Privacy policy

Named Atlas is the service at namedatlas.com. This page covers the public map, sign-in, claims, and checkout.

Write to privacy@namedatlas.com if you have a privacy question.

The map sets a necessary signed session cookie named named_atlas_explorer. After you sign in, that cookie keeps your explorer so claims, guestbooks, and the atlas stay with you. You can browse without an account; we do not create an explorer record until you sign in, or until someone gifts an estate to your email. After you sign in we also hold a name and, if you share them, an email and avatar.

You can sign in with Google, Apple, or Microsoft when those buttons are on the desk, or with a magic-link email. We receive the email the provider shares — sign-in fails without one — plus a display name and avatar if the provider sends them. We store a linked identity so the keep stays with that account.

A magic link stores your email address and a hashed one-time token. When email sending is on, we send that mail from Named Atlas (noreply@namedatlas.com). When it is not, the link is shown on the sign-in desk and is not emailed.

After a paid first claim or take, we send a receipt to the email on the explorer. If the claim was a gift, the receipt names the recipient, and we email that address so they can sign in and keep the estate. If someone later takes an estate you kept, we email that previous keeper with links to the address. If a charge is returned — an unfinished card, or a later return from the observatory — we send a refund mail. We store when those mails were sent so a Stripe retry does not send them twice.

Stripe processes the card. We store the payment and intent ids, and the pound ledger amounts we need to fulfil a claim. We do not store full card numbers. The map can show and charge pounds, US dollars, or euros. The ledger stays in pounds.

Estates and other public content include the name, transmission, look, destination URL, portrait URL, guestbook lines, relay messages, featured child, and campaign UTM tags. Those are public.

A short-lived heartbeat tells the HUD how many explorers are awake. That is not a public profile.

We count descents, impressions, and destination clicks on estates so keepers and the map can see how an address is used.

Abuse reports are flags on an address. Do not upload illegal imagery when you report something.

If you are signed in, you can send a private note about the map. We store the note, your explorer name and email, and the page you sent it from.

Necessary cookies and local storage cover the session, your consent choice, and currency. Analytics cookies are set only after the cookie desk allows them. The cookie table lives on the cookie policy.

Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics 4 load only after analytics consent. Events can include page views, item views, search, the login method, checkout, and purchase — with a transaction id, value, currency, and item id and name. Ads storage stays denied. If you refuse analytics, GTM does not load.

Explorer, estate, and checkout records sit in a cloud Postgres database (Neon, typically in the EU on AWS).

Stripe holds payment data. An auth provider only sees you if you use that button. Google (Tag Manager and Analytics 4) only runs after you allow analytics.

Under UK GDPR and similar laws we rely on a few bases. Contract covers your account, a claim, and keeping an estate. Legitimate interests cover security, abuse, running the map, and presence counts. Consent covers analytics cookies and GTM. Legal obligation covers records we must keep.

The session cookie lasts while you use the map, until you sign out, or until you clear cookies.

Account and keep records stay while you have estates or a signed-in identity, and for a reasonable period after that for disputes and accounting.

Magic-link tokens expire and are consumed. Presence heartbeats are short-lived.

Public guestbook lines and relay messages stay on the address, including after a take.

Analytics retention follows Google and GTM once you have consented. The consent cookie lasts about a year, as the cookie policy says.

We share what we must with Stripe, the auth provider you choose, our hosting and database, the email sender if a magic link, a receipt, a gift notice, or a take notice is emailed, and Google analytics if you consented.

We do not sell explorer lists. We do not run ads from this map. A later take pays Named Atlas, not the previous keeper — that is not a sale of your data.

Some of those providers may process data outside the UK or the EEA, under their own terms.

You can ask for access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, or a portable copy of the data we hold about you. You can withdraw analytics consent from Cookie settings or the cookie policy.

Write to privacy@namedatlas.com. You can also complain to the ICO in the UK, or to your local authority.

Named Atlas is not directed at children. Do not sign in or pay if you are under 18. OAuth apps often require you to be 13 or 16 already. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you tell us we have, we will delete it.

Estates, portraits, destinations, guestbooks, and the relay are visible to anyone who opens the map. Do not post secrets, passwords, or anything you would not put on a billboard.

Checkout prices and take floors are published rules on the estate terms. They are not credit scoring and they do not profile you as a person.

The version date is at the top of this page. We update this notice when the practice changes.

The estate terms say what you buy and that purchases are not refunded once an estate is written. The cookie policy lists every cookie and how you switch analytics off.