Privacy Policy
Last updated October 22, 2026
Hike Alberta is a map of hiking trails in Alberta, on the web at hikealberta.ca and as the Hike Alberta app for Android. This policy covers both. You can use the map without an account. This policy explains what we collect if you create one, why, and the choices you have.
What we collect
| Information | Why |
|---|---|
| Your email address and name | To create and secure your account, and to show your name on your profile. |
| How you sign in (email and password, or Google) | To let you sign in. If you use Google, Google shares your name and email with us. We never see your Google password. |
| Hikes you mark as completed, with the date, rating, time and notes you add; when recorded with Start hike, the activity summary can also include measured distance, estimated elevation gain, steps and estimated active calories | To keep your hiking record and show your yearly and all time activity totals. The route you walked and individual location points are never saved. |
| Trails you save to your wish list, and your home region if you set one | To show your saved trails on the map and in your account. |
| Star ratings you give when you log a hike | To show each trail's average hiker rating. Ratings are combined anonymously; no one can see who gave which rating. |
| Comments you post on trails | To show them publicly on the trail. They appear with your initials only (for example L. C.), never your name or email. |
| Photos you upload, with an optional caption | A moderator reviews each photo first. Once approved it is shown publicly on the trail with your initials. Location and camera details are removed from the file on your device before upload. |
| Reports you send about a public comment, photo or account | To let moderators review possible rule violations. A report includes your account identifier, the reason and details you provide, and a copy of the reported post. It is deleted when a moderator closes it. |
| Accounts you block | To hide that person's past and future public comments and photos from you on every device where you sign in. The blocked person is not told who blocked them. |
| Trip plans you leave: the trail, when you start, when you expect to be back, when your contact should be told, how many people, and any vehicle details and notes you add, with your contact's name and email address | To email your contact the plan if you ask us to, and to email them if you have not checked in by the time you chose. Replies go to your email address. A trip plan never includes your location. Plans are deleted 90 days after their alert time, or with your account. |
| For someone who asks not to receive trip plan emails: a one way hash of their email address | So nobody can choose that address as a trip plan contact again. The address itself is not kept. |
| If you turn on trail alerts in the Android app: a notification registration for your phone from Google Firebase Cloud Messaging, and your alert settings | To send this app notifications about closures, warnings and, if you choose, condition reports on trails you saved. The registration is removed when you turn alerts off, sign out or delete your account. |
| If you separately turn on Improve trail coverage estimates: the trail reference, a 250 m route progress segment, and whether the phone had a cellular data connection during Start hike | To combine anonymous observations into better trail coverage estimates. We do not send a GPS point, route track, account identifier, device identifier, carrier, phone number or observation time. Segments are shown publicly only after at least three observations. The setting is off by default and turning it off deletes observations waiting on your phone. Counts already combined on the server cannot be linked back to you or removed as an individual record. |
| Contact messages, including the name, email address and message you choose to provide | To deliver your enquiry to Hike Alberta and respond to you. The form also keeps a short lived one way hash of the connection address to limit spam. |
| How the website and app are used: the pages and screens you view, how you arrived (for example from a search engine), your device and browser type, and your approximate city | To learn which trails and pages are useful and improve Hike Alberta, using Google Analytics. See Google Analytics below. |
| Basic technical logs, such as IP address and the pages and files requested | To keep the service running, secure and within budget, and to count, in total, which pages and trails are used most. Logs are deleted after 90 days. |
Your password is handled by Amazon Cognito and is never stored by Hike Alberta in readable form.
What we do not do
- We do not sell or rent your information.
- We do not show advertising, and neither the website nor the app contains advertising code. Both use Google Analytics only to count and understand use, as described below, with Google's advertising features turned off.
- We do not collect your location. The "show my location" button and Start hike in the app use your device's location only on your device, to show where you are and follow your hike. It is never sent to Hike Alberta or anyone else, including the contact on a trip plan.
- We never show your name or email next to anything you post publicly.
The Android app
- Location: the app asks for location permission to show where you are on the map. You can allow precise or approximate location, allow it only while using the app, or refuse; the map works either way. The app never asks for background location, and your location stays on your phone.
- Start hike: when you are signed in and tap Start hike on a trail, the app follows your position along that trail to show your progress, tell you if you leave the trail or take a wrong turn, and give you a summary at the end. It needs precise location, and it keeps working with the screen off; while it does, Android shows an ongoing Hike Alberta notification. Ending the hike, or closing the app, stops it. Your location and the track of your hike are held in memory on your phone during that hike and are never saved or sent to Hike Alberta or anyone else. They are gone when the hike ends. Android may also ask for Physical activity permission to count steps; refusing it does not prevent Start hike, distance, time or alerts from working. If you choose Mark completed, Hike Alberta saves only the aggregate activity summary listed in the table above, never the route or any location point. Active calories are clearly identified as an estimate based on distance, elevation and a generic 75 kg reference, unless a future connected watch supplies its own value.
- Coverage observations: Improve trail coverage estimates is a separate switch in Profile, off by default. When on, Start hike can report the coarse, anonymous network availability records described in the table above. It skips Wi Fi. Observations made without service wait in the app's private storage and are sent after service returns. This never changes how location, off trail alerts or Start hike work, and you can turn it off at any time.
- Offline maps: regional topographic packs you choose to download are stored in the app's private storage. They are removed when you remove the pack, clear app storage or uninstall the app.
- Photos and camera: the app does not ask for camera, storage or media permissions. Photos are read only when you choose Add photos on a trail: Android's own photo picker opens and the app receives only the photos you pick. They are resized, and their location and camera details removed, on your phone before upload.
- Notifications: besides Start hike's alerts, the app can remind you to check in on a trip plan (scheduled on your phone) and, if you turn on trail alerts in Profile, show alerts about your saved trails. You can turn trail alerts off in Profile and any notifications off in Android settings.
- Usage statistics: the app counts which screens are used with Google Analytics for Firebase, described under Google Analytics below. You can switch it off in About Hike Alberta.
- Internet: the app downloads maps, trail data, safety notices and weather from hikealberta.ca, just like the website.
- Signing in with Google opens Google's own sign in page in a browser tab, then returns you to the app.
- On your phone: the app keeps your map preferences and, when you are signed in, your sign in session in its own storage. Uninstalling the app or clearing its storage removes them. Uninstalling does not delete your account; see Your choices below.
- Google Play delivers the app and its updates under Google's own privacy policy. It gives us statistics such as install counts, and crash reports from people whose phones are set to share them with Google. These do not tell us who you are.
Health and activity data
Start hike records an activity summary on your phone: elapsed and moving time, measured distance, estimated elevation gain and active calories, plus a step count when you allow Android's Physical activity permission and the phone has a step sensor. The GPS route and individual positions are never kept. Nothing is added to your account unless you choose Mark completed. You can edit or delete that completed hike at any time.
Health Connect export is optional and off by default. If you turn it on in Profile, Hike Alberta asks only for permission to write steps, distance and active calories. It does not ask to read any Health Connect data. After you save a recorded hike, those three aggregate values are written directly from the app to Health Connect for the same start and end time. Turning export off stops future exports; records already in Health Connect are controlled and removable there. Hike Alberta does not receive Health Connect data.
Where it is stored
Account data, comments and photos are stored with Amazon Web Services in the United States (Northern Virginia region). Trip plan emails are sent through Amazon Simple Email Service. Trail alerts are delivered to your phone through Google Firebase Cloud Messaging, which receives the alert text and your phone's registration to deliver it. Contact form messages pass through Amazon Web Services and are delivered to the Hike Alberta mailbox hosted by SpaceMail. They are not stored in the Hike Alberta app database, but remain in the mailbox as needed to read and respond to the enquiry. Amazon and SpaceMail act as our service providers. Information stored outside Canada may be subject to the laws of the country where it is processed. Data travels between your device and our servers over encrypted connections (HTTPS).
Other services the map uses
Satellite imagery is loaded from Esri, which receives your IP address when the Satellite view is used. Signing in with Google involves Google's own privacy policy. All other map data is served from hikealberta.ca. Official safety notices (closures, warnings, weather and wildfire) are collected by our servers from park agencies and government services; your browser or phone does not contact them.
Google Analytics
The website at hikealberta.ca uses Google Analytics to understand how many people visit and which pages and trails they look at. Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser (their names start with _ga) to tell visits apart. It receives your IP address, uses it to estimate your city and does not store it. We have turned off Google's advertising features and Google signals, so this information is not used for advertising. The reports we see are totals and trends; they do not tell us who you are, and we never send Google your name, email or account details. Google processes this information for us as a service provider, in the United States, and keeps the detailed records for two months.
To opt out on the website: if your browser sends the Global Privacy Control signal, the website does not load Google Analytics at all. You can also use Google's opt out browser add on or your browser's tracker blocking; the map works the same either way.
The Android app uses Google Analytics for Firebase in the same way. It counts installs, app opens, sessions and which screens you view, using a random identifier for the app on your phone. It does not use your phone's advertising ID or Android ID, it never receives your GPS location, and Google estimates your city from your IP address without storing it. To switch it off, open About Hike Alberta (from Profile, or the account menu when you are signed in) and turn off Share usage statistics.
Your browser
The website stores your map preferences and, when you are signed in, your sign in session in your browser's local storage. Google Analytics sets its own cookies, described above. We do not use advertising cookies.
Your choices
- See and export your data: Profile, then Export my data, downloads everything we store about you.
- Correct it: edit your name, hikes and wish list at any time.
- Delete part of it: remove a hike on the trail's page, remove a trail from your wish list, or use Delete next to your comment or photo on the trail.
- Manage blocked people: open Profile to see the people you blocked and unblock anyone. Their public comments and photos become visible to you again.
- Delete it all: in the app or on the website, Profile, then Delete account, removes your account and all of its data immediately, including your hikes, notes, ratings, comments, photos, open reports and blocked account preferences. You can also ask by email. Backups roll off within 35 days. See how to delete your account.
Children
Hike Alberta is not directed at children. Accounts are intended for people 13 and older.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes in a meaningful way we will update the date above and, for signed in users, point out the change in the app. Questions or requests: [email protected].
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