1. Scope and who we are
Pahad Calling is a mountain travel, storytelling, culture, spirituality and community platform operated from India. This Privacy Policy applies to the Pahad Calling website, Android application and services that link to this policy.
For privacy questions or requests, contact pahadcalling@zohomail.in.
2. Information we collect
Account and profile information
When you sign in with Google, we may receive your Google account identifier, name, email address and profile photo. You may also choose to provide a username, display name, bio, location, website or social link, and mobile number where that feature is available.
Content and Circle activity
We process stories, comments, reactions, Place Suggestions, updates, reports, uploaded photographs and other content you submit. A Story may include the Place you deliberately confirm and its original authored time and time zone. Uploaded files may include technical metadata supplied by your device.
Foreground location for nearby Places
The Android application asks for location only after you choose a feature such as Use current location. It uses a single foreground location fix to compare against locally available Place information. If the local information is insufficient, the coordinates may be sent securely to Pahad Calling only to return likely nearby Places. We do not use this feature in the background, create a movement history from it, or attach precise coordinates to a public Story. The Place is attached only after you confirm it, and you can always choose a Place manually.
Optional Place Suggestions
If you voluntarily suggest a Place, we process the map pin you confirm and any details you choose to add, such as a name, category, description, locality, district, state, country, routes, facilities, accessibility, safety information, cultural context, references and a sensitive-location flag. You may enter a pin manually. If you instead choose Use current location, the private moderation record may also contain the original one-time foreground coordinates, the corrected coordinates you confirm, accuracy and altitude when supplied by the device, capture time and time zone, capture method and whether you adjusted the pin. Using Place Suggestions is optional and is not required for browsing public content.
Your signed-in account identifies you to the service when you submit a Place Suggestion. Contributor identity, original coordinates and the private moderation record are visible only to authorised administrators and are not copied into the public Place. An administrator may reject the suggestion, mark it as a duplicate, approve it against an existing Place or create an unpublished draft. Sensitive coordinates can be reduced or hidden, and nothing is published automatically.
You may optionally add up to five photographs after confirming that you own them or have permission to share them. The Android application creates private JPEG copies without source EXIF metadata such as GPS, camera and original timestamp fields. The server validates and re-encodes accepted files again and stores them outside the public website directory for authorised administrator review. A photograph is not published automatically; any public use remains subject to separate moderation.
Offline and on-device information
The Android application stores public content, saved items, Story drafts, Place Suggestion drafts and private photograph copies, pending actions, account preferences and a limited profile snapshot on your device so supported features can work offline. These records are kept in app-private storage; selected sensitive records and queued-action payloads use device-protected encryption where implemented. Signing out removes the active session and limited profile snapshot, but deliberately does not automatically delete unfinished drafts or unsynced actions. Account-scoped records remain isolated from other signed-in accounts and may remain on that device until completed, individually removed where supported, or erased with the app's storage or uninstall. You can remove saved items or clear disposable offline content from the application.
Technical and usage information
Our servers and service providers may process IP address, browser or device type, operating system, app version, approximate request time, pages or screens used, security events, crash information and diagnostic logs.
Optional notifications
Notification alerts are off until you deliberately enable them on a supported device or browser. For Android alerts, Google Firebase Cloud Messaging creates a Firebase installation identifier and notification token and processes limited application/device configuration needed to route the alert. For browser alerts, the browser's push service provides a subscription endpoint and encryption keys. Pahad Calling stores the token or subscription, its platform, your notification choices and delivery status.
The push provider receives only a generic “Pahad Calling update available” signal. Story titles, reply text, actor names, account details, destination URLs and photographs remain in the Pahad Calling notification inbox and are fetched from Pahad Calling after you open it. We do not use Firebase Analytics for this feature and do not send advertising, precise location or private content in the push payload.
Support and deletion requests
When you contact us or submit an account deletion request, we process the information you provide so that we can verify and respond to the request.
Cookies and session storage
The website may use cookies or similar storage needed for login sessions, security, preferences and essential site functionality.
3. How we use information
- To authenticate users and maintain accounts.
- To publish, display and organise stories, photographs, comments and other Circle contributions.
- To operate place discovery, Circle, moderation and support features.
- To provide user-requested nearby Place suggestions and offline functionality.
- To privately review contributed Places, detect duplicates, protect sensitive locations and maintain moderation decisions.
- To review reports, prevent fraud, protect users and enforce our policies.
- To send service messages and, where you choose, app notifications.
- To maintain, troubleshoot, secure and improve the website and application.
- To comply with legal obligations and valid requests from authorities.
4. Information visible to others
Content you publish may be publicly visible, including your username or display name, profile photo, bio, stories, photographs, comments, reactions and a Place or other location information you intentionally include. A foreground location fix used to suggest nearby Places is not published as part of your Story. A reviewed Place may later display only the administrator-approved location precision; the contributor identity, original capture and private review photographs are not automatically made public. Do not publish private information that you do not want others to see.
6. Data retention
We retain account information while your account is active and for the period reasonably required to operate the service, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and comply with law. Published content remains available until it is removed, deleted or the account is deleted.
Place Suggestion details, contributor association, coordinate evidence, photographs and audit events are retained only for as long as reasonably needed for review, duplicate and abuse prevention, decision records, disputes, security and legal compliance. You may request correction or deletion. If limited decision or security records must be retained, we restrict or remove direct account association where reasonably possible.
When an account deletion request is completed, we delete or irreversibly anonymise associated personal data, except information that must be retained for security, fraud prevention, legal compliance or the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. Limited copies may remain temporarily in protected backups until they are overwritten.
Active notification subscriptions are retained while alerts remain enabled. Disabling alerts or signing out revokes the device subscription; revoked subscription records and detailed delivery metadata are removed or cleared after 30 days. Notification inbox items and completed campaign records are retained for up to 180 days unless earlier deletion is required. A push provider may retain limited routing and security records under its own terms.
7. Your choices and rights
You may update available profile details, remove content where the service provides that option, choose notification categories, disable device alerts from the Pahad Calling notification screen or your device settings, turn optional location suggestions off in the application, use a manual Place pin instead of device location, skip optional Place details and photographs, clear supported local storage, or request access, correction or deletion by contacting us.
To request deletion of your Pahad Calling account and associated data, use the Account Deletion page.
8. Security
We use reasonable administrative and technical safeguards designed to protect information, including HTTPS for application-server communication, app-private device storage, encryption for selected sensitive local records, administrator-only Place Suggestion review and private review-photo storage outside the public website directory. Offline availability does not make published content private. No internet service can guarantee absolute security, so users should also protect their devices and Google accounts.
9. Children
Pahad Calling is not directed to children. A person who is below the age at which they may legally consent to data processing in their country should use the service only with permission and supervision from a parent or legal guardian. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children in violation of applicable law.
Our published protections against child sexual abuse and exploitation are available in the Child Safety Standards.
10. Processing locations
Information may be processed in India and in other locations where our service providers operate. Where required, we take reasonable steps to ensure appropriate protections apply.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when our services or legal obligations change. The revised date will be displayed at the top of this page. Material changes may also be communicated through the service.
12. Contact
Email: pahadcalling@zohomail.in
Website: Pahad Calling, India