance
| What | Why | Who can see it | Kept |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your location | Find nearby markers, alert you as you approach, confirm a visit | No one. It isn't saved. | Not stored |
| Anonymous account id | Tie your visits, photos and comments to your phone | Only us | Until you delete your data |
| Visits and park stamps | Points, badges, passport, leaderboard | Your counts appear on the leaderboard under your trail name | Until you delete your data |
| Trail name | Your name on the leaderboard and comments | Everyone using the app | Until you change it or delete your data |
| Comments | Share notes about a marker | Everyone using the app | Until you delete your data |
| Photos, captions and credits | Show what a marker looks like | Everyone, once approved | Until you delete the photo or your data |
| Questions you ask Copilot, and the answers | Answer your question, apply the daily limit, check answer quality | Only us | 90 days |
| How many free questions and family stories you've used | Apply the free plan's limits | Only us | Until you delete your data |
| A random account key (no personal information) | Bring back your trail name and progress if the app is reinstalled or moved to a new iPhone | Only us; the key itself stays in your iPhone's Keychain and iCloud Keychain, and we keep only a scrambled copy | Until you delete your data |
| Copilot Pass receipt | Confirm your subscription is active | Only us | With your questions, 90 days |
| Your trips (route, miles, markers passed) | Trip Recap | No one, unless you share a recap | On your phone only |
What the app uses and stores
Location
The app reads your location on your phone to show markers and parks around you, to alert you as you approach one, and to follow your progress along a route. If you allow “Always” access, it does this with the screen off so it can alert you while you drive, and it shows your next marker on the Lock Screen.
Your location is sent to our database only to look up the markers near you or along your route, and to confirm you're really at a marker or park when you check in. It is used to answer that request and is not saved, and we don't keep a history of where you've been. Driving directions come from Apple Maps, which is covered by Apple's privacy policy.
Anonymous account
The first time you check in, add a photo, comment or choose a trail name, the app creates an anonymous account for your phone. It has a random id and nothing else. We never ask for your name, email address or phone number.
Visits, points and park stamps
When you check in, we save which marker or park you visited and when. This is how points, badges, your passport and the leaderboard work. We save the place you visited, never the location you checked in from.
Trail name and comments
Your trail name and comments are public to everyone using the app. Please don't use your real full name, and don't put personal details in comments.
Photos
Before a photo leaves your phone, the app makes a fresh copy of it, which removes the hidden details cameras attach, including where it was taken. Each photo is checked automatically when you send it, together with its caption and credit, to make sure it's safe for everyone and shows the marker or its setting. Clear photos go up right away; uncertain ones wait for a person to look at them; photos that can't be posted are deleted. You can only add a photo of a marker you've checked in at. The camera is used only when you choose to take a photo.
Ask Copilot
You can ask questions about a marker out loud: a few on the free plan, and more each month with the Copilot Pass. The microphone listens only after you tap Ask (or ask Siri), and stops when you finish speaking. Your voice is turned into text by Apple's speech recognition, on your phone where your iPhone supports it; we never receive a recording. The app asks your permission before your first question. The text of your question, the marker it's about and your last few questions are then sent to our server, which asks Anthropic's Claude for an answer and reads it back to you. We keep each question and answer for 90 days, with your anonymous account id, to apply the daily limit and to check the answers are accurate, then delete them.
Family Mode
Family Mode retells each marker's story for kids and asks a quiz question. The kids' versions are written by Anthropic's Claude from the marker's own text, once per marker, and shared by everyone; to ask for one, the app sends only which marker it's for. Quiz scores stay on your phone. Nothing anyone in the car says is recorded; you answer by tapping.
Copilot Pass
The Copilot Pass is a subscription sold by Apple. Apple handles the payment; we never see your name, Apple Account or card. When you ask Copilot a question, the app sends the signed receipt Apple gives it, so our server can confirm the Pass is active. We keep the subscription's transaction number alongside your questions for 90 days. Manage or cancel the Pass in your iPhone's Settings, under your name, then Subscriptions.
On the free plan, the app keeps count of how many stories it has read aloud this month and which free features you've used, on your phone (in the iPhone Keychain, so the counts stay if the app is reinstalled). Our server counts the free questions and family stories you've used, next to your anonymous account id. These counts are used only to apply the free plan's limits.
Trips
To make Trip Recaps, the app can record your drives on your phone. By default it asks when you start driving; if you tap Not Now, or choose not to keep the drive when it ends, it's deleted. You can also choose Always or Off in Settings. A recorded trip keeps a rough outline of the route, the miles, and the markers and stories along the way. This stays on your phone. It's never sent to us. If you share a recap, the picture you share shows the route on a map, so share it only with people you'd show your trip to. Delete a trip in Passport, under Your Trips.
Reports
If you report a photo or comment, we save the report and your account id so the same person can't report something over and over.
Blocking
If you block another traveler, we save that you blocked them so their photos and comments stay hidden from you, and we treat it as a report of the photo or comment you blocked them from. They aren't told. You can unblock everyone in Settings.
Kept only on your phone
Your settings, saved offline markers, your list of visited markers, your badges and your trips are stored on your phone. Approach alerts are notifications your phone creates itself; we don't send push notifications.
What we don't do
- No advertising, and no tracking across other apps or websites.
- No analytics or marketing tools inside the app.
- We don't sell or rent your information, or share it for anyone's marketing.
- We don't read your contacts, photo library, calendar or anything else on your phone. You pick or take the photos you share.
Companies that help run the app
- Supabase hosts the app's database, photo storage and anonymous sign-in. Like most online services, it keeps short-lived technical logs of requests, including IP addresses, for security and to keep the service running.
- Anthropic provides the AI (Claude) that checks each newly sent photo, with its caption and credit, to decide whether it can be posted, that answers the questions you ask Copilot, and that writes the kids' versions of stories for Family Mode. Anthropic receives the question text and marker details, not your account id or location.
- Apple provides maps, driving directions, the narration voices, speech recognition, Siri, subscriptions and the Lock Screen display. Apple's own privacy policy covers these.
We share information with these companies only so the app works, and with authorities only if the law requires it.
Your choices
- Delete everything: in the app, open Settings, then Delete My Data. This erases your photos, comments, visits, park stamps, trail name, questions to Copilot, trips and anonymous account. It doesn't cancel a Copilot Pass; do that in your iPhone's Settings. It can't be undone.
- Delete one photo: open the photo in the app and delete it.
- Microphone: turn off microphone or speech recognition access for Roadtrip Copilot in your iPhone's Settings at any time. You can still tap a suggested question.
- Location: change or turn off location access at any time in your iPhone's Settings, under Roadtrip Copilot. Nearby markers and approach alerts need it.
- Ask us: email us to see, correct or delete what we hold, or with any question. We'll answer within 30 days.
How long we keep it
Questions to Copilot and their answers are deleted after 90 days. Everything else listed above is kept until you delete it, or until we shut the app down, when it will be deleted. We may remove photos or comments that break the app's rules. Reports are kept so we can deal with problems; if you delete your data, any reports you made no longer show who made them.
Children
Roadtrip Copilot isn't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them. If you think a child has shared photos or comments, email us and we'll remove them.
Changes to this policy
If we change what the app collects or how it's used, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If the change is significant, we'll also post a notice in the app.
Contact
Roadtrip Copilot is made by Roadtrip Copilot LLC.