Amchi Local is a Mumbai local-train journey planner for Android, made by Rajveer, Mumbai, India ("we", "us"). Questions: [email protected].
Amchi Local is not affiliated with Indian Railways, Central Railway, Western Railway, CRIS or IRCTC.
The short version
- No account, no sign-in. We never require your name, email, phone number, date of birth or anything else about you. The Report page has two optional boxes, UserName and Contact; what you type there is sent only with a report you submit.
- Your trips stay on your phone. Searches, pinned routes, recent searches, favourite stations and settings are stored only on your phone.
- Your location stays on your phone. It is used on the phone to find your nearest station and to follow a journey you start, and is never sent to us. With Live location on, the app sends where the train you are in is — never your phone's coordinates (section 2.1).
- We receive only four things: a report or feedback you choose to send, anonymous usage counts (which you can switch off), a request for notices and timetable updates, and — with Live location on — live train reports. None of them carries an ID that points to you or your phone.
- We don't sell anything, don't show ads, and don't use any analytics or advertising company.
1. What stays on your phone
| Kept on your phone | Why |
|---|---|
| The train timetable | so journeys work offline |
| Your searches, recent searches, pinned routes, favourite stations, route choices | to show them again |
| Your settings (train types, notification and update switches) | to apply them |
| Which routes you opened in the last 14 days | to tell, on the phone, whether you mostly commute (see 3.2) |
| Reports and usage counts waiting for a connection | sent when you're back online, then deleted |
We never receive any of this. Uninstalling the app, or clearing its storage in Android Settings, deletes it. If you have turned on Android's own backup, Android may copy the app's settings into your Google account; we can't see that copy.
2. Location
When you allow it, the app reads your phone's location on the phone — through Android and Google Play services — to show your nearest station and, when you start a journey, to follow it and ring your alerts. While a journey is followed, Android shows a notification the whole time, and one tap ends it. The location is not stored by the app and is never sent to us. You can refuse or withdraw the permission at any time in Android Settings; everything else keeps working.
2.1 Live trains (only with Live location on)
When you tap Yes on "Are you inside this train?", the app follows your journey on your phone to ring your alerts (the next station, your change, your destination). While that train is moving and your phone is on its track, the app sends us where that train is — the station it is at or the two it is between, and how many minutes late — so other riders can see it. We never receive your phone's coordinates. Each ride gets a new random code that is thrown away when the ride ends, so your rides can't be joined together or to your phone. We keep these train reports to show how late trains usually run. Live location is off until you say yes to it; you can turn it off any time in Profile → Preferences → Live location — then nothing is shared, and no alerts ring.
While a journey or station screen is open, the app also asks our server which of the trains on it are live. That request carries only the train numbers on the screen, nothing about you.
3. What we receive
3.1 Reports and feedback (only when you tap Submit)
- What: what you write, the category and urgency you choose, the screenshots you pick (shrunk on your phone first), the app version, and — only if you fill them in — a UserName and a Contact (email or phone number).
- Why UserName and Contact: only for context — to know which person sends useful feedback, so we can give weight to their next reports, and to message you once a change is done to ask whether it suits you. They are never used for anything else. A report carries no device ID and is never joined to the usage counts, so we cannot tell which phone sent it, and your device and behaviour cannot be tracked through it. Both are kept on your phone so the boxes are filled in next time; clear a box to remove it.
- Why: to fix problems and improve the app.
- Please don't put personal details — yours or anyone else's — in the text or screenshots.
- Kept: until we've dealt with it, and never more than 12 months (deleted automatically).
3.2 Anonymous usage counts (on unless you switch them off)
- What: which screens are opened and which of the app's features are used (for example the Fastest button, the date picker or the ATVM map — one word from a fixed list, nothing else); which of a fixed list of problems happened (for example "a live-train lookup failed" — one word, no message and nothing about your phone); which two stations a journey was opened for, whether that route is new to your phone, and whether it was typed, pinned or recent; routes pinned, unpinned or tapped; a once-a-week and once-a-month "the app was used" mark with the app, timetable and Android versions and one word — commuter (the same route on 3 or more weekdays in 14 days, worked out on your phone) or traveller; and a once-a-minute "the app is open" beat.
- No ID of any kind — nothing links one count to another, to your phone or to you. No location.
- What we keep: only totals (for example "Vashi → CSMT opened 4,000 times in May"). Each count is added to the totals and thrown away.
- Switch off: Profile → Preferences → Share anonymous usage. Anything not yet sent is deleted.
3.3 Notices and timetable updates
Each time the app opens it asks our server for Home notices, app-update information and whether a new timetable is published. The request carries nothing about you. If a new timetable is published, the app downloads it (on Wi-Fi, unless you tap Update yourself) from our storage.
4. Internet addresses
Like every service on the internet, our server and the companies that deliver it see the internet (IP) address a request comes from. Our server uses it only in memory, for a few minutes, to stop abuse (for example, too many reports from one address), and does not store it with anything you send.
5. Who handles the data
| Who | What for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Oracle Cloud | hosts our server, its database, backups and timetable files | Mumbai, India |
| Cloudflare | delivers and protects our server's traffic (it sees request details such as IP addresses, under Cloudflare's privacy policy) | global network |
| Google (Android, Play services) | location on your phone; Play Store | on your phone / Google |
No one else. We don't share data with advertisers, data brokers or anyone for their own use. We would disclose something only if Indian law required it.
6. How long
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Reports and screenshots | until handled, at most 12 months |
| Live train reports | indefinitely, to show how late trains usually run (they carry no ID and no coordinates) |
| Usage totals | indefinitely (they describe no one) |
| "App is open" per-minute counts | 2 days |
| Server backups | 14 days, rolling |
7. Security
All traffic is encrypted (HTTPS). The server accepts reports and counts only from the app, and the admin area only from signed-in staff with a hashed password. Backups are kept in India.
8. Children
Amchi Local is a general travel app for everyone. It collects no personal data from anyone, children included.
9. Your choices and rights
- Switch off usage counts: Profile → Preferences → Share anonymous usage.
- Stop sharing live train positions: Profile → Preferences → Live location.
- Refuse location: Android Settings → Apps → Amchi Local → Permissions.
- Delete everything on your phone: uninstall, or clear the app's storage.
- A report you sent and want deleted: write to [email protected] with roughly when you sent it and what it said (we have no other way to find it — we don't know who sent it). We reply within 15 days.
Complaints about how we handle data go to Rajveer, [email protected]. We acknowledge within 24 hours and resolve within 15 days.
10. Changes
If this policy changes, the new version appears here with a new date, and the app asks you to agree again when the change matters.