Last updated 4 September 2026
Orphix is a public map of places that matter to someone. Most of what you put into it is meant to be seen, so the most useful thing this page can do is be exact about what is public, what isn't, and who else is involved.
| Your account | Your email address, and a display name if you set one. Signing in is either through Google, which passes us your email and basic profile and nothing else, with no access to anything in that account, or by a short code we email to you. Either way there is no password here to store, leak or reset. The email address is held by our sign-in service and is not readable through the map or its API. |
|---|---|
| A place | Its coordinates, name, description, tags, photos, whether it is public or private, and an optional date. |
| A moment | Anything you add to a place's timeline: words, photos, an optional date, and what kind of moment it is. |
| Care | That you pressed "I care about this place", so the count is right. |
| Reactions | Which emoji you put on a place or on a moment, stored against your account so the count is right and so you can take it back off again. |
| Reports | If you report a place or flag a moment, what you reported and your reason, so it can be reviewed. |
A public place shows its name, description, tags, photos, date, your display name, and its location on the map to anyone at all, signed in or not. Moments added to it are public in the same way. So are the number of people who care about it and the emoji counts on it.
Only the totals leave the server. Which account cared about a place, or put which emoji on it, is readable by that account alone. The database returns a number and never a list of people.
Coordinates are the part worth thinking about. A public place is stored and shown at the point you tapped. If a place is sensitive, like a nest, a rare plant, or somewhere you would rather not be met, switch on "Show this place approximately" when you mark it. Your browser then moves the point about a kilometre in a random direction before it is ever sent, so the true location is never stored at all. That also means it cannot be undone or recovered later.
A private place is visible only to you. This is enforced by the database itself, not by the app hiding it. One exception is worth knowing: photos live in public storage under long unguessable web addresses, so a photo on a private place is not listed anywhere and not findable, but someone given its exact address could open it.
The map never asks for your location on its own. If you tap "My location", your browser asks your permission and the result is used there and then to place the map. It is not stored and not sent anywhere unless you go on to save a place there.
These services necessarily see your IP address when your browser talks to them:
| Supabase | Stores the database, your sign-in, and the photos. |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Serves the site itself. |
| OpenFreeMap | Supplies the map tiles as you pan and zoom. |
| Serves the two fonts the site uses, and handles sign-in if you choose the Google option. | |
| Your sign-in provider | Whichever one you pick handles the sign-in itself and knows that you signed in here. Today that is Google. If Apple or GitHub are ever switched on they will appear as options on the sign-in panel, and the same applies to them. You are never signed in through a provider you did not choose. |
Nothing is sold, and nothing is shared with anyone beyond these.
No cookies are set for tracking. The site stores four things in your own browser, which never leave your device: your sign-in session, which places you have opened (so "new moments" badges can work), whether you have dismissed the welcome banner, and whether you chose light or dark. Signing out clears the session; clearing your browser's site data clears the rest.
Content is kept until you delete it. Reports are kept while they are being reviewed. A copy of everything stored against your account is one click away under My places, as Download my data: a zip with each place and moment you made as a short text file, and every photo. Depending on where you live you may also have the right to object to your data being held; the address below covers that.
Orphix is not intended for anyone under 13.
If this policy changes in a way that matters, the date at the top changes with it.