Privacy Policy for inReach and Garmin Explore

Last Updated: November 1, 2022

Your privacy is important to Garmin. We developed this Privacy Policy to provide you with information on how we and other Garmin-owned companies, including Garmin Services, Inc. (formerly known as inReach, Inc.), process your personal data when you visit the Garmin Explore website, register and use your inReach device, subscribe to and use inReach satellite communication or other services, and use the Messenger, Earthmate, and Garmin Explore app.

Other Garmin websites, services, apps, and products that include a link to a different Garmin privacy policy are governed by that privacy policy. Click here to review our other privacy policies.

"Personal data" is information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. Additional information specific to your jurisdiction may be provided in a separate document. Please scroll to the "Your Rights" section to view our supplemental policies that may apply to you. The legal grounds for processing personal data specified in this Privacy Policy are based on the EU General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") and laws in other jurisdictions that have similar grounds.

To jump to a specific section of this Privacy Policy, please click on a link below:

Categories of Personal Data Processed by Garmin

Personal data that is processed when you create a Garmin account:

When you create a Garmin account, we ask you to provide your email address, name, and password. You can choose to provide only your first name or a nickname instead of your full name if you wish. We may also ask you to provide your mobile phone number.

PURPOSES AND LEGAL GROUNDS:

(a) We process your email address and password because you use your email address and password to sign in to your account. The legal ground for processing your email address and password for this purpose is our legitimate interest in protecting the security of your account. If you enable two-factor authentication, we process your mobile phone number or email address to send the security code via SMS or email. The legal ground for processing this information for this purpose is our legitimate interest in protecting the security of your account. If you reside in mainland China, Garmin processes your mobile phone number for purposes of real name authentication.

(b) We also process your email address for the purpose of sending you important information about your Garmin products, services, apps, or account, such as important safety information or material changes to this Privacy Policy. The name you provide is associated with your account profile and is displayed when you submit comments or other material on our websites or apps or engage with other users. The legal ground for processing your email address and name for these purposes is our legitimate interest in providing you important safety or other information about your Garmin products, services, apps, or account or material changes to this Privacy Policy and in providing you an opportunity to engage with other users.

(c) If you provide your opt-in consent to receiving marketing information from us, we will also process your email address for the purpose of sending you marketing information about Garmin products, services, and apps, as well as newsletters. The legal ground for processing your email address for this purpose is your consent. You may withdraw your consent at any time by changing your preferences in your Garmin account or through the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our marketing emails. The marketing emails you receive from us are based on the preferences you provide in your Garmin account, the locale indicated by your Internet Protocol (IP) address, the types of Garmin devices you have added to your Garmin account, and any subscriptions included in your Garmin account. The legal ground for processing this data for this purpose is our legitimate interest in reducing the number of marketing emails sent to each particular customer by selecting which customers receive a particular marketing email rather than sending every marketing email to every customer who has consented to receiving marketing emails. If you reside in mainland China, we may use your mobile phone number to send you marketing communications via SMS.

(d) We also process your email address to associate it with your Garmin account when you interact with our customer support representatives. The legal ground for this processing is our legitimate interest in providing quality customer support.

(e) We also process your email address to notify customers when they have violated our terms. The legal ground for this processing is our legitimate interest in ensuring a quality experience for all customers and ensuring adherence to our terms.

Personal data that is processed when you purchase a subscription:

When you purchase a subscription, we collect your name, email address, mailing address, billing address, and telephone number. We do not view or store your payment card information, which is handled by third-party service providers.

PURPOSES AND LEGAL GROUNDS:

We process this information to administer your subscription account and to communicate billing and other information about your subscription. The legal ground for this processing is performance of a contract.

Personal data that is processed when you use our communication services:

When you use our communication services, we process your mailing address, telephone number, contact information for your chosen contacts, text, SMS, and email messages sent to and from one of our devices or apps, the content of your messages, and other related information such as the time of the message, delivery status, and the location of your device.

PURPOSES AND LEGAL GROUNDS:

(a) We process this information to perform our communication services. The legal ground for this processing is performance of a contract.

(b) We process your mailing address and telephone number to determine if the SOS button has been activated inadvertently by a subscriber at their residence. The legal ground for this processing is our legitimate interest in minimizing the number of false alarms.

Personal data that is processed when you sync your device:

When you sync your device through a compatible Garmin app, we log data about the transmission, such as the IP address used when syncing, the sync time and date, crash/diagnostic logs, geographic location of the device, information about your device, information about the network used to sync (e.g., Wi-Fi or cellular), and device battery level.

PURPOSES AND LEGAL GROUNDS:

We process this information to accurately identify devices connecting to our systems and troubleshoot issues with our devices. The legal ground for this processing is our legitimate interest in improving the stability of our devices and providing a quality product to our customers.

Personal data that is processed when you choose to upload your location-based data through Garmin apps:

You can choose to upload your location-based data, such as waypoints, routes, courses, tracks, activities (e.g., runs, hikes, adventures, hunts, off-roading routes, etc.), and activity data from your device to your account via compatible Garmin apps, such as the Garmin Explore app. Activity data may include data such as location, timestamp, tracks, elevation, speed, and distance. You can use your device without uploading your location-based data to us. If you choose to upload your location-based data to us, you control whether your location-based data is shared with other users via MapShare, social media, or other means.

PURPOSES AND LEGAL GROUNDS:

(a) We process your location-based data, if you choose upload it to your account through a compatible Garmin app, to enable you to analyze your data, see your location on your activity or course, see metrics, and, if you wish, share your data with others. The legal ground for this processing is your consent. You can withdraw your consent by changing your account settings.

(b) We also process this data, if you choose to upload or add it to your account, in an aggregated manner to analyze usage and trends and develop or improve features and services. The legal ground for this processing is our legitimate interest in providing relevant, quality features and service.

Personal data that is processed when you communicate with Garmin:

When you interact with our customer support representatives by email or telephone, online, or in person, we collect personal data, such as your name, mailing address, phone number, email address, and contact preferences, and information about the Garmin products you own, such as their serial numbers and dates of purchase, and subscriptions you've purchased. We also may create event logs that are useful in diagnosing product or app performance-related issues and capture information relating to the support or service issue. To improve customer service, subject to applicable laws, we may also record and review conversations with customer support representatives and analyze any feedback provided to us through voluntary customer surveys. With your consent, our customer support representatives may sign in to your Garmin account, if appropriate, to help troubleshoot and resolve your issue.

PURPOSES AND LEGAL GROUNDS:

We process this information to provide you with customer and product support, to monitor the quality and types of customer and product support we provide to our customers, and to facilitate repairs, returns, or exchanges. The legal ground for processing this information for these purposes is our legitimate interest in providing quality product support. The legal ground for signing in to your Garmin account, if appropriate, to help troubleshoot and resolve your issue is your consent, which you may withdraw.

Personal data that is processed when you connect your Garmin account to a third-party app if you choose:

If you choose to enable your Garmin account to access accounts you have with other app providers, such as your Facebook and Twitter accounts, we will obtain information about you from the linked accounts, such as username or profile picture.

PURPOSES AND LEGAL GROUNDS:

This information is provided to us by those services to allow us to post content on your behalf when you ask us to do so. The legal ground for this processing is your consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time by disconnecting your Garmin account from the third-party app within your Garmin account.

Categories of Recipients of Personal Data

SEARCH AND RESCUE AUTHORITIES AND EMERGENCY RESPONDERS:

When you use the inReach satellite communication services and trigger an SOS emergency signal, we may provide information, such as your name, email address, mailing address, telephone number, the message content, time sent, and the identity and location of the message sender and recipient, to competent search and rescue authorities and emergency responders.

FAMILY MEMBERS:

We may also provide information, such as the message content, time sent, and the identity and location of the message sender and recipient, to members of your family, if any, that you have identified in your subscription settings.

PEOPLE YOU INVITE TO TRACK YOUR WHEREABOUTS:

You can invite family, friends, or others to follow your progress on their computers or mobile devices using the web-based MapShare portal. Your inReach device will send track points at preselected time intervals so followers can track your whereabouts online. You can also invite your family, friends, or others to use MapShare to ping your device and see your GPS location, track your movements, and exchange messages during your trip. You can also embed your MapShare page on a blog, website, or social media if you wish.

SERVICE PROVIDERS:

We use cloud services from third parties such as Adobe, SendGrid, a Twilio service, and Mailchimp to assist in sending emails. Those services track the activities associated with these emails, such as whether they were opened, whether links in the emails were clicked on, and whether purchases were made following clicks on those links. We use this data to analyze the level of engagement with our emails. We also use Pipedrive to manage communications with business customers and may employ third parties to perform debt collection services for delinquent accounts.

We use services from third parties, such as Vonage and Twilio, to send SMS messages to our users or their contacts in support of features described in this Privacy Policy. We may track the delivery of these messages based on the phone number of the recipient and the selected content. We use other SMS vendors in some regions, such as Alibaba Cloud (mainland China only).

We use third-party service providers to help us better understand the usage and performance of our products, services, websites, and apps. See the “Monitoring and Analytics” section for more information.

We use third-party service providers, such as Adyen, to process your payment card information when you purchase a subscription. More information about Adyen can be found here.

We use Azure Cloud, a Microsoft solution, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host the data and services on servers located in the U.S., Australia, and Europe.

OTHER DISCLOSURES:

We may process and disclose personal data about you to others: (a) if we have your valid consent to do so; (b) to comply with legal obligations, such as a valid subpoena, court or judicial order, or other valid legal process; (c) to enforce any of our terms and conditions or policies; (d) as necessary to pursue available legal remedies or defend legal claims; or (e) as we deem necessary or appropriate for purposes of attempting to get you help in the event you are involved in an emergency situation.

We may also transfer your personal data to an affiliate, a subsidiary, or a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets, or stock, including, without limitation, in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceeding, provided that any such entity that we transfer personal data to will not be permitted to process your personal data other than as described in this Privacy Policy without providing you notice and, if required by applicable laws, obtaining your consent.

International Transfers of Personal Data

Garmin is a global business. To offer our products, apps, and services, we may need to transfer your personal data to Garmin-owned companies in other countries. View Garmin-owned companies.

For customers outside of mainland China, when you create a Garmin account, add personal data in your account profile, or upload data to your Garmin account, your personal data will be collected and stored on servers in the U.S., U.K., and/or Australia. For customers in mainland China, when you create a Garmin account, add personal data in your account profile, or upload data to your Garmin account, your personal data will be collected and stored on Garmin China Shanghai RHQ Co., Ltd.’s servers in mainland China.

Personal data regarding individuals who reside in a country in the European Economic Area ("EEA"), United Kingdom ("U.K."), or Switzerland is controlled by Garmin Würzburg GmbH and processed on its behalf by other Garmin-owned companies to provide support, infrastructure, security, and other key functions. Garmin Würzburg GmbH has entered into approved model contractual clauses where these companies are not located in the EEA or a jurisdiction deemed adequate under applicable data protection law.

All Garmin-owned companies are required to follow the privacy practices set forth in this Privacy Policy.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

Information about Garmin's use of cookies and similar technologies on our websites can be found in our Cookie Policy.

Monitoring and Analytics

We collect data from users about their usage of our products, services, websites, and apps. The types of analytical information that are collected include the date and time of access to our servers, software or firmware version, the location of the device, language setting, what information and files have been downloaded, user behavior (e.g., features used, frequency of use), device state information, device model, hardware and operating system information, and information relating to how the product, service, website, or app functions. We use this data to improve the quality, security, and functionality of our products, services, websites, or apps; to develop and market products and features that best serve you and other users; and to help identify and fix stability issues and other usability problems as quickly as possible.

The legal ground for processing this analytical information is our legitimate interest in understanding how our customers interact with our products, services, websites, and apps so we can enhance user experience and functionality.

Here are examples of third-party providers we currently use:

  • Azure Application Insights: Azure Application Insights, a Microsoft service, is used to help us better understand usage to improve user experience.

  • Loggly: Loggly is used to track error information that occurs within the inReach message processing infrastructure to allow us to improve system performance.

  • Firebase (Crashlytics): Firebase (Crashlytics), a Google service, is used to help us better understand usage to improve user experience and to identify and resolve the root causes of crashes or errors

See the "Cookies and Similar Technologies" section for information on Monitoring and Analytics vendors that rely on cookies.

Children

We request individuals under the age of 13 in the U.S. and under the age of 16 in the rest of the world not provide personal data to Garmin. If we learn that we have collected personal data from a child under the age of 13 in the U.S. or under 16 in the rest of the world, we will take steps to delete the information as soon as possible.

Privacy Policy Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as we add new products, services, and apps, as we improve our current offerings, and as technologies and laws change. You can determine when this Privacy Policy was last revised by referring to the “Last Updated” legend at the top of this page. Any changes will become effective upon our posting of the revised Privacy Policy.

We will provide notice to you if these changes are material and, where required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent. This notice will be provided by email or by posting notice of the changes on the Garmin websites and apps that link to this Privacy Policy.

Retention of Personal Data

We will retain your personal data as long as your Garmin account is considered to be active or in accordance with applicable law and regulatory obligations. In addition, see below under “Your Rights” for a description of your right of erasure.

Automated Decision-Making, Including Profiling

Garmin does not make any decisions based on algorithms or other automated processing that significantly affect you.

Data Controller and Data Protection Officer

If you reside in a country in the EEA, U.K., or Switzerland, then your personal data collected by Garmin is controlled by Garmin Würzburg GmbH, Beethovenstr. 1a, 97080 Würzburg, Germany. The company's EU Data Protection Officer can be reached by email at [email protected].

If you reside in mainland China, then your personal data collected by Garmin is controlled by Garmin China Shanghai RHQ Co., Ltd., 37F, Tower A, New CHJ International Business Center, No 391, Guiping Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200233, China. The company's Data Protection Officer for mainland China can be reached at the same address and by email at [email protected].

If you reside outside of the EEA, U.K., Switzerland, and mainland China, then your personal data collected by Garmin is controlled by Garmin International, Inc., 1200 E. 151st St., Olathe, Kansas 66062, USA, which you can contact by email at [email protected]. The company's Brazilian Data Protection Officer is located at the same address and can be reached by email at [email protected]. The company's Turkish Representative can be reached by email at [email protected].

Your Rights

If you reside in the EEA, U.K., or Switzerland, you have the right, subject to the conditions set out in the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") or other applicable law, to request from Garmin access to and rectification or erasure of your personal data, data portability, restriction of processing of your personal data, the right to object to processing of your personal data, and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. For more information about these rights, please visit the European Commission’s “My Rights” page relating to GDPR, which can be displayed in a number of languages. If you reside outside of the EEA, U.K., and Switzerland, you may have similar rights under your local laws.

To request access to or rectification, portability, or erasure of your personal data, or to delete your Garmin account, please visit our Account Management Center.

If you reside in the EEA, U.K., or Switzerland and you wish to exercise your right to restriction of processing or your right to object to processing, please contact the company's EU Data Protection Officer at Garmin Würzburg GmbH, Beethovenstr. 1a, 97080 Würzburg, Germany, or by email at [email protected].

If you reside in mainland China and you wish to exercise any of your data subject rights, please contact Garmin China Shanghai RHQ Co., Ltd. by email at [email protected].

If you do not reside in the EEA, U.K., Switzerland, or mainland China but you believe you have a right to exercise these or any other rights under your local laws, please contact Garmin International, Inc. by email at [email protected].

Notice for California Residents of Privacy Practices and Rights

If you are a California resident, California law may provide you with additional rights regarding your personal data. To learn more about your California privacy rights, please visit our CCPA Privacy Notice.

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