Privacy

What we collect

VTHiking is a static site. There are no accounts, and we do not collect names, email addresses or any other personal information.

Location

The map has an optional "find my location" control. If you use it, your browser asks your permission first and your position is used only to move the map on your own device. It is never sent to us or stored.

Local storage

The site may store small preferences — such as light or dark mode, whether you chose the satellite or plain map, and whether you turned analytics off — in your browser. This never leaves your device, and you can clear it at any time through your browser settings.

Analytics (Google Analytics)

We use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages people use, so we know what to improve. It sets first-party cookies (named _ga and _ga_…) so it can tell a returning browser from a new one. Google receives the pages you view, the page that sent you here, your device and browser type, and an approximate location worked out from your IP address. Google says Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses. We have turned off Google signals and ad personalisation, and there are no ads on this site.

What you type in the search box, any address you look up, and your location from “Trailheads near me” are never sent to Google Analytics.

Analytics does not load at all if your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal. You can also turn it off on this device:

Turn off analytics on this device

More: how Google uses information from sites that use its services, Google's privacy policy, and Google's opt-out browser add-on.

Advertising

There is no advertising on this site. If that changes, this page will say so first, name the provider and link to its privacy policy.

Server logs

Like almost every website, our web server keeps a standard access log: the IP address a request came from, the page asked for, the time, and the browser's own description of itself. We use it to keep the site running and secure and to count visits in total. The logs stay on our server, are not shared with anyone, and are deleted after about two weeks.

Third-party requests

The satellite and topo views load map images straight from the U.S. Geological Survey (basemap.nationalmap.gov). When either is on, your browser sends USGS the usual details of any web request (your IP address and browser type) along with which part of the map you are looking at. That is governed by USGS's own privacy policy. Switch to the plain map and no request goes to anyone but this site.

If you choose to look up an address on the home page, the text you typed is sent to OpenStreetMap's search service (nominatim.openstreetmap.org) so it can be turned into a place on the map, along with your IP address and browser details. We do not send it anywhere else and do not store it. This only happens when you click the “Address” result; searching by trail, peak or town name, and “Trailheads near me”, stay on your device. See the OpenStreetMap Foundation privacy policy.

Everything else — trail data, map shapes, fonts, styles and scripts — is served from this site.

Changes

This page will be updated whenever the site's data practices change.