Privacy Policy: CampOwl

Last updated: November 5, 2026.

The short version

CampOwl is local-first: your vehicle build, gear, trips and checklists live on your device. Accounts are optional. They exist for sharing trips and Cloud Backup. The app asks weather, map, place, photo, and routing services for what a trip needs, and sends each only what its feature requires. We run no ads and no analytics. CampOwl does not use artificial intelligence, and your data is not used to train any model.

What stays on your device

Everything you enter is stored in the app’s on-device storage. That includes your vehicle build profile and your gear library. It includes photos you attach to items. It includes trips, meal plans and packing state. It includes maintenance records, settings and your starting address. Gear photos are copied into the app’s own folder on your device. They are never uploaded. When you save a trip for no signal, the app also downloads that trip’s map picture and destination photo into its own folder on your device, so they open at camp. Those files stay on the device, are not uploaded, and are removed when the trip is deleted. Deleting the app removes all of it. Using Settings › “Erase this device’s data” also removes all of it from this device. That action does not delete your account. Shared trips stay on the server until you stop sharing them or delete your account from the Account card.

Your personal packing list (the “Mine” lane on a shared trip) never leaves this device, even when the trip is shared.

Settings offers an export of the data in the app’s main store, as JSON text through the system share sheet. It is not a file. It includes your starting address and its coordinates. It includes your trip notes and your debrief notes. Data held outside the main store is not included. Your personal packing list is not part of it. Where the text goes is your choice.

Accounts and shared trips

You can sign in with an email link. Our backend provider, Supabase, runs the account system and stores your email address for sign-in. The sign-in email itself is delivered by Resend, which receives your email address in order to send it.

Two-factor authentication is optional. If you turn it on in Settings, signing in also asks for a code from an authenticator app. Supabase stores the authenticator secret. CampOwl stores recovery codes only as one-way hashes. Using a recovery code turns two-factor authentication off.

When you share a trip, its contents are stored with Supabase. The shared packet carries the whole trip record.

The trip itself: That record includes the trip details and destination coordinates. It includes the dates, the party size, and the camp profile answers. It includes your free-text trip notes. It also includes the snapshot of the vehicle build the trip was planned with.

Meals, packing, and gear: The packet also carries the meal plan. It carries the packing and pre-departure state. It carries snapshots of the gear lines on the trip.

Debrief: If a post-trip debrief exists, the packet carries that too. A debrief includes its plan figures, its answers about what was left over, and the note its author wrote on it.

Photos: A photo you attach to a trip is not in the packet. Trip photos are copied into the app’s own folder on your device, like gear photos. The packet never carries the photo or its file path. The automatic destination photo is different. It is a web photo, and the packet carries its web address, its credit line, and its page link.

The people you invite can see all of this. They can edit it if you allow editing. People on the trip also see your display name. Your profile stores only your display name. When a member is named as bringing an item, the packet carries their account identifier with that item. That is how every member’s app shows who brings what.

Your shared trips may show a Founding badge beside your name. The badge shows plan status only. Nothing else about your plan or your purchases is shared.

Trips you do not share stay on your device, unless you turn on Cloud Backup.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time in Settings › Account › Delete account and shared data. That deletes your profile, the trips you own and your memberships from the server, and wipes this device.

Gear import, insights, and documents

When you import a gear file, CampOwl reads the file you pick on your device. The import itself does not send that file to a server.

Trip insights are worked out on your device from your trips and debriefs.

Emergency details stay on your device by default. They appear in a camp packet or a data export only when you make one. They join a cloud backup only if you turn on the separate Include emergency details switch in Cloud Backup. That switch is off unless you turn it on.

Dog health records stay on your device by default. They are the details you type in for a dog on a trip. They are never shared with the people on your trips, and they do not appear in a trip sheet or a camp packet. They appear in a data export only when you make one. They join a cloud backup only if you turn on the separate Include dog health records switch in Cloud Backup. That switch is off unless you turn it on.

Feature requests are sent through your own mail app, same as feedback.

Cloud Backup

Cloud Backup is off unless you turn it on.

It needs a CampOwl account and Pro.

When it is on, CampOwl sends your backup data to Supabase, the app’s database provider.

The backup holds trips, gear, bins, vehicle builds, household profiles, meal data, debriefs, maintenance records, your starting address, and settings that belong to your own trips. Emergency details are in the backup only when their separate switch is on. Dog health records are in the backup only when their separate switch is on.

Local photo files do not upload in this version.

A photo path may be removed from the backup when the photo lives only on the device.

Personal packing marked Mine never uploads.

A joined shared trip does not upload as your own data.

A device ID and app version travel with the backup record.

CampOwl keeps up to five prior backup versions. They guard against a bad replace.

If the copy on your device and the copy in the cloud have both changed, CampOwl asks you to choose which one to keep, every time. It never merges the two on its own.

Signing out stops sync on that device.

Turning backup off stops later uploads.

Delete cloud backup removes the cloud copy on request.

When Pro ends, uploads and downloads pause. Your local data stays on your device. CampOwl keeps the cloud copy for 90 days after Pro lapses.

Deleting your account removes the backup and its versions within 30 days.

Network requests the app makes

Weather: to fetch a forecast, the app first sends your trip destination name to the Open-Meteo geocoding service. It then sends the coordinates of that place to the Open-Meteo forecast service. For a dispersed trip (camping outside a campground) it skips that step and uses the spot’s coordinates directly.

Elevation: the app sends coordinates to Open-Meteo, the same service as weather. It does this for your home base. It also does this for a trip destination when that destination has coordinates but no elevation yet.

Map tiles: the campground map on a trip and the spot picker for a dispersed trip load map tiles from Esri ArcGIS (server.arcgisonline.com). The app requests tiles for the area around your trip destination, or around the spot you are picking. That includes a spot you have not saved yet. Esri therefore receives tile coordinates derived from the destination or from the prospective spot. When you save a trip for no signal, the app downloads the tiles for the area around that trip’s destination in advance and keeps them on your device; Esri receives those tile coordinates at save time, and the saved tiles are not requested again at camp.

Open in Maps: when you tap Open in Maps and choose Google Maps or Apple Maps, the app hands that service the trip’s exact coordinates so it can show the place. That handoff happens only when you tap it.

Share as GPX: when you tap Share as GPX, the app makes a file holding the trip’s destination name and coordinates, and hands it to the app you pick in the share sheet. That handoff happens only when you tap it.

Send to vehicle: when you tap Send to vehicle and pick your vehicle app in the share sheet, that app receives the trip’s destination name, or its coordinates when the destination has no name. Your vehicle maker may send that to its own servers to find the place. That handoff happens only when you tap it and pick the app.

Place search: when you type in a destination or starting-address field, the text you type is sent to Photon (photon.komoot.io), an OpenStreetMap-based search service, so it can suggest matching places.

Place addresses: the app also sends trip coordinates to Photon in the other direction. Photon returns an address line for those coordinates, so you can confirm the right campground. For a dispersed trip, Photon returns the area the spot is in instead of an address. The app also sends trip coordinates to Photon to find the region of a destination before a photo search.

Land manager: for a dispersed trip, the app sends the spot’s coordinates to the USGS PAD-US service (ArcGIS) to name the land manager for that spot.

Destination photos: to find a photo for a trip destination, the app sends the destination name to the Unsplash photo search. For a dispersed trip it sends the resolved area instead. It never sends your spot label. The search may use a broadened form of that name or area. The photo itself then loads from the service that hosts it. When you save a trip for no signal, the app also downloads that photo onto your device, so it shows at camp without a connection.

Gear photo search: when you use Find a product photo on a gear item, the app sends the item’s name as a search query to a CampOwl server function. The function passes the query to Brave Search. Thumbnails of the matches load from the services that host them. If you pick a match, the app downloads that image from its host. The search sends the item name only. Your own photos are never sent for the search.

Food barcode lookup: when you scan or type a food barcode in the pantry, the app sends the barcode to Open Food Facts (world.openfoodfacts.org), which returns the product’s name and package size for you to check before anything is saved. Nothing else from your pantry, your meals, or your library goes with the barcode.

Driving distance: when both a starting address and a destination have coordinates, the app sends those two coordinate pairs to the OpenStreetMap routing service (OSRM) to estimate the drive.

Accounts and sharing: the app talks to Supabase to sign you in and to sync trips you share, as described above.

Purchases: the app talks to the app store and to RevenueCat to show store prices, to process a purchase, and to check whether a Pro entitlement is active. When you sign in, the app also sends RevenueCat your CampOwl account identifier. RevenueCat uses it to tie purchases and plan status to your account. The identifier is an internal account ID. It is not your name or your email address.

Trip invites: an invite link you choose to send (campowl.app/join) carries the invite code and your first name in the link itself. Opening the link sends both to the campowl.app server, so the page can greet the person you invited with your first name. The app’s own join screen does not use the name, and the code alone is what joins the trip.

Each request above carries only what its feature needs. Apart from the invite link, which carries your first name as described above, none of them carries your name. The feature requests do not carry your gear library. Those services have their own privacy policies.

Credits: the credit lines under the Moon and the trip globe are links. Tapping one opens that credit’s page in your browser. The Moon credits go to NASA SVS and to Solar System Scope. The globe credit goes to NASA Visible Earth. The website link in Settings opens campowl.app in your browser.

Location permission

If you grant location access, it is used on the device for the night-sky finder. It points at the Moon and constellations from where you stand. It shows rise times for your position. Your location is not stored by us and is never transmitted.

Camera and photo library permissions

The camera scans bin QR stickers. It also takes photos of gear items. The photo library lets you pick a photo for a gear item. Scanning and photo processing stay on your device. Photos are never uploaded.

Purchases

When Pro and the lifetime plans are available to buy, purchases are processed by the app store and our subscription provider. They confirm to the app whether a Pro entitlement is active; your payment details go to the store, never to us, and your library data is never shared with them.

Children

CampOwl is a general-audience planning tool. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from children.

Website waitlist

The CampOwl home page offers a launch waitlist. If you join it, the email address you enter is processed by FormSubmit and forwarded to our support inbox. We use it for one purpose: one email when CampOwl launches. We keep waitlist addresses until that launch email has been sent, and then we delete them. You can ask us to delete your address at any time by writing to support@campowl.app.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the new version will appear here and in the app with a new date. Questions: support@campowl.app.