Privacy Policy

Qataroom (“Qataroom”, “we”, “us”) is a realtime social app for metro riders. This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have. We built Qataroom to be privacy-respecting: we don’t sell your data, we don’t use advertising trackers, and your precise location never leaves your device.

1. Who we are Qataroom is operated by the Qataroom team. We run our own servers (the app is self-hosted), so your data is not handed to a third-party app platform. For any privacy question or request, contact us at support@qataroom.app.

2. Information we collect Account & sign-in When you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive a unique sign-in identifier and your email address, and create a Qataroom account with a random user ID. Profile Your @username, an optional display name and short bio, a chosen generated avatar (an illustrated style — not a photo of you), an accent colour, and your current “mood”. Location Used on your device, while the app is open, only to check whether you’re at a metro station. Your precise GPS coordinates are processed on the device and are never sent to or stored on our servers. We store only the station you’re associated with and related timestamps. Activity The “pings” you send (which station and when), your ping counts and leaderboard position, and anonymous train-arrival observations (“trip logs”) used to keep the public timetable accurate. Notifications If you enable push notifications, a device push token so we can deliver them. You can turn this off any time. Preferences Your settings — notification choices, language, and similar. Technical We may process your IP address transiently to route your live connection. We do not use it to build advertising or tracking profiles. We do not collect: payment details, contacts, photos from your library, background location, or advertising identifiers. Qataroom has no third-party ad SDKs or analytics trackers.

3. How we use your information To run the live experience — presence, pings, moods, and the station leaderboard. To verify you’re at a station before unlocking the live ride (on-device location). To keep your profile, stats, and activity feed. To calibrate the public timetable from anonymous trip observations. To send notifications you’ve opted into. To keep the community safe — handling reports, blocking offensive usernames, and acting on abuse.

4. What other riders can see Qataroom is pseudonymous. Other riders can see your @username, avatar, mood, station presence, pings, leaderboard rank, and bio. They cannot see your email address or real name (unless you choose to put it in your display name or bio).

5. How we share information We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with:

Sign-in providers — Apple and Google, when you authenticate. Push delivery — Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google) and, for iOS, Apple Push Notification service, solely to deliver notifications you enabled. Legal — if required by law, or to protect the safety and rights of riders. These providers process data under their own privacy policies.

6. Location, in detail Location access is foreground-only — Qataroom never accesses your location in the background. We use it to compute, on your device, whether you’re within range of a metro station entrance. The raw coordinates are not transmitted; only the resulting station association is. You can revoke location permission at any time in your device settings (the live ride simply won’t unlock without it).

7. Keeping and deleting your data We keep your data while your account is active. You can delete your account at any time in the app (Settings → Delete account); this removes your account and associated personal data from our systems. Aggregated or anonymised data that no longer identifies you (for example, timetable calibration) may be retained.

8. Security Data is encrypted in transit (TLS). We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect it, though no method of transmission or storage is completely secure.

9. Children Qataroom is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we’ll remove it.

10. Your rights Depending on where you live (including under the EU/UK GDPR), you may have the right to access, correct, export, or delete your data, and to object to or restrict certain processing. You can exercise deletion directly in the app, or contact us at support@qataroom.app for any other request.

11. International users Qataroom is operated from, and your data is processed on, our own servers. By using the app you understand your data may be processed in the country where our servers are hosted.

12. Changes to this policy We may update this policy. We’ll revise the “Last updated” date above and, for material changes, notify you in the app. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised policy.

13. Contact Questions or requests: support@qataroom.app.