Version: 1.0 Effective date: [EFFECTIVE DATE] Last updated: [EFFECTIVE DATE]
NextPin is a travel-planning app for travellers in India. This policy explains what we collect, why, who else sees it, and what you can ask us to do about it. It is written with India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) in mind.
Everything below describes NextPin as of the effective date above. If what we collect or who processes it changes, we update this page and the date on it — see section 17.
If any part of this is unclear, email [email protected] and we will explain it.
The short version
| Can I use NextPin without an account? | Yes. Browsing destinations, building plans, treks, food guides and finding stops on a drive all work without signing in. You only need an account to save a plan or a place. |
| Do you sell my data? | No. We do not sell, rent or share personal data with data brokers, advertisers or marketers. |
| Do you track me across other apps or websites? | No. NextPin contains no advertising SDK, no analytics SDK and no third-party tracker. |
| Do you follow my location in the background? | No. Location is read only while the app is open, only after you allow it, and only to answer "what can I reach from here?" |
| Do you keep my location? | Not by default — we use it to answer your request and discard it. It is kept only where you deliberately saved it: a trip you saved that starts from where you were. |
| Where is my data stored? | Your account and saved trips are in a PostgreSQL database in Mumbai, India (Supabase). Our API server also runs in Mumbai (AWS). |
| Can I get it all deleted? | Yes. Go to Profile → Delete account in the app, or see Delete my account if you no longer have the app. |
1. Who we are
NextPin is built and operated by Pradeep Kumar JP, an individual developer based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. Under the DPDP Act, that makes Pradeep Kumar JP the Data Fiduciary for your personal data — the person responsible for it, and the person you hold accountable.
There is no company, no investor and no third-party data partner behind NextPin.
Contact for anything in this policy, including grievances: [email protected]
2. What we collect, and why
2.1 If you use NextPin without an account
| What | Why | Do you keep it? |
|---|---|---|
| Your approximate location (only if you grant permission) | To show destinations and places you can reach from where you are, and to order "A few hours" by driving time | It is collected — sent to our server to compute distances — and then discarded. We do not write it to our database, except where it becomes part of something you choose to save (see 2.3). |
| A starting point you type or pick (a city, a place, a town) | To plan a route, find stops on the way, or suggest a getaway | Kept on your phone only, as a short list of recent starting points, so you don't retype it. A point that came from Google expires after 30 days. Clearing the app's data clears it. |
| Your trip inputs (dates, number of days, interests, who you're travelling with, pace) | To build the plan you asked for | No. Used for that one request and not retained. Nothing is kept unless you save the plan, which needs an account. |
| Your IP address | To rate-limit the API so one device cannot exhaust the service or our paid Google quota. We rely on this as processing necessary for the security and integrity of the service, not on your consent. | Held in our server's memory for as long as that server process runs, and cleared whenever it restarts or we deploy. It is not written to our database and not linked to your account. |
2.2 If you create an account
Accounts are passwordless. You sign in with Google, with Apple on iPhone, or with a one-time code sent to your phone number. We never see or store a password.
| What | Why | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | Identifies your account; how we reach you about it | Google or Apple sign-in, or you |
| Phone number | Identifies your account if you signed in by OTP | Phone sign-in, or you |
| Display name | Shown to you in the app | Google or Apple sign-in, or you |
| Home city, home state and Google's ID for that city | So the app can open on your region and measure drive times from home without asking every time. We do not store the city's coordinates on our server. The app fetches them when needed and keeps them on your phone for at most 30 days. | You, in your profile |
| Preferred transport, preferred trip type, interests, preferred places | So your plans start from your taste instead of a blank form | You, in your profile |
All of it is optional except the email or phone you signed in with. A profile with nothing else in it is a working account.
Google sign-in also passes a profile-photo link to our authentication provider. The app does not show it: your profile uses your initial.
Our authentication provider also keeps a sign-in audit record — the fact that a sign-in happened, when, and the IP address it came from. This is standard security logging for an account system and is how a suspicious sign-in can be investigated.
2.3 What you save
| What | Contains |
|---|---|
| Saved plans | The plan you built — destination, dates, days, the places in each day, the trip inputs you gave, and any edits you made. |
| Saved routes | Your start point, your destination (or a point you picked on the map), and the stops you chose. If you used "my location" as the start, that location is stored as part of the saved trip — because the trip is not reopenable without it. A town you picked from Google's list is stored as its name and Google's ID, not its coordinates. |
| Saved places | The places and destinations you starred |
This is content you deliberately created. It exists so you can open it again, and it is deleted when you delete it, or when you delete your account.
2.4 On your phone
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your sign-in session token | So you stay signed in between launches. Stored in the app's private storage and sent only to our authentication provider to refresh your session. |
| Recent starting points and recent searches | Convenience, as described above. |
| The point of your home city | So Home does not fetch it each time. Kept for at most 30 days. |
The app does not use cookies.
2.5 This website
The website nextpin.in sets no cookies and has no analytics. Cloudflare hosts it, so Cloudflare handles your IP address and your page requests. The message form opens your own email app. The site stores nothing you type in it, and we receive your message only if you send that email.
3. Location, specifically
Location is the permission travellers are most careful about, so here is exactly how NextPin uses it.
- We request "while using the app" location only. NextPin has no background location permission and cannot read your location when it is closed.
- You can refuse. If you do, the app still works: you type or pick a starting point instead.
- Your coordinates are sent to our server to compute distances and drive times. They are not retained there and not attached to your account.
- One deliberate exception, yours: if you save a trip that starts from your current location, that starting point is saved with the trip. Deleting the trip deletes it.
- Your home city is a city you pick from a list, not your location. Change or clear it any time in your profile.
- You can revoke location permission in your phone's settings at any time, and NextPin will fall back to asking where you are.
4. What NextPin does not do
This section describes NextPin as of the effective date, and we will update it before any of it stops being true.
We do not:
- Run advertising. No ad SDK, no ad network, no advertising identifier (IDFA / GAID).
- Use an analytics or behavioural-tracking SDK. There is no Firebase Analytics, no Google Analytics, no Mixpanel, no Amplitude, no Segment, no Meta SDK and no attribution SDK in the app.
- Track you across other apps or websites. We have no ability to see what else you use.
- Sell, rent or share personal data with data brokers, marketers or advertisers.
- Profile you in a way that decides anything about you. Your plan is produced by a deterministic algorithm from the inputs you gave it. There is no automated decision-making with legal or similarly significant effects — see section 13.
- Use your personal data to train AI models — ours or anyone else's. See section 13.
- Read your contacts, photos, calendar, microphone, camera, call logs or SMS. NextPin requests exactly one sensitive permission: location, while in use.
- Send marketing email. We email you only about your account, or in reply to you.
One honest limit on the above: the map you see inside NextPin is drawn by Google Maps, on Android and on iPhone. We learn nothing from your map interactions, but that provider's own data practices apply to them, under its privacy policy — not ours. The same is true when you tap "Open in Maps" and leave the app.
5. Who else processes your data
We use a small number of service providers (Data Processors under the DPDP Act). They process data on our instructions. Google's and Apple's own services also follow their own privacy policies, as this section says.
| Provider | What it does for NextPin | What it sees |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase (database + authentication; data region Mumbai, India) | Stores your account, profile, saved plans, routes and places. Runs passwordless sign-in and keeps the sign-in audit record. | All of your account data, and your IP at sign-in |
| AWS (API hosting, region Mumbai, India) | Runs the NextPin API that builds plans and serves content | Requests passing through — including your location when you share it, and your IP address |
| Google Maps Platform (Places API) | Live opening hours and photos for a place at the moment you view it; searching for towns when you set a start point | The place or search text being looked up. Our server makes these look-ups, and they carry no account identifier. When a Google photo shows, your phone loads the picture from Google, so Google sees that request and your IP address |
| Google Maps SDK (in-app maps) | Draws the map on the plan, "Around you" and "Find stops on a drive" screens | Map interactions and your device's map requests, handled by Google under its own privacy policy (see section 4) |
| Wikimedia Commons | Serves the openly licensed photographs of places | The image request from your device |
| Our own routing server (OSRM) | Calculates real road distances and drive times | Coordinates only. Self-hosted by us, not a third party |
| Google (if you choose Google sign-in) | Authenticates you | That you signed in to NextPin; it gives us your name, email and photo URL |
| Apple (if you choose Sign in with Apple on iPhone) | Authenticates you | That you signed in to NextPin; it gives us your name and email, or a private relay address if you choose one |
| [SMS PROVIDER] and your phone network (if you choose OTP sign-in) | Delivers the one-time code | Your phone number, and that an SMS was sent |
| Zoho Mail | Runs our support and grievance mailboxes | Your email address and whatever you write to us |
| Cloudflare | Hosts the website nextpin.in | Your IP address and your page requests on the website |
A note on Google content: for a town or place you choose from Google's list, our server keeps only Google's ID for it. We never store Google's descriptions, reviews or photographs. Live hours and Google photos are fetched while you are looking at a screen and are not retained. NextPin uses Google Maps Platform, so the Google Privacy Policy applies to what Google handles.
6. When we may have to disclose your data
Section 5 lists everyone who routinely handles your data. Separately, and rarely, we may disclose personal data when the law requires it — a binding order from a court, a lawful demand from a government authority or law-enforcement agency, or where disclosure is necessary to comply with an applicable law.
Where we are legally permitted to tell you, we will.
We may also disclose or preserve data where it is necessary to investigate and stop abuse of the service, fraud, or a threat to someone's safety.
7. Where your data lives, and cross-border processing
- Your account data and saved trips are stored in a PostgreSQL database hosted in Mumbai, India (AWS ap-south-1, via Supabase).
- Our API server runs in Mumbai, India (AWS ap-south-1), so requests you make, and the location you choose to share in them, are processed in India.
- Some providers in section 5, such as Google, Apple, Cloudflare and Wikimedia, may process their part outside India. The DPDP Act permits transfer of personal data outside India except to countries the Central Government restricts.
8. How long we keep things
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Account, profile, saved plans, routes, places | Until you delete them, or you ask us to delete your account |
| Location shared while using the app | Not retained (see section 3 for the exception you control) |
| Trip inputs for a plan you did not save | Not retained |
| IP address used for rate limiting | In server memory only, cleared on every restart or deployment |
| Sign-in audit record | Retained by our authentication provider as part of its security logging |
| Server error logs | Kept for a short period by our hosting provider and then rotated out. They may incidentally contain an IP address or an account identifier, and are used only to diagnose faults |
Inactive accounts. The rule for accounts that nobody opens for a long time is still to be set, with legal review.
9. Your rights
As a Data Principal under the DPDP Act, you have the right to:
- Know what we hold — a summary of your personal data and what we have done with it, including which processors handled it.
- Correct or complete it — fix a wrong name, email, phone number, home city or preference. Most of this you can do yourself in the app's profile screen.
- Erase it — see section 10.
- Withdraw your consent — as easily as you gave it. Revoke location in your phone settings; delete your account to withdraw consent for everything else.
- Nominate someone — you may nominate another individual to exercise these rights on your behalf in the event of your death or incapacity. Email us to register a nominee.
- Have your grievance answered — see section 16.
To exercise any of these, email [email protected] from the address on your account, or mentioning the phone number you signed in with. We will respond within 30 days. We will ask you to confirm it is your account; we will not ask for documents you have no reason to give us.
Exercising any of these rights costs nothing.
10. Deleting your account
In the app, go to Profile → Delete account. If you no longer have the app, email [email protected] with the subject "Delete my account", from the email address on your account or mentioning the phone number you signed in with. Delete my account has the steps.
We will:
- delete your profile, every saved plan, saved route and saved place;
- delete your authentication record, so the account no longer exists;
- confirm to you when it is done;
- complete an emailed request within 30 days, and usually within a few days.
Deletion is permanent and we cannot restore a deleted plan.
You can also delete individual saved plans, routes and places yourself in the app at any time, without contacting us.
11. Security
- All traffic between the app, our API and our database is encrypted in transit (HTTPS / TLS).
- Authentication uses signed, expiring tokens. We never handle or store a password, because there isn't one.
- Every request for your data is scoped to you. Our API reads your user identifier from your signed authentication token and every query for a profile, trip or bookmark is filtered by that identifier — so a request carrying your token cannot return another person's rows. The database additionally has row-level security enabled on these tables.
- Access to the production database is limited to the operator named in section 1.
No system is perfectly secure. If a personal data breach occurs, we will notify you and the Data Protection Board of India as the DPDP Act and its rules require, without delay.
12. Children
NextPin is a general-audience travel app. Under the DPDP Act, anyone under 18 is a child, and their data may be processed only with verifiable consent from a parent or lawful guardian.
- You must be 18 or older to create an account. We do not verify age, so we cannot always tell whether an account belongs to someone under 18.
- We do none of the things the DPDP Act specifically prohibits for children: we do not track users, serve behavioural advertising, or profile anyone — for any age.
- If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has created an account, email [email protected] and we will delete it promptly.
Planning a family trip with children is a normal use of the app: "travelling with kids" is a trip setting that changes which places we suggest. It tells us nothing about a child personally, and we do not store it as data about a child.
13. AI, and how your plan is actually made
- Your plan is not generated by an AI model. It is produced by a deterministic algorithm — the same inputs give the same plan — working from our own curated data about places, their opening hours and the road distances between them.
- We do not use your personal data, your trip inputs or your saved trips to train AI models, ours or anyone else's, and we do not provide them to anyone for that purpose.
- If we later use a language model to write descriptive text about a destination, it will be used for wording only — never to decide what goes in your plan — and we will update section 5 before any personal data reaches such a provider.
14. If NextPin stops operating
NextPin is run by one person, so this deserves a straight answer. If we shut the service down, or if the operator becomes unable to run it, we will — as far as we are able — give notice in the app or by email at least 30 days beforehand, and delete the production database, including all accounts, saved plans, routes and places, rather than leave it sitting in a cloud account.
We will not sell your personal data as an asset. If NextPin is ever transferred to another operator, we will tell you before any data moves, and you will be able to delete your account first.
15. If you are outside India
NextPin covers destinations in India and is built for travellers in India, but app stores are global. Wherever you are, you may ask us for access to your data, its correction, or its deletion, and we will honour that request on the 30-day timeline in section 9. We do not sell personal information or use it for cross-context behavioural advertising, for anyone, anywhere.
Your data is stored and processed in India, except for the providers described in section 7.
16. Grievances
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, write to:
Pradeep Kumar JP — Data Fiduciary and grievance contact
Email: [email protected]
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
We will acknowledge within 7 days and resolve within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India under the DPDP Act, 2023.
17. Changes to this policy
If we change what we collect, who processes it, or what we do with it, we will update this page and the "Last updated" date, raise the version number, and — for any change that materially affects you — tell you in the app before it takes effect. The previous version will remain available on request.
18. Contact
Pradeep Kumar JP
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
[email protected]
General questions: [email protected]
NextPin is an independent project. Destination and place content is our own or openly licensed; map data and live place details come from the providers named in section 5.