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Lesson 04 of 05 · published

Foreground-Only Location

~10 min · location, foreground, privacy, secure-context

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"Waystone knows where you were when you left a note. It does not follow you around when you're not looking."

Capture, Not Surveillance

Location is powerful and easy to abuse, so Waystone draws a bright line: location is foreground-only. Automatic sampling runs only while the secure app is actually visible on screen, and a manual Locate button gives an explicit high-accuracy refresh when you want one. There is no always-on background tracking that quietly records every step of your day. The engine samples where you are at the moment you capture something — not continuously, not in your pocket, not while the app is closed. This is capture, not a trail of surveillance.

The Explicit Exception

There is exactly one way to get continuous location, and it is deliberately loud: an explicit, visible travel or hike session that Dad turns on and can see running. Route recording during a planned hike is genuinely useful, so the capability exists — but it is never a silent default. The difference between "sampled when I capture" and "recording my every move" is not left to a buried setting; it is a visible, intentional act. Background collection is opt-in, session-scoped, and obvious while it runs.

Why the Secure Context Matters

Precise foreground geolocation in a web app requires a secure context — the browser will only hand over accurate coordinates over HTTPS. This is why the mobile surface runs behind a proper secure origin rather than plain local HTTP: without it, the phone's browser simply refuses to expose the Geolocation API, and the whole capture-with-location story falls apart. The composer also shows the coordinates and accuracy before you capture, so location is always something you can see and confirm, never a silent attachment. Transparency at capture time is the privacy posture made visible.

The privacy default is the least surprising one: sample at capture, show it before saving, and never track in the background without an explicit visible session. A travel tool has every technical excuse to become a life-logger. Refusing that — foreground-only, session-scoped, visible — is a design choice, and it is the right one.

Code

When location is sampled·text
app VISIBLE + you capture   -> sample location, show coords+accuracy
                               first, attach to the crumb
app VISIBLE + tap Locate    -> explicit high-accuracy refresh
app in BACKGROUND / closed   -> NO sampling
explicit hike/travel session -> continuous, but visible and opt-in

# Default: location is a capture-time fact you can see and confirm.
# Never: a silent background trail of everywhere you went.
# Requires a secure (HTTPS) context, or the browser won't share GPS.

External links

Exercise

Check the location permissions on an app you use. Is it 'while using' or 'always'? Does it show you the coordinate it's about to attach, or does location just happen invisibly? Now decide: for a tool that captures your movements, which default would you want — sampled-when-I-look, or always-on — and what would make you trust it either way?
Hint
The trust signals are visibility and scope: can you see the coordinate before it's saved, and is continuous tracking an explicit session rather than a silent default? 'Always' with no visible sampling is a life-logger. 'While using' with a shown coordinate is a capture tool that respects the line.

Progress

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