FAQ

Data

Is the foot-traffic data real?

No. All places, brands, demographics and visits in the hosted product are a synthetic demo dataset modeled from neighborhood-level parameters. It reproduces realistic patterns — weekday rhythms, seasons, holidays, store openings, local events — but nothing is measured from devices, cards or people. Demo data explains exactly how it is generated.

Why use synthetic data at all?

So you can evaluate the complete product — analytics, market intelligence and the SDSS — with zero privacy risk and no data-licensing cost, and so every user, tutorial and support conversation sees the same numbers. The models and API are identical when real data is connected.

Can I use MapDove with real data?

Yes, on the Enterprise plan. Your own store list and traffic counts, licensed aggregated visit data, official demographics and custom markets can replace or sit alongside the demo dataset. See What changes with real data feeds.

Are the brands real?

No. All 31 brands are fictional. Street names are real streets in each city, used only so addresses read naturally; the places on them are invented.

Which cities are available?

Austin, Houston, Phoenix and Miami (USD, miles) and Dubai (AED, kilometers), each with 247 places, 16–17 neighborhoods and a full year of daily visits from 2025-11-01 to 2026-10-31.

Why does the data stop on 2026-10-31?

The demo dataset is a fixed 365-day year. Date ranges default to the last 90 days of that year, and “change vs previous period” compares with the preceding equal-length range.

Models

How accurate is the Huff forecast?

On the demo dataset the model is calibrated against observed (synthetic) visits of existing stores in the same city and category, so its overall level is right by construction. On real data, gravity models typically explain the broad spatial pattern of sales well but can be off substantially for individual stores with unusual formats, access or management. Use the forecast to compare candidates and size cannibalization, not as a guaranteed number. See Huff visit forecast.

Are drive-time rings real isochrones?

No. They are a speed-based radius approximation: minutes × the city’s average speed. They are circles and ignore roads, barriers and congestion. See Catchments.

Why does my suitability top list change so much when I move one slider?

The score is a weighted average of normalized criteria, so in cities where many hexes score similarly, small weight changes reorder the list. That is useful information — the decision is sensitive to that criterion. Read the stats (min, mean, max) and try a sensitivity run. See Site suitability.

How is cross-shopping calculated without tracking people?

It compares modeled visitor-origin footprints: the share of each place’s visitors from each hex, per the gravity model. Overlap is the intersection of two footprints. No individual is ever followed or linked across places. See Cross-shopping.

Where are the formulas?

All of them are on the Methodology page, including the per-category distance-decay exponents and trade radii.

Privacy and security

Does MapDove collect location data about people?

No. The product contains no personal location data. The only personal data we process is account information about you and your teammates (name, email, sign-in activity) — see the Privacy Policy.

What cookies does MapDove use?

The marketing site uses no tracking cookies; it stores your theme and language preference in your browser’s local storage. The app uses one essential, httpOnly session cookie, ms_session. See the Cookie Policy.

Can I enable two-factor authentication?

Yes, for every user, in Settings → Security, with any authenticator app. We recommend it for all owners and admins.

Plans, API and billing

What counts as an analysis?

One successful SDSS run: suitability, Huff forecast, catchment (up to 4 rings) or compare sites (up to 5 sites). Browsing, place pages, trade areas and saving projects are free. See Plans and limits.

What happens when I run out of analyses or API calls?

Requests over the limit get HTTP 402 with code plan_limit; nothing is deleted and other features keep working. Counters reset on the first of the month (UTC), or you can upgrade immediately.

Is the API available on the Free plan?

No. API access starts on Pro (10,000 calls per month and 3 keys). Requests from the MapDove app using your browser session never count as API calls.

Do you have rate limits?

Monthly quotas depend on your plan. Separately, bursts may be throttled with HTTP 429 (rate_limited); retry with exponential backoff and jitter. See API overview.

Can I export data?

Pro and above can download any place’s daily visits, visitors and dwell as CSV, from the place page or GET /places/:id/export.csv.

How do I cancel or change my plan?

Owners and admins can upgrade in Settings → Billing and manage payment details, invoices, downgrades and cancellation in the billing portal linked from there.

Who can see our projects?

Everyone in your organization. Projects, favorites and alerts are shared across the organization and never visible to other customers.

Where do I report a security issue or ask a legal question?

Write to legal@mapdove.com for contracts and terms, and privacy@mapdove.com for data-protection requests.