Privacy Policy
At a glance
Maplapse runs on your device. Data leaves it only at your instigation: when you use iCloud, or when you pass a single photo or a location on through the iOS share sheet. Sync between your own devices transfers your trip data, but no photos. Photos leave the device only when you share a trip as a link, then as reduced copies in your own iCloud account, or when you pass on a single photo yourself. It is your deliberate choice every time. Without iCloud and without passing anything on, everything stays local. There is no Maplapse server that receives or stores your trip data, no analytics, no advertising, no trackers and no third-party SDKs. The website www.maplapse.de also does without cookies, trackers and third-party content. It runs on our own server, which logs requests (see “Web server access logs”).
Data controller
Matthias Baumann Softwareentwicklung, Heinestr. 73, 15370 Petershagen, Germany. VAT ID DE259151344. Contact: maplapse@mbnsoftware.de. The provider details also appear in the Legal Notice of this website.
This website
Hosting
The website www.maplapse.de runs on a server owned by Matthias Baumann Softwareentwicklung. It is located on our own premises in Germany. We use neither an external hosting provider nor a content delivery network (CDN), meaning a third-party network of servers that delivers content.
Web server access logs
Three logs are kept on our server. Each time a page is requested, our web server writes an entry to an access log. It contains your IP address, the time, the address requested, the status code of the response, the amount of data transferred, the page you visited before (referrer) and your browser’s identifier (user agent). When a request fails, an error log records the incident together with the IP address. Protective software (a Web Application Firewall) also sits in front of the website. It logs requests that it classifies as an attack, with the IP address and the content of the request. All three logs hold the IP address in full. We need this data to run the website, to find errors and to fend off misuse. Addresses that send a conspicuously large number of faulty requests are blocked automatically for up to 24 hours. We do not combine the logs with other data and do not pass them on. The legal basis is our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) in operating the website securely.
Retention and evaluation of the logs
Every night the server closes the day’s logs. Entries are deleted automatically after 7 days at the latest. This applies to all three logs. A program on the same server compiles statistics from the access log, so that we can see which pages are requested and where errors occur. They show, for example, the most visited pages, the status codes, the referring pages and the browsers visitors use. They also show which IP addresses sent how many requests. We do not combine the statistics with other data and do not use them to find out who is behind an address. They cover the last 7 days at most, can only be viewed internally by us, and work without cookies and without scripts in your browser. We pass none of it on. As with the logs, the legal basis is our legitimate interest in operating the website.
No third-party content
The website embeds no content from third parties: no trackers, no analytics scripts, no external fonts and no embedded media. The links to the App Store lead to Apple.
The Maplapse app
What data does Maplapse process?
With your explicit permission, Maplapse reads your iOS Photos library. Only the metadata of geotagged photos is processed: capture location (GPS coordinates), capture time and optionally the filename. The photo image data itself stays on your device during this analysis. It only leaves when you share a trip. In that case Maplapse uploads downscaled copies of that trip’s photos to your own iCloud account (see “Optional sharing”).
Reverse geocoding via Apple Maps
To turn GPS coordinates into human-readable place names, Maplapse calls Apple's Maps service (MKReverseGeocodingRequest on iOS 26+, CLGeocoder on iOS 18–25). Individual coordinates are sent to Apple in the process. Apple's terms of service and privacy policy apply. Maplapse itself does not store or log these requests.
Optional iCloud sync
You can enable iCloud sync in Settings (off by default). When enabled, only derived data is stored in a private area of your own iCloud account: your trips (places, times, place names, country codes), your notes, the trip names you gave, the list of hidden photos and your settings. Those settings include your home and your excluded places, each with name and coordinates, as well as the chosen regions, the language, radius and trip gap, and the preferred map service. Your photos themselves, thumbnails and EXIF data are not transferred. The data thus resides on Apple’s iCloud servers, but exclusively within your own iCloud account; securing that storage is Apple’s responsibility. Neither mbnsoftware nor any third party has access to it. You can disable sync at any time and delete the data from your iCloud account.
Optional sharing (iCloud)
Sharing is always a deliberate action by you. You share trips exclusively through your own iCloud account, and there are two ways to do so: (1) You invite people by their iCloud address. Recipients must actively accept the invitation. Such an invitation always covers your whole map, meaning every trip with places, times, notes, trip names and hidden photos, not a single trip. Photos are not part of it; they only appear for the people you invited if you additionally use a Shared Library in Apple Photos. Anyone you allow to edit writes into the iCloud area of your account. (2) You share a single trip as a link. Maplapse then uploads downscaled copies of that trip’s photos (longest edge 2048 px, videos excluded) along with places, times and notes into a separate area of your own iCloud account. Those copies are readable by anyone who has the link. Only pass it to people who should see the trip. Recipients download the photos into their app. The uploaded copies stay in your own iCloud account until you delete them, either right in the app under Settings › “More data” › “Trips you shared” by swiping the row, or in your iCloud account. Your trip data lives solely in your own iCloud account; we do not store it. The share link does, however, point at our website www.maplapse.de. That is technically required so iOS recognizes it as a Maplapse link. The reference to the shared trip sits behind the “#”, and browsers do not send that part to the server; so we never learn which trip you shared. If Maplapse is installed, iOS opens the app directly. Otherwise your browser loads only an information page from us, which, as with any website visit, involves technical access data such as IP address and time. You can also pass a single photo or a location on through the iOS share sheet. iOS then hands the file to the app you choose, and that app’s terms apply. We receive nothing of it.
On-device storage
Derived data (trip clusters, cache, notes) is stored in your device's Application Support directory and removed when you uninstall the app.
Legal basis
Processing is based on your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you give via the iOS permission dialogs, and on the performance of the contract to use the app (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
Retention
All data remains on your device or in your own iCloud account for as long as you use the app. Data is deleted when you uninstall the app or remove the data from your iCloud account.
Recipients
Apple Inc. receives the reverse-geocoding queries and, when sync is enabled or when you share, your CloudKit data as your iCloud provider. When sharing, the people you invited can additionally see your whole map: every trip with places, times, notes, trip names and which photos you hid, without photos. Anyone holding a share link, by contrast, sees exactly the one trip shared that way, including the downscaled photos. Your trip data is not transmitted to mbnsoftware servers. No such service exists. Only opening a share link in a browser contacts our website www.maplapse.de. This is needed to make sharing technically possible (see “Optional sharing”).
Name of the person who shared
When you accept an invitation to a shared map, Maplapse stores the name of the person who shared it in the iCloud key-value store of your own account, so the origin of the content stays recognisable even after a reinstall. When you leave the share, that name is deleted completely, in iCloud as well.
Contact by email
If you write to us at maplapse@mbnsoftware.de, we receive your message through the email provider mailbox.org. We use your message only to answer it.
Your rights
You have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection (Art. 15–21 GDPR). The app’s data lives on your device or in your own iCloud account. For that data you exercise these rights yourself via your device or iCloud settings. For the website’s access data and for emails you have sent us, contact maplapse@mbnsoftware.de. You can send any other questions there too.
Right to lodge a complaint
You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, for example the authority responsible for your place of residence.