Wayfarer privacy

Last updated: 30 September 2026

Wayfarer uses your email to sign you in, and your chosen name and username to identify your profile. New photo visits start private. You choose which photos to publish. Sharing a visit makes its selected photos, place, date and caption accessible according to your chosen visibility. Other private album photos are not published automatically.

Photos and visit verification

Photo location analysis runs on your device. Scanning does not upload your library or its local identifiers. New trips and visits use photos you select from your library with capture dates and locations. The server checks uploaded photo hashes, dates and location metadata. Earlier supported app requests may also include Apple App Attest verification data. Photo metadata can be edited and is not conclusive proof of travel. Earlier records are not automatically verified.

Selected photos are resized and reencoded to remove unnecessary EXIF data before private album storage. Verification metadata is stored separately with your visits. Uploads waiting for verification remain drafts. A chosen avatar is stored separately and cached on your device. Removing an app photo or visit does not remove the original from the device photo library.

Stories and invitations

Stories are separate from your travel albums. You choose friends, friends and followers, or only yourself as the audience. Published stories become inaccessible after 24 hours. A scheduled worker removes their media and previews after expiry; failed deletions are retried. Unfinished uploads are also removed. Story authors can see who viewed or liked their active stories. Camera captures are not automatically saved to your photo library.

Referral registration is optional. We use Apple App Attest, DeviceCheck, a device-local installation record and keyed account identifiers to check abuse. A verified account, at least 72 hours and a completed location visit are required before a referral counts. Shared devices and uncertain checks can require administrator review. Referral counts do not automatically grant Plus. After deletion, minimal keyed abuse-prevention records are retained for up to one year from registration; they are not used for advertising.

Authorized administrators can review online status, apply account restrictions, grant complimentary Plus and manage service announcements. Administrator deletion immediately suspends access and has a seven-day administrator-controlled reversal period. Administrative actions are audited.

Location and contacts

Places in new trips come from the photos you select. Live location sharing has been removed, and earlier live-sharing links no longer return location data. Friends and people you follow can still share selected photo visits according to their visibility settings.

New GPS recording and trip planning are retired. Earlier plans and GPS tracks remain in your account and can be included in data export. They are not automatically published.

Contact matching sends SHA-256 hashes of normalized email addresses to find accounts that opted in to discovery. Raw contacts and matching requests are not stored. Hashing does not make an email anonymous.

Service providers and controls

Supabase provides authentication, database, private realtime channels and file storage; Vercel runs the API; Apple provides device permissions, App Attest, fallback maps and App Store billing. Mapbox provides map tiles and country/city naming for selected location groups. Naming results may be stored using permanent geocoding. Natural Earth and GeoNames provide discovery geography and basic place data. Ahrefs Web Analytics measures visits and usage of the public Wayfarer website so we can understand and improve site performance. Approximate coastal suggestions do not confirm travel by boat. Data may be processed outside your country.

You can change visit visibility, block accounts, adjust permissions in iOS Settings and export your data from the app. A supported account deletion request has a 14-day cancellation period. Deleting an account does not cancel an App Store subscription.

Contact

Use Help → Contact support in Wayfarer for privacy or account requests.