Privacy Policy
Last updated: 20 September 2026
Compass & Trails (compassandtrails.com) is a small editorial site. We do not run a user account system. This policy describes what may be collected if you use the site or contact us.
What information is collected
We do not ask you to create a profile. If you email us or use the contact form, we receive whatever you choose to send: typically a name, email address, subject, and message.
Contact form information
The contact form opens a draft to fmj3419@gmail.com via your own email application. Message content is not stored in a Compass & Trails database. Copies then live in ordinary email inboxes, subject to that email provider’s practices.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that a website or a third party may store in your browser. The pages of this site do not set first-party cookies by themselves. Cookies are set by third-party services that load when you visit: Google Fonts, which delivers the typefaces used on the site, and Google and other advertising vendors, which serve the ads described below.
If you are in a region where consent is required by law, advertising cookies are set only after you accept them through the consent notice. You can withdraw consent at any time by clearing this site’s cookies in your browser or by revisiting the consent notice.
See the Cookie Policy for the categories of cookies used and how to control them.
Analytics and server logs
This site does not currently embed a third-party analytics pixel. The server that hosts the site records IP addresses, user agents, and requested URLs as part of routine operations and security, and those logs follow the host’s default retention.
Advertising is a separate matter from analytics: ads are served by third-party vendors, including Google, and those vendors may use cookies as described in the Advertising section below.
Third-party services
Photographs on this site are served from this site’s own image directory, so loading a page makes no request to a third-party image service. Those photographs were sourced from Unsplash and are used under the Unsplash License. The typefaces are delivered by Google Fonts. Official park links send you to nps.gov and other independent sites with their own privacy policies. Search engines that index this site operate under their own terms.
Advertising
Compass & Trails is supported by display advertising. Ads on this site are served by third-party vendors, including Google. These vendors use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website and to other websites.
Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. You can also opt out of third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalized advertising at www.aboutads.info, or, in the European Economic Area, at www.youronlinechoices.eu.
For details on how Google uses information from sites that use its services, see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services. A list of Google’s third-party ad vendors is published in Google’s advertising policies help.
Where the law requires it, we ask for your consent before serving personalized advertising, using a Google-certified consent management platform. If you decline, you may still see ads, but they will not be personalized.
Your rights under GDPR and CCPA
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have the right to access, correct, erase, restrict, or object to the processing of your personal data, the right to data portability, and the right to withdraw consent at any time. Our legal bases are consent, for advertising cookies, and legitimate interest, for operating the site and keeping it secure.
If you are a California resident, you have the right to know what personal information is collected, to request its deletion, to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. We do not sell personal information. Some advertising-related data collection may be treated as sharing under California law; you can opt out through Google Ads Settings.
To exercise any of these rights, email fmj3419@gmail.com. We aim to respond within 30 days.
Data retention
Emails you send are kept only as long as they are useful for a correction or a reply, then deleted or archived in ordinary mail practice. Server logs follow the host’s default retention.
Data deletion requests
If you want a specific email conversation deleted, write to fmj3419@gmail.com from the address you used and say so. We will delete what we control. We cannot delete copies on your device or in a search engine’s cache.