23. Device Identity and Sharing Privacy

Device identity and sharing privacy

The intent is to reduce the personal information a platform needs to hold. Without website registration, there is no required account profile containing a real name, phone number or email. Device-held keys provide proof of authorship without requiring that personal profile. Local contacts, conversations and unshared tracks do not need to become one provider's complete activity history.

This supports pseudonymous use: a key can identify an author without registering their civil identity. It does not make a persistent public identity unlinkable.

Trail Mate uses a personally held device identity for author operations. A connected device proves possession and signs authorized Geocaching or trail content. The browser is an editing tool; it does not issue a website account that owns your identity.

Independent services

Reticulum gateways provide network access. Content directories index and serve shared publications. They may be operated independently and on different nodes. Reaching a directory does not require making its machine your account provider.

Author signatures let recipients check publication authorship independently of a directory's display text. Directory proofs describe a directory result; they are not a guarantee that every other directory stores the same content or that a route is physically safe.

What stays local and what becomes public

Information	Visibility in the ordinary workflow
Device private identity material	Held by the device; ordinary author operations use signatures. Explicit identity backups are sensitive.
Unpublished browser drafts	Stored in the current browser until exported or published.
Unshared device recordings	Stored on the device/media; connecting USB lets the authorized tool read supported records.
Published KML, coordinates, time and metadata	Available to the selected directory and recipients of the public content.
Public author key and publication history	Can link publications made under the same author identity.
Gateway connection metadata	Observable to the gateway or network parties that provide that connection.
External map requests	Observable to the selected map provider.

Independent operators and portable files reduce the need to give one platform your entire private history. They do not prevent someone from saving or analysing data you intentionally publish. A public route may reveal a home, regular starting point or timing pattern if you include that information.

Review before sharing

Check the route, waypoints, recording times, images, descriptions and embedded KML metadata. Publish only what you intend to disclose. Keep a private original if you create a public edited copy. Changing website language or RF protocol does not create a new author identity or make the old public history anonymous.

Archiving records a new publication state and can remove the item from ordinary active results. It cannot remotely erase copies or past versions already held by another directory or recipient.

Identity custody

Keep backups protected and retain recovery information you need. Someone who obtains usable private identity material can act as that author. A lost device without a usable backup may mean losing the ability to maintain its published content. These facts apply even though there is no central account login.

Trail Mate's privacy benefit is control over identity, local records and the choice of sharing relationships. Its documentation does not promise that no platform can ever learn a public route or infer behaviour from public data.