Privacy Policy

This policy explains how the AreaMap iOS app (“AreaMap”, “the app”), made by Velocity Apps (“we”, “us”), handles information. Questions? Email [email protected].

1. Information that stays on your device

• Location. With your permission, AreaMap uses your device’s location to show your position on the map and, when you choose to walk a boundary, to record the path you walk. The path is saved as part of that measurement on your device only.
• Measurements. The shapes you draw or walk, their names, notes, groups and colors, and your settings.
• Photos. Photos you take with the camera or choose from your library to attach to a measurement are copied into the app’s private storage. AreaMap doesn’t read or upload anything else from your photo library. If you choose Save Image when exporting, the image is added to your library.

We cannot see or access this information unless you share a measurement as a link or save it to a team you’re on (section 3). It may be included in your device backups (iCloud Backup or a computer backup) according to your own settings; those backups are handled by Apple and your device, not by us.

iCloud backup. If you turn on iCloud backup in the app (More › iCloud backup), your measurements (including their notes and photos), your quotes, your business profile and your app settings are also stored in the private CloudKit database of your own iCloud account, so they’re kept safe and synced to your other devices signed in to the same Apple ID. This data is stored by Apple under Apple’s privacy policy; it is private to your Apple ID, and we can’t see or access it. Turn it off anytime in the same place. Data already in iCloud can be removed in Settings › [your name] › iCloud.

2. Maps, search and elevation

AreaMap uses Apple Maps (MapKit) for satellite imagery, search and Look Around. When you view the map or search for a place, your device requests map tiles and search results from Apple, under Apple’s privacy policy. We don’t receive these requests.

Elevation. To account for hills when you calculate a fence, or materials such as seed, sod or fertilizer, AreaMap downloads elevation tiles for the area you’re measuring from Amazon Web Services’ public Terrain Tiles dataset. Like map tiles, each request shows Amazon which small patch of the map is needed (about 1–2 km across) and your device’s IP address. It never includes your measurement, its name, your notes or your location. We don’t receive these requests, and Amazon handles them under its own privacy notice. If you turn off “Follow the ground” for a fence, or pick a “Sloped ground” setting yourself instead of Auto, AreaMap doesn’t request elevation for that calculation. Elevation data credits are listed in the app under More › Data credits.

3. Things you choose to send us

• Share links. When you share a measurement as a link, the app uploads its name, its shape on the map (the points you drew or walked), its size and side lengths, your display units, the date it was created, the app version and a map picture, so anyone with the link can open the page. Notes and photos are never included. The page is not listed in search engines, but anyone you give the link to (or who they pass it to) can see it. To take it down, open the measurement and tap Stop sharing; the page and its picture are deleted right away.
• Feedback. When you send feedback in the app, we receive your rating, the reasons you pick, your message and your email address if you add one, plus app details that help us understand it: app version, language, iOS version, how many measurements you’ve saved, your setup answers, your subscription status and your anonymous app user ID. We use it to reply to you and to improve AreaMap.

• Team plans. If your company gives you a seat on an AreaMap team plan and you tap its invite link, the app sends our server the invite, your anonymous app user ID, the app version and whether the device is an iPhone or iPad, so we can turn on AreaMap Pro for you through RevenueCat until the team’s plan ends. While you’re on a team, the app checks with our server when you open it (at most every 15 minutes), so it can tell you if you’ve been removed or the team’s plan has ended. The team owner sees that a device joined, whether it’s an iPhone or iPad, when it was last seen, the last characters of its app user ID and any name the owner gives it; nothing else about you, and of your measurements only the jobs you save to the team (below). Leave the team anytime in More › Team, or the owner can remove you. Owners who buy a team plan give us their email address and company name; an owner can also sign in inside the app with an emailed link to manage the team, and our server keeps a scrambled (hashed) version of that sign-in for up to 90 days or until they sign out; payment is handled by Stripe under its privacy policy, and we never see full card numbers.
• Team jobs. While you’re on a team, the jobs you save to the team (measurements with their notes and photos, quotes) and the team’s business profile (company name, logo, rates, terms) are stored on our server for that team, so everyone on it can see and edit them on their own phone, and the owner can see them on the team’s web page. Each change is saved with which team seat made it. Jobs you keep under Mine stay on your device (and in your iCloud backup if it’s on). When you leave the team or the owner removes you, the team’s jobs are removed from your device; they stay with the team.
• Team device ID. So that one phone uses one seat, the first time you join a team the app creates a random team device ID and saves it in your device’s keychain (Apple’s secure storage on the device). It isn’t shared with other apps, isn’t synced to iCloud and isn’t used for advertising. The keychain keeps it if you delete AreaMap, so after a reinstall (or a Restore Purchases that changes your app user ID) the app sends it with its team requests and your seat moves to the new install instead of taking another one; a reinstalled app that held a seat gets it back on its first launch. Our server stores only a scrambled (hashed) version of the ID with your seat. AreaMap creates this ID only if you join a team.
• Team invites before installing. If you tap Get AreaMap on a team invite page, our server keeps a scrambled (hashed) code made from your IP address, device type and screen size for up to 2 hours. When AreaMap opens for the first time, it asks the server for that code so it can show “Join <team>?” without you tapping the link again; the code is deleted as soon as it’s matched, or after 2 hours. If nothing matches, just tap the invite link again. AreaMap never reads your clipboard. We don’t store your IP address itself.

Share links, feedback and team plans are stored with Cloudflare, our hosting provider. To limit abuse, the server keeps a scrambled (hashed) version of your IP address for a short time; it doesn’t store IP addresses themselves.

4. Information shared with service providers

Purchase events contain only the product, price, currency and a transaction identifier. Like any online service, these providers see your device’s IP address when the app contacts them, and may use it to estimate an approximate region for analytics and ad measurement. None of them receive your location, measurements, notes or photos. Each provider handles data under its own privacy policy.

5. AreaMap Business (our website for companies)

AreaMap Business at areamap.app/business is a web app for contracting companies. This section covers it; the rest of this policy covers the iPhone app.

• Office accounts. People at a company sign in with a link we email them. We store their name, email address, company and role, and a sign-in cookie on their browser.
• Company data. The jobs a company creates (addresses, drawings on the map, measurements, notes), its customers’ names and contact details, its price book and its proposals are stored on our servers with Cloudflare so the company can use them. We handle this data for the company and only to run the service; the company decides what goes in and can ask us to delete it.
• Homeowners and customers. If you use a company’s instant-quote page, the address you search, what you draw, the options you pick and the name, email and phone number you enter go to that company, which may follow up with you by email. If you sign a proposal, we record the name you type, your signature, the time and your IP address as the record of the signature. For questions about your information, contact the company you dealt with; we help them answer.
• Maps and address search. Satellite imagery comes from Esri, and in Ohio and Pennsylvania aerial imagery comes from the State of Ohio (OGRIP) and Pennsylvania (PEMA / PASDA). Map tiles are loaded through our servers, so these providers don’t see your IP address. Address searches are sent to Esri through our servers.
• Email and payments. We send sign-in links, proposals and reminders through Cloudflare. Plans are billed by Stripe under its privacy policy; we never see full card numbers.
• Advertising measurement (Meta Pixel and Conversions API). On our own marketing and sign-up pages only (the AreaMap Business home, pricing, Enterprise, sign-up, welcome, demo and security pages) we use Meta’s pixel and server events to measure our ads on Facebook and Instagram: page views, viewing pricing, starting checkout, starting a trial and the first payment. Meta receives a scrambled (hashed) email address, a hashed company ID, a hashed country, your IP address, browser details and Meta’s own cookies, plus the plan name and amount. Meta never receives job, address, customer or price-book data, and these tools never run in the office app, on proposals or on instant-quote pages. In the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland you’ll see a cookie notice and nothing is sent unless you press Accept; anywhere, Decline or your browser’s Global Privacy Control signal turns it off. Your choice is saved in a cookie for a year.

6. Tracking and your choices

When you first open AreaMap, iOS asks whether the app may track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites. If you choose Ask App Not to Track, your advertising identifier is not accessed, and ad measurement uses Apple’s privacy-preserving methods such as SKAdNetwork. You can change this anytime in Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking.

7. Permissions

• Location (While Using). To show your position and record a boundary you walk. Recording can continue with the screen locked while a walk is in progress, shown by the blue location indicator.
• Camera. To take a photo to attach to a measurement.
• Add to Photos. To save an exported map image to your library when you ask.

AreaMap works without these: you can measure by tapping on the map. You can change them anytime in the iOS Settings app.

8. How long information is kept

Information on your device stays until you delete it in the app or delete the app. A shared link stays up until you tap Stop sharing. Team jobs are kept for the team, including after its plan ends, until the team owner asks us to delete them. A team membership is kept while you’re on the team and, after you leave, as a record of the seat (its dates, anonymous app user ID, device type and hashed team device ID); email us and we’ll delete that record. The team device ID itself stays in your device’s keychain until the device is erased. Pending team invites are deleted within 2 hours. Feedback is kept as long as we need it to reply and improve AreaMap; email us and we’ll delete it. Information held by service providers is kept according to their retention settings and used only for the purposes above.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example the EU, UK or California), you may have the right to access, correct or delete personal information, or to object to or restrict certain processing. Your measurements stay on your device unless you share one as a link, so you control them directly: edit, export or delete them in the app, or delete the app to remove everything. To take down a shared link, tap Stop sharing on that measurement. For feedback you’ve sent, or information held by our service providers, email us and we’ll help.

California residents: we don’t sell personal information for money. Using Meta and Singular to measure advertising (including the Meta Pixel on our AreaMap Business pages) may count as “sharing” for cross-context behavioral advertising under California law. You can opt out by choosing Ask App Not to Track, or by emailing us.

10. Children

AreaMap is not directed to children under 13 (or under 16 in the EU and UK), and we don’t knowingly collect information from them.

11. International transfers

We and our service providers may process information in the United States and other countries, using appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses where required.

12. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we’ll update the date above and, for significant changes, let you know in the app.