About Hidden History

Contact

For questions, suggestions, partnerships, or data requests:

Email: info@hiddenhistory.nl

We typically respond within a few working days.

Want to see your own city on Hidden History? Or do you work for a municipality or museum considering a local version? We're open to pilots — get in touch.

About this project

Hidden History is an interactive map that surfaces the hidden histories of European cities. We started in Nijmegen — the oldest city in the Netherlands, walked by Romans, medieval emperors, and the liberators of Operation Market Garden — because every street corner here hides something the average tourist misses.

We believe places tell more than a sign with a date. Behind every facade, park, and sunken curbstone sits a story that echoes in how the city looks today. Our mission is to make those stories accessible — curated where possible, suggested by locals where it counts.

Hidden History is an independent project. We are not affiliated with any municipality, museum, or tourist board. All contributions are made voluntarily, moderated for accuracy, and published under the same terms for everyone.

Privacy policy

Who we are

Hidden History is operated by a natural person, reachable at info@hiddenhistory.nl. For questions about privacy or to exercise your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), please contact us at this address.

What data we process

We process as little personal data as possible. Specifically:

Location data (GPS). When you enable the location button, your browser asks for explicit permission. Your position is used only locally in your browser to show the blue dot on the map and — if you start a walking tour — to detect arrival at stops. Your location is never sent to our servers and never stored.

User contributions. When you submit a place via "Suggest" or propose an edit, we store: the name, era, description, tips, pin coordinates, optionally an uploaded photo, and a timestamp. This data becomes public once approved by a moderator.

Functional local storage. We store in your browser: your language choice, whether you've enabled the location toggle, and when you last submitted something (rate-limiting against abuse). This is functional — no tracking, no analytics, no advertising.

Logs (indirect via Firebase). Our data is stored on Google Firebase. Firebase keeps temporary technical logs for service operation and abuse prevention, including IP addresses. We don't have active access to these logs and don't process them.

Purposes

We process the above data only to: - Deliver the map and its features - Prevent abuse and spam (rate-limiting) - Moderate contributions before they become public - Respond to contact requests

Legal basis

Location data: explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you can withdraw at any time by switching off the location toggle.

Contributions and functional storage: legitimate interest in operating the service and preventing abuse (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). You can object at any time.

Who we share data with

We don't sell your data or share it for commercial purposes. For technical operation we use the following processors:

Google Firebase (Firestore, Authentication). Data storage and admin login. Google's standard contractual clauses apply to any processing outside the EEA.

Cloudinary. Photo storage and CDN delivery. Cloudinary is an EU GDPR-compliant service.

OpenStreetMap. Map tiles are served by the OpenStreetMap Foundation. Loading tiles temporarily exposes your IP address to their servers — this is standard web functionality.

Retention

Approved contributions remain visible as long as the project exists, unless you request removal.

Unapproved or rejected contributions are deleted within 30 days.

Edit suggestions are removed after they're processed or rejected.

Location data is never stored.

Your rights under the GDPR

You have the right to: - Access the data we hold about you - Rectification if data is incorrect - Erasure ("right to be forgotten") - Restriction of processing - Object to processing based on legitimate interest - Portability — a copy of your data in a common file format

Email info@hiddenhistory.nl to exercise any of these. We respond within 30 days.

Complaints

If you disagree with how we handle your data, you can lodge a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) at autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl. We recommend reaching out to us first — we can usually resolve things together.

Cookies and similar techniques

We don't use tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or analytics. We only use functional localStorage items (language choice, location toggle, rate-limiting timestamps). Under the ePrivacy Directive these don't require consent.

Changes to this policy

If we change this privacy policy, we update the date at the top of this page. For substantial changes we'll also post a notice in the app.

Terms of service

The service

Hidden History is a free online service. We do our best to provide accurate historical information but make no guarantees. Routes are algorithmically calculated and may lead along unsafe or inaccessible paths — use common sense and check the route locally.

User contributions

By submitting a pin, edit suggestion, or photo, you grant Hidden History a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to display, translate, adapt, and (if necessary) remove your contribution, across all our current and future media.

You retain the copyright on your own contributions. You may request removal of a contribution at any time; we'll process the request within 30 days.

Photos

By uploading a photo you confirm that: - The photo was taken by you, or you have permission from the creator - The photo doesn't show recognisable people without their consent - The photo doesn't contain copyrighted material of third parties

We moderate photo uploads before they become public. Content violating these terms is removed without prior notice.

Prohibited conduct

You may not: - Submit incorrect, misleading, or fabricated historical information - Submit spam, advertisements, or commercial messages - Submit offensive, defamatory, racist, or hate speech material - Submit other people's personal data without their consent - Use automated tools to abuse the service

We reserve the right to moderate, edit, or remove contributions, and to limit access to the service for violations.

Disclaimers

Information on Hidden History is compiled with care but may contain inaccuracies. Historical data is largely contributed by volunteers and not always verified by a professional historian. Use the information as a starting point, not as a source for academic work.

GPS location depends on your device and surroundings. We're not liable for incorrect positioning or for damages arising from following a route.

Liability

Hidden History is provided "as is." To the extent legally allowed, we're not liable for direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from use of the service, except in cases of intent or gross negligence on our part.

Termination

We may change, suspend, or terminate the service at any time. We may also remove individual contributions or accounts if these terms are violated.

Governing law

These terms are governed by Dutch law. Any disputes are submitted to the competent court in Gelderland, the Netherlands, unless mandatory law dictates otherwise.

Changes

We may update these terms from time to time. The updated version is published on this page with a new date at the top.