Privacy Policy

1. Summary

2. Who We Are & What This Covers

Lodestone is an offline-first geological atlas for Android, developed and published by Day of Flight Studios (“we,” “our,” or “us”). This policy covers the Lodestone app and the website at lodestone-explorer.com.

Lodestone does not grant any right to enter land or collect minerals. See the Terms of Service for the land access and mineral rights notice.

3. Device Location

What the app asks for

Lodestone declares Android’s precise (ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) and approximate (ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION) location permissions. On Android 12 and later you can choose to grant approximate location only. Lodestone does not request background location access.

When it is used

• Location is optional. Lodestone asks for permission only when you use a location feature: the locate button on the map, or the Show My Location setting, which is off by default.
• Location is read only while Lodestone is open on screen. Position updates stop when the app goes to the background.
• If you deny permission, everything else in Lodestone keeps working. The app shows a short message explaining that your position cannot be displayed.
• You can change or revoke the permission at any time in Android settings (Settings > Apps > Lodestone > Permissions).

How your position is handled

Your position is held in the app’s memory to draw your location marker and, when you tap the locate button, to center the map on you. Lodestone does not save your coordinates or a location history, does not write them to logs, and does not include them in any network request. We never receive your location.

Two indirect effects are worth knowing about:

• Map imagery for the area on screen. When the map shows the area around you, the app downloads basemap images (and any online layers you have turned on) for that area. Those requests reveal the map area being viewed, though not your exact coordinates, to the services listed in Section 5.
• Remembered map view. The Remember Last Map View setting, on by default, saves the map’s last center and zoom level on your device so the map reopens where you left it. If you were last looking at your own location, the saved view will be close to it. It stays on your device. Turning the setting off deletes the saved view.

Android location services

Lodestone gets your position through Android’s location system, which on most devices uses Google Play services. Those system services are run by Google or your device manufacturer, not by us, and follow your device’s location settings and their own privacy terms.

4. Data Stored on Your Device

Lodestone stores its data in its own app storage on your device. It does not request access to your photos, media, contacts, or other files.

Data downloaded from our data service

• Geological database. A database of about 510 MB containing mineral occurrence records from the U.S. Geological Survey (MRDS and USMIN), their commodities, and precomputed density grids. It is downloaded only when you tap Download. An interrupted download is kept as a partial file so it can resume. Updates are downloaded only when you choose to, and are installed the next time the app starts.
• Release information. A small file describing the latest database release, used to verify downloads and tell you when an update is available.

Data included in the app or cached while you use it

• Fault lines. The Quaternary fault dataset is included in the app itself.
• Basemap cache. Map images you view are cached in the app’s cache folder, up to about 1 GB, so areas you have already seen load without downloading them again.
• Online layer results. Results from the online Utah energy layers (Section 5) are kept in memory while the app runs. They are not saved.

Data created by your use of the app

• Preferences: appearance, density display style and color, measurement units, coordinate format, whether to remember the map view, whether to show your location, whether to warn before large downloads, and whether you have finished the quick guide.
• Pinned commodities you choose as quick filters.
• Last map view (center and zoom), when Remember Last Map View is on.

Lodestone does not have bookmarks, saved places, track logs, location history, or user accounts.

Device backups

If you have turned on Android’s device backup, Android may include Lodestone’s app data, such as your preferences, in your backup. That backup is run by Google or your device manufacturer under your device settings. We cannot access it.

5. Network Connections

Lodestone works offline once its database is downloaded, but it does connect to the services below. Lodestone adds no account details, advertising identifiers, device identifiers, location coordinates, or tracking parameters to any of these requests.

Every internet request reveals some information to the server that receives it, including your device’s IP address, the time, the address requested, and standard HTTP headers such as the app’s User-Agent. Each provider handles that information under its own policies, which we do not control.

Lodestone data service: data.lodestone-explorer.com

• When: each time the app starts, it checks for a new database release by fetching a small release file. It also connects when you tap Check for Updates and when you download or re-download the database. The startup check cannot currently be turned off. If you are offline it fails quietly, and your installed database keeps working.
• What is sent: a standard HTTPS request for a public file, identified as coming from Lodestone. Resumed downloads include the byte range needed to continue.
• Who receives it: the files are hosted on Cloudflare’s storage and delivery network. Lodestone does not run its own server application or user database for this service. Cloudflare processes connection information to deliver the files and protect its network under Cloudflare’s own privacy policy.

Basemap: USGS The National Map (basemap.nationalmap.gov)

• When: whenever the map needs topographic basemap images that are not already cached on your device.
• What is sent: requests for map images. The image addresses reveal the area and zoom level being viewed. Requests identify the map software and the app.
• Who receives it: the U.S. Geological Survey, which operates The National Map.

Online Utah energy layers: ArcGIS Online (services.arcgis.com, services1.arcgis.com)

• When: only if you turn on the Coal Deposits (1988) or Oil & Gas Fields layer, and only when the map is zoomed in over Utah.
• What is sent: a query containing the boundaries of the map area being viewed.
• Who receives it: ArcGIS Online, a service operated by Esri, which hosts these public layers for Utah state agencies (the Utah Geological Survey and the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining).

Google Play

If you choose Rate Lodestone, the app opens Google Play. What happens there is governed by Google’s terms and privacy policy.

6. Analytics, Advertising & Crash Reporting

Lodestone does not include any analytics, advertising, attribution, or crash-reporting SDK, and it does not send usage statistics, crash reports, or diagnostic data to us or to anyone else.

Diagnostics you choose to share. Settings > Diagnostics shows a short summary you can copy into a bug report: app version, platform, database and schema versions, your display settings, and how many commodities you have pinned. It contains no location, file paths, or identifiers. Nothing is sent unless you paste it into a message yourself.

Google Play. If you install Lodestone from Google Play and have allowed your device to share usage and diagnostics data with Google, Google may collect crash and performance information and give developers aggregated statistics in the Google Play Console. Google controls that collection under your device settings and Google’s privacy policy.

7. Third-Party Libraries

Lodestone is built with open-source libraries for things like map rendering, the on-device database, settings storage, and HTTP downloads. These libraries run on your device to provide app features. Apart from the connections described in Section 5 and the Android location services described in Section 3, they do not send data off your device.

We do not sell your information, and we do not share it for advertising.

8. This Website

The pages on lodestone-explorer.com use no cookies, scripts, or analytics. The site is hosted on Cloudflare Pages, and Cloudflare processes ordinary connection information, such as IP addresses, to deliver and protect it.

9. Retention & Deletion

On your device

Data on your device stays there until you remove it or uninstall the app. You can remove it in these ways:

• Settings > Reset Preferences restores default settings and deletes your pinned commodities and saved map view. The downloaded database is kept.
• Turning off Remember Last Map View deletes the saved map view.
• Android Settings > Apps > Lodestone > Storage > Clear cache deletes cached basemap images.
• Android Settings > Apps > Lodestone > Storage > Clear storage deletes all of Lodestone’s data, including the downloaded database and your preferences.
• Uninstalling Lodestone deletes all of its data from your device.

Lodestone does not currently have an in-app option to delete only the downloaded database. Use Clear storage or uninstall the app instead.

Information we hold

Using the app does not send us your location, settings, or usage information, and we do not keep a database of app users. The service providers named in Section 5 may keep connection records under their own policies.

If you contact us, we receive whatever you choose to send, such as your email address, your message, and any diagnostics summary you include. We use it only to respond to you and keep it only as long as needed for that purpose and for a reasonable record of support correspondence. You can ask us to delete it.

10. Your Choices & Rights

You control location access through Android’s permission settings, choose whether and when to download data, and can delete Lodestone’s data at any time as described in Section 9.

Depending on where you live, privacy laws (such as the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation or U.S. state privacy laws) may give you rights to access, correct, or delete personal information about you. Because Lodestone has no accounts and sends us no information about how you use it, the main personal information we might hold is correspondence you have sent us. To make a request, contact us using the details in Section 12.

11. Changes to This Policy

If Lodestone’s handling of information changes, we will update this policy, publish it at this address, and change the effective date. For significant changes, we will also give notice in a more visible way, such as in the app’s release notes, and will ask for your consent where the law requires it.

12. Contact

For privacy questions or requests about Lodestone:

• Day of Flight Studios
• Email: [email protected]