Privacy Policy

Effective date: July 16, 2026
Last updated: October 10, 2026

Your finds are yours.

Lodester is an iPhone app for people who search for gold, gems, minerals, and historical artifacts. It is published by Payam Mohammadi (“we”, “us”), an individual developer reachable at support@lodester.com. This policy covers Lodester 1.0 for iPhone (bundle ID com.lodester.app). There is no Android version yet; this policy will be updated before there is one.

Short version: there is no account. The things you record — finds, notes, photos, routes, waypoints and projects — are stored on your iPhone in Lodester’s encrypted storage, and we never receive them. To work, the app does talk to online services: the map is drawn from map tiles downloaded from our own map servers and from map providers (which see the area you are looking at), and the map engine (Mapbox) sends its own start-up and map-load messages. If the app crashes, it sends a crash report. Unless Stealth Mode is on, the app can also send geology look-ups and place searches, and, if you tap Improve this map in the map credits, Mapbox’s feedback page opens at the map location you are viewing. Section 4 lists every one of these, what is sent, and to whom.

1. No account, no cloud copy of your data

Lodester 1.0 has no user account, no sign-in and no cloud sync. We do not receive, store or have access to your finds, notes, photos, routes, waypoints or projects. Some online requests in Section 4 necessarily reveal a place (for example, which map area you are viewing) and your IP address to the service that answers them.

2. What is stored on your iPhone

• Finds (title, category, notes, estimated value, date, details), waypoints, routes and projects, including their coordinates, are stored in an encrypted database (SQLCipher, AES-256) whose key is generated on your iPhone and kept in the iPhone’s Keychain, usable only on this device.
• Photos you take or attach to a find are stored protected by iOS Data Protection, which keeps them encrypted whenever your iPhone is locked. Location data (GPS EXIF) is removed from photos when they are saved.
• Backups: your photos and your database are excluded from iCloud and computer backups. Because the encryption key never leaves this iPhone, a backup or a new phone cannot restore your Lodester data. If you delete the app or move to a new phone, your Lodester data does not come with you.
• Map areas you download for offline use, and map tiles the map engine caches while you browse, are stored on the iPhone. They contain map data only — none of your records. Lodester marks its downloaded map areas as excluded from iCloud and computer backups; the map engine manages its own cache.
• Deleting: when you delete a find, waypoint, route or project, it is removed from your lists and screens, but its data is kept in Lodester’s encrypted storage on this iPhone (this version never erases records outright). Photos are different: when you remove a photo from a find and save, Lodester’s copy of that photo is deleted from this iPhone (a photo chosen from your Photo Library stays in the Photos app). The photos of a deleted find are kept with it. Once you have saved at least one find, Lodester also deletes, when the app starts, leftover photo files that no find refers to (for example, photos added to a form you then cancelled). Everything is erased when you delete the app.

3. Permissions

• Camera and Photo Library — to take or attach photos of finds.
• Location (While Using the App) — to show your position, tag finds and pins, and record routes. When you start recording a route, Lodester keeps recording while the app is in the background and while the iPhone is locked, until you pause or stop it. Pausing or stopping turns location off immediately. iOS shows its location indicator while recording. Outside a recording you started, Lodester does not use your location in the background.
• Internet — for the services in Section 4.

If you deny a permission, the related feature is unavailable; the rest keeps working.

4. What leaves your iPhone, and to whom

Every request below also reveals your device’s IP address and a standard technical header (app name and build, iOS and network-library version) to the service that receives it. We never add your finds, notes or photos to these requests.

4.1 Lodester map servers — tiles.lodester.com, wiki.lodester.com (run by us, hosted on Cloudflare). Whenever a map is shown, the app downloads the map style and the map tiles for the area on screen (tile coordinates reveal roughly which area you are viewing; at close zoom a tile covers a few kilometres). The same goes for the overlay layers you turn on that we host ourselves (geology, structure, placer, prospectivity, hydrology, magnetic, fossil records). This includes the Dashboard map preview, which shows the area of your most recent project. When you download an area for offline use, the app requests every tile inside the area you framed, which reveals that area. Cloudflare processes these requests for us. We have not turned on request logging for these servers, so we do not keep request logs. Cloudflare handles these requests under its own privacy policy.

4.2 Mapbox (map engine and services; Mapbox, Inc., USA). Lodester draws maps with the Mapbox Maps SDK. We have switched off the SDK’s optional usage telemetry, but the SDK still sends the messages Mapbox requires for licensing and billing, which we are not permitted to disable:

• when the app starts: a configuration request to config.mapbox.com;
• each time a map opens: a “turnstile” (billing) event and a map-load event to events.mapbox.com, which can include an identifier Apple assigns to this app on your device (identifierForVendor), your device model, iOS version, screen and orientation settings, and whether you are on Wi-Fi;
• SDK session requests to api.mapbox.com that carry a random identifier the SDK stores for this installation.

The app also loads from Mapbox (api.mapbox.com):

• the dark map (style and tiles) used in the location picker and the area and route drawing screens — these tiles cover the area around the find, route or project you are editing;
• Satellite imagery tiles for the area on screen when you choose the Satellite base map, and under the Relief base map outside USGS coverage;
• place search (Stealth Mode off only): the text you type in the map search box. Text that looks like coordinates, in any format, is never sent; it is handled on your iPhone. If your search matches a bundled mine record, it is answered on your iPhone and not sent, unless you choose “Search places online”. Search is sent only when you press Search, not as you type.

Mapbox handles this under its own privacy policy. The (i) button on every map opens Lodester’s map credits panel, which links to Mapbox’s attribution, telemetry and privacy pages (see 4.10). Mapbox may also use these SDK messages for its own analytics.

4.3 U.S. Geological Survey, The National Map (basemap.nationalmap.gov). Imagery tiles for the Relief base map and, when you turn it on, tiles for the Shaded Relief layer, for the area on screen.

4.4 OpenFreeMap (tiles.openfreemap.org). Map label tiles (place, water and road names) for the area on screen, and the font files used to draw them.

4.5 OpenTopoMap (tile.opentopomap.org). Terrain base map (Prospector): tiles for the area on screen.

4.6 U.S. Bureau of Land Management (gis.blm.gov). Public Lands (land status) and Fossil Potential (PFYC) layers, when turned on: tiles for the area on screen.

4.7 Macrostrat, University of Wisconsin–Madison (macrostrat.org) (Stealth Mode off only). When you tap a geologic formation on the map, the app asks Macrostrat about the rock unit at the exact point you tapped (its latitude and longitude). We do not round this point, because rounding can move it into a neighbouring unit near a boundary and give you the wrong answer. The point you tap may be where you are or where you dig.

4.8 Sentry — crash reports (Functional Software, Inc., processed in the USA). If the app crashes, a crash report is sent, usually the next time you open the app. If the app hits an error that stops a screen from drawing (you then see “Something went wrong” with a Try again button), the same kind of report is sent right away. Nothing is sent otherwise: there are no usage sessions, no activity trail (“breadcrumbs”), no performance tracing and no reports of slow or frozen screens. A crash report contains: the type and place of the crash (a stack trace of the app’s code; for errors in the app’s JavaScript, coordinate-like numbers are removed from the error text; a native crash report carries stack frames, not the app’s data values), app version and build, iOS name, version, build and kernel version, device model and model identifier, processor type, total and free memory, screen size, language/region setting, whether Low Power Mode was on, whether the device is jailbroken, whether the app was in the foreground, and the time of the crash. It carries no identifier that is unique to you, your device or your installation (every install reports the same fixed identifier). It never contains your finds, photos, routes, notes, searches or locations. Sentry receives your IP address when the report is sent and may store it with the report. Reports are kept for up to 90 days. We use crash reports only to fix crashes.

4.9 Apple. Subscriptions, purchases and restores are handled by the App Store; Apple processes payment and your Apple Account under its own terms, and we never see your payment details. The app checks your subscription status with the App Store when it starts. If you tap Navigate on a find (or Directions on a mine), the find’s coordinates and title (or the mine’s location and name) are handed to Apple Maps, which opens outside Lodester.

4.10 Web links. Tapping Privacy Policy or Terms of Use opens lodester.com or apple.com in your browser. The map credits panel (the (i) button on every map) links to the websites of the map’s sources — Mapbox, OpenStreetMap and, on the Satellite and Relief base maps, Maxar. Its Improve this map link opens Mapbox’s map-feedback page (apps.mapbox.com): with Stealth Mode off, the link includes the centre and zoom level of the map you are viewing, which can be your own location, a find you just opened or one of your projects (on the Dashboard map), so Mapbox receives that point when the page loads; with Stealth Mode on, the link carries no location. That page may also ask your browser for your location, which you can decline. Pages you open this way are handled by those websites under their own privacy policies, and stay in your browser’s history like any page you visit.

We do not use analytics, advertising or tracking SDKs, we do not track you across apps or websites, and we do not sell or share your data. The Mapbox events in 4.2 are sent for Mapbox’s licensing and billing; we do not receive them.

5. Stealth Mode

Stealth Mode is on when you first open Lodester; you can switch it in Settings. While it is on, Lodester does not look up geology at Macrostrat and does not send place searches to Mapbox (search then covers coordinates and the bundled mine records only), and the Improve this map link (4.10) opens Mapbox’s feedback page without the map’s location. Map tiles still load from the map services in 4.1–4.6, and the Mapbox SDK messages in 4.2 are still sent, because the map cannot work without them. Stealth Mode does not affect crash reports: for all users, a crash report is sent only if the app crashes, as described in 4.8.

6. How we use data

The app uses your content only on your iPhone to provide its features. The only information that reaches a service we operate is described in 4.1 (to deliver maps) and 4.8 (to fix crashes). We do not upload your photos and do not use them for any other purpose.

7. Security

Your records are stored in an encrypted database on your iPhone; photos are protected as described in Section 2. Protect your iPhone with a passcode, since your data lives on it.

8. Your choices and rights

• Switch Stealth Mode on or off (Section 5); don’t use place search or geology taps if you prefer.
• Revoke camera, photo or location access in iOS Settings at any time.
• Delete items in the app (see “Deleting” in Section 2), or delete the app to erase everything.

Depending on where you live (for example the EU/UK under GDPR, or California under the CCPA/CPRA) you may have rights to access, correct or delete personal data. We hold no account and none of your content. Map-server requests (4.1) and crash reports (4.8) are not linked to you; contact us with any request and we will help as far as we can.

9. Children

Lodester is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country), and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.

10. Services the app contacts

11. Changes

If we change this policy (for example when a future version adds accounts, sync or photo uploads), we will update the “Last updated” date and, where appropriate, tell you in the app before the change applies.

12. Contact

Payam Mohammadi · support@lodester.com

Plain-language privacy policy for Lodester 1.0 on iPhone. Not legal advice.