Data Protection at meeteora.com

Our Data Protection Statement

Data Protection is important for us. It is literally the main reason why we came up with meeteora in the first place.
This means we will try to store as little as possible data of you. But we cannot work without any data, this is why this page gives you the details on what we store and why.

Location permission

To get you location for our service, we need your browser to tell it to use. For the security reasons this cannot be done without your explicit consent. This is why our web-site ask you for your permission to access your current location.

Data managed in cookies

We use cookies to persist some data inside your browser so it can be used again when you use meeteora again. These cookies are only read by the javascript executed in the browser and never directly on the server. If data from cookies needs to be sent to the server, it is sent over the API requests (see section below for details).

Cookie Details

Cookie Name	Content	Description
	This stores your user ID	We need a user ID to technically identify you inside our databases. Only this way we can ensure that the position updates your browser sends us update your position (and not the position of somebody else When this cookie is not present, we need to assume, that you have never before used meeteora. In this case a new user ID gets generated for you on our servers.
	This stores the name you have set	Everybody on a meeteora map is shown as an icon and a short name. To automatically re-use the name you have last used, we need to remember it somewhere (in this cookie). Initially your name gets created randomly (so that at least something is shown). Later on you can save change is by yourself.

Cookie Name

Content

Description

This stores your user ID

We need a user ID to technically identify you inside our databases. Only this way we can ensure that the position updates your browser sends us update your position (and not the position of somebody else

When this cookie is not present, we need to assume, that you have never before used meeteora. In this case a new user ID gets generated for you on our servers.

This stores the name you have set

Everybody on a meeteora map is shown as an icon and a short name. To automatically re-use the name you have last used, we need to remember it somewhere (in this cookie).

Initially your name gets created randomly (so that at least something is shown). Later on you can save change is by yourself.

Data sent to / from / stored on our servers

What	Action	Details
User ID	Stored on Server	Your user ID gets stored with your last known position on the server. We need to do this so we can send your current position to the other users. If you are part of several maps your user ID will be stored several times.
User ID	Sent from server	There are different occasions at which the server sends user IDs back to you. Requesting a new user ID: As user IDs need to be unique, new ones need to be generated by the server. If you request one, the server will send one back... Just like requested ,-) Getting updates to the current map: This happens to update the positions of all users on the current map. The answer will contain your user id (but not the IDs of other users).
User ID	Sent to server	We send your user ID (together with your current position and user name) to the server roughly every 5 seconds. This way wen can enable our almost realtime experience.
Your Location	Stored on server	To be able to send updates to all members of a map we need to store the combination of your user ID, your user name, your current location and the map ID in our databases. We only store one recordset for you on any given map. This recordset contains only your last known positions. We deliberately do not store your trails or movements.
Your Location	Sent from server	Your position is sent to all members of the same map so they can see who's where. Your location is sent in combination with the name you have set, but not in combination with your (unique) user ID.
Your Location	Sent to server	We send your current position (together with your user ID and user name) to the server roughly every 5 seconds. This way wen can enable our almost realtime experience.
Your User Name	Stored on server	To be able to send updates to all members of a map we need to store the combination of your user ID, your user name, your current location and the map ID in our databases. We only store one recordset for you on any given map. This recordset contains only your last known positions. We deliberately do not store your trails or movements.
Your User Name	Sent from server	Your user name is sent to all members of the same map so they can see who's where. Your user name is sent in combination with your current location, but not in combination with your (unique) user ID.
Your Location	Sent to server	We send your user name (together with your user ID and current location) to the server roughly every 5 seconds. This way wen can enable our almost realtime experience.
Map ID	Sent from server	There are different occasions at which the server sends map IDs back to you. Requesting a new map ID (aka creating a new map): As map IDs need to be unique, new ones need to be generated by the server. If you request one, the server will send one back... Just like requested ,-) Getting positions on a map: To see people on a map, you need to know where they are. The response to such a request will contain the map ID of the map you requested the positions for.

Important: We do not store trails of your positions. Only your last known position gets stored.

Everything we send to our servers (and back) happens over our API. You can find the API DOC here.

Third party tools

To save us some development time, we use third party tools in different places. For those that may store some of your data, we list their dataprotection links below.

AddThis

We use AddThis to enable the sharing of maps. You find the accoring sharing functionality on every meeteora map on the bottom left indicated by this icon:

You may find The Privacy & Data Practices of AddThis here: https://www.addthis.com/privacy

Google Maps API

We use the Google Maps JavaScript API (Details here) to render the maps of meeteora.

Even as we try to avaid as much data-storing and data-sending as possible, some data may be stored by google. Please see this FAQ and Google's Terms of Service for more details.