Guide
How to keep a private record of everywhere you've travelled
Most of us carry a map in our heads: the street where you got lost, the town you swore you'd return to, the view that made the whole trip worth it. What we rarely have is that map written down somewhere that's actually ours — quiet, complete, and not performing for anyone. This is a short guide to keeping one.
Why private, and not a public feed
The popular travel apps are built around broadcasting: a live route, a public profile, a follower count. That's fine for some, but it turns remembering into publishing. A private travel record does the opposite — it's a place to think, not to perform. You add places for your own sake, at your own pace, and nobody is watching the dot move.
Keeping it private also sidesteps a real safety issue: a public, real-time trail tells strangers where you are and, by omission, that you're not home. A record you fill in afterwards has none of that exposure.
What a good private map needs
- One pin per place, with the story and dates attached — so the memory has somewhere to live, not just a coordinate.
- Your photos beside the place, not scattered across a camera roll you'll never scroll back through.
- Private by default, with sharing you turn on deliberately — never the other way around.
- No live location. A record of where you've been should never need to know where you are.
How Minnekart does it
Minnekart is a globe you fill in after the fact. You drop a pin for each place, add a few words and the dates, and attach the photographs that belong there. Everything is private by default — your globe is yours until you choose to share a specific trip, and share links can be revoked at any time.
Photos are processed in your browser before they upload, which strips the embedded EXIF data — including the GPS coordinates cameras quietly write into every shot. There are no ad trackers and no analytics anywhere in the app, and Minnekart never builds a live-location feature. You can read the specifics on the privacy page.
Start small
You don't need to backfill a decade in one sitting. Add the last trip, then the one that mattered most, and let the globe fill in from there. It's free to start, and if you're weighing it against a live-tracking app, the Polarsteps comparison lays out the difference.