Privacy Policy

HikeLoad is a free hike planner, built and run by Ray Kootstra in the Netherlands. This page explains what personal data the site collects, why, and what you can do about it. We collect as little as we can, we do not sell your data and we do not show you ads based on it.

Who is responsible

HikeLoad (hikeload.com), Ray Kootstra, the Netherlands. For anything about your data, mail info@hikeload.com or use the contact form.

What we collect

• Your account. Your name, email address and a password, which is stored as a hash. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address and Google account ID from Google instead of a password.
• Guest use. You can try the planner without an account. Your plans are then kept under a temporary guest account that holds no name or email. Guest accounts that are not turned into a real account are deleted after 30 days.
• What you plan. The hikes, days, GPX files, gear lists, food lists, notes and comments you add. These are private unless you choose to share a hike. A shared hike is visible to anyone with the link, or to everyone if you publish it to Explore.
• How you found us. When you create an account we store the first page you landed on and the website that referred you. If you arrived through a link in one of our printable checklists, we store which checklist it was.
• Price alerts. If you ask for a price alert on a gear product, we store your email address and the price you want to be told about, until you unsubscribe with the link in every alert.
• Messages. If you use the contact form, we receive your name, email address and message by email.
• Server logs. Like every web server, ours records the IP address, browser and pages requested. We use these logs to keep the site running and to block abuse. They are kept for about two weeks.
• Usage statistics. We use Google Analytics to see which pages are visited and where visitors come from.

Why we use it

We use your data to give you the service you signed up for: saving your plans, letting you sign in and letting you share a hike. We use logs and statistics, on the basis of our legitimate interest, to keep the site secure and to learn which parts are useful. We do not use your data for anything else.

Emails we send

We send emails that belong to your account: confirming your email address, resetting your password, reminders for a hike you planned, a notification when someone comments on your shared hike and price alerts you asked for. We may also send an occasional reminder if you signed up but have not started a plan. We do not send newsletters and we never pass your email address on for marketing.

Cookies

HikeLoad sets a few cookies of its own that the site needs to work: a session cookie that keeps you signed in and a security (CSRF) cookie. Your choice between kilometres and miles is stored in your browser. Google Analytics sets its own cookies (such as _ga) to tell visitors apart. You can block or delete cookies in your browser; the planner needs the session cookie to keep you signed in.

Who else is involved

• Google Analytics (Google Ireland Ltd.) receives usage data and your IP address when you visit a page.
• Google sign-in is only used if you choose "Sign in with Google".
• Map providers. When you look at a map, your browser loads map tiles directly from OpenStreetMap, OpenTopoMap, CyclOSM or Esri. They see your IP address and which part of the map you view.
• TransIP (the Netherlands) delivers the emails we send.
• Google Drive stores backups of our database.
• Amazon and other shops. Buttons such as "Check today's price" are affiliate links. We send no data about you along with them, but the shop you land on has its own cookies and privacy policy. See our affiliate disclosure.

Some of these companies process data outside the European Union. Apart from the above we share your data with no one, unless the law requires us to.

Pinterest and Instagram

HikeLoad has its own Pinterest and Instagram accounts. We use the Pinterest API and the Instagram API only to publish our own photos, with a description and a link to hikeload.com, to those accounts. We do not use these connections to access, collect or store data about other Pinterest or Instagram users, and nothing from your HikeLoad account is sent to Pinterest or Instagram.

Where it is kept and for how long

The site and its database run on our own server in the Netherlands. We keep your account and your plans until you delete your account. You can do that yourself at any time on your profile page; your plans are deleted with it. Backups are kept for up to 14 days, so your data is gone from them within two weeks after you delete it.

Your rights

You can ask us what data we hold about you, have it corrected or deleted, receive a copy of it, or object to how we use it. Mail info@hikeload.com and we will answer within a month. If you are not happy with our answer, you can file a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) or the authority in your own country.

Children

HikeLoad is not aimed at children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect their data.

Changes

When the way we handle data changes, we update this page and the date at the top.