Epitavia · Steckler Lab

Terms

Last updated: November 4, 2026

These are starter terms for an early product and may change; we'll post changes here and update the date, and flag material changes in the app or by email.

Who we are

Epitavia is run by Steckler Lab. When these terms say "we", "us", or "our", they mean Steckler Lab. These terms do not name a separate company, registration, or street address. By using Epitavia you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use it. Questions about these terms go to privacy@stecklerlab.com.

Your account

You need an email address and a password of at least 12 characters to make an account. A display name is optional; if you leave it blank, we use Explorer. Keep your password to yourself. You're responsible for what happens under your account. If you think someone else has used it, reset your password and tell us.

We send a link to confirm your email address. AI only works once it's confirmed.

Epitavia isn't meant for children under 13, and they shouldn't make an account.

AI features

AI chat and Ask Atlas questions are answered by outside AI models, sent through OpenRouter, and only for signed-in accounts with a confirmed email. Other guide features, such as navigation and the research brief, use Epitavia's own data and rules rather than an outside model.

On the free plan, each account can make 20 AI requests a day. There is also a shared daily cap across all users. When either daily limit is reached, AI pauses until the next day (midnight UTC). Each account also has a short burst limit of 6 requests a minute. Hitting that pauses AI briefly, not until midnight. Paid plans are not on sale, so there is no higher paid allowance to buy.

AI answers can be wrong, out of date, or confidently mistaken. Don't rely on them for safety, navigation, weather, identifying what's safe to eat or touch, or anything else where a mistake could hurt you. Please don't put personal or sensitive information in AI questions. The Privacy page explains why.

What you share

You keep ownership of the field notes, photos, recordings, condition reports, and other material you submit. You grant Steckler Lab a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, display, reproduce, and adapt that material — including resizing or reformatting it — only to operate, show, and improve Epitavia. Here, improve means fixing and running the product, such as resizing a photo or editing a note for safety. It is not permission to train a model on your notes, photos, or other material you submit. The license is not a transfer of ownership, and it is not permission to use your material for unrelated advertising.

You can ask us to delete a submission or your account by emailing privacy@stecklerlab.com, as the Privacy page describes. We do not promise how soon that is finished. For a note already in the public atlas, we will remove it or keep it without your name, whichever you ask for. The license ends for material we remove. It does not end for backup copies we still hold for a limited time. If a place's name, location, or access notes were already shared on terms compatible with the OpenStreetMap ODbL, people who received that copy can keep using it after you delete it.

Place data is narrower than a photo or a story. If you add a place, its name, location, and access notes may be shared with others on terms compatible with the OpenStreetMap Open Database License (ODbL). People who already received that place data can keep using it under those terms even after you delete it. Do not submit anything you copied from a book, website, photo, or other source you have no rights to share.

Only share things that:

• are honest observations, with uncertainty marked when you're not sure
• you made yourself, or have the right to share
• were collected from public places, your own property, or places where you had permission to be
• don't reveal sensitive wildlife locations, other people's private details, or the inside of someone's home or yard
• aren't abusive, hateful, sexual, spam, or advertising

Field notes, photos, condition reports, corrections, and stories you send in the field-note form are reviewed by a steward before they appear in the public atlas. We may decline them, ask you to change them, or remove anything that doesn't fit these terms. A sound recording you make in the guide stays on your account. It is not published as a public note.

Signed-in accounts with a confirmed email can add a place, up to three a day. Before a place is public, automated checks look at the pin and the text: a pin outside the atlas area, one that OpenStreetMap tags as private, no-access, or military, or text with contact details, links, or private-home wording is rejected or held. A pin near an existing place, in a residential or building area, or a land check that fails or can't finish is held for a moderator. A place that passes every check is published with a "community-added" badge. Those checks only see what OpenStreetMap and the text show. Land that isn't tagged can still pass, so the badge is not a check that the place is safe, open, or legal to enter, and nothing on Epitavia is permission to enter any place. Moderators can remove a community-added place at any time, and every change is logged. Signed-in users with a confirmed email can report a place. Several separate reports take it off the map until a moderator decides.

Outdoors: access, private land, and safety

Epitavia helps you notice and learn about places. It is not an access map, a trail guide you can rely on for safety, or a permission slip.

• A place on the map is not permission to enter. Bellamy Woods in Dover is a private residential neighborhood, not a park or a public trail. Respect private property there and everywhere else. Stay on public ways or places where you have permission, and follow posted rules, closures, and the land manager's guidance.
• Conditions change. Trails, parking, hours, tides, water levels, weather, ice, smoke, and wildlife closures can change without notice. The conditions and forecasts we show come from public sources and can be late or wrong.
• You're responsible for your own safety and for the people you bring. Check official sources before you go, carry what you need, and turn back when it doesn't feel right.
• Leave it as you found it. Don't disturb wildlife, nests, plants, or cultural sites, and don't collect from protected areas.

Maps and data

Map data is © OpenStreetMap contributors and is available under the Open Database License (copyright). Tiles come from OpenFreeMap, which uses OpenMapTiles. Topographic tiles come from Esri, and radar from RainViewer. Weather, fire, and smoke information comes from public data services. Credits appear on the map itself. These sources have their own terms, and none of them endorse Epitavia.

Place descriptions cite their sources. They can be incomplete or outdated. If something's wrong, please tell us.

Paid plan

Paid plans are not on sale, and Stripe billing is turned off. Nothing on Epitavia charges you today. A paid plan with stronger AI models may come later. If it does, we'll explain the price, renewal, and how to cancel before you can buy it, and payments would be handled by Stripe. Until that exists, there is nothing to subscribe to.

Fair use

Please don't:

• try to get around the limits, sign-in, or email confirmation
• scrape or bulk-download the atlas
• probe or attack the service
• make accounts on someone else's behalf without their consent
• use Epitavia to harass anyone or to locate people or sensitive wildlife

If you find a security problem, please tell us at security@stecklerlab.com.

Changes and availability

Epitavia is an early product. Features may change, pause, or end. These terms may change too. We'll post the new terms on this page and update the date at the top, and we'll flag material changes in the app or by email.

Stopping or ending an account

You can stop using Epitavia at any time. You can also ask us to delete your account. How that works is on the Privacy page.

We can suspend or end an account if you break these terms, or for safety, abuse, or legal reasons. Ending an account does not, by itself, take back a place's name, location, or access notes that other people already received under those ODbL-compatible terms.

The legal basics

Epitavia is provided "as is" and "as available". We try to keep it useful, but we do not promise that the atlas, the maps, the conditions, or the AI answers will be accurate, complete, current, uninterrupted, or fit for a particular trip. You assume the risk of relying on them and of any outdoor activity you choose, including injury or property damage. Being outdoors can be dangerous even when a page looks confident.

To the extent the law allows, Steckler Lab is not liable for loss that comes from using Epitavia or from visiting a place. If we are liable, the most we owe for a claim is the greater of what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim or US$50. Where the law does not allow a limit, that limit applies only as far as the law allows. Nothing here takes away a right that consumer law says cannot be waived.

New Hampshire law applies, and we do not use another state's choice-of-law rules to swap it out. The state or federal courts located in New Hampshire are the venue for disputes about these terms or Epitavia, and you agree those courts may hear them.

Contact

• General questions: hello@stecklerlab.com
• Privacy and account deletion: privacy@stecklerlab.com
• Security: security@stecklerlab.com

See also: Privacy.