LiveGround ("LiveGround", "we", "us", or "our") is a location-based travel information platform designed to help users discover and share recent ground-level travel conditions.
This Privacy Policy explains how information is collected, used, processed, and protected when you use our website, mobile interface, and related services.
LiveGround provides community-driven updates regarding road conditions, weather events (such as snowfall, rain, and fog), traffic delays, transit status, and general travel situations.
We collect information to operate, personalize, and improve our services, including account data, voluntarily submitted travel observations, foreground location signals, and technical telemetry.
LiveGround utilizes Firebase Authentication. When you log in using Google Sign-In, Firebase provides your display name, email address, profile picture URL, unique Firebase UID, and provider metadata. If you use guest access, an anonymous authentication identifier is generated.
Location data is accessed strictly on-demand in the foreground when you grant explicit browser permission via the Geolocation API (navigator.geolocation). Continuous background GPS tracking is never performed.
While precise numerical latitude and longitude coordinates are processed internally to filter nearby feeds and fetch local weather, exact numerical GPS coordinates are never publicly displayed on public posts or feeds. Public posts display only readable locality, city, and state names.
When you post a travel update, submit a Ground Request, or upload media, we process and store the accompanying text, timestamps, selected status tags, and locality names.
Uploaded photos and videos are stored, compressed, optimized, and served via Cloudinary. Cloudinary processes these assets and generates responsive sizes, video derivatives, and preview thumbnails, with asset URLs stored in Firestore.
LiveGround stores active updates, requests, status indicators, and interaction metrics on Google Cloud Firestore database infrastructure.
Interactions such as marking a post "Helpful" are recorded to evaluate community utility and relevance. These metrics reflect community sentiment and do not constitute independent platform verification.
We use information to provide live local feeds, associate updates with places, calculate proximity, deliver weather summaries, prevent platform abuse, and maintain service security.
We rely on trusted technical providers including Firebase (authentication and database), Cloudinary (media hosting), and external map/weather APIs. Each provider processes technical metadata necessary to fulfill platform operations.
LiveGround may display contextual partner cards for third-party travel services (such as verified stays and transport). Interactions on third-party platforms are governed by the respective provider's terms and privacy policies.
LiveGround uses local browser storage and session cookies strictly for necessary operations such as authentication persistence, active UI preferences, and feed caching.
Active feed updates and Ground Requests are maintained in accordance with platform lifecycles: standard updates automatically expire after 24 hours and Ground Requests expire after 6 hours, after which database records and associated media assets are purged from active feeds, subject to residual retention for legal and security purposes.
You can request deletion of your LiveGround account and associated user data through in-app profile settings, subject to applicable regulatory and legitimate security retention requirements.
LiveGround uses moderation measures to help reduce misleading, abusive, inappropriate, spam, or unsafe content. User-generated reports are community contributions and may not always be independently verified.
LiveGround is an observational community platform and is NOT an emergency dispatch or official life-safety service. Always consult official local transport and emergency authorities during hazardous situations.
LiveGround is a general travel and community information platform and is not specifically directed toward children.
LiveGround will handle personal data relating to children in accordance with applicable data-protection requirements. Where applicable law requires verifiable consent from a parent or lawful guardian before processing a child's personal data, LiveGround will take the required steps.
LiveGround does not knowingly use children's personal data for behavioural monitoring or targeted advertising where such activities are prohibited by applicable law.
We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. Any revisions will be reflected with an updated effective date on this page. Users may submit questions or feedback through available in-app platform controls.