Privacy Policy
Effective 30 September 2026 · App: TravelBuddy (com.homilabs.travelbuddy) · Publisher: HomiLabs
TravelBuddy is a free, volunteer carpool app that helps members of the FFL (Fatima Fertilizer) community share rides between the Township and the Plant site. There are no payments, no ads and no tracking for marketing. This page explains what the app collects, why, and who can see it.
What we collect
| Data | Why | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Name, email, phone number, employee ID, department, township location (house/block) | Create your account, let the admin recognise and approve you, and let members arrange rides and call each other. | You and the app admins. Your name and phone number are also shown to approved members on rides you post or join. |
| Rides you post or join (date, slot, direction, pickup stop, seats, notes) | Run the ride board and your ride history. | Approved members. |
| Precise location of the driver, only while a ride is started | Show the ride's passengers how far away the driver is and alert them when the driver is about 2 minutes away. | Only that ride's driver and confirmed passengers. Sharing stops when the ride is completed or cancelled, or automatically after 45 minutes, with a visible notification the whole time. |
| Your approximate location, on your phone only | Sort pickup stops nearest-first. Admins may also capture a stop's map point with their GPS. | Not uploaded (except a stop's point saved by an admin). |
| Admin actions (approve / block / unblock, reason, time) | Keep an audit trail of account decisions. | Admins, and you (on your own account). |
TravelBuddy does not use background location, does not read your contacts, and does not store your password (sign-in is handled by Google Firebase Authentication). Fingerprint/face unlock happens entirely on your phone; no biometric data ever leaves it.
Where data is stored
Data is stored in Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore and Firebase Authentication), in the asia-south1 (Mumbai) region, and is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS). Google processes this data on our behalf under the Firebase data processing terms.
How long we keep it
- Rides and ride history are deleted automatically 30 days after the ride date.
- The driver's live location is deleted when the ride ends (and in any case within 24 hours).
- Your account details are kept while you are a member. You can delete your account at any time in the app (Settings → Delete my account) or by email — see Delete your account.
Sharing
We do not sell or share your data with anyone outside the app, and we do not use it for advertising. Data is only visible to other approved TravelBuddy members as described above.
Your choices
- You can refuse the location permission; the app still works, but stops won't be sorted by distance and drivers can't share live location.
- You can turn notifications off in your phone settings.
- To correct your data, contact the admin (below). To delete it, see Delete your account.
Children
TravelBuddy is for adult employees and community members only (18+).
Contact
HomiLabs — TravelBuddy admin: homilabs.smc@gmail.com
We will update this page if the app changes how it uses data; the effective date above will change too.