PagdandiIn short
Who we are
Pagdandi ("we", "us") makes the Pagdandi app, which turns your daily steps into progress along Indian trekking and pilgrimage routes. For the purposes of the DPDP Act, we are the Data Fiduciary for the personal data described here. You can reach us at privacy@pagdandi.app.
What stays on your phone
- Health data. With your permission, Pagdandi reads your daily step count and walking distance from Apple Health (iPhone) or Health Connect (Android). It only reads; it never writes health data. Individual step samples and timestamps are never uploaded.
- Your solo trek — the trail you're walking, your start date, landmarks reached, badges, companion and settings (units, height, step goal, language, notifications).
- Day-by-day totals used to draw your progress, and copies of your groups and challenges so the app works offline.
- Widgets show the same information on your Home Screen; on iPhone they read it from a shared area on your device.
Logging out clears your groups and challenges from the phone. Deleting your account clears everything.
What we keep on our servers
You can use Pagdandi on your own without sharing anything. When you create an account, or join a group trek or a step challenge, we store:
| Data | When | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Account | When you sign up | Your username, password (stored only as a one-way hash by our authentication provider), the display name you choose, your companion character and language. |
| Per-day totals | Only while you're in a group trek or a step challenge | For each day: the date, your step count and kilometres. Sent from the group's or challenge's start date onwards; days with no steps aren't sent. We also record when your phone last synced. |
| Groups and challenges | When you create or join one | Its name, trail or dates, invite code, who's in it and when they joined, and your sharing choices for each group. |
| Cheers | When you send or receive one | Who cheered whom, in which group, and on which day. |
| Push token | If you allow notifications | A device token and platform (iOS or Android), so we can deliver cheers to your phone. |
| WHOOP link | Only if you connect WHOOP | The access tokens WHOOP issues to Pagdandi and your WHOOP member ID. Your WHOOP daily step counts are read when the app refreshes and kept on your phone; they reach our servers only as part of your per-day totals, like any other steps. |
We do not collect your location, contacts, photos, phone number, email address, heart rate, sleep or any other health data.
Who can see what
Group treks
People in a group see your display name and companion. Using the three switches in each group's settings, you decide whether they also see your position on the trail, today's steps and your monthly totals. Your kilometres always count towards the group's total, even when your position is hidden.
Step challenges
Everyone in a challenge sees each other's display name, companion and daily step totals for the challenge's dates. That's how the leaderboard works, so it can't be hidden — you're told this before you create or join one.
Nobody else
Your data is never public and never shown to people outside your groups and challenges. Database rules enforce this on our servers, not just in the app. We do not sell, rent or share personal data for advertising, and health data is never used for marketing.
Why we use it
- To run the features you use: progress on a trail, group treks, step challenges, cheers, widgets and notifications.
- To keep your account working and secure, and to respond when you contact us.
- To meet legal obligations.
We process your data on the basis of your consent, given when you allow health access, create an account, join a group or challenge, connect WHOOP or allow notifications. You can withdraw consent at any time (see below); withdrawing doesn't affect processing that already happened.
Service providers
We use a small number of providers, each only for the job below:
- Supabase — hosts our database, accounts and server functions.
- Expo (with Apple Push Notification service and Firebase Cloud Messaging) — delivers cheer notifications to your phone.
- Apple Maps (iPhone) and Google Maps (Android) — draw trail maps. Like any map, they receive ordinary map-tile requests from your device.
- Open-Meteo — weather for trail stops. Only the stop's coordinates are sent, never yours.
- WHOOP — only if you connect it. We read daily step counts with the permissions you approve on WHOOP's own screen.
- Apple Health / Health Connect — on your device; we read steps and distance through them.
Trail routes use map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Where it's stored
Our database is hosted by Supabase in Sydney, Australia. Push notifications are delivered by Expo and Apple or Google, which may process the device token in the United States. By using the features that need them, you consent to this transfer outside India. We transfer data only to countries the Government of India has not restricted under the DPDP Act.
How long we keep it
- Account data, per-day totals, memberships and cheers: while your account exists.
- WHOOP tokens: until you disconnect WHOOP or delete your account.
- Push tokens: until you delete your account, or another account signs in on that phone.
- When you delete your account we delete your server data straight away. Copies in our hosting provider's routine backups expire on their own schedule (typically within 7 days).
Your choices and rights
- Sharing — change what group-mates see in each group's settings, or leave a group or challenge at any time.
- Health access — turn it off in the Health app (iPhone) or Health Connect (Android).
- WHOOP — Settings → WHOOP → Disconnect. We also ask WHOOP to revoke our access.
- Notifications — switch them off in Settings or in your phone's settings.
- Access and export — Settings → Download my data gives you a copy of what's on your phone. Email us for a summary of what we hold on our servers.
- Correction — change your display name in any group's settings, or email us.
- Erasure — Settings → Delete account removes your account and server data and clears the app. Groups and challenges you created pass to the next member.
- Grievances and nomination — you can raise a grievance with us (below) and, under the DPDP Act, nominate someone to exercise your rights if you can't. If you're not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India.
Security
Data travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Database rules restrict every table to the people allowed to see it, and the server-side secrets for WHOOP and account deletion never reach the app. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your data we will tell you and the Data Protection Board as the law requires.
Children
Pagdandi is meant for people aged 18 and over. We don't knowingly create accounts for children. If you believe a child has an account, contact us and we'll delete it.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the app before the change takes effect, and update the date at the top.
Contact and grievances
For privacy questions, data requests or grievances, write to our Grievance Officer. We'll acknowledge you promptly and respond within the time the DPDP Act allows.