The Packing Index

Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 22, 2026

The Packing Index (“we,” “us,” the “app”) helps you build, weigh, and share travel packing lists. This policy explains what we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. We do not sell your data, run ads, or track you across other apps or websites.

Information we collect

Account information. When you sign in with Apple, Google, or an email code, we receive your email address and (if you choose to share it) your name. These identify your account.
Profile. A display name, an optional profile photo you choose, and preferences (units, default mode of travel, appearance).
Your content. The trips, bags, items, templates, dates, destinations, and packed status you create in the app.
Gear photos. Photographs you take of your own gear. The background is removed on your device, and the result is saved to your account as that item’s picture. These are private to you unless you choose to contribute one to the Shared Library, described below.
Trip drafting input. When you use AI Draft, the destination and travel dates of that trip are sent to our drafting service to generate a suggested list. No account identifiers are required for this feature.
Gear you scan. When you use Scan Gear, the photograph you are scanning is sent to our server and on to Anthropic’s API, which reads it and returns the items it can identify with estimated weights. When you use Look up the weight on an item, the item’s name and brand go the same way. We do not keep the photograph after the analysis, and you approve every result before anything is saved to your gear.
Travel documents. Boarding passes, bookings and other files you add to the Operator Dossier, stored in a private area of our file storage that only your account can read. We do not read them, and nothing in them is sent to any analysis service.
Field Log entries. The dated notes and photographs you write in a trip’s Field Log. These are private to you and are never published.
Membership and purchases. If you subscribe to Packing Index Pro or buy a Scan Pack, Apple processes the payment and we never see your payment details. We record which plan you hold and when it runs to, and a row for each scan and weight lookup you make, so that the monthly allowance can be metered and shown back to you in Account.
Weather and place lookups. When a trip has a destination, that destination name is sent to Open-Meteo to turn it into coordinates and show a local forecast. No account identifiers or personal information are sent.
Device permissions. Camera and photo library access (only if you photograph gear, scan a photo of your gear, add a document or a Field Log picture, or set a profile or trip cover photo) and notifications (only if you turn on Trip Reminders). You can decline or revoke these in Settings.

We do not collect location, contacts, browsing history, or advertising identifiers.

How we use it

To provide the service: store your packing lists and sync them across your devices and the website.
To authenticate you and keep your account secure.
To generate AI-assisted packing suggestions, gear identification and weight estimates when you request them.
To show a destination weather forecast for your trips.
To send a departure brief before a trip, if you turn on Trip Reminders. It is scheduled on your device and its contents are never sent anywhere.
To know whether you hold Packing Index Pro, and to meter the monthly scanning allowance it includes.

How it’s stored and who processes it

Your data is stored in our backend hosted by Supabase, protected by per-user access rules. Your trips, bags, items and gear photos are readable only by you, and by anyone you explicitly share a trip with. The one exception is a cutout you deliberately contribute to the Shared Library, described below. We rely on these service providers:

Supabase — database, authentication, and file storage.
Apple and Google — sign-in (we receive only your email and optional name).
packingindex.com drafting service — generates packing suggestions from a destination and dates.
Anthropic — reads a gear photograph you scan, or an item name you look up, and returns what it can identify. It receives the photograph or the name, not your account or your trips.
Open-Meteo — destination coordinates and weather forecasts (receives only a destination name).
Apple — processes every purchase through the App Store. We never receive your payment details.
RevenueCat — checks the App Store receipt and holds the answer to one question, whether your account currently has Pro. Our server reads that answer to meter your scans.

We do not share your personal information with third parties for their own marketing, and we do not sell it.

Anthropic and Open-Meteo receive only what a single request needs, and neither receives your account. The Dossier and the Field Log are sent to no analysis service at all.

Sharing

If you share a trip, the people you share it with can view that trip’s contents. You control what you share.

You can also share a readiness card: a picture of how ready a trip is, which carries your destination, your counts, your bag weight and the date it was made. It never carries the names of your items. Where it goes after you share it is up to you.

Leaderboards

The Index Leaderboard is off until you turn it on, one choice for all boards. While it is off, nothing about you appears on any board, and the personal Service Record you see in the app is computed for you alone.

It publishes a board name you choose, never your account name. If you signed in with Apple or Google, your real name is not on the board and is not sent to it.
What appears is your totals, such as trips filed and items packed. Never a trip, a destination, a document, or a photograph.
Turning it off removes your row. Your numbers are still kept privately for your own Service Record.

The Shared Library

You can choose to contribute a cutout of your own gear so that other travelers can use it for the same product. This is entirely optional and is decided one photo at a time. Nothing is contributed automatically, and photographing your gear never shares it.

Contributing is the one action in the app that cannot be fully undone. Please read the last two points below before you do it.

A person reviews it first. A contributed cutout is not visible to anyone else until a reviewer has approved it. If it is declined, you are told why.
Once approved, any signed-in user can see and use it. That is the purpose of contributing.
Your name is never attached. Contributions are not credited publicly, and the app does not show other users who contributed a cutout.
Location data cannot travel with it. Cutouts are re-rendered from scratch when the background is removed, so photo metadata, including any GPS coordinates, does not survive into the saved image.
You can remove it from the library at any time, but not from people already using it. Removing it means nobody new can find or use it. Anyone who already added it to their own gear keeps it, and that cannot be undone — taking it back would leave a hole in their library. Your own copy of the gear photo is unaffected.
Deleting your account does not take back a contributed cutout. A cutout you contributed and that was approved remains available to the people using it after your account is deleted, for the same reason: their libraries depend on it. Your name was never attached to it, and it is not credited to you anywhere. Removing it from the library first stops anyone new from taking it, but does not remove it from those who already have it. This is the one thing about contributing that cannot be undone, which is why the app says so before you contribute.
You can report or block. Any contributed cutout can be reported for review, and you can block a contributor so their cutouts are hidden from you. Blocking can be undone.

Data retention and deletion

We keep your data until you delete it. You can delete individual trips at any time, and you can permanently delete your entire account and all associated data from within the app: Account → Delete account. This removes your trips, bags, items, templates, gear, Field Log entries, the files in your Dossier, your leaderboard row, your profile and your login. The action is immediate and cannot be undone.

Two things outlive the account on purpose, and the app says so before either happens: a cutout you contributed to the Shared Library and that was approved, described above, and the record Apple keeps of a purchase, which is theirs rather than ours. Cancelling a subscription is done in your App Store settings, not here.

Children

The app is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.

Your choices

Decline or revoke photo, camera and notification permissions in Settings.
Turn Trip Reminders on or off, and choose how many days before a trip the departure brief arrives.
Leave the leaderboards off, or turn them off again at any time.
Edit your profile and preferences in the app.
Export your data as a JSON archive from Account → Export full archive.
Delete your account at any time.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by the “Last updated” date above.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data? Email clbattle90@gmail.com.