Wayfinder Privacy Policy
Last updated October 31, 2026
Wayfinder is a weekly schedule planner for the University of Illinois, built by a student as a CS 124 course project. This page explains what it does with your information.
What stays on your device
Your classes, settings, saved plans, study goals, friends' weeks, exam edits, and Canvas deadlines are saved in your browser. There are no Wayfinder accounts.
Google Calendar
Google features are optional. If you use them, Wayfinder asks Google for permission in Google's own pop-up:
- Reading your calendars (import and "Check Google for changes"): your events' names, times, and locations are read in your browser to build your week. They aren't sent to Wayfinder's server by this.
- Calendars this app creates ("Send to Google Calendar"): Wayfinder makes a separate "Wayfinder" calendar in your account and adds, changes, and deletes events only there. It can't change your other calendars.
The access Google gives is short-lived and kept only in memory while the page is open. Wayfinder doesn't store your Google password or a lasting Google key, doesn't sell or share Google data, doesn't use it for advertising or to train AI, and uses it only to provide these features. Its use of information from Google APIs follows the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Once in your browser, your week can be used by the other features below if you turn them on. You can remove Wayfinder's access at any time in your Google Account permissions, and delete the "Wayfinder" calendar in Google Calendar.
What reaches Wayfinder's server, if you use these features
- Leave-now and exam reminders: your device's push address and your reminder text, including class and building names and when you leave. They are deleted when you turn reminders off.
- Moving your week, and device sync: your whole week, encrypted in your browser. The key is only in the link you make, which is never sent to the server, so the server can't read it. Moved weeks are deleted once opened, or after 30 minutes. Synced weeks are deleted after six months without changes.
- Canvas and Google secret links: the link passes through the server to fetch that calendar, and isn't kept. Inside device sync, it's encrypted with your week.
- Feedback: what you write, the face you pick, and your name if you give one. Only Wayfinder's author reads it.
The server runs on Cloudflare, which may keep routine technical logs.
Other services
To work, your browser or the server asks these services for data: the University of Illinois (Course Explorer class search), Champaign-Urbana MTD (live buses), Open-Meteo (weather), and OpenStreetMap (map images and walking routes, which receive the buildings being looked up). Your device's address is visible to them, as with any website. Wayfinder has no advertising or analytics.
Removing your information
Use Start over in Wayfinder, or clear this site's data in your browser, to remove what's on your device. Turn off reminders and use Stop syncing first if you have them on. To ask about or remove feedback or anything else, use the 💬 button in the app and say how to reach you.