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Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 6, 2026

GeoLibre Desktop ("GeoLibre", "the app") is an open-source desktop GIS application developed by the OpenGeos community. This policy explains how the app handles your data, and how our websites (geolibre.app and web.geolibre.app) handle yours.

Summary

GeoLibre runs locally on your device. It does not require an account, and the app itself does not collect analytics, telemetry, or usage data. Your geospatial data and projects stay on your device unless you choose to share or export them. If you install plugins from the plugin registry, the registry counts their use anonymously from the requests the app already makes; see Plugins from the plugin registry below.

Our websites are separate from the app: geolibre.app and web.geolibre.app measure page visits with Google Analytics, as described under Website analytics below.

Your use of the app is also governed by our Terms of Service.

Data processed locally

The files and projects you open, create, and analyze in GeoLibre (vector and raster datasets, project files, and similar) are processed locally on your computer. GeoLibre does not upload them to the developer or to any server. An optional helper process (a Python component running on your own machine at 127.0.0.1) performs some geoprocessing entirely on-device.

Data sent to third-party services (optional features)

When you use certain optional features, GeoLibre sends requests directly to the relevant third-party service. Those services receive your device's IP address and the request you make, and are governed by their own privacy policies:

  • Basemaps / map tiles: the current map view is used to request tiles from basemap providers (for example OpenFreeMap and CARTO).
  • Search / geocoding: the place names or addresses you search are sent to the configured geocoding provider.
  • AI assistant: if you use it, the prompts you enter, together with metadata about the layers currently loaded in your project (layer names and attribute field names), are sent to the configured AI/LLM provider.
  • Cloud data catalogs: if you connect to services such as the Microsoft Planetary Computer or Google Earth Engine, your queries are sent to them.
  • Real-time collaboration: if you join a shared session, your project data (including any GeoJSON from locally-loaded files) is routed through a relay server operated by the OpenGeos project (currently hosted on Cloudflare) and shared with the other participants. The relay holds the latest project snapshot so that later joiners can load the session, and discards it when the session ends.
  • Project sharing: if you use Project → Share, the project file is uploaded to share.geolibre.app, operated by the OpenGeos project. Vector layers added from local files are embedded in the uploaded file; other local files are not uploaded.

GeoLibre does not control these third-party services; please review their privacy policies for how they handle data.

Plugins from the plugin registry

Settings → Manage Plugins lists plugins from the GeoLibre plugin registry at https://plugins.geolibre.app, operated by the OpenGeos project (currently hosted on GitHub Pages and Cloudflare). Opening that dialog downloads the registry, and each time GeoLibre starts it downloads the registry's blocklist (of plugins pulled for safety) and the files of the plugins you installed from it. Like any web server, the registry sees your IP address and which files you request.

The registry uses those requests to show how often each plugin is used, as public counts on its plugin catalog. It records no more than this:

  • a count of launches per plugin per day;
  • for counting distinct weekly users, a hash of the plugin and your IP address (for IPv6, its /64 network), keyed with a secret that changes every week. The hash can't be turned back into an IP without that secret, can't be matched across weeks or plugins, and is deleted when the week ends; only the weekly total is kept.

No IP address, account, or other information about you or your projects is stored. The app sends nothing extra for this: the counts come only from the plugin downloads it already makes. A deployment that sets its own plugin registry (plugins.registryUrl in deployment.json) contacts plugins.geolibre.app only for plugin files its registry points to there; those downloads are counted like any other, so a deployment that wants none should host the plugin files itself. Details: https://plugins.geolibre.app/registry/#usage-statistics.

Website analytics

This section covers our websites, not the installed app.

The documentation site (https://geolibre.app) and the hosted browser app (https://web.geolibre.app, and the demo at https://geolibre.app/demo/) use Google Analytics 4 to count page visits and see which pages are used. Google receives your IP address, the page you are on, the referring page, and general device/browser information, and sets its own cookies or similar identifiers in your browser. It is governed by Google's privacy policy.

What analytics never sees is the geospatial data you work with: layers, files, project contents, queries, and coordinates are processed in your browser and are not sent to Google. The page address we report is trimmed to the site and path (for example https://web.geolibre.app/), with the query string removed, because a GeoLibre link can carry a project URL, an inline dataset, or a collaboration session identifier in its parameters.

You can opt out by blocking www.googletagmanager.com with a content blocker or your browser's tracking protection; GeoLibre Web works normally with analytics blocked.

Analytics run only on the sites we host. The desktop app, the Jupyter widget, and the Docker image never load or run them: the measurement ID is supplied at build time and is absent from those builds, so nothing is requested from Google and nothing is reported. A copy you build and host yourself is the same unless you deliberately supply a measurement ID of your own at build time, in which case the analytics are yours, not ours (see Self-Hosting).

Personal information

GeoLibre does not ask you to create an account and does not collect names, email addresses, or similar identifying information. Network requests for the optional features above necessarily include your device's IP address, which the receiving service may log.

Children

GeoLibre is a professional GIS tool intended for users aged 16 and over. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

Your choices

Because GeoLibre stores your data locally, you control it and can delete your projects and files at any time. To avoid sending data to third-party services, do not use the optional online features listed above.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available at https://geolibre.app/privacy/.

Contact

Questions can be directed to the project at https://github.com/opengeos/GeoLibre/issues.