Privacy policy

Effective September 29, 2026

Roadtrip Historian tells you the history of the places you drive past. To do that it needs to know where you are, and nothing else. This page says, in plain words, what we collect, why, who helps us, and how to delete it.

What we collect, and why

Location, including in the background. While a trip is running, the app collects your location, even when the app is closed or not in use (for example while Google Maps is open or your screen is off), and sends it to our server to find historical places along the road ahead. The server uses it to answer that one request and then discards it: it is never written to our database or our logs. When you end the trip, location collection stops. You can turn location off at any time in your phone's settings.

Microphone (optional). If you turn on "Answer out loud", the app listens for a few seconds after a teaser so you can say "yes" or "no". Speech recognition runs on your phone. No audio is recorded, stored, or sent to us or anyone else. The app only listens while it is on screen.

A random install ID. The app creates a random ID the first time it runs. It is not tied to your name, phone number, advertising ID or account. We use it only to stop abuse (for example, limiting how many questions one install can ask per day).

Your email address, if you make an account. Accounts are optional. When you sign in, we email you a 6-digit code; we keep your email address, when your account was created, and when you last signed in. Trip passes will be tied to your account when they become available.

Questions you type or ask. When you ask the historian a question, the question and the place it's about are sent to our server to write and speak an answer. We don't store your questions. The spoken answer is kept in memory for up to 10 minutes so it can play, then discarded.

Problem reports. If you use "Report a problem", we keep the place, the story or answer you reported, the reason, and your install ID, so a person can review it.

On your phone only. Your settings, the stories you've heard (so they don't repeat), what kinds of stories you tend to say yes to, and recent story audio (for places with no signal) are stored on your phone, not on our servers. "Clear listening history" in the app's privacy settings erases them.

What we never collect: your contacts, photos, advertising ID, payment details (Google Play handles payments), or a history of where you've been.

Who helps us

We use a few companies to run the service. Each gets only what it needs:

• Railway hosts our server.
• Supabase stores our database of historical places, stories and accounts (email addresses).
• Anthropic (Claude) writes stories and answers from public historical records. It receives the place's facts and, for questions, your question. It does not receive your location, account or install ID.
• ElevenLabs turns the written story or answer into speech. It receives only that text.
• Resend sends sign-in emails. It receives your email address and the code.
• Google Play distributes the app and will handle payments for trip passes.

Pictures of places come from the Library of Congress. Our server fetches them, so your phone never asks a third party for a picture of the place you're passing.

How long we keep things

• Location: not kept.
• Account email: until you delete your account. Our database provider keeps backups for up to 7 days, so a deleted account disappears from backups within 7 days.
• Problem reports: until reviewed, and kept afterwards so we can fix stories. Reports hold no name, email or location.
• Server logs: which kind of request was made and when, never your location, questions, IDs or place names. Kept for a short time for troubleshooting.

Your choices and rights

• See your data: in the app, Settings, Account, "Download my data".
• Delete your account: in the app, Settings, Account, "Delete my account", or on the web at heyhistorian.com/delete-account, without the app.
• Location and microphone: turn them off anytime in your phone's settings. The app still works without the microphone.
• Questions or requests: email us at hello@heyhistorian.com. We'll answer within 30 days.

Children

Roadtrip Historian is made for families to listen to together. Kids can listen without any account. Accounts are for adults: we don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has made an account, email us and we'll delete it.

Security

All connections use encryption (HTTPS). Sign-in uses one-time codes, so there are no passwords to leak. Your sign-in is stored in your phone's secure storage. Our database is private and only our server can read it.

Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If a change affects how we use data you've already given us, we'll tell you in the app first.