Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how RestAreasNearMe.org (“RestAreasNearMe.org,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, and protects information when you visit https://restareasnearme.org/, search for roadside facilities, allow location access, submit a correction, or contact us.

1. Information we collect

Information you provide

We may collect information you choose to provide, including:

• Your name and email address
• Contact-form messages and the topic of your enquiry
• Correction reports, observation dates, source links, and supporting details
• Page or facility URLs included with a report
• Communications you send to us
• Consent choices connected with a form or optional communication

Please do not submit sensitive personal information unless it is necessary for a specific request.

Location and route information

If you choose a feature such as Use my location or Find nearby, your browser or device will ask for permission before providing coordinates. We use those coordinates to return nearby results or support the route feature you requested.

We do not request location permission automatically when a page loads, create a continuous location history, or intentionally store your precise browser location in a user profile or application database.

Place names, route origins, destinations, map viewports, or coordinates may need to be sent to the selected map, tile, routing, or geocoding provider to produce the requested result. Those providers process information under their own privacy terms.

Information collected automatically

When you use the site, our systems and service providers may automatically process:

• IP address and approximate location derived from it
• Browser, device, operating-system, and language information
• Pages viewed, referring page, links used, and timestamps
• Cookie or similar identifiers and consent preferences
• Performance, security, and error information
• General interaction information used to understand whether pages and features work as intended

We configure analytics and error monitoring to avoid collecting form contents, email addresses, precise coordinates, and route origins or destinations.

2. How we use information

We use information to:

• Provide directory, search, nearby, map, route, and direction features
• Review corrections and improve rest-area records
• Respond to messages, privacy requests, and accessibility feedback
• Operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the site
• Measure general site usage and performance when analytics consent is available or another lawful basis applies
• Detect spam, fraud, abuse, and technical attacks
• Maintain source, verification, and correction records
• Comply with legal obligations and protect our rights and users

We do not use precise location to create an advertising profile.

3. Cookies and similar technologies

The site may use the following categories:

Strictly necessary

These technologies support essential functions such as security, load balancing, form protection, and saving your privacy choices. They cannot always be disabled through our controls.

Analytics and experience

With consent where required, analytics tools help us understand aggregated usage, page performance, navigation problems, and feature quality. Session-replay or interaction-measurement features, if enabled, must mask form fields and exclude sensitive pages and values.

Non-essential analytics should remain disabled until the applicable visitor choice permits them. You can reopen Cookie preferences from the footer and change your selection.

We do not currently use cookies for cross-context behavioral advertising or remarketing. If that changes, we will update this Policy and provide any legally required choices before enabling those uses.

4. Service providers

We may disclose limited information to service providers that help us run the site, such as providers for:

• Hosting and content delivery
• Form processing and private object storage
• Maps, map tiles, geocoding, routing, and directions
• Privacy-respecting analytics and performance measurement
• Security and bot protection

The providers currently used on the public site are:

• Vercel — hosting, CDN, Web Analytics (page views after analytics consent), and private Blob storage for contact messages and traveler reports
• Map and tile providers used only when you request a map or directions — Google Maps Embed when an embed key is configured; MapLibre using the style URL configured for the site. Those providers receive the coordinates or place names needed to render the requested map or directions
• Cloudflare Turnstile — only when bot protection is enabled on a form

The following tools are not loaded on the public site today: Google Analytics 4, Microsoft Clarity, Sentry, and a transactional-email provider. Public pages do not send visitor data to Supabase. Contact and correction submissions are stored privately for operator review; they are not auto-emailed until an email provider is configured.

These providers may process information in countries other than your own. Their handling of information is also governed by their agreements and privacy notices.

5. When we disclose information

We may disclose information:

• To service providers acting for us and subject to appropriate restrictions
• When you ask us to share information or direct us to a third-party service
• To comply with law, legal process, or a valid government request
• To protect the rights, safety, security, and integrity of RestAreasNearMe.org, our visitors, or the public
• In connection with a merger, financing, reorganization, sale, or transfer of all or part of the service, subject to applicable law
• In aggregated or de-identified form that does not reasonably identify you

We do not sell personal information for money. We do not use or disclose personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. If our practices change, we will update this Policy and provide legally required opt-out methods.

6. Public corrections and user submissions

A factual correction may be reflected in a public listing after review, but we do not publish the reporter’s name, email address, private message, or supporting evidence unless the reporter has separately and clearly agreed to publication.

Please avoid submitting photos that show identifiable people, vehicle registration plates, private documents, or other unnecessary personal information.

7. Data retention

We keep information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described above, including security, correction review, dispute resolution, and legal compliance.

Our intended default retention is:

• Contact and correction correspondence: up to 24 months after the matter is resolved, unless a longer period is reasonably needed. Submissions are stored as private Vercel Blob objects for operator review; they are not auto-emailed.
• Security and server logs: generally 30 to 90 days on the hosting platform, unless needed to investigate abuse or an incident
• Consent records: stored in your browser for the period reasonably needed to demonstrate and honor the choice, generally up to 13 months before renewal where appropriate
• Analytics event data: Vercel Web Analytics page views after consent, retained no longer than the configured provider retention period, targeted at 14 months or less. We do not keep a separate first-party analytics database.
• Precise browser location: processed for the requested nearby or route result and not intentionally stored in the application database or Blob store

We may retain non-personal facility facts, source citations, verification events, and correction outcomes as part of the directory’s historical record after reporter details are deleted or separated.

8. Your privacy choices and rights

Depending on where you live and the laws applicable to us, you may have rights to:

• Ask whether we process information about you
• Request access to or a copy of your information
• Ask us to correct inaccurate information
• Ask us to delete information, subject to exceptions
• Object to or restrict certain processing
• Withdraw consent for future processing
• Opt out of a sale, sharing, or targeted-advertising use if such a use applies
• Appeal certain decisions or contact a data-protection authority
• Receive equal service without unlawful discrimination for exercising a privacy right

We aim to honor reasonable verified access, correction, and deletion requests even when a specific law does not require us to do so, unless retaining the information is necessary for security, legal, or other legitimate reasons.

To make a request, email info@restareasnearme.org with the subject Privacy Request. Describe your request and the email address or interaction involved. We may ask for limited information to verify that the request concerns you. An authorized agent may submit a request where applicable, but we may require proof of authority and identity verification.

Where legally required, we recognize supported browser-based opt-out signals such as Global Privacy Control for applicable sale, sharing, or targeted-advertising activity. Because we do not currently engage in those activities, receiving the signal should also keep optional marketing uses disabled.

9. Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect information. No website, network, or transmission method is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

10. Children’s privacy

RestAreasNearMe.org is a general-audience travel-information service and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information, contact us so we can review and delete it where appropriate.

11. External links and third-party services

The site links to government agencies, maps, directions, facility operators, and other third parties. Their websites, apps, and services have their own privacy practices. We are not responsible for their privacy, security, content, or availability.

12. International visitors

RestAreasNearMe.org focuses on United States roadside facilities, but visitors may access it from other countries. Information may be processed in the United States and in other countries where our providers operate. Where required, we use appropriate measures for international transfers.

13. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when our services, providers, or legal obligations change. We will post the revised version on this page and update the Last updated date. If a change materially affects how we use previously collected personal information, we will provide additional notice when required.

14. Contact us

For privacy questions or requests, email:

info@restareasnearme.org
Subject: Privacy Request

You can also use the contact form.