Privacy Policy

Trailmate is a trip planner and live travel companion for road trips in India. It is run by the Trailmate team. We call ourselves "we" in this policy. Trailmate is an early test version (beta).

Questions, requests or complaints about your data: contact us through the contact details on this site. We will answer within 30 days.

We only collect what the app needs to work. Here is everything, in plain words:

• Account: your email address and a password (the password is stored only as a scrambled hash by our login provider; we cannot read it) and the display name you choose.
• Profile (optional): a username, short bio, interests, a profile picture and whether your profile is private.
• Trips: the trips you create or join: names, start place, destination, dates, the stops you add (names, places, notes, order, done or skipped), votes, and the display names of the people on the trip.
• Your location: only when you press Start drive, use a nearby search, add a post with a place, or choose “Use my current location” in a place search (or have already allowed this site to use it). For a place search we send our server your position rounded to about 100 m to name the area; it is saved only if you save the trip with it, and this phone remembers the last area name so it does not ask again until you move more than 1 km. Your position is used to work out what is ahead of you. We do not keep a history of where you have been. If you choose to share your position with your trip group, your latest position is stored while you share, deleted when you stop, and nobody can see it after 6 hours even if you forget.
• Things you post: photos and videos, captions, the place and tags, comments, reports about a place, and feedback you send us.
• Choices and activity: likes, saves, follows, hides, blocks and notifications; and simple counters that limit how often something can be used (for example place searches per day).
• Technical data: a sign-in cookie, a visitor cookie with a random number when you search for places without signing in (used only to count searches against a daily limit, stored by us only in scrambled form), your IP address and browser type as seen by our hosting provider, and error reports when something breaks (technical details only: never passwords).

We use this to run Trailmate (plan trips, show maps and routes, let you share with your group and in Discover), to keep it safe (limit abuse, handle reports), and to fix problems. We do not sell your data and we do not show ads.

We use your data because you asked us to run the service for you, and because you agree to this policy when you create an account. For location, we ask your browser to ask you each time. You can switch it off in your browser at any time; planning still works. You can withdraw consent by deleting your account (see Your choices).

• Your trip group sees the trip, its stops, votes and (only if you opt in) your live position.
• Other people see what you choose to post to Discover. A public post shows your username, caption, photos or videos and the place. Exact coordinates of a post are shown at the precision you choose.
• Nobody else sees your email address.

Trailmate is built on services from other companies. They receive only what is needed for their part:

• Supabase: our database, login and file storage (your account, trips, posts, photos and videos). Our database is hosted in Tokyo, Japan.
• Vercel: hosts the website and handles each request (it sees your IP address and the pages you open).
• OSRM (OpenStreetMap routing): receives the start and end coordinates of a route you ask for, to return road directions.
• Nominatim (OpenStreetMap search): receives the place name you type in search, and, only when our own list can't name your area, your position rounded to about 1 km.
• Photon (OpenStreetMap search, run by komoot): receives what you type in a place search, after a pause, with an area rounded to about 1 km to rank the results.
• GeoNames: the source of our own list of Indian place names (CC BY 4.0). It is stored on our server and receives nothing from you.
• Overpass (OpenStreetMap): receives the area you look at, to find nearby fuel, food and sights.
• Open-Meteo: receives the coordinates and dates of your stops to return weather.
• OpenFreeMap: delivers the map pictures; it sees your IP address and which part of the map you view.
• Wikipedia and Wikimedia: may be asked for a photo of a well-known place by its name and position.
• An AI provider (Google Gemini or Anthropic): only if you use Smart Import or describe a trip in the trip planner. The text or picture you give is sent to the provider to find place names and what you said about the trip. Do not paste anything private.
• Your browser's speech service: only if you tap “Say it instead” in the trip planner. Your browser turns your voice into text; on Chrome for Android the audio is sent to Google to do that. Trailmate receives only the text.
• A message service (such as Discord or Slack) that receives short technical error alerts (no personal content).

Some of these companies are outside India, so your data is processed abroad. They act on our instructions or under their own published terms.

• Your account data stays until you delete your account.
• Live position: deleted when you stop sharing; hidden from everyone after 6 hours.
• When you delete your account (Profile, then Delete my account) your profile, posts, photos and videos, comments, likes, votes, reports, feedback and live position are erased. A trip you own that other people are on is handed to the person who has been on it longest; a trip only you are on is deleted. Stops you added to a group's trip stay on that trip without your name.
• Our database provider may keep short-lived technical backups. Deleted data disappears from them when they expire.

• See and download your data: Profile, then Download my data. You get a file with everything we hold about you.
• Correct it: edit your profile, trips and posts in the app.
• Delete it: Profile, then Delete my account. This is permanent.
• Turn location off: in your browser's site settings, at any time.
• Complain: contact us first. If you are in India you may also complain to the Data Protection Board of India under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. We aim to follow that law.

Trailmate is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone younger. If you think a younger person has an account, contact us and we will delete it.

Everything travels over HTTPS. Every table in our database has rules that only let people see their own data or data shared with them, even if a bug in the app tried to ask for more. No system is perfectly safe; if we learn of a breach that affects you we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

We use only cookies the site needs: your sign-in session, and, if you search for places without signing in, a visitor cookie with a random number that only counts searches against a daily limit. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, so there is no cookie banner.

We will update this page when things change and change the date at the top (this version: 22 October 2026). For big changes we will tell you in the app.