Privacy & data
No account, no tracking profile
Paw Stops doesn't ask you to sign up. You don't have a password with us and we don't build an advertising profile of you.
What we store when you plan a trip
When you plan a trip we save the start and destination you entered, your dates, and your preferences to our database so the trip has a shareable link. That link contains a long, unguessable id — anyone you send it to can view the trip, so only share it with people you trust. A private edit key for each trip is stored only in this browser; it's what lets you (and not a stranger with the link) change or delete the trip.
Your location
The live features — “Near me”, Driving Mode, “wrap up in X hours”, and replanning from where you are — use your device's GPS. Your position stays in your browser for map display unless you take an action that needs the server: when you replan or ask for wrap-up hotels, your coordinates are sent to our server to compute the new route, and a replan is saved to that trip's revision history. We never track your location in the background — it's only read while a live feature is turned on.
Services we rely on
To build a trip we send the places, coordinates, and route you're working with to third-party services, each under its own privacy policy:
- Geocoding, routing, points of interest and map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors, via OSRM, Nominatim and Overpass.
- Hotel names, ratings and pet-friendly signals from Google Places.
- Weather forecasts from the U.S. National Weather Service.
- Hotel booking links go to Expedia.
Affiliate links
Our hotel “Book” and “Browse” links are affiliate links. If you book after following one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes which hotels we show you or how they're ranked — ranking uses only your own brand, star and rating preferences.
Deleting a trip
On the home screen, your recent trips (saved only on this device) each have a trash button. Deleting removes the trip and its history from our database. If you clear this browser's storage you'll lose the edit keys, so keep any trip links you still want to change.
Anonymous usage analytics
To understand what's useful, we record a few anonymous events — like planning a trip or tapping a hotel “Book” link — along with a random id stored in this browser. There's no account behind it, no name, email, or IP address, and it's never sold or shared. It only tells us that “someone” did “something”, in aggregate.
Contact
Questions about your data? Email [email protected].