Privacy policy
Last updated 30 September 2026
Switchback Bindery turns the photos and stories from a walk into a printed journal. Your photos are personal, so this page says plainly what we keep, who handles it, and what we never do with it.
What we collect
- Your email address (and name, if you add one) to sign you in.
- Photos you upload, including the metadata inside them (capture time, camera, and GPS location if your camera recorded it), plus the ratings, groups, captions and stories you write.
- Trip plans and attachments you add, and the articles and journals you build.
- Basic technical data your browser sends (IP address, browser type), used for security and rate limiting, and usage information gathered by analytics.
How we use it
Only to run the service: signing you in, storing and displaying your photos, building your layouts and PDFs, and sharing with the people you choose. We do not sell your data and do not use your photos to train any model.
Who can see your content
- You, and anyone you invite to a trip as a contributor.
- Anyone with a public share link you create. Links are unguessable but not password protected, so treat them like a private URL and remove them when done.
- We do not browse your content. Access by the operator is limited to what is needed to keep the service running or investigate a problem you report.
Services that handle your data
We use trusted service providers to run Switchback Bindery: for hosting, database and file storage, email delivery, and, if you ask for it, AI writing feedback. They process data only on our behalf and for those purposes. On request we will tell you which providers we use.
If you press “Review” on a story, that story’s text and brief trip context are sent to an AI provider to generate feedback. Photos are not sent.
If we add print ordering, the payment processor and print vendor will receive what is needed to take payment and ship your order (such as your shipping address and the journal PDF), and this page will be updated first.
Cookies, analytics and advertising
We use cookies to keep you signed in. We also use Google Analytics, on every page including shared pages, to understand how Switchback Bindery is used: which pages are visited, how people move between them, and roughly where visitors are from. It records the kind of page viewed, not your photos, stories, captions or the contents of a share link, and we do not send it your name or email. Share-link and invitation codes are removed before anything is sent. We turn off Google’s advertising features for this data. We may also advertise Switchback Bindery elsewhere.
We do not sell your personal data, and we never use your photos, stories or trip details for advertising or share them with advertisers. Where the law requires your consent for analytics, we ask for it first. You can accept or decline analytics cookies in the banner, and change your choice at any time: .
Retention and deletion
We keep your content until you delete it. Deleting a photo, trip or story removes it from the service; backups may retain copies for a limited time before being overwritten. To delete your account and everything in it, email support@switchbk.com. Content you contributed to someone else’s trip stays on that trip while its owner keeps it, unless you ask us to remove it.
Your rights
You can ask to access, correct, export or delete your personal data at any time by emailing us. Depending on where you live, you may have further rights under laws such as the GDPR or CCPA, and we will honour them.
Security
Connections use HTTPS, photos are served through short-lived signed links, and access to every trip is checked on the server. No system is perfectly secure, so keep your own copies of photos you care about.
Photos of other people
Trips often include other people who are not account holders. If you upload photos of them, you are responsible for having the permission to do so, such as a parent or guardian’s agreement for children who are not your own, and for deciding who to share them with. We treat those photos like all your content: they are private to you and your invited contributors unless you create a share link, we do not use face recognition, and we never use them for advertising.
Photos can contain location data. We store it with the photo’s record but do not display it, and the resized copies we serve do not include it. Still, think before you share a link to photos. Accounts are for adults: the service is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.
Changes and contact
If we make a material change we will update the date above and, where it affects you, tell you by email. Questions: support@switchbk.com.