Privacy
What CSI Map stores, what it never keeps, and how to delete your information.
The map itself
You can look up buildings, rooms, and walking directions without an account. That uses the campus map on your device. We do not get a copy of the rooms you search or the routes you walk.
If you sign in
Sign in is optional. It uses a one-time code sent to a CSI email (@stu-mail.csi.cuny.edu or @csi.cuny.edu). We store:
- Your school email, encrypted. The database never holds the address in plain text, and friends never see it. Only you see it on your own account screen.
- The name and username you pick, which friends and people in a meetup with you can see.
- Friend requests, friendships, and people you have blocked.
- Reports you send about another student or a campus event (reason and optional note), so we can review them.
- Problems you report with the map or app: what kind, your message, a place if you pick one, which app and version, and whether we may email you about it. Deleting your account deletes them.
- Meetups you host or join, including the place or pin, until they end. Hosting a campus meetup posts the title to the public board for signed-in students.
- Walks you share, while they run: which friends you picked and where you are headed. Friends watching never share their own location back, and the walk ends when you arrive or stop it.
- Notification subscriptions for this browser or installed app, if you turn notifications on. Sign out removes this device. Wiping your account removes every device.
- Sign-in sessions on this device (and any other device you signed in on), as a hashed cookie, not the cookie itself.
- Hashed sign-in codes until they expire, get used, or you delete your account. Unused codes are removed automatically.
What we never keep
- Live location. During a private meetup or a walk you share, your position is streamed in memory and expires in minutes. It is never written to a database. Campus public meetups do not share live location.
- Where you parked. The spot is saved on your device only, is forgotten within a day or when you drive off, and never reaches our servers.
- Your class list. Classes you save from CUNYfirst stay in this browser only. In the phone app, class reminders are scheduled on the phone itself, so your timetable is never sent anywhere.
- Passwords. There are none. Sign in is an email code.
Directions from off campus
On campus, walking routes are worked out on your device. When you ask for directions from somewhere else, your starting point and destination go straight from your browser to the free OpenStreetMap routing service run by FOSSGIS, which sends back the route. They never pass through our servers and we do not keep them.
The lines every campus walk uses, like “Turn left” or the name of the building you are walking to, are recorded ahead of time in each voice and downloaded from this site as they are needed. Like any file from this site, that request names only the recording, not where you are.
Other lines, like street names, are made on your device by an open source voice model. The first time one is needed, your browser, or the phone app once you pick a natural voice, downloads the model, about 90 MB, from Hugging Face and keeps it. Those words never leave your device. Spoken lines are saved on your device so they play instantly next time. In the app, Remove downloaded voices deletes the model and every saved line.
On a trip from off campus, the app can switch between driving and walking directions when you get out of a car or bus, or get picked up. To tell the two apart, the phone app counts your steps during that trip, with your permission, and the website goes by your speed. Steps are only used on your device while the trip runs. They are never saved or sent anywhere. You can turn the switch off in Account.
While walking directions are on, the phone app can show the way as arrows on the ground through your camera, if you turn it on and allow the camera. The picture is only shown on your screen. It is never recorded, saved, or sent anywhere, and the camera stops as soon as you go back to the map.
Download a copy
Signed in, open Account and choose JSON, HTML, or PDF. That file is your profile, sessions, friends, blocks, meetups, and the class list saved in this browser. Live location is not in it, because we never store it.
Delete your information
Signed in, open Account and use the Danger zone. That wipes your account: encrypted email, profile, friends, blocks, meetups you host, membership in other people's meetups, notification subscriptions, sessions, and leftover sign-in codes. You will be signed out everywhere. Doing it from this app also clears the class list saved in this browser.
In the phone app, open Account and tap Delete account. It deletes the same things right away. If you cannot sign in, email [email protected] from your school email and we will delete it within 7 days.
Incomplete accounts that never set a name and username are removed automatically after two days.
Who can see you
Other students find you by username, not email. Names and usernames built from your school email are refused. Blocking someone hides you from them and removes shared meetup membership. Nobody can browse a list of every account.
Contact
Questions about your data, or a request you cannot make from the app? Email [email protected].
CSI Map is a student-built campus map for College of Staten Island. It is not an official CSI service. See also the terms of use.