RootMap privacy policy

Last updated: 22 October 2026

RootMap is a Windows desktop application published by LTC Labs. This policy covers what the application does with your data. The short version: your photos, videos and face data never leave your computer. RootMap has no cloud photo service and no account to sign in to.

RootMap does go online: it checks in with LTC Labs for updates and diagnostics, and the map and place names come from public map services. Both are described below.

What never leaves this PC

• Your photo and video files
• Face crops, face matches, the names you give people, and your tags
• File names and folder paths (except in an app log you choose to attach to a support ticket)
• Your name, email or Windows account (except in a support ticket you choose to send)

What RootMap stores on your computer

Your original photos stay where they are. RootMap never moves or rewrites them. Its own data lives locally:

Data	Where it lives	Why
Photo index (SQLite database), thumbnails, face crops	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Rootmap	The library, map pins and People
Settings	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Rootmap\settings.json	Folders, theme, map and privacy choices
App log	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Rootmap\rootmap.log (plus one older copy, 5 MB each)	Diagnosing scan and map problems
Unsent diagnostic and usage events	%APPDATA%\Rootmap\telemetry_queue.json	Events waiting to be sent (see below); at most 500 are kept

When RootMap is installed from the Microsoft Store, Windows keeps these folders inside the app's own storage, under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\LTCLabs.RootMapPhotoGeoBrowserandFaces_…\LocalCache\. Uninstalling RootMap removes them.

Nothing is kept in an LTC Labs cloud copy of your library.

What RootMap sends to LTC Labs

All of this goes to https://www.ltclabs.dev and carries an anonymous machine identifier (see below).

1. An update check each time RootMap starts, and again if you open Support and the app needs a fresh support permission. It carries the app name and version, the Windows version, and the machine identifier.

2. Launch and close events. Close includes how long the session lasted. Always sent, even with usage data turned off: they're how we know the app starts and shuts down cleanly.

3. A check-in every 30 minutes while RootMap is open, carrying the app's memory use and a random ID for this session, plus any events waiting to be sent. Always sent.

4. Crash reports, only if the app hits an unhandled error: the error type, message and stack trace, with every file path removed first, plus the app and Windows versions. Always sent.

5. Photo read failures during a scan: an error code and a file extension such as heic, counted. No path, file name or coordinates. Always sent.

6. Optional usage data, while Settings → Privacy → Send anonymous usage data is on (it is on by default):

   • after a scan: how many photos it processed, how many had GPS, how long it took, and the most common file type
   • how many photos you exported or copied
   • that the map was opened, and how many of your photos have GPS
   • in Help: that Help was opened, which pages you viewed, how many results a search found (not what you typed), thumbs-up/down votes, and that Contact support was clicked

   Turn the setting off and these stop. Items 1 to 5 do not.

7. Support tickets, only when you send one: what you write, the email you give, the app and Windows versions, and the machine identifier. If you opened Support from Help, the ticket also includes which screen you were on, the last help page you read and your recent help searches. The recent app log (its last 500 lines) is attached only if you leave Include recent app log ticked. That log lists folder and file names RootMap worked on; your Windows user name is removed. Photos are never attached.

If you're offline, events wait in the queue file and go with the next successful connection.

Map tiles and place names

These go to public map services, not to LTC Labs. Scanning, the library, People, tags and export all work offline.

• Map tiles load from OpenStreetMap (Streets) and Esri (Satellite, Hybrid, Topo) for the part of the world you're looking at.
• Place search on the map sends what you type to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service.
• Place names in the photo viewer ("Munich, Germany"): for a photo with GPS, RootMap sends that photo's coordinates to Nominatim, at most once a second.
• MapTiler: if you paste your own MapTiler key in Settings → Map Provider, tiles and place search go to MapTiler under your account instead.
• Google Maps (the link in the photo viewer's details) opens that photo's location in your web browser, only when you click it.

The anonymous machine identifier

RootMap hashes Windows' machine GUID with SHA-256. The GUID itself never leaves the PC. The identifier isn't linked to your name or email unless you send a support ticket, which includes it so we can match your crash reports.

Your choices

• Turn off optional usage data in Settings → Privacy. The update check, check-ins, launch/close, crash reports and photo read failures still send.
• Keep the log to yourself: untick Include recent app log when you send a ticket, or email [email protected] and send exactly what you choose.
• Ask us to delete your data: email support. We can find tickets by email address. Crash reports and usage data need a ticket number from this PC so we can find its machine identifier.

Contact

Questions about privacy: [email protected]

Related

• FAQ · Getting started