Privacy Policy

NoteWander LLC, 7305 Pioneer Hwy, Stanwood, WA 98292, USA, is responsible (the "controller") for the personal information described here. Contact: privacy@notewander.com.

Everyone who uses NoteWander

• Account and profile: name, username, email, password (stored only as a secure hash by our authentication provider), profile photo, bio, language, and preferences.

• Date of birth: used only to check you are old enough to use NoteWander (16+), book (18+) or guide (18+). Stored separately from your profile and never shown to other users.

• Content you create: posts, photos, videos, comments, reviews, trips, groups, events, messages, and documents you keep in Travel Wallet.

• Bookings and payments: what you booked, when, amounts, refunds and receipts. Card details are collected and stored by Stripe; we receive only limited details such as the card brand and last four digits.

• Location: approximate location (city or region) if you allow it, for your profile, nearby suggestions and content you choose to tag; places you search for or save.

• Device and usage: IP address, device and browser type, device identifiers, push-notification tokens, crash reports, pages viewed and actions taken.

• If you browse without an account: a random anonymous identifier for your session, and anything you create in features available without an account (for example an AI trip draft in the app).

• AI and support: what you type into the AI trip planner (destination, dates, travel style, interests) and, to personalise a plan, a short list of places you saved or enjoyed on earlier NoteWander trips; your conversations with the support assistant and our support team.

• Safety records: reports you make or that are made about you; the results of automated checks on your content (see §4).

If you apply to be or are a guide

• Application: your name, contact details, country and city, services, photos, a photo of your government ID (front and back, unless a passport), and any licence you upload. These copies are stored by NoteWander so our team can review your application.

• Application location check: the IP address you apply from, and the country and approximate location it resolves to, used to check you are applying from a country we accept guides from.

• Identity verification: if you are asked to verify, our provider (Persona or Stripe Identity) collects a photo of your ID, a live selfie and the facial geometry derived from them to match you to your ID (see §8, Biometric information). We receive the result (approved, declined, under review), the provider's reference and the date, not the images or face data.

• Background check: where you agree to one, Checkr collects the details it needs (for example your name, date of birth, address and ID number) and runs the check. We receive the status and result (for example clear or consider) and a report reference.

• Documents: licence, insurance and ID documents you upload, with the country and expiry date our team records, so we can remind you to renew them.

• Payments and payouts: your Stripe Connect account details (held by Stripe), or the payout details you give us for Wise or Payoneer; your card on file (held by Stripe); earnings, fees, deductions and payouts.

If you are in the EU, UK or a similar jurisdiction, we rely on the legal bases below.

• Run your account, show your content, deliver messages, process bookings, payments, refunds and payouts, provide support — Performance of our contract with you
• Check age; verify guide applications and identity; prevent fraud, abuse and off-platform payments; moderate content; keep NoteWander safe — Legitimate interests (safety, security, preventing fraud); legal obligation where it applies
• Face matching for identity verification — Your explicit consent, asked for before verification starts
• Background checks — Only where authorised by applicable law, with your consent (and FCRA authorisation in the US); not carried out for guides in the EU unless local law allows
• AI trip planning, translation, personalised suggestions — Performance of our contract; legitimate interests (making the service useful)
• Location, push notifications, connecting a calendar — Your consent (device permission or connect button); you can withdraw it at any time
• Analytics and advertising measurement — Consent where the law requires it (for example analytics cookies on the website for visitors in the EU and UK); otherwise legitimate interests
• Tax, accounting and legal requests — Legal obligation

• Content moderation. New posts, reels and community posts are checked by an AI moderation service (OpenAI) and an AI check of whether they relate to travel. Content flagged as harmful is hidden from others until a person reviews it.

• Identity verification. Our provider's system decides whether your selfie matches your ID; a decline stops guide activation until it is resolved. This relies on your explicit consent, and you can ask for a person to review a decline.

• AI personalisation. The AI planner may use places from your earlier trips to tailor a plan. This has no legal or similarly significant effect on you.

Apart from the age check when you sign up (accounts of people under 16 are blocked automatically), and a verification decline, none of these checks alone leads to an account being restricted, suspended or removed; a person makes those decisions. You can ask for human review of any automated decision at privacy@notewander.com.

We do not sell personal information for money. We share it only as follows:

• Other users. Your public profile, posts and reviews are visible as described in §6. When you book, the guide receives your name, booking details and messages; guides must use them only for the booking.

• Payments: Stripe (payments, card storage, payouts, Stripe Identity), Wise and Payoneer (payouts for some countries). These partners also run their own identity and sanctions checks.

• Guide verification: Persona Identities, Inc. or Stripe, Inc. (identity verification); Checkr, Inc. (background checks); ipapi.co, ipwho.is and freeipapi.com (IP-to-country lookup for applications).

• Infrastructure and communications: Google Firebase and Google Cloud (hosting, database, storage, authentication, notifications), Mapbox (maps and place search), Resend (email).

• AI and translation: OpenAI (AI trip planner, support assistant, content moderation, translation; not used to train OpenAI's models; OpenAI may keep requests for up to 30 days to detect abuse). On the website, if OpenAI is unavailable, Google Translate and MyMemory (Translated S.r.l.) translate the text. Only the text being translated is sent, without your name or account details. Translations of public content are cached on our servers.

If you are a guide and connect Google Calendar, we request read-only access to the calendars you choose (the calendar.readonly permission) and use the data only to block your busy times and show you why a time is blocked. We store event start and end times and titles; titles are visible only to you. NoteWander's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We do not use Google user data for advertising, do not sell it, do not use it to train AI models, and do not let people read it except with your permission, for security, to comply with law, or in aggregated, anonymised form. When you disconnect, we revoke our access and delete the stored event titles.

• Analytics and advertising: Google (Firebase Analytics, Google Ads) and Meta Platforms, Inc. (App Events in the app). We share device identifiers and in-app events (such as creating an account or completing a booking) to measure and improve our advertising. We do not share your name, email, messages, photos or precise location with them.

• Legal and safety: to comply with law, respond to lawful requests, protect the rights, safety and property of users, NoteWander or others, and enforce our terms.

• Business changes: to a buyer or successor if NoteWander is merged, acquired or sells assets, under this policy.

• With your consent in any other case.

By default, posts, photos and other content you share are public and visible to other users, including in Explore, search and hashtag results. If you turn on Private Account (Settings › Preferences), your posts and profile are visible only to your connections. Travel Wallet documents are always private to you. If you share your location, your approximate city or region may appear on your profile. Guides' public profiles show their name, photo, services, reviews and badges.

• Account, profile, posts, messages, Travel Wallet — While your account is active. After you delete your account: deactivated at once and permanently deleted after a 30-day grace period.
• Anonymous guest sessions — Kept until you create an account or clear your browser or app data; not deleted automatically today
• Booking, payment, payout and tax records — 7 years, as tax and accounting law require
• ID photos and licence uploaded with a guide application (approved applicants) — Until the guide listing is removed
• Application data of rejected applicants, including ID photos — Kept with the application record; not deleted automatically today
• ID, licence and insurance documents uploaded in the guide dashboard — While you are a guide, so we can track expiry; deleted when your guide listing is removed
• Identity verification and background-check outcomes — While you are a guide and 5 years after, to prevent fraud and repeat applications
• Selfies, ID images and face data held by Persona or Stripe — Under the provider's own retention settings (see the Persona and Stripe privacy notices)
• Background reports held by Checkr — Under Checkr's retention schedule and the law that applies
• Application IP address and location check — Kept with the application record
• Moderation results — As long as the content exists
• Support conversations — 2 years
• Analytics data — 14 months
• Calendar event titles — Until you disconnect the calendar

NoteWander does not itself collect or store biometric identifiers. When a guide verifies their identity, our provider (Persona or Stripe Identity) collects a selfie and ID photo and creates facial geometry from them, solely to check that the person matches the ID. We do not sell, lease or trade biometric information, and we instruct our providers to use it only to perform the check. It is disclosed only to the provider performing the check, or where the law requires. It is deleted as set out in §7. You may decline or withdraw consent by not completing verification; this prevents guide activation but does not affect your traveller account.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of your information; to object to or restrict processing; to withdraw consent; to opt out of targeted advertising or "sharing"; to limit the use of sensitive information (such as government ID and biometric data); and not to be discriminated against for using these rights. You can delete your account yourself from Settings › Delete account. For other requests, email privacy@notewander.com. We will verify your identity before acting, reply within the time the law sets (usually 30 or 45 days), and you may use an authorised agent where the law allows. If we refuse a request, you can appeal by replying to our decision; we will answer the appeal within 45 days. You can also complain to your data-protection authority.

NoteWander is based in the United States and works with providers in the US and elsewhere, so your information is processed outside your country. Where EU or UK law requires, we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK addendum), or on the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where a provider is certified.

We use administrative, technical and organisational measures to protect personal information, including encryption in transit, access controls that keep identity data visible only to you and authorised staff, and server-side rules that clients cannot change. No system is 100% secure.

NoteWander is not intended for children under 16. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 16. If we learn that a user is under 16, their account is blocked and then removed.

We will tell you about material changes by email or in the app at least 15 days before they take effect. The date at the top shows when this policy last changed.

privacy@notewander.com · NoteWander LLC, 7305 Pioneer Hwy, Stanwood, WA 98292, USA.