SoFar Travels, LLC
Privacy
Policy
Effective August 17, 2026
SoFar is a travel app built on trust. You log the places you've been, rate them honestly, and share them with people you actually know. That only works if you know exactly what we hold, who can see it, and how to get rid of it.
So this is written to be read, not to be survived. If something here isn't clear, email us and we'll fix the wording.
The short version
- We collect what you put in the app, plus the phone permissions you grant us — photos, camera, location, contacts.
- We don't sell your data. We don't share it with advertisers. There are no ads in SoFar.
- Your ratings, collections and map are visible to people who follow you. Your saved places, drafts and messages are not.
- Contacts you let us check for friends are matched and then deleted within 24 hours. We never store your contacts' names.
- You can delete your account, and everything in it, from inside the app.
What you give us
Information you enter
Your account. When you sign up we collect your email address and a password, or — if you use Sign in with Apple — the email address Apple passes us, which may be a private relay address. You choose a name, a username and, optionally, a profile photo and bio.
Your travel profile. The countries you've visited, the cities you've lived in, and your answers to the short taste questionnaire during onboarding.
Your content. Places you rate and the scores you give them, your written thoughts, vibe and price tags, collections, itineraries, trip dates, flight and hotel details you add, photos you attach, likes, comments, direct messages, and the people you tag.
Who you connect to. The accounts you follow and who follows you, and who you invite or collaborate with on a trip.
What your phone gives us
Permissions and device data
Photos. If you allow photo access, we read the date and location metadata attached to your photos so Smart Scan can group them by place and suggest what you visited. That analysis happens on your device. Only the photos you actually choose to attach are uploaded and stored.
Camera. If you use the in-app camera, the photos you take are saved to your camera roll and attached to whatever you're rating.
Location. While you're using the app, we use your location to centre the map, bias search to where you are, and suggest nearby places.
If you separately allow background location, we use it to recognise when you've arrived somewhere so we can send you a useful reminder — a prompt to rate the restaurant you're sitting in, or a note that a friend rated the place across the street. We are not building a log of your movements, we don't sell location data to anyone, and we don't use it for advertising. Both permissions are optional. Turn either off in your phone's settings and everything except those reminders keeps working exactly as it did.
Contacts. If you allow contacts access, we upload the phone numbers and email addresses in your address book so we can check which of them already have SoFar accounts. We do not upload your contacts' names. The uploaded records are deleted as soon as the match runs, and any that survive an error are automatically deleted within 24 hours. We never message your contacts and we never add them to anything.
Device and usage. We collect a device identifier, app version, operating system, crash reports, and basic analytics about which screens get used. We use a push notification token to send you notifications, which stops the moment you turn notifications off.
The part people actually want to know
Who sees what
SoFar is a social app, so some of what you create is meant to be seen. Here is the whole map of it.
When you tag someone in a rating, or add them to a flight or a collection, they can see what you tagged them in. When you collaborate on a trip, everyone in it sees what everyone else adds, colour-coded by person. That's the point of it, but it's worth saying out loud.
Where it goes
Companies we rely on
We're a small company and we don't run our own infrastructure. These are the services that touch your data, and the only reasons they do.
Google Firebase
Hosts your account, your content and your photos. Handles sign-in, the database, file storage and push notifications.
Google Maps & Places
Powers place search, maps and venue details. Your search terms and approximate location are sent to Google to return results.
Anthropic
Powers the travel assistant and AI suggestions. When you ask a question, that question and the relevant places from your account are sent to generate an answer. It is not used to train their models.
RevenueCat
Manages SoFar Pro subscriptions. Receives your purchase receipt and an anonymous account identifier.
Apple and Google
Process every payment. We never see or store your card number.
We also share information when the law requires it, and if SoFar is ever acquired or merged, your information moves with the app — you'll be told before that happens.
To be unambiguous
What we don't do
We do not sell your personal information, and we never have. We do not share it with data brokers or advertisers. SoFar does not contain advertising, and if that ever changes we will update this page and tell you in the app before it does. We do not read your direct messages. We do not track you across other companies' apps and websites.
Your controls
Keeping it, and getting rid of it
We keep your account information and content for as long as your account is open. Contact matching records are deleted within 24 hours. Crash and analytics data is kept for up to 14 months. Purchase records are kept as long as tax and accounting law requires.
Deleting your account. Go to Profile, then Settings, then Delete account. This removes your profile, ratings, collections, photos, messages and follows within 30 days. Some things survive: content other people saved into their own collections stays with them, and anonymised analytics that can no longer be linked to you stays in our reporting.
Everything else you can change. Photo, camera, location, contacts and notification permissions are all revocable in your phone's settings. You can edit or delete any individual rating, collection or photo in the app. You can block or remove followers at any time.
Legal rights
If you're in the EU, UK or California
You have the right to know what we hold about you, to get a copy of it, to correct it, to have it deleted, and to object to or restrict how we use it. California residents additionally have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising those rights — and since we don't sell or share personal information for advertising, there is nothing for you to opt out of on that front.
Email privacy@sofartravels.com and we'll respond within 30 days. We may need to confirm it's really you before we act.
Where the law requires a legal basis, ours is: performing our contract with you (running your account), your consent (photos, camera, location, contacts, notifications), and our legitimate interests (keeping the app working, secure and free of abuse).
Everything else
The remaining details
Age. SoFar is not for anyone under 13. If we learn that a child under 13 has an account, we delete it. If you believe a child has given us information, email us.
Security. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and access rules restrict what any account can read. No system is perfect, but if a breach affects you, we'll tell you.
Where your data lives. We're based in Florida and our infrastructure is in the United States. If you use SoFar from outside the US, your information is transferred here, and we rely on standard contractual clauses where required.
Changes. When we change this policy we update the date at the top. If the change is significant, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect.