By downloading, installing or using Secret Map you accept the terms below. Like every document written in legal language it is long, but we have kept it as plain as we could.
Secret Map is an iOS application developed and operated by Fatih Genç, an individual developer. By downloading, installing or using the app you are deemed to accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the app; deleting it is enough and no further notice is required.
This document covers the app itself and the pages on the secretmap.dev domain. The Privacy Policy is an inseparable part of these terms and should be read together with them.
The app is intended for people aged 18 and over and is rated accordingly on the App Store. We do not verify your age, because verifying it would mean asking you for identity documents, and the entire product is built on the opposite principle. Instead we offer no features aimed at under-18s.
If the law of your country restricts or prohibits anonymous publishing, the responsibility for using the app rests with you.
The only way in is Sign in with Apple, and your name and email are never requested. If you sign in, your secrets stay attached to you when you change devices. If you continue as a guest, you can read the whole map but write nothing.
When you sign in with Apple we receive only the anonymous user identifier Apple generates; your name and email are never requested, so they never reach us. Your secrets are stored against the account number derived from that identifier — it is what lets you see and delete your own. That number is never shown to other users anywhere. The app has no profiles, usernames, follower lists or inboxes, there is no way at all for one user to reach another, and none of this is planned to change.
Anonymity does not remove your responsibility. Where illegal content is published, we may be obliged to hand over the technical records we hold upon a properly issued request from the competent authorities. The full list of those records is set out item by item in the Privacy Policy.
A secret consists of a title of up to 60 characters and a body of up to 1000 characters. You may leave one secret a day and one an hour; a day here is not a calendar day but the 24 hours since your last secret. These limits are not a commercial restriction; they exist so the map stays worth reading.
You keep the rights to what you write. So that your secret can be displayed in the app, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free and non-transferable licence to use it. That licence ends automatically the moment you delete the secret.
The following are strictly prohibited: information identifying real people (names, addresses, phone numbers, workplaces, photographs); harassment, threats and incitement to violence; hate speech based on origin, belief, gender, sexual orientation or disability; sexual content; advertising, links and repeated posts.
This prohibition covers your own details too. Writing your own phone number is as risky as writing somebody else's, and the automatic check blocks both in the same way.
Hate speech gets no warning; the account is closed permanently the first time. Other breaches lead to removal of the secret and, if repeated, closure of the account.
To leave a secret, the app needs access to your location. The location is read on your device and rounded before it reaches a server; the raw coordinate is never transmitted and never stored anywhere.
The client is never told where a secret actually is. The list and the secret card show only the coarse place name derived from the rounded area. No interaction inside the app can narrow a secret down to an area smaller than the circle it belongs to.
The zoom limit is set accordingly: the scale bar never shows anything under 50 km, and about 200 km fits across the width of the screen at the closest zoom level. The map has no street, district or city layer; all it draws is landmasses, country borders and country names.
The app draws the base map itself: no map SDK or tile server is used, and no third party can see where you are looking. The secrets on top of it come from our server, so without an internet connection the map still draws but no secrets appear. If you decline the location permission you cannot leave secrets, but you can still read the map.
The only reaction available on a secret is SAME. There are no comments, replies, direct messages, quotes or external sharing. SAME counts are shown in the app as totals only; who pressed it is visible to no user. So that the same secret cannot be marked twice, which account pressed SAME on which secret is recorded, and that record stays with us alone.
The app sends no push notifications. You see how many SAMEs your secret collected only when you open the app yourself.
Every secret passes three layers of moderation before it is published. Texts found to contain personal information are not published; your draft stays on your device so you can edit it and try again. If moderation cannot reach a decision in time the secret is not rejected — it is queued and published once the review completes.
Every published secret carries reporting with seven reasons and author blocking. A secret that receives three reports is hidden automatically and sent for review; an account with three violations is closed. The author is never told who reported them, under any circumstances. Secrets by an author you block disappear from your map, and that person is not informed of the block.
We reserve the right to remove content that breaches these terms without prior notice.
The app is provided as is. We do not undertake that it will run without interruption, be free of faults, or remain available indefinitely. If we have to shut the service down entirely, we will announce it in the app and on this page at least 30 days in advance.
The app is free to use. The only purchase inside it is an optional, one-off tip; it unlocks no feature, and nothing about the app is restricted if you never leave one. Tips are bought through the App Store, so any refund request goes through Apple's own refund process.
Authors are responsible for the content of their secrets. We give no warranty as to the truth, currency or good faith of any text you read on the map.
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we are not liable for indirect damages arising from use of the app. Your rights under consumer legislation are unaffected.
Using "Delete all my data" in Settings you can remove every secret from the map and close your account. The action cannot be undone; deleted secrets and the SAME counts they collected cannot be recovered.
We reserve the right to close your account in the event of serious or repeated breaches of these terms.
If we change these terms we will publish the new version on this page and update the date above. For material changes we also show a notice when the app opens.
These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of Türkiye. The courts and enforcement offices of Istanbul have jurisdiction over disputes; your rights as a consumer to choose a competent court are unaffected.
For any question, notice or request write to support.secretmap@gmail.com. We answer within 48 hours on weekdays.