Vihaar Privacy Policy

Vihaar is a travel companion developed by PH31. This policy explains what information the app processes, why it is used, which service providers receive it, and the choices available to you.

1. Information we process

• Account: email, username, display name, optional avatar, bio and home country.
• Trips: destinations, dates, itineraries, checklists, reservations, budgets and expenses.
• Content: photos, captions, receipt images and booking confirmations you choose to add.
• Device access: camera, microphone/speech recognition and location are used for the relevant features after permission is granted. The system photo picker lets you choose individual images without granting access to your entire library. Calendar export and notifications use the device controls applicable to those features.
• Private travel details: saved traveller details, visa preparation answers, private document-vault files and optional travel care notes are stored on your device. They are separate from shared trip data. Files you choose to export or share may contain personal information.
• Diagnostics: scrubbed error messages, stack traces, app/OS/device information and sampled performance timings help diagnose faults. Sentry is configured without default personal information. Our own Supabase error records may include your signed-in account ID and are linked to your account.
• Product analytics: disabled in the Vihaar app. Vihaar does not send behavioural events or identifiers to PostHog. Crash and performance diagnostics are separate from product analytics.

We do not sell personal information, use advertising identifiers, or track you across other apps for advertising.

2. AI features and your permission

Optional features use Google Gemini to scan a receipt, import a reservation, understand a dictated expense, suggest destinations or itineraries, and prepare destination briefs or a phrasebook. Before the first request in each AI data category—travel planning, documents, dictated expense text, or voice recordings—Vihaar explains what will be sent and asks for your explicit permission. Choosing “Not now” keeps the local or manual path available.

Depending on the feature, Google Gemini may receive the receipt image, booking text or image, dictated expense text, a trip-description voice recording, destination, dates, budget tier, party size, travel preferences or home-country context. Vihaar does not attach your account ID, name or email to these requests. However, receipt images, booking confirmations or dictated text you choose to submit may themselves contain names or other personal information. You can withdraw permission in Profile → AI Data Sharing; Vihaar will ask again before a later AI request.

Voice recordings have a separate permission: allowing receipt processing or text-based planning does not authorize sending recorded audio. If you choose recorded-audio trip planning and allow this category, the recording itself is sent through our server to Google Gemini for transcription and interpretation. Native dictation requests on-device recognition where supported; you can type when it is unavailable. Microphone permission from your device and permission to share audio with Google are separate choices.

Google processes submitted information under its applicable API terms and privacy policy. Withdrawing permission stops future requests in that category; it does not recall information already sent to Google. Avoid including information that is not needed for the task.

3. Service providers

• Supabase for authentication, database, private file storage and server functions (policy).
• Google Gemini for the optional AI features described above (policy).
• Sentry for crash, error and sampled performance diagnostics (policy).
• Sign in with Apple or Google when you select that login method.
• Apple/Google speech recognition for native dictation where supported. The current app requests on-device recognition; optional recorded-audio trip planning instead sends audio to Google Gemini with the separate consent described above.
• Expo for push notification delivery, including device push tokens, notification text and the identifiers needed to open the relevant screen (policy).
• Apple/Google Maps, OpenStreetMap/Photon, Open-Meteo and OpenTripMap for maps, search, weather and nearby places.
• Ticketmaster, AviationStack, OpenSky and Sherpa for optional event, flight and entry information.
• ExchangeRate-API/jsDelivr, REST Countries and Wikimedia for currency and destination information.
• RevenueCat is included for future purchase management; no paid Vihaar tier is currently offered.

Map, search and travel-information services receive the query, coordinates, destination, dates or other travel context needed for the requested result. External images and other network resources expose ordinary connection information, such as your IP address, to the service delivering them. Service availability varies by feature and configuration.

4. Storage, sharing and retention

Cloud data is stored with Supabase and protected by HTTPS and database row-level access policies. Trip collaborators can see information intentionally shared inside their trip. Data remains while your account is active or until you remove it. Account deletion from Profile permanently removes associated active account data; limited security or legal records may be retained only where required by law.

Device-local private records are not automatically synced to your other devices or shared with trip collaborators. Signing out removes private vault and saved traveller data from that device. Exported files and copies you share outside Vihaar remain under your control and are not removed by deleting the original in the app. Do not rely on the device-local vault as your only copy.

5. Your choices

• Edit or delete trips, expenses and other content in the app.
• Export cached trip data from Profile. This export is not a complete account backup and excludes private vault files and other data described in the export confirmation. Contact us for other access or export requests.
• Withdraw AI permission from Profile → AI Data Sharing.
• Revoke camera, photo, microphone, location, calendar or notification permissions in your device Settings. You can use manual entry or other available alternatives when an optional permission is declined.
• Delete your account from Profile → Delete Account.

6. Age eligibility

Vihaar is for adults aged 18 or older. The app asks which age group you are in and stores your answer on the device or with your account. We use it to control access to Vihaar and its AI features. We do not ask for your birth date. Contact us below for help with an age declaration or to request access to or deletion of account data.

7. Contact

For privacy, access, export or deletion questions, email phanivarma31@gmail.com. PH31 is based in Bangalore, India.