Privacy notice
PrintMap3D · last reviewed 1 August 2026
PrintMap3D has no logins and no advertising. We never ask for your name, email or address to build a model. We do not create user accounts or assign a persistent visitor identifier. The area you select is used to build your model and is then discarded. This notice explains the personal data we do handle.
Who is responsible
The operator of PrintMap3D is the data controller for the processing described here, and is established in the United Kingdom, so UK GDPR applies and the Information Commissioner's Office is our supervisory authority. Contact us about anything on this page at privacy@printmap3d.com, or about the service generally at support@printmap3d.com.
What we process, why, and our legal basis
Your IP address
Every request to any website carries the visitor's IP address. Ours uses it as a temporary counter key to enforce per-visitor limits on model generation — it stays in the running program's memory, is not written to disk, and is gone when the service restarts. Where your IP address does and does not end up, plainly:
- Our web server's routine log of every request records no IP address, no page address and no request headers.
- Our application's own error records contain no IP address, no request content and nothing you typed.
- Our web server also keeps a separate fault log, and an entry there does include the connecting IP address. It records faults only, not a line per request, and we keep it for at most 14 days.
Your IP address is also received by the providers your browser connects to, described under who receives data. Legal basis: our legitimate interests in keeping the service secure, available and free from abuse.
The area and settings you choose
To build a model we receive the coordinates of the area you select, your layer, scale and format settings, any markers you place and any label you type. A selected area can point at somebody's home, so we treat it carefully: it is held in memory for the build only, and is not written to any database, file or log. If a build fails, our diagnostics record the area only as a box rounded to roughly a kilometre across, rather than the exact area you chose. Legal basis: performance of our agreement with you — we cannot build the model you asked for without it.
The model itself is built in memory and sent straight to your device. We do not write it to our disks, do not keep a copy, and do not list or index what you generate.
Copy editable link. This puts your selection and settings into the URL itself, so someone else can reopen the editor with them. Nothing is stored on our server. The link is not private and not encrypted: anyone who receives it — or any service that handles it — can read the selected area and its coordinates, the place name shown for it, all model settings, and any markers and label text you configured. Treat it like any other link you send.
What you type into place search
Place search runs directly between your browser and the OpenStreetMap Foundation's Nominatim service: the text you type — which may be a full address — and your IP address go to them, not through us. Legal basis: performance of our agreement with you; the OpenStreetMap Foundation acts as its own controller for that search.
Messages you send us
If you email us, use a “Report issue” or “Report this page” link, or make a privacy request, we receive whatever you send — typically your email address, your description, and any error reference the link fills in. These links never carry a download link, a credential or anything you typed into the editor. Legal basis: our legitimate interests in answering you, and our legal obligations where the message is a privacy request or a complaint.
Using PrintMap3D is voluntary — nothing obliges you to give us any of this. If you want a model, the area and settings you choose are needed to build it. We make no automated decisions about you and do no profiling.
Who receives data
Providers your browser connects to directly, which therefore receive your IP address and the request itself: our website host (Vercel, US), our model-generation host (Hetzner, Germany), our analytics provider (Cloudflare, US), the OpenStreetMap Foundation for map tiles and place search, Amazon Web Services for the elevation tiles used for the preview on your device, and a content-delivery network (raw.githack.com) for a small file that lights the 3D preview.
Providers only our server contacts, which see our server's address rather than yours and receive no identifier of you: the public Overpass map-feature services in Germany, France and Austria, and Amazon Web Services for the same elevation tiles when a model is built server-side. Our email provider processes messages you send to our support, privacy, legal and abuse addresses.
Our hosts, our analytics provider and our email provider process personal data on our behalf. The OpenStreetMap Foundation, Amazon Web Services and the content-delivery network are independent of us and handle your requests under their own privacy policies and retention rules, which we do not control — we make no claim about whether they store it. We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for advertising.
International transfers
Our model-generation server is in Germany, and the UK's adequacy regulations cover the EEA. Our website host and our analytics provider are US companies, and some services your browser contacts directly are US-based, so using PrintMap3D involves transfers of personal data — mainly your IP address — to the United States. To ask about the safeguards that apply to a particular provider, or for a copy of them or where they are published, email privacy@printmap3d.com.
Website analytics
We count page views with Cloudflare Web Analytics to see which pages are used. It is the only analytics on this site: no session recording, no advertising, no cross-site tracking. The measurement script sets no cookies and writes nothing to your browser's storage, and we assign no persistent visitor identifier — the beacon attaches a one-off reference to each page load it reports, not reused across pages or visits. Reporting a page view sends a request to Cloudflare, Inc. in the US carrying your IP address, like any web request; Cloudflare publishes that it derives aggregate statistics such as country from it and does not track visitors over time for analytics. We receive aggregate counts only and cannot look up an individual visitor. Legal basis: our legitimate interests in understanding which pages are used.
Your choice. Analytics is on by default; the control below switches it off — that is how you object to it, at any time. When it is off, the script is not loaded and no request is made to Cloudflare.
What is stored in your browser
We set no cookies of our own, and by default we write nothing to your browser at all. The one exception: if you switch analytics off, we save pm3d_analytics_disabled in localStorage so we can remember your choice on this browser. It records that choice and nothing else — it is not an identifier and it is never sent to us or to anyone else. Turning analytics back on removes it, and clearing site data in your browser removes it too.
How long we keep personal data
| What | Kept for | How it goes away |
|---|---|---|
| Your selection while a model builds | The request only | Never written down |
| Rate-limit counters keyed on your IP | In memory only; counts expire within 1 hour | Cleared automatically or on restart; never written to disk |
| Web server fault entries, which can contain an IP address | At most 14 days | Daily rotation, then deleted |
| Your analytics choice, in your browser | Until you turn analytics back on, or clear site data | Removed when you re-enable analytics; never leaves your device |
| Emails you send us | While needed to handle the matter | Deleted when closed and no longer needed |
The 14-day maximum is enforced by log-rotation settings on our server, not by anyone remembering to do it. We also keep short technical records of faults and traffic volumes, but they carry no IP address, no page address and nothing you typed, so they are not personal data.
Your right to object
Where we rely on our legitimate interests — security and abuse prevention, answering your messages, and analytics — you can object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, by emailing privacy@printmap3d.com. We will stop unless compelling legitimate grounds override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the data is needed for legal claims.
Analytics needs no email and no reason: switch it off in the control above at any time. Security and rate limiting protect the service itself and run on every visit; we cannot switch them off for individual visitors, though you can still object and we will consider it.
Your other rights and how to complain
You can ask us for access to personal data we hold about you, for a copy of it — in a machine-readable form where the right to portability applies — or for it to be corrected or erased, and you can ask us to restrict our use of it. Write to privacy@printmap3d.com. One practical point: we hold no accounts and no identifiers for you, so we usually cannot connect what we hold to you as a person — if you think we hold something of yours, tell us what it relates to and we will look.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, email privacy@printmap3d.com with “Data protection complaint” in the subject — the link fills in a short form. We acknowledge complaints within 30 days and respond as soon as we can.
Changes to this notice
If we change what we collect, who receives it, or how long we keep it, we update this page and the review date at the top, at the same time as the change to the service — not afterwards. For the map and elevation sources behind the models and the licences that apply, see Data Sources & Licenses.