Privacy Policy

4Whys LLC, doing business as PermitSnag ("we," "our," or "us"), operates the PermitSnag website (permitsnag.com) and mobile application. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information, and the rights you have over it. For visitors in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, and California, see the dedicated sections below.

Data Controller

The data controller responsible for your personal data is 4Whys LLC (doing business as PermitSnag), United States. For any privacy question or to exercise your rights, contact us at privacy@permitsnag.com.

Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create an account, we collect:

• Email address
• Authentication provider information (Apple ID, Google account, or email magic link)
• Account creation date

Trip and Permit Data

When you use our permit tracking features, we collect:

• Permit preferences (parks, dates, party size, zones)
• Alternate permit selections
• Tracking preferences and notification settings
• Outcome reports (whether you secured a permit)
• Calendar sync preferences
• Booking confirmation numbers, when you choose to give us one. We use them to build your permit pass and, if you are in a lottery pool, to record that you applied.

Device and Technical Data

We automatically collect:

• Device type, hardware model, and operating system version
• Push notification tokens, including Live Activity tokens, so we can send alerts
• An install identifier we generate the first time you open the app, so we can tell your devices apart. It is not an advertising identifier and it is not shared.
• App version and usage statistics
• Your device language and time zone, so dates and deadlines read correctly
• IP address and approximate location (country/region level)
• Browser type (for website visitors)

We do not use advertising identifiers, and we do not track you across other companies' apps or websites.

Location (iPhone app only)

The iPhone app can remind you what you need at the trailhead about five miles out. It asks for location permission on that screen, and nowhere else in the app.

• We use significant-change monitoring and a geofence around your trailhead. We never turn on continuous GPS.
• Your location never leaves your phone. The trailhead coordinates come from us; your phone compares its own position against them and posts the reminder locally. We do not receive, store, or send your position anywhere.
• The app works fully with location denied. The only thing you lose is the reminder.

You can change or withdraw this permission at any time in iOS Settings.

Photos (iPhone app only)

After you book, you can pick the screenshot of your confirmation and the app reads the confirmation number from it.

• The app sees only the screenshot you pick. It has no access to the rest of your library.
• The picture stays on your phone. The text is read on the device. We never upload the image.
• The confirmation number itself is sent to us, and only if you confirm it.

Booking sessions

When you book through the app, the reservation site's own page opens inside it and you sign in to that site directly.

• We never read, store, or send your reservation-site password or cookies. The only thing the app reads is the web address of the page you are on, so it can tell you whether you are signed in.
• That session stays on your phone so the next opening we send lands you on a booking page instead of a log-in form. Signing out of PermitSnag does not sign you out of the reservation site: those are two different accounts. Use “Clear booking session” on the account screen to end it.

App Clip and sharing into the app

Opening a PermitSnag invitation without installing the app runs a small version of it called an App Clip. It collects the same account information as the app and nothing more. If you then install the full app, your sign-in carries across so you do not have to sign in twice, and the App Clip's copy is removed. If you share a reservation page into PermitSnag from Safari, the app sends us the permit's identifier from that web address so it can find the matching permit, and nothing else about the page.

AI Assistant Connector

AI assistants and agents, such as Claude or ChatGPT, can call our read-only connector to look up permits and campgrounds (see Section 18 of our Terms of Service). The public connector has no accounts and no sign-in, so we do not know who is asking, and we do not try to identify you from a public connector request. When an assistant calls it, we receive:

• The request: which tool was called and what it asked for, such as a permit or campground name and the dates you are interested in
• The IP address the request came from. For an assistant that runs in the cloud this is usually the assistant company's server. For a tool that runs on your own computer, such as Claude Code or Cursor, it is your own address.
• The name and version the assistant reports for itself, when it sends one
• Technical details such as the time, the protocol version, and HTTP headers

We never receive your conversation with the assistant, only the request the assistant chooses to send us. We use what we receive to answer the request, enforce rate limits and stop abuse, fix problems, and understand which tools and places people ask about.

Our log entry for each call records the tool, a short description of the place asked about, how old our answer was, whether the call worked, and how long it took. It does not store the full request. We do not send public connector calls to our product analytics, and nothing in them is linked to a PermitSnag account. Places and dates can reveal someone's travel plans, so only the people who run the service can read these logs.

Linking Your Account to an Assistant

Where linking is available, you can link your PermitSnag account to an assistant, or create an API key. We then keep, for each connection:

• The name the app gave itself, the website your browser returns to, what you allowed it to do, when the connection was made and last used, and an identifier for the connection
• The credentials we issued to it, stored only as one-way hashes, so we cannot read one back. For an API key we also keep its first few characters so you can recognize it.
• A record, on each alert an assistant creates for you, that an assistant created it

Calls to the account endpoint are tied to your account. Our server logs for those calls carry an identifier for the connection or key that made the call, along with the tool, the result, and the time. That identifier is linked to your account in our database. The logs are kept the same way as our other server logs. We still never receive your conversation with the assistant. The company that runs the assistant receives what it reads from your account, including your alerts, and handles it under its own policy.

You can remove any connection or key on the Connected assistants page in your account. A removed connection can no longer be used. When you delete your account, we delete the connections and keys attached to it.

Payment Information

Payments made on our website are processed by Stripe. Purchases made inside the iPhone app are processed by Apple through the App Store. We do not store your credit card numbers or bank account information, and neither Stripe nor Apple gives us your payment details. We receive only:

• Subscription status and expiration date
• Transaction identifiers
• Purchase history (subscription, single permit, or permit add-on)
• Which store the purchase was made in, and the App Store country your Apple Account buys from

How We Use Your Information and Our Legal Bases

Where the EU or UK GDPR applies, we process personal data only where we have a legal basis to do so. The table below sets out each purpose and its basis.

Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time (see Your Rights). Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object (see Your Rights), and we will stop unless we have compelling grounds to continue.

Automated Processing and Profiling

We use limited automated analysis to recommend similar permits, estimate the odds of securing a permit, and learn the best time to send you alerts. These do not produce legal or similarly significant effects on you, and no decision about you is made solely by automated means without human involvement. You can object to this processing at any time.

Cookies and Tracking

We use strictly necessary cookies to run the site (sign-in, security, and remembering your cookie choice) and, with your permission, analytics cookies to understand usage and run product experiments. In the EEA and UK, non-essential cookies are set only after you consent, and you can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the "Cookie preferences" link in the footer. Full details are in our Cookie Policy.

Some experiments show different visitors different features, plans or offers. A first-party cookie keeps your experience the same on each visit. Choosing Reject in Cookie preferences, or sending Global Privacy Control, before you create an account keeps you out of these experiments. An account keeps what it included when it was created.

Information Sharing

With Other Users (Permit Sharing)

When you share a trip with other users or participate in group applications, those users can see:

• The permit and dates you're tracking
• Current availability status
• Your name or email (as trip owner or member)

You control who you share with. Observers can view status but cannot modify your trip.

With Service Providers (Processors)

We share data with trusted providers that process it on our behalf under contract. We do not authorize them to use your data for their own purposes.

With the Company That Runs Your Assistant

When an AI assistant calls our connector, our answer goes back to the company that operates that assistant. That company also has whatever you typed. It is not our service provider: it handles both under its own terms and privacy policy. We send it only the answer to the request it made.

Apple Wallet

If you add a permit pass to Apple Wallet, we build the pass on our servers from your trip and your confirmation number and send it to your phone. Apple does not tell us whether you kept it.

We Do Not Sell Your Data

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes. Period. That includes anything we receive through the AI assistant connector.

International Data Transfers

PermitSnag is operated from the United States, and your information is processed there. When we transfer personal data from the EEA or the UK to the US, we rely on appropriate safeguards, primarily the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum), and, where a provider is certified, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. You can request a copy of the safeguards we use by emailing privacy@permitsnag.com.

SMS Messaging

When you provide your phone number and opt in to SMS alerts, you consent to receive text messages from PermitSnag regarding:

• Permit availability alerts when openings are detected
• Lottery application reminders and deadline notifications
• Trip and calendar notifications
• Account security messages (verification codes)

Message frequency varies (typically 0 to 10 per week). Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to unsubscribe from all SMS alerts, or HELP for assistance. You can also disable SMS in your account settings. We do not sell or share your phone number with third parties for marketing.

Data Retention

We retain your data as follows:

• Account data: Until you delete your account
• Trip data: Until 90 days after the trip end date, then automatically deleted
• Historical outcome data: Anonymized and aggregated for service improvement
• Payment records: As required by law (typically 7 years)
• AI assistant connector logs: Kept only in our hosting provider's server logs, which the provider rotates on its own schedule. We do not copy them anywhere else. Rate-limit counters tied to an IP address last only as long as the limit's time window.
• Connected assistants and API keys: Until you remove them or delete your account
• Consent records: Kept as proof of your choices for as long as required to demonstrate compliance

Your Rights (EEA and UK)

If you are in the EEA or the UK, you have the following rights over your personal data:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Rectification: Correct inaccurate or incomplete data
• Erasure: Ask us to delete your data ("right to be forgotten")
• Restriction: Ask us to limit how we use your data
• Portability: Receive your data in a portable, machine-readable format
• Object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests, including profiling
• Withdraw consent: Withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing already carried out
• Complain: Lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority

To exercise any of these rights, contact privacy@permitsnag.com or use the "Delete Account" option in settings. We respond within one month. You will not receive different service or pricing for exercising your rights.

You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk). In the EEA, it is the supervisory authority in your country of residence.

California Residents (CCPA/CPRA)

California residents have the right to know what personal information is collected, to know whether it is sold or shared and to whom (we do not sell or share it), to delete their information, to correct it, and to not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising these rights. To exercise them, contact privacy@permitsnag.com.

Children's Privacy

PermitSnag is not intended for children. Our Terms of Service require you to be at least 18 to hold an account, because an account is a contract. Separately, and whatever age a person claims, we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16 in the EEA and UK, or under 13 in the United States. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will delete it.

Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including:

• Encryption in transit (TLS/HTTPS)
• Encryption at rest for sensitive data
• Secure authentication via Apple/Google OAuth
• Regular security reviews

No method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by email or through the app, and where required we will ask for your consent again.

Contact Us

• 4Whys LLC, doing business as PermitSnag
• Privacy: privacy@permitsnag.com
• Support: support@permitsnag.com
• Website: permitsnag.com