What happens to your route data

The planner uses local storage so a refresh does not erase your work and so recent routes can be reopened on the same device. SortMyStops.com does not maintain an account database or a server-side route-history feature.

Local storage describes where the persistent copy lives. It does not mean the route never leaves the device: data is still transmitted when you search for an address, import a list or calculate a route.

You can remove these records through your browser’s site-data settings. The state picker also has a Clear saved address matches action for correction memory. Clearing local data removes the recovery copy; the site cannot restore it for you.

Address search and import. Address text is sent through SortMyStops.com’s API. When a state is clear and its source has passed the site’s admission checks, the API can use that state’s official address service together with Photon using OpenStreetMap data. Mapbox can provide address suggestions when those sources are unavailable, slow or return no matches. Complete addresses, including suggestions while you type, can also be checked with the US Census Bureau Geocoder. Map clicks send coordinates to the qualified state service and Photon; Mapbox is an optional final reverse-geocoding fallback only. Recent-route history and favorites are not automatically sent with an address search. When available, a first route stop may be rounded to one decimal place and sent as a temporary search bias; that coarse focus is not stored as part of the search-area preference.

Choosing a state for you. When you have not chosen a state, the API picks one for each search from the city you typed, the state of your latest stop or the approximate state of your connection. Vercel derives that approximate state and a location rounded to one decimal place from your IP address. The API uses them only to decide which state address services to ask and which suggestions come first; it never hides results from other states and does not store them. The city-to-state table is generated offline from public Census Bureau place lists; your searches are not sent to the Census Bureau for it.

ZIP-state bias. The compact ZIP-to-state table is generated offline from the quarterly HUD-USPS Crosswalk. Your address searches are not sent to HUD User. This product uses the HUD User Data API but is not endorsed or certified by HUD User.

Route calculation. The route request sent to SortMyStops.com includes stop coordinates, route settings and fields needed to return the finished stop list, including notes. External routing providers receive coordinates to calculate matrices and route geometry; they do not receive the address labels or notes from that request.

Depending on route size and current configuration, routing may use LocationIQ, Simple Routing or OpenRouteService. An optional VROOM solver may receive the calculated duration matrix to propose an order. Providers can change when a service is unavailable, so the result records which routing provider was used.

Security and rate limiting. The API reads the requesting IP address to apply short rate-limit windows. Request metadata and errors may also be processed in Vercel platform logs. SortMyStops.com does not use that information to create an advertising profile.

• Vercel hosts the website, API and platform logs.
• The US Census Bureau Geocoder and Photon process address or coordinate queries.
• HUD User’s USPS ZIP Code Crosswalk supplies the offline quarterly ZIP-to-state bias; it does not receive live searches.
• Qualified official address services may be provided by the state GIS programs for New York, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont and the District of Columbia. Additional state and local address services, when available for your search area, include Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware FirstMap, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas DASC, Kentucky, Maine, MassGIS, Montana, Ohio, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Boston, Los Angeles County, Miami-Dade County and the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council. Further sources include Idaho, NH GRANIT, Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Detroit, Milwaukee, Nashville and Davidson County, Pittsburgh, and Orlando. Additional public sources include North Dakota GIS Hub, a public hosted copy of Oklahoma NG911 address data, York County in South Carolina, Johns Creek in Georgia, Prattville in Alabama, Sioux Falls, the Town of Taos, Arlington County in Virginia, Galesburg in Illinois, and Memphis/Shelby County in Tennessee. Regional sources also include New Haven, Tupelo and Lee County E-911, Springfield and Greene County in Missouri, Lincoln/Lancaster County, Douglas/Sarpy Counties, Sheridan County, Natrona Regional Geospatial Cooperative, Cheyenne/Laramie County, DeKalb County in Georgia, and Clark County School District in Nevada. Further regional services include Sacramento and Santa Clara Counties, Cook County through its Socrata open-data service, Fulton County, St. Louis and Jackson Counties in Missouri, Charleston, Dallas address points, San Antonio, Richmond in Virginia, and Orange County in Florida. Other public sources include Wisconsin OEC NG911, Tennessee NG911, FEMA Region 6’s New Mexico address publication, Santa Fe, Hartford, Mobile, Oxford and Covington County in Mississippi, San Francisco/DataSF, Alameda County, Philadelphia AIS address points, Lafayette Parish, Pinellas County, Eaton County in Michigan, St. Louis County in Minnesota, El Paso, and Denton County. They receive the address query or selected address identifier needed to answer that search. See the address-data credits for source links.
• LocationIQ, OpenRouteService and Simple Routing may process route coordinates.
• OpenStreetMap road and place data is used under the OpenStreetMap copyright and license terms.

These organizations operate under their own privacy and retention policies. A provider receives only the fields needed for its role, but network and service logs remain subject to that provider’s policy.

A shared route or QR code stores a reversible, base64-encoded route payload in the URL. That payload can contain addresses, coordinates, labels and notes. It is not encryption, and anyone with the complete link can decode or open it.

Shared-route pages instruct search engines not to index them, but noindex is not an access-control system. A URL can remain in browser history, messages and request logs. Do not publish customer routes, and do not put health information, lockbox codes, passwords or other sensitive personal data in a shared route.

The site uses Vercel Web Analytics to count visits and understand which public pages are used. According to Vercel’s analytics privacy documentation, the product is cookieless and does not create cross-site advertising profiles.

The planner also records a small number of interaction events, such as opening, saving or closing the state picker, choosing the nationwide search option or adding an address outside your states. These events use broad mode, count and time buckets, plus which control you used. They do not include addresses, search text, state codes, ZIP codes, coordinates, route identifiers or suggestion identifiers.

SortMyStops.com does not install advertising pixels or sell route data for advertising.

If you email contact@sortmystops.com, the message and your email address are retained as needed to answer the request, investigate a reported problem and keep an appropriate support record.

You can clear local planner data in your browser, avoid creating share links and choose not to include notes. For questions, access or deletion requests relating to data the site operator may hold, email contact@sortmystops.com. A lack of an account does not remove any rights that apply under relevant privacy law.