Effective 12 September 2026, updated 13 September 2026 for Merestone 2.3, updated 16 September 2026
Merestone needs no account and collects no personal data unless you choose to sign in. There are no analytics, no advertising and no tracking of any kind. The optional Merestone account, and exactly what it stores, is described below.
If you allow location access, your position is used on your device to centre the map, show grid references, and (on Apple Watch) find the designations around you. It is never stored by Merestone or sent to me. When you search around your position (on the phone or the Watch), the search circle around it is what the publishers' services receive.
Merestone streams its layers directly from the official public services that publish them, and uses Apple Maps as the base map. Those services are, by country:
Species layers ask GBIF (the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, gbif.org) for records inside the area on screen. Some agencies publish through Esri's ArcGIS Online cloud (services.arcgis.com); those requests go to Esri on the agency's behalf and are subject to Esri's privacy policy.
When the app requests data, the service being asked receives the same standard information any map app sends: your IP address and the area of the map being loaded. A service is contacted when you switch on one of its layers, run a search (by name, or around a point, including from the Watch), download a layer for offline use, or open the server status screen. It receives the map area or search circle, and for a name search the text you typed. Merestone adds nothing to identify you, and none of those requests pass through any server of mine. The app also downloads two small public files from this site (the list of layer updates and service notices), which carry nothing about you.
Notes, folders, saved presets, settings and offline downloads are stored on your device. Favourites are stored on your device and, if iCloud is on, copied between your own devices through your iCloud account; I cannot see them. CSV exports go wherever you choose to share them. Shared links contain only the map coordinates and layer of the feature being shared.
Purchases - a one-off country unlock, or the subscription that covers every country - are handled entirely by Apple. I receive no personal information about you from them.
You never need an account to use or buy Merestone. If you choose to sign in (Settings, Merestone account), the app sends your email address to merestonemaps.com, which emails you a six-digit code. The app keeps the resulting sign-in token in your device's keychain. merestonemaps.com stores your email address, the date you signed in, your language, a record of each sign-in session, the IP address of the request (kept up to a day) and the app version. What an account holds on merestonemaps.com (a purchase made on the website) then also unlocks in the app.
If you choose to link your App Store purchases, the app sends Apple's signed record of each one to merestonemaps.com: the transaction number, the product, the purchase date, a subscription's end date, and whether Apple has refunded or revoked it. Apple then tells merestonemaps.com about refunds and renewals of those purchases, and they are checked with Apple each night. This is never your Apple Account, your name or your payment details, and it is used only so the same purchases work on merestonemaps.com.
You can sign out at any time, and delete the account and everything it holds from Settings in the app or from your account page on merestonemaps.com. merestonemaps.com is hosted by Cloudflare; sign-in emails are sent through Resend. The full details of what the website stores are in the merestonemaps.com privacy policy.
Questions, or a request to see or delete what is held about you? Email leonfigueira@gmail.com.
Send feedback opens an email to me with your app version, device model, OS version, language, and which countries you have unlocked, so I can reproduce the problem. You see it before you send it.
Merestone is made by Leon Figueira. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.