Last updated: October 2, 2026
No required account or visitor GPS tracking
Browsing, reading, listening, and building a walk do not require an account. We do not request access to your device’s GPS, collect GPS coordinates from visitors, or maintain visitors’ movement histories. Stop coordinates describe historical places, not visitors.
Information used on your device
Your selected stops, manually chosen starting point, and tour progress may be held in your browser’s session storage. Address matching and walking-route calculations happen in the browser using our locally hosted map data. These starting addresses and route selections are not sent to our database or an external geocoding service. Your browser may remember a safety acknowledgment. Closing the tab or clearing site storage removes session data.
Display preferences
Text size, contrast, and reduced-motion settings may be saved in your browser’s local storage. They are used only to display the site on that device and are not sent to our database or Analytics. Reset display preferences or clear site storage to remove them.
Language preference
A first-party cookie remembers your choice of English or Español. English is the default. Missing Spanish content falls back to English. This preference is not an advertising identifier.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics to understand general website use and improve the experience. It may use cookies and process information about pages viewed, browser or device, and approximate geographic information inferred from network information. This is different from device GPS. The website does not provide an on-site Analytics opt-out control.
Our integration does not assign visitor account IDs or intentionally send starting addresses, route coordinates, form values, URL queries, or fragments to Analytics. Advertising-personalization and Google-signals options are disabled in our tag. Google’s separate services and account-level settings also govern data handling. Google’s privacy policy describes its practices.
Maps and external links
Map images are requested from OpenStreetMap’s tile service. That service receives network information, such as an IP address, and requests identifying displayed map areas. It does not receive your device GPS through this website. OpenStreetMap Foundation’s privacy policy applies. Sponsor links and other external links lead to independent websites with their own policies.
External directions and Facebook
Walking-direction buttons send only the destination of a stop to Apple Maps or Google Maps. A separate public viewing point is preferred; otherwise the stop’s main coordinates are used. The chosen service may request your location under its own privacy policy. We do not receive that location. Facebook links open an external page; no Facebook feed, tracking pixel, or embedded social widget is loaded here.
Security and volunteer accounts
Web hosting and security systems can keep technical request logs, including IP addresses and timestamps. Our application uses short-lived, keyed hashes of IP addresses to reduce automated abuse. Volunteer account information, security cookies, password-reset records, and administrative activity are used to operate and protect the site. They are not public.
Private expert contributions
Invited experts may submit story text, scripts, photographs, and sources through a private stop-specific link. The recipient email, invitation history, saved revisions, and script documents are kept in the private volunteer backend for editorial review. These details are not published with the stop. Approved story text, photographs, and deliberately entered photo credits may be published by an administrator. Invitations expire 10 days after the first accepted invitation email, or sooner when revoked or the stop is published. Saved contributions and private revision history may be retained after access expires.
A separate security session supports the expert editor. A theme-preview preference may remain in your browser for up to 12 hours. Neither is an advertising identifier. The private contribution pages do not load Analytics or third-party maps.
No sale or rental
We do not sell or rent the information we hold. Service providers may process information as described above to deliver hosting, maps, analytics, and email services.
Retention and questions
Application abuse counters are removed through scheduled maintenance. Administrative audit logs are retained for up to 365 days by default. Content revisions and retired stories may be retained for editorial history. Private backups can contain earlier records and configuration; deleting a record from the active site does not erase independent backup copies. Hosting logs, backups, and Google Analytics retention are governed by their separate settings and policies.