Privacy Policy

LAST UPDATED: JULY 29, 2026 · EFFECTIVE ON PUBLICATION

1. Who this policy covers, and the terms it uses

This policy explains how Lighthouse ("we," "us," the "Service") collects, uses, stores, and shares personal data when you use our app or website. It's written to align with India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act). Under that law, we act as a Data Fiduciary — the entity that decides why and how your personal data is processed — and you, our user, are the Data Principal, the individual the data is about. Where this policy refers to "personal data," it means any data that identifies you or can reasonably be linked back to you.

2. What we collect, and why

We collect only what the Service actually needs to function, tied to a specific purpose in each case — not data for its own sake.

• Account data — phone number and/or Google/Apple sign-in identifiers, display name, email. Purpose: authentication, account recovery, and letting you use one identity across devices.
• Location data — your coarse location when you search "near me," and (only if you separately opt in) background location for Vicinity Mode. Purpose: showing places relevant to where you are. Vicinity Mode's background location is off by default and processed on-device wherever possible; it is never sold or shared for advertising.
• Content you create — saved places, collections, trip plans and votes, comments, imported reel links, and messages to our AI assistant. Purpose: the core features of the app — this is what makes the map "yours."
• Usage & interaction data — which places you view, save, or route to; assistant queries; feature usage. Purpose: personalizing recommendations (Pro) and understanding what to build next. This never includes reading your device's other apps, contacts, or messages.
• Device & technical data — device type, OS version, app version, a push-notification token, crash logs. Purpose: making the app work reliably and reach you with notifications you've asked for.
• Payment status — whether you're on Explorer or Pro, and subscription renewal dates. We do not receive or store your card, UPI, or bank details — those are handled entirely by Google Play Billing or Razorpay under their own security standards.

3. Consent, and how we ask for it

Under the DPDP Act, we may only process your personal data on the basis of your clear, specific, and informed consent (or a narrow set of "legitimate use" exceptions the law itself defines, none of which we currently rely on beyond what's strictly needed to operate your account). Consent requests in-app are written in plain language, are specific to what's being asked (we don't bundle an unrelated permission into a broad "accept all"), and you can withdraw consent at any time from Settings — withdrawing consent for a feature simply turns that feature off; it doesn't affect the rest of your account.

4. Your rights as a Data Principal

The DPDP Act gives you real, enforceable rights over your data. You can exercise all of these from within the app, or by writing to our Grievance Officer (§9):

• Right to access — a summary of the personal data we hold about you and how it's being processed.
• Right to correction & erasure — fix inaccurate data, or ask us to delete data we no longer need a basis to keep.
• Right to grievance redressal — a way to raise a complaint about how your data has been handled, and get a response within a reasonable time (§9).
• Right to nominate — a DPDP-specific right: you can nominate another individual to exercise your rights on your behalf in the event of your death or incapacity.
• Right to withdraw consent — at any point, as easily as you gave it.

5. Children's data

Under the DPDP Act, anyone under 18 is legally a "child," and processing a child's data requires verifiable parental or guardian consent, with additional restrictions (no behavioral tracking or targeted advertising to children). Lighthouse's account creation currently requires the user to confirm they are 18 or older [TO CONFIRM: age-gate mechanism and verification method before launch]. If we learn that we've collected data from a child without the required consent, we will delete it.

6. Who we share data with

We don't sell your personal data. We share it only with service providers who process it on our behalf, under contractual obligations to protect it, strictly for the purposes below:

• Google (Gemini API) — processes place names, captions, and your assistant queries to extract structured travel information. Queries are not used by Google to train their models beyond their standard API data-handling terms.
• Cloudflare — hosting, content delivery, and security (DDoS/WAF protection) for our servers and website.
• Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google) — delivering push notifications you've opted into.
• Google Play Billing / Razorpay — processing Pro subscription payments; neither shares your raw payment details with us.
• Analytics providers [TO CONFIRM: name once instrumented] — aggregated product-usage analytics, not sold onward.

Some of these providers process data on servers outside India. The DPDP Act permits cross-border transfer of personal data except to countries the Indian government specifically restricts by notification; we review our processor list against that restriction list on an ongoing basis.

7. How long we keep your data

We keep account and content data for as long as your account is active, plus a limited window afterward to handle account-recovery requests and legal obligations. When you delete your account (Settings → Delete account), we delete your personal data within a reasonable period, except where we're required to retain limited records (e.g., transaction records) for legal or tax compliance.

8. How we protect your data

Access to personal data is restricted to what each system and team member genuinely needs; data in transit is encrypted (HTTPS/TLS); authentication tokens are short-lived and rotated; and we don't store payment card details ourselves. No system is unbreakable, and in the event of a personal data breach likely to affect you, we will notify the Data Protection Board of India and affected users as required under the DPDP Act.

9. Grievance Officer & contact

Questions, requests to exercise your rights, or complaints about how your data is handled can be sent to our Grievance Officer:

Email: privacy@letsgolighthouse.co.in
Name & registered address: [TO CONFIRM before launch — the DPDP Act requires a named Grievance Officer and published contact details]

We aim to acknowledge every request within a reasonable time and resolve it as required by law. You may also file a complaint with the Data Protection Board of India if you believe your rights haven't been respected.

10. Changes to this policy

We'll update the date at the top of this page whenever this policy changes materially, and where the change affects how we use data you've already given us, we'll ask for fresh consent rather than relying on the old one.