Privacy Policy

Last updated October 8, 2026

Hoch Hunt ("we", "us") makes the Hoch Hunt app for Android, Windows and the web, and the website hochmaps.com. This policy explains what information the app uses, where it goes, and the choices you have. The short version: we don't sell your data, we don't show ads, and most of what you do in the app never leaves your device.

Information that stays on your device

• Your location. The app uses your device's GPS to show where you are, measure distances, count down shooting hours and record tracks. This is processed on your device.
• Pins, tracks and settings. Saved on your device. They stay there unless you choose a backup or sync option under Settings › Your data (below). Track recording can run with the screen off; those points are stored on the device.
• Downloaded maps. Offline map areas and land data are stored on your device.
• Permission log, journal, trip planner settings and season alerts. Stored on your device, and included with your settings if you choose a backup or sync option. Journal entries record the weather, wind, pressure and moon at the time, which the app looks up from the public services listed below.

You choose where your data lives

Under Settings › Your data you pick where your personal data (pins with their photos and videos, tracks, settings, your journal and permission log, your family map, your documents, what Hawk remembers, and trap scores) is kept besides your device:

• On this device only. Nothing leaves it. If you lose or reset the device, it's gone, so save a backup now and then.
• Your own cloud drive. A file in your Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or iCloud folder. We never see it.
• Hoch Maps Cloud. Stored on our servers so your devices stay in sync.

Whenever your data leaves your device this way, it's encrypted on the device first with a passphrase only you know (AES-256). We can't read it, and we can't recover a passphrase you lose. You can also save an encrypted backup file, export a readable copy, restore from a file onto a new device, export pins and tracks as GPX files for other apps, import pins and tracks from GPX, KML or KMZ files (they're read on your device and saved there), or delete it all from the same screen (that removes it from your device and from Hoch Maps Cloud; backup files in your own drive are yours, and you delete those yourself). Things that are social by nature (friends, crews, messages, shared pins and live location, public posts) have to go through our servers so other people can see them; they are covered below.

Information you choose to share

A Hoch Hunt account is optional. It is only needed for friends and community features. If you create one, we store the following with Google Firebase:

• Account details: your email address, and a password that is handled by Firebase Authentication (we never see it).
• Profile: the name, username and optional profile photo you choose. Other signed-in users can see your name, username and photo so they can find and add you.
• Friends: who you are friends with and pending friend requests.
• Live location sharing: only when you turn it on, and only for the time you pick. Your current location is visible to the friends you have accepted, and it is deleted when sharing stops or expires. The automatic "founder" friend link never receives your live location.
• Shared pins: pins you choose to send to specific friends.
• Community reports and lost & found: the text, photos, place, rating and species you post, visible to everyone or only your friends, as you choose. Photos are shrunk on your device and their GPS and camera (EXIF) data is removed before upload.
• Questions and "looking for a buddy" posts work like reports. Replies to them, and to lost & found items, are private: only you and the poster can read them.
• Replies, "helpful" votes and reports of posts.
• Check-ins ("I'm hunting here"). Anonymous: a check-in stores only the place, its map point, whether you have room for one more, and when it expires (at most 8 hours). It does not store who you are. A private pointer that only you can read lets you replace or remove your own check-in. Other users see only counts.
• My documents. Photos you add of your licenses, tags or cards are stored under your account where only you can read them. We don't look at them.
• Web access. If we unlock the full app on the web for your account, we store that your account has access, when, and your username.
• Hazard and trap pins. "Just me" pins stay on your device. Pins you share are stored with the location, type, note and photo you add, and shown to the audience you pick: everyone (public hazards require a photo), your friends, or friends who are live on the map with you. Trap pins are never public. Proximity alerts compare your GPS position with pins on your device and don't send your location anywhere.
• Landowner listings. If you list land, the listing (name, location and boundary, acres, rules, and the contact name, phone and stop-by address you enter) is shown to Hoch Hunt users once we approve it. To verify listings we may compare them with public county parcel records and contact you.
• Check-ins on a landowner's listing. When you tap "I'm on this land," that landowner (and only that landowner) sees the name, optional phone and note you enter, and until when. It ends on its own.
• Crews. If you plan a trip with a crew, the crew's name and plan, its members, the pins and tracks you choose to show in it, crew chat, to-do lists, reminders, meet points, costs you log, and the payment usernames you add (Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, Zelle) are stored for that crew and visible only to its members. Hoch Hunt never handles money: payment buttons open your own payment app. Leaving a crew removes what you shared; the planner deleting it removes everything in it.
• Direct messages. Messages you send a friend are stored so the two of you can read them; nobody else can. You can delete messages you sent.
• Photo and video pins. Photos and clips you take in the app (or add to a pin) stay on your phone. If you share one to the community, you choose the exact point or just the parcel, and the photo is posted like any report.
• Help requests ("Need a hand?"). When you ask for a hand from a public check-in, members with a paid plan see your first name, the spot, what you need and the phone number if you add one. Once someone offers to help, only the two of you see the request, a private chat and each other's location while it's active. Requests expire after 6 hours, and you can cancel or resolve them anytime.
• Check-in timer. When you set one, we store your back-by time, who to tell (a crew and/or friends you pick), an optional note, and your last known location, updated about every 10 minutes while there's signal. Only you can read it. If you haven't tapped "I'm back" 15 minutes after the time, our server sends those people a notification and a message with your last known location. Your location isn't shared with anyone unless you're overdue.
• Push notifications. If you allow notifications, we store your phone's notification token so we can deliver alerts meant for you (for example, a friend's overdue check-in). Only our server can read it.
• Directions and emergency help. Routes are planned on your phone from public road, elevation and water data; your route and position aren't sent to us unless you choose "Send to crew." Hawk Help (the emergency screen) works on your phone; calls and texts go through your own phone app.
• Promo codes. If you redeem a code, we record which code and the plan it gave your account.
• Tester agreement. Testers of preview builds accept a Tester Agreement (NDA). If you're signed in, we keep a record of the name you typed, your email, the date and the agreement version. We keep this record even if you delete your account, as proof of the agreement.

Hawk, the AI guide

When you ask Hawk a question, the question and the information needed to answer it (for example the map area you're asking about, or your GPS position if you ask about places "near me") go through Hoch Hunt's server to Anthropic, which provides the Claude AI model. We don't store your conversations; we keep a count of questions and their cost for your account so we can apply your plan's limits and discounts. Testers who use their own Anthropic API key send questions from their device directly to Anthropic, and that key is stored only on their device. Anthropic's handling of that data is described in Anthropic's privacy policy. The free web version does not include the AI guide.

Talking to Hawk. When you hold Talk to Hawk or use hands-free mode, your phone turns your speech into text on the device, and only the text is sent. When Hawk answers out loud, the answer's text goes from Hoch Hunt's server to Google Cloud Text-to-Speech to make the audio; no recordings of you are made or kept. You can mute Hawk anytime.

Hawk Eye and photos. A photo you take with Hawk Eye, or pick from your gallery (including photos from smart glasses), is sent with your question to Anthropic to answer it and isn't stored by Hoch Hunt.

What Hawk remembers. If you leave memory on, short facts you tell Hawk about yourself (for example your rifle, boat or favorite spots) are saved to your account, where only you can read them. You can see and delete them in Hawk settings, turn memory off, or have Hawk forget everything.

Morning brief and trip recaps are made on your phone from public weather data and your own tracks; nothing extra is sent unless you ask Hawk to write up a trip.

Map, weather and report services

To draw maps and show data, your device requests it directly from public services, including ND Game & Fish, the ND GIS Hub, USGS, Esri, USDA, NOAA and the National Weather Service, Iowa State University (radar and rain), the ND sex offender registry (public safety layer, copied twice a day by our server), NDDOT road conditions, closures and road cameras (copied by our server every 5 minutes), OpenStreetMap places such as restaurants, gas stations and hospitals (copied by our server weekly), NOAA snow analysis, public aircraft-tracking networks (adsb.fi and adsb.lol), Wikipedia, the Library of Congress and the fishing report sites shown in the app. Like any website, these services receive your device's IP address and the map area being requested. They do not receive your account information.

This website

hochmaps.com is hosted on Google Firebase Hosting, which keeps standard server logs (such as IP address and pages requested) for security and reliability. The site has no ads. It uses Google Analytics to count visits: which pages are viewed, roughly where from (city level), the kind of device and browser, and how people found the site. We turned off Google signals and ad personalization, Google Analytics does not store IP addresses, and we never connect it to your app account. You can block it with any content blocker or Google's opt-out add-on (tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout). The app itself does not use Google Analytics. If you email us, we use your email only to reply. If you sign up for launch news on hochmaps.com, we keep your email address and the interests you tick (hunting, fishing and so on), only to email you about the launch and major updates and to see which features people want most. We never sell or share the list. Every email has a way to unsubscribe, or email tylan@hochhunt.com and we’ll remove you.

What we don't do

• We don't sell or rent your personal information.
• We don't show ads or use advertising trackers.
• We don't share your information with anyone except the service providers named above, or if the law requires it.

Deleting your account and data

You can delete your account at any time:

• In the app: open Friends, then Delete account.
• On the web: go to hochmaps.com/delete-account.

Deleting your account permanently removes your login, profile, username, friends, shared pins, live location, check-ins, landowner listings, private documents, web access, and all of your reports, photos, lost & found posts, questions and buddy posts, and the private replies you sent. It happens right away and can't be undone. Two small things remain: the count of "helpful" votes you gave on other people's posts (without any of your details shown), and any report you filed about a post that broke the rules, which we keep for moderation. Pins and tracks on your device are not affected; uninstalling the app removes them.

If you can't sign in, email tylan@hochhunt.com from the address on your account and we'll delete it within 30 days.

Security

Data sent to Firebase travels over encrypted connections, and database rules limit who can read what (for example, only your accepted friends can see your live location). No system is perfectly secure, so please don't post anything you wouldn't want others to see.

Children

Hoch Hunt accounts are not intended for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we'll delete it.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top. We'll give notice in the app before any change that affects how your personal information is used.

Contact

Questions or requests: tylan@hochhunt.com