Last updated: 2026-10-02
Blackrow Trails ("the app") is private by default. The app has no Blackrow account system and shows no ads. Most trip, reservation, and location data stays on your device. The app contacts third-party services for maps, weather, subscriptions, and features that you choose to open or share, including optional assistant-generated trip transfers. We do not sell personal data or share it with advertisers or data brokers.
The app stores the following data in its local app storage:
Blackrow Trails does not upload this data to a Blackrow account. Data leaves your device only when a feature described below needs a third-party service or when you choose to export, open, or share it.
The app accesses precise location to center the map, record a track, place a waypoint, point the augmented-reality marker, and warn you when you leave a followed route. Blackrow Trails does not send the raw GPS fix to the developer or to any third-party usage analytics service.
When you center the map on your position or request nearby map, trail, parcel, elevation, radar, or weather data, the provider receives the requested map area or point. That area or point can approximate your location. The provider also receives the IP address and standard request metadata needed for an internet connection.
The app requests location while you use it. If you enable Keep recording while minimized or the screen is off and then start recording, the Android app starts a location foreground service with an ongoing recording notification. During that active, user-started recording, precise location continues while the app is minimized or the screen is off. This setting is off by default, and recording stops when you pause or stop it. The app does not request Allow all the time or Android background-location permission. On Android 13 and later, the app asks for notification permission immediately before starting this service. If you deny it, recording continues, but Android may show the service only under Active apps instead of in the notification drawer. You can revoke location or change notification access in your device settings.
On iOS, enabling screen-off recording and starting a track allows precise location updates during that active recording while the app is minimized or the screen is locked, subject to iOS permissions and system limits. Pause or Stop ends the recording watcher. This setting is off by default. You can change location access in iOS Settings.
When you follow a route with trail alerts, the app uses precise location to check whether you are on the route, including while your phone is locked, until you stop following. On Android this runs as a location foreground service with an ongoing notice, and on Android 13 and later the app asks for notification permission first.
While you record a track, the app reads the phone's barometer (air pressure) to make elevation gain more accurate. Pressure readings stay in memory; only the corrected elevations are saved with the track.
The camera is used only for the augmented-reality view. The app does not save or send camera images.
While trail alerts are on, the app shows the trail name, whether you are on or off the route, your distance from the route, and the time of the last location fix in an iOS Live Activity (Lock Screen and Dynamic Island) or an Android ongoing notification. Anyone who can see your screen can read it. It contains no coordinates and is removed when you stop following. You can turn off Live Activities for Blackrow Trails in iOS Settings, or the Active hike notification category in Android Settings.
On iPhone the app also keeps that status, with the distance rounded to 5 metres, in its local storage so Siri and Shortcuts can answer questions about the trail you are following. It is deleted when you stop following or the next time Blackrow opens, and Siri ignores it once it is 12 hours old.
On iPhones that support Apple Intelligence (iOS 26 and later), you can ask a question about a saved trail. Apple's on-device language model answers it on your iPhone. The app gives the model your question, the trail's saved public details (such as its name, listed length, difficulty, and description), and the trail alert status described above. It does not give the model your coordinates, recorded tracks, or notes. Blackrow Trails does not send questions or answers to any server, does not use a cloud model, and does not save them; closing the assistant clears them. Answers can be wrong and do not reflect current trail conditions.
If you ask by voice, the app uses the microphone only while you are asking. Apple's speech framework transcribes the audio on your iPhone. The app does not save or send the audio; the transcribed words fill in the question box and are cleared with it when you close the assistant. The first time, iOS may need to download Apple's speech model for your language; that download comes from Apple over the internet. In the app, answers are read aloud with the iPhone's built-in text-to-speech voices; through Siri, Siri reads them.
Siri and the Shortcuts app can ask a trail question, open a trail, or stop trail alerts. The app handles these on your iPhone the same way. Apple's handling of your Siri requests is covered by Apple's privacy policy.
Apple Private Cloud Compute is not enabled in this build. Future activation requires updated disclosures and an explicit choice for each cloud question.
The website does not include the assistant. The Android app has no voice questions or Siri; its assistant is described next.
On Android devices that support Google's on-device language model, you can type a question about a saved trail. That model answers it on your phone through the ML Kit SDK. The app gives the model your question, the trail's saved public details, and the selected trail's alert status and rounded distance from the route. It does not give the model your coordinates, recorded tracks, or notes. Blackrow Trails does not send questions or answers to any server, does not use a cloud model, and does not save them; closing the assistant clears them. Answers are shown as text and are not read aloud. Answers can be wrong and do not reflect current trail conditions.
Setting up the model is a download from Google that you start yourself and that needs internet access. On a device that does not support the model, saved trail details and maps keep working and questions are unavailable.
Google's ML Kit SDK sends diagnostic and usage metrics to Google, including device/app information, identifiers, performance and event data, input/output sizes and configured languages. Google states that prompt content and generated outputs are not sent to its servers. The SDK may also contact Google for model and configuration updates. See ML Kit privacy terms and data disclosure.
When you add a reservation by uploading an e-ticket or itinerary PDF or screenshot, the app reads and parses the file on your device. Text extraction and optical character recognition run locally. Parsed reservation data and attachment paths are stored in SQLite; original document bytes are stored separately in the app's private files. They stay on this device unless you export or share them.
Trip files that you select for manual import are read and reviewed on your device. Blackrow Trails does not upload a manually selected trip file.
If you open a supported Blackrow Trails transfer link created through an AI
assistant or another supported provider, the native app stores the one-time
transfer token in the device's Keychain or Keystore. The app sends that token
to blackrow-trip-connector.aggie-king21.workers.dev to claim the trip package,
downloads the assistant-generated trip content and source-provider metadata,
and sends a lease acknowledgment after the package is saved. The transfer
service also receives your IP address and standard request metadata. This
flow does not upload your existing Blackrow Trails trips, reservations,
tracks, or raw GPS location.
The transfer service holds the package only until your device takes it. Trip content is encrypted before it is stored and is never held in readable form. The service stores one-way hashes of the transfer token and the lease rather than the values themselves, so it cannot reconstruct either. When your device acknowledges the download, the encrypted content is erased in the same write that marks the transfer complete. A package that is never claimed is deleted automatically 24 hours after it was created. Nothing about the trip survives past that point.
The received package is stored in the app's local SQLite database while it awaits your review. The AI assistant or other provider used to create the package may process the information that you give it under its own privacy policy before the package reaches Blackrow Trails.
To show live maps and conditions, the app fetches data for the area that you are viewing or the point that you tap from third-party providers:
When a live source is down or you are offline, the app may reuse data it fetched earlier for the same area. This reuse involves no network request.
The app sends a bounding box, tile coordinate, or selected point as needed. It does not add your name, email address, Blackrow account identifier, or raw GPS fix. Each provider receives your IP address and standard request metadata and handles the request under its own privacy policy.
If you open directions, permit information, or another external link, the selected website or maps app receives the destination in that link. Blackrow Trails does not control data after another app or website receives it.
Except for the Android ML Kit diagnostic and usage metrics described above, Blackrow Trails does not send usage analytics or crash reports to third-party services.
Google Play or Apple processes Trail Pro purchases and subscriptions. The app receives product, purchase, receipt, and entitlement status needed to show offers, unlock Trail Pro, and restore a purchase. Promotional and offer codes are entered and processed in the platform-owned Google Play or Apple flow. The app receives the resulting receipt and entitlement status, not your full payment-card or bank-account details. Google or Apple may associate the transaction and code redemption with your store account under its own privacy policy.
A private access code may be provided to Google Play's review team. The app normalizes and hashes that code on the device, compares it with a stored hash, and saves only whether review access was granted. The entered review code is not sent to Blackrow Trails, Google Play, or Apple by this check.
Trip backup JSON includes saved field data, trip and reservation records, and attachment metadata. It does not include original PDFs, images or other reservation documents, downloaded map files, or a complete copy of app storage. Keep originals separately and reimport them on a new device. Restore replaces the saved field data covered by the backup and inserts or replaces database records with matching IDs; other database records can remain.
Backups and GPX exports contain precise coordinates, and recorded-track GPX can include timestamps (when you were at each point). These files are created only when you choose to export or share them. The receiving app, person, or service controls the copy after you share it. To omit timestamps from recorded-track GPX files, enable Strip timestamps from exported track GPX before exporting.
Local data is stored in the operating system's app sandbox. Internet requests made by the app use HTTPS. Native trip-transfer tokens and leases are stored in the device's Keychain or Keystore rather than the trip database. No storage or transmission method can guarantee complete security.
On-device data remains until you delete it, clear the app's storage in your device settings, or delete the app. Reservation Delete permanently removes the selected record, its child records and original files not referenced by another reservation. If cleanup fails, the app reports the failure and retains the record for retry; some files may already have been removed. Archive only hides a trip and retains its data. In Planner > Privacy & data > Manage stored data, you can permanently delete a trip and its days, hikes, routes, notes and undo history; its reservations remain unassigned until you delete them separately. This screen also shows reservations hidden by older versions, lets you remove invalid document references without following their paths, and lets you review and delete unused original files and the separate old planner copy. These actions require confirmation and do not run automatically.
Planner > Privacy & data > Delete local field data and settings clears the app's local settings, waypoints, recorded tracks, saved trails, gear choices, membership state. This control does not erase the SQLite trip and reservation database. To remove that database and the app's cached data, clear Blackrow Trails storage in your device settings or delete the app (not Offload App on iOS).
Deleting app data does not delete copies that you previously exported or shared. Google and Apple retain store transaction records under their own policies.
A pending assistant transfer token remains in secure device storage until the claim is completed and acknowledged, the transfer is cancelled, or the token is rejected as expired or already used. A received trip package remains in the local SQLite database until it is cancelled or app storage is cleared or the app is uninstalled. Clearing app storage or uninstalling also removes the local review-access flag. It does not delete records retained by Google, Apple, or an AI assistant under their own policies. The transfer service's own retention is described under “Trip imports and assistant transfers” above.
Blackrow Trails is a general-audience outdoor app and is not directed to children under 13. Android SDK diagnostics are described above.
We update the date at the top of this policy when the app's data practices or this policy change materially.
App: Blackrow Trails
Privacy questions: blackrowtech@gmail.com