Privacy Policy

Signum Outdoors ("Signum", "we", "us") makes the Signum app for Android and runs this website. Signum lets a group of people on a trip see each other on a map and send messages over compatible radios when there is no cell service. This policy covers the Signum Android app, this website (signumoutdoors.com), and our waitlists. It is written to be read.

The short version

• The app keeps your data on your phone. Groups, messages, photos, voice messages, waypoints, tracks, saved radios and settings are stored on the device. There is no Signum account and no Signum server that receives them.
• Your group sees what you send. Messages, positions, photos and the rest go to your group over your own radio, because that is what the app is for. Anyone in the group can keep a copy.
• A few features use the internet (map downloads, map search, the public-land layer). They send little, and we list exactly what below.
• We do not sell your data, show ads, or run analytics or crash-reporting services in the app.
• This website collects an email address and a few answers only if you join a waitlist.

The Signum Android app

What the app stores on your phone

Saved radio details, groups and their private connection details, messages, photos and voice messages you send or receive, waypoints, recorded tracks, last-known positions of group members, the places you searched for, map files you downloaded, and your settings (including your display name and chosen colour). If you turn on an app lock, its PIN, pattern or biometric setting is kept on the phone. Group connection secrets are encrypted with Android's keystore. The app turns Android's automatic cloud backup off, so none of this is copied to a Google account by the app.

What the app uses, and why

• Bluetooth (scan and connect). To find and connect to your own compatible radio. Bluetooth data goes only to that radio.
• Location (GPS). To show your position on the map, work out distance and direction back to a saved place, and, only if you switch on "Record my track" (or live tracking), to record your path on the phone. Android's location service, provided by Google Play services, supplies the position. Your phone's position leaves the phone only when you, or a setting you turned on, send it to your group over your radio.
• Camera. To scan a group's QR code, and to take a photo when you choose to send one. The camera is never used in the background.
• Photos you choose. If you pick a photo from your gallery to send, the app reads only that photo.
• Microphone. Only while you hold the record button on a voice message. The recording is turned into small radio packets for your group and is not uploaded anywhere.
• Notifications and vibration. To alert you to new messages and to show a status notification while the app is listening for messages in the background. You can turn both off in the app.
• Background listening. A foreground service keeps the connection to your radio open so messages still arrive when the app is not on screen. It shows a "Signum is listening" notification, and you can stop it from there or in Settings.
• Biometrics. Only if you choose to protect the app with fingerprint or face unlock. The app asks Android to check it and never sees your fingerprint or face.
• Keeping the screen or CPU awake briefly, to finish radio sends and downloads.
• Internet. Only for the features in the next two sections.

What goes over the radio

Group messages, positions, waypoints, help alerts, photos, voice messages, recorded tracks you choose to share, reactions, and radio checks travel between the radios in your group on a private connection protected by the group's shared secret. Everyone who has joined the group has that secret, so everyone in the group can read what is sent, and a member can keep or share what they receive. We cannot see any of it and cannot remove it from another person's phone. Radio signals can be picked up by other radios in range, though without the group's secret they cannot read the content. A position always carries its source and age, because a last-known position can be old. A help alert goes to your group only. It is not a call to emergency services.

What the app sends over the internet

When you use these features, the service on the other end can see the phone's internet (IP) address and the request itself. Nothing is sent that names you, and the app sends no messages, group details, display name, radio details or account identifier to any of them.

• Offline map downloads. Map and terrain files are fetched from our own map file server at maps.signumoutdoors.com, which serves plain files. The request names the file for the area you chose, which is roughly where you plan to be. Like any web server it keeps an access log with your IP address, the file requested and the time; we use it to keep the service running and to spot abuse, and we do not link it to anyone. The downloaded files are stored on your phone. If our server cannot supply an area, the app cuts the same area out of the public Protomaps map of the world (map data from OpenStreetMap, hosted by Protomaps at build.protomaps.com) and, for terrain, loads elevation tiles from the public Mapzen terrain dataset on Amazon Web Services. Those services see your IP address and which area you asked for, and have their own privacy policies.
• Maps while you are online. When you view an area you have not saved and the app has a connection, the map loads the pieces it needs from the public Protomaps map of the world, again naming the area on screen.
• Public-land layer. If you switch it on, the app fetches picture tiles of land-management boundaries from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's public map service for the area on screen.
• Map search. Coordinates you type are read on the phone and go nowhere. If you type a place name or address, the text you have typed so far is sent, after a short pause and once it is at least three letters, to the Photon search service (photon.komoot.io, built on OpenStreetMap data) so it can suggest matches. Nothing else is sent with it.
• Links. If you tap a link, for example the radio buying options during setup, it opens in your browser. Some of those links are affiliate links, so we may earn a commission if you buy. The store's own privacy policy then applies.

What we do not do

• We do not run a server that receives your messages, locations, photos, voice, groups or radio settings.
• We do not sell or rent your data, and we do not share it for advertising.
• The app has no advertising, analytics or crash-reporting libraries and requires no account.
• The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data.

Keeping and deleting your data

App data stays on your phone until you remove it. You can delete a group, clear all Signum data, or delete saved map areas inside the app, and uninstalling the app removes everything it stored. Clearing the app does not change your radio's own settings, which is a separate action in the app. If you make a backup file, you choose where it goes and protect it with a passphrase you set. We cannot read or recover it.

This website and our waitlists

If you join the field-test list, we store your email and your answer about what you do outdoors, plus the page or button you came from and the time you signed up. A follow-up page can add your name, group size, the phones your group uses, whether you run trips for others, and what is hardest about group trips. All of that is optional. Joining the list for the Signum Puck, our coming-soon radio, stores your email, your optional answer about what you do outdoors, the page you came from, and the time.

We use it to choose which groups to invite to field tests, to email you about them, and to tell you about the puck. We do not sell or share it. Signups are delivered to a private Discord channel that our team reads, so Discord handles that data on our behalf. We keep a signup until you ask us to remove it.

If you send us a message through the contact form, we store the message and the optional name and email you type, and the topic you chose. It is delivered to the same private Discord channel and we use it only to answer you. The form uses Cloudflare Turnstile, a bot check, so the page loads a script from Cloudflare, which sees your IP address and some browser details to tell people from bots. Our site may also be served through Cloudflare's network, which processes each request, including your IP address, on our behalf. We do not publish an email address; the form is how to reach us.

The site sets one cookie, a security token that protects the signup form from forged requests. It has no analytics, no advertising and no tracking pixels. Fonts load from Google Fonts, so Google sees your IP address when a page loads.

Your choices and rights

You can ask us what we hold about you from a waitlist, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, and you can unsubscribe from our emails at any time. We will do it without charge. Depending on where you live, you may have further rights under local law, and we will respect them. Data in the app is yours to control on your own phone, as described above.

Who handles data for us

Discord (waitlist and contact messages), Cloudflare (bot check and network), Google (Fonts on this site, and Play services location and the Play Store for the app), and the map and search providers listed above. Each has its own privacy policy. We do not give any of them more than described here.

Security

App data is kept in the app's private storage on your phone, group secrets are encrypted with Android's keystore, and you can add an app lock. The website is served over HTTPS. No system is perfectly secure, so keep your phone locked and keep your group's QR code to your group.

Changes

If the app or this site starts collecting something new, such as accounts, cloud sync, or billing, we will update this page before it does and change the effective date. The date at the top is the version in force.

Contact

Questions, or a request to see, correct or remove your details: use the contact form (choose "A privacy request"), or reply to any email we send you.