Privacy policy

Effective October 11, 2026

Outdoor Text is operated by LinkTaps LLC ("we", "us"). This policy explains what we keep when you text (855) 886-4321 or visit outdoortext.com. The short version: we do not keep what you text us, what we reply, or where you are.

What we do not keep

The text of your messages, our replies, and any place or coordinates you send are never written to our database or our logs. They exist only in memory while we answer, and in our task queue for a request answered in the background, and are gone once you have your reply. One exception: when an answer is too long for one text, the rest is held for up to one hour so you can text “more” to get it, then deleted.

What we keep, and for how long

• Your phone number, as the identifier for your free replies and balance.
• Billing state: free replies remaining, balance, hourly message counters, whether you received the welcome message, and when we last sent a low-balance notice. Kept while you use the service.
• Consent record: the date and time you first texted us, kept for four years as the record of your opt-in.
• Ledger: for each text we send you and each top-up, your number, the amount (zero for free texts), the type (for example "weather" or "help"), the time and a random reference. It contains no message content and is kept for accounting and support.
• Usage counts: the type of each request and how confidently we understood it, without your number or your words, kept for 90 days to tune the service.
• Short-lived records: message IDs used to avoid answering twice (one hour) and top-up links (seven days).

Who processes your data

• Twilio delivers our text messages and sends the one-time code for top-ups. We delete each message record from Twilio once it has been handled, normally within two hours. Our SMS provider may keep diagnostic records of a failed delivery, which can include the message, for up to 30 days.
• Google Cloud hosts the service and its database. To understand a message, its text may be sent to Google's Gemini model; to answer a question, the question is sent to Anthropic's Claude model, which runs on Google Cloud and may search the web. Neither provider uses this data to train models. We have turned off Google Cloud's AI data caching and never enable request logging, so prompts are not kept after they are answered.
• Google Maps Platform receives the place name or ZIP code you send, to find its coordinates and time zone.
• The National Weather Service, Open-Meteo and the National Park Service receive coordinates or a park code to look up weather and alerts. They never receive your phone number.
• Stripe processes top-up payments. Stripe collects your payment details under its own privacy policy; we receive the amount paid and the phone number the payment is for, never your full card number.

Sharing

We do not sell or rent personal information, and we share it only with the processors above, as needed to run the service, or when the law requires it. Mobile phone numbers and SMS opt-in consent are not shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing purposes.

Website

outdoortext.com sets no cookies for visitors and uses no analytics or advertising trackers. The payment page is hosted by Stripe, which sets its own cookies.

Your choices

Reply STOP to stop all messages. You may ask us to delete the data tied to your number by emailing [email protected] from an address we can confirm, or by asking us to text you a confirmation. We will delete your billing state, but keep the consent record and ledger for as long as the law or our accounting requires. Any unused balance is forfeited when the record is deleted unless you ask us to refund it first.

Children

Outdoor Text is for adults and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

Security

Data is stored in Google Cloud and encrypted at rest and in transit. Access to production systems is limited to the operator.

Changes and contact

We will post changes to this policy here with a new effective date. Questions: LinkTaps LLC, [email protected].