EECSATrail
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Privacy Policy

Effective date: July 13, 2026

This policy explains what ECSATrail collects, why, and how you stay in control. We've written it in plain language — if anything is unclear, contact us using the details below.

1. Who we are

ECSATrail is an AI-driven travel planner for Vietnam. This policy covers the ECSATrail web app and its background services (AI chat, itinerary generation, trip monitoring, push notifications). For privacy questions, data requests, or concerns, contact us at privacy@ecsatrail.example (placeholder — update with a monitored address before launch).

2. Data we collect

We collect the following categories of data:

  • Account information: Your email address and, if you sign in with Google, the basic profile info Google shares (name, avatar). We use this to create and secure your account.
  • Plans and itineraries: The trips, stops, dates, and notes you create or save — whether generated by AI, authored manually, or copied from another creator.
  • AI chat messages: The messages you send to the AI planner while creating or editing a trip, and the responses it generates.
  • Accuracy votes and feedback: When you rate a stop as accurate or inaccurate, or leave feedback, we store that vote against the place and your account so we can improve place data quality over time.
  • Push notification subscription: If you enable trip alerts, your browser registers a push subscription (an endpoint and encryption keys) for that specific device, and we store the device's browser identifier (user agent) so you can recognize which device a subscription belongs to. It contains no personal content by itself — it is only an address we send alerts to. You can have multiple subscriptions (one per device) and revoke any of them at any time.
  • Location — only during opt-in Trip Mode: If you turn on Trip Mode for an active trip, your browser checks your device location while the trip screen is open, to suggest a check-in when you're near your next stop. This only runs in the foreground — never in the background — and we do not build a location history or trail. We only store a check-in you actually confirm, along with the accuracy and distance reported at that moment. You can turn Trip Mode off at any time from the trip's header.
  • Acquisition attribution cookie: On your first visit, a first-party cookie (ecsa_acq) records which channel brought you — for example a marketing channel, source, medium, campaign, and the referring website's host. This is a non-personal label, not cross-site tracking, captured once at signup.
  • Product analytics: We record which pages and features you use (route visited, feature name, timestamp) along with basic interaction signals (normalized click position, viewport size, and interaction-quality flags such as repeated or unresponsive clicks) to understand usage patterns and improve the product. This is aggregated for analysis and not sold to third parties.

3. AI processing

Chat conversations and itinerary generation are processed by Google Gemini, a third-party AI model. Your messages and relevant trip context are sent to Gemini to generate responses, suggestions, and itineraries.

Before any chat message reaches the AI model, we automatically scan and redact sensitive patterns — credit card numbers, phone numbers, and Vietnamese ID card numbers — so this information never leaves our servers in a chat request.

Your AI premium subscription status determines which model tier processes your requests (a faster/more capable tier for premium subscribers, a standard tier for free users). This affects response quality and speed, not what data is collected.

4. Background trip monitoring

If you have an active trip and have opted into trip alerts, our servers periodically check on your trip — approximately every 30 minutes — looking at weather conditions along your planned route for the days ahead.

If we detect a material change (for example, a storm affecting an upcoming stop), we generate an adjustment suggestion. This appears as an in-app alert, and if you have push notifications enabled, as a push notification on your subscribed devices.

We respect quiet hours: routine alerts are held and only delivered between 7:00 AM and 10:00 PM (Vietnam time). High-severity alerts may still be delivered outside these hours if timely action matters.

For AI premium subscribers, this background process may also generate an AI re-plan suggestion — a proposed adjustment to your itinerary — which you always review and explicitly accept or reject before anything changes.

This background process does not collect your device location. It works entirely from your planned itinerary — weather is checked at the level of the province or region your trip takes place in, not from where you actually are.

5. Push notifications

Push notifications are opt-in and configured per device from Settings > Privacy. You can turn them off at any time — either with the toggle in Settings, or by revoking notification permission in your browser or operating system.

A push notification from ECSATrail contains only a short title, a message describing the change, and a link back into the app. It never contains your location history or private chat content.

6. Offline storage

To let you view your plans without a connection, ECSATrail caches plan data and place details on your device using your browser's storage. This cached data is cleared when you log out.

7. Third-party services

We share only the minimum data necessary with the following service providers to operate ECSATrail:

  • Supabase — authentication, database, and backend functions that power the app. Stores your account, plans, and trip data.
  • Google — sign-in (OAuth), Maps, Places, Routes, and the Gemini AI model. Used for authentication, map rendering, place search, directions, and AI chat/itinerary generation.
  • OpenWeatherMap — weather forecasts along your planned route. We send coordinates for the province or region of your trip, not your device location or exact stop locations.
  • SePay — payment processing, only when you subscribe to AI premium. Handles your payment details directly; we do not store your card information.

8. Retention and deletion

We retain your account and trip data for as long as your account is active, so your plans remain available to you. You can request account deletion at any time by contacting us.

When your account is deleted, we remove your profile, plans, chat history, push subscriptions, and check-in data. Some aggregated, de-identified data (for example, anonymized usage statistics) may be retained for product analysis. We aim to complete deletion requests within a reasonable timeframe.

9. Your choices

  • Turn off Trip Mode for any trip at any time from that trip's header.
  • Unsubscribe from push notifications per device in Settings > Privacy, or via your browser/system notification permissions.
  • Read this policy in English or Vietnamese using the language switcher.
  • Contact us to request a copy of your data, ask questions, or request deletion, at the email address in section 1.
  • Share a trip recap only if you choose to. Creating a share link makes that trip's plan name, stops, dates, and visited/skipped status visible to anyone who has the link — it never includes your account details, exact location, or check-in accuracy. You can revoke the link at any time from the recap page, and it stops working immediately.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as ECSATrail evolves. Material changes will update the effective date above. Continued use of ECSATrail after a change means you accept the updated policy.