Privacy Policy

Effective 11 October 2026

Pandal Hoppings (pandalhoppings.com) is a free Durga Puja route planner for Kolkata, run by Soham Das, Kolkata 700075, West Bengal, India. This page says what the site collects, why, who else handles it, how long it is kept, and what you can do about it. The short version: no account, no name, no phone number, no cookies of our own, and your location stays in your phone unless you choose to send it with a report.

What we do not collect

• No accounts, sign-ups, names, email addresses, phone numbers or payment details. There is nothing to sign up for.
• No cookies set by us, no advertising, no ad trackers, no social-media pixels.
• No precise location from the planner. When you tap “Use my location”, the position is used inside your browser to compute the route and is never sent to us.

What we collect, and why

Anonymous usage. Your browser generates a random device ID and keeps it in its local storage, plus a random session ID per route. With them we record which pages are visited (path, the referring site's domain, campaign tags in the link), which mode, duration and starting place a route was planned with (a GPS start is recorded only as “GPS”, never as coordinates), the pandal sequence, which stops were marked done or skipped, when a route was shared and by which channel, queue reports, and whether you said you would follow the route. We use this to make the routes better. It is not linked to your name, email or IP address.

Feedback. If you answer “Not quite” and type what you would change, that text is stored with the anonymous usage. Please do not include your name, number or anything else about you; we do not need it.

Reports of a missing pandal or a wrong pin. When you send a report we receive the pandal name and note you type, your device ID, and, only if you tap “Share my current location”, your position at that moment with its accuracy. If you attach a photo it is shrunk in your browser first, which removes the camera's embedded data (including any GPS tag), and then stored privately. One person reviews reports; they are never published, and the photo is never shown to anyone else. Please avoid photos with recognisable faces.

Server logs. Like every website, our hosting provider keeps short-lived request logs that include IP addresses, used only to keep the site running and to detect abuse.

Who else handles data

• Vercel hosts the site and provides cookieless page-view analytics. Vercel derives a temporary visitor hash from the IP address and browser type and does not set a cookie.
• Neon stores the anonymous usage events and the reports in a database.
• Cloudinary stores report photos as private files that are not reachable by a public link.
• Google reCAPTCHA protects the report form from bots. It loads only while the report form is open, collects device and browser signals under the Google Privacy Policy, and we pass your IP address to Google to verify its token.

These providers store data on servers outside India. We use them only to run the site and do not sell or share data for advertising.

Tapping “Navigate” opens Google Maps, and “Share on WhatsApp” opens WhatsApp. From that moment their own terms and privacy policies apply, not ours.

What stays on your phone

Your browser's local storage holds the device ID, your in-progress route (including a GPS start point if you used one) so it survives a reload, and a cache of pages so the site works offline. None of that leaves the device except as described above. Clearing site data in your browser removes it all.

How long we keep things

• Anonymous usage events: 12 months, after which only daily totals remain. Feedback text: 90 days.
• Reports: until reviewed, then 30 days. Report photos: deleted 30 days after the report is closed.
• Hosting logs: our provider's default, measured in days.

Your choices and rights

• Clear site data in your browser to get a new device ID; nothing we hold can then be connected to you.
• To have your usage events or a report deleted, email localite@gmail.com with your device ID. Your current one is: none yet (this browser has not sent us anything)
• Questions or complaints about this policy: the same address. We reply within 7 days, and within 48 hours during Puja week.

Children

The site is for everyone who goes pandal hopping. It has no accounts and does not knowingly collect anything that identifies a child.

Security

The site is served over HTTPS. Database and photo credentials live only on the server. One person has access to the reports queue. If a breach ever affects data we hold, we will say so on this page and inform anyone we can reach.

Changes

The effective date at the top changes when this page does. Material changes will be noted here. The Terms of Use cover everything else.

Contact

Soham Das, Kolkata 700075, West Bengal, India. Email: localite@gmail.com.