Privacy policy

Last updated October 23, 2026

This policy explains what information TicketTrap.ai collects, why, and who else handles it. It covers tickettrap.ai and the blog at tickettrap.ai/blog. Cookies are covered in more detail in our cookie policy.

Reading the site

You can read everything on TicketTrap.ai without an account. We do not use advertising or analytics trackers, and we do not sell personal information or share it for advertising. Our own application does not keep a record of which pages individual visitors view. Fonts are served from our own server, not from a third-party font service.

Cloudflare. Every request to tickettrap.ai passes through Cloudflare, which delivers the site and protects it from attacks. To do that, Cloudflare processes your IP address and the details of each request, and it may set its own security cookies. See Cloudflare's privacy policy.

The camera map

Map images. The map background is loaded by your browser directly from OpenFreeMap (tiles.openfreemap.org). OpenFreeMap receives your IP address and the area of the map you are viewing, as it would for any website request.

Address search. When you search the map for an address, town or ZIP code, our server sends the text you typed to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service to find the location. Nominatim receives the search text from our server, not your IP address. We keep recent search answers in server memory so the same search is not looked up twice. They are not saved in our database and are cleared when the application restarts.

The records request letter builder

The letter builder in the citizen toolkit runs entirely in your browser. What you type there is not sent to us. Copying or downloading the letter happens on your device.

Tips and documents

The send a tip or document form collects: the type of submission, a location, your message, an optional file (PDF, image, plain text or CSV, up to 25 MB), and, only if you choose to give them, your name and email address. These are stored in our database and on our own server. Uploaded files are kept outside the public website and can be opened only by signed-in TicketTrap editors.

To limit abuse to five submissions an hour per connection, we store a one-way scrambled form (a salted hash) of your IP address with the submission. We do not store the IP address itself.

We use submissions to research and report on camera programs. If you give us your name or email address, we use them to contact you about your submission. Before we publish a submitted record we remove personal information about ticketed drivers, such as names, plate numbers, home addresses and ticket numbers, as described in our editorial standards.

Support requests

The support form collects your email address, a topic, a subject, your message and, if you give it, your name. It creates a ticket in our help desk system, which we run on our own servers, and we use your email address to reply. To limit abuse, a scrambled form of your IP address is held in server memory for one hour; it is not saved. You can also write to [email protected].

Editors

Only TicketTrap editors have accounts. When an editor signs in, we store a session record and set a sign-in cookie that lasts 14 days. We keep a log of editor actions, including the IP address they came from. Public visitors are never given an account.

The blog

The blog at tickettrap.ai/blog runs on WordPress with a separate hosting provider, also behind Cloudflare. Comments are closed and there is no public sign-up. Its security plugins (Wordfence and Defender) process visitor IP addresses and request details to block attacks. Signed-in blog editors receive WordPress sign-in cookies. Blog images shown on our home page are loaded from the blog on the same domain.

If you choose to support us

If we offer a way to support TicketTrap.ai with a payment and you choose to use it, the payment is handled on Stripe's hosted checkout page. Stripe collects your card or payment details; TicketTrap.ai never sees or stores your card number. Stripe tells us that a payment was made, its amount, and the contact details you give Stripe, such as your email address. Stripe's privacy policy applies to what you give Stripe. TicketTrap.ai is not a charity, and a payment to support us is not a tax-deductible donation.

Social media

Our links to X, Facebook and Bluesky are plain links. We do not embed social media widgets, buttons or feeds, so those platforms receive nothing from your visit unless you click through. Once you are on their sites, their privacy policies apply.

Who else receives information

• Cloudflare: IP address and request details for every visit, to deliver and protect the site.
• OpenFreeMap: IP address and map area, when your browser loads the map.
• OpenStreetMap Nominatim: the text of a map search, sent from our server.
• Stripe: payment details, only if you choose to support us.

We do not sell or rent personal information. We share it only as described here or when the law requires it.

How long we keep it

We keep tips, documents and support tickets for as long as we need them for our research and records, or until you ask us to delete them. Editor sessions expire after 14 days. Map search answers live only in server memory.

Your choices and rights

You can ask us what personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct or delete it, by emailing [email protected]. We may need to confirm that a request comes from you, for example by replying to the email address you used. Deleting a submission does not remove facts we have published that are supported by public records.

If you live in California, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, gives you the right to know what personal information we collect and how we use it, to ask us to delete or correct it, to opt out of its sale or sharing (we do not sell or share it), and not to be treated differently for using these rights. Send any request to the address above.

If personal information about you appears on the site, tell us and we will remove it, as our editorial standards say.

Children

TicketTrap.ai is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has sent us information, email us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy we update it on this page and change the date at the top.

Contact

Questions or requests about privacy: [email protected].