Privacy Policy

Last updated: 25 August 2026

Motogram is a community app for motorcycle riders. This page explains exactly what the app collects, why it needs it, and how to get rid of it. Plain language, no filler.

1. What we collect

• The email address on your Google or Apple account. You sign in with Google, or with Apple on an iPhone, and that is how Motogram knows who you are. The address is not stored in our database; it stays with Firebase Authentication, and the one email we send — a welcome message when you join — reads it from your signed-in session at the moment of sending.
• Your profile. Your name, a unique @username you choose, a profile photo you upload yourself, and your bike model. Signing in with Google hands over the picture on that account, and Motogram deliberately does not copy it — you pick your own.
• Your phone number, if you sign in with one. There are three ways into Motogram: Google, Apple, and a phone number with a one-time code by SMS. Choose the third and the number becomes your account — Firebase Authentication sends the code and holds the number, and Motogram keeps it as the key your profile and chats hang from. Sign in with Google or Apple instead and no number is asked for or kept. Motogram never reads the messages in your inbox; the code is typed in, or handed over by Android itself.
• No contacts. Motogram does not read your address book at all, and does not ask for permission to. Riders find each other by @username, or by seeing who is nearby.
• Your approximate location, while the app is open. Coarse — a few hundred metres, the network fix rather than the GPS chip — and sent again only once you have moved about a kilometre, so a parked bike sends nothing at all. It is what lets Motogram show you riders near you with a distance under each name, and what lets an SOS reach the riders actually within 5 km of you.
  It is stored on its own and readable by nobody: the only thing that ever reads it is the server code that measures those distances, and all that comes back is a distance rounded to the nearest kilometre. No coordinates are ever handed to another rider.
  Your last position stays on the Moto Map after you close the app, with how long ago it was recorded shown next to it — “20 minutes ago”, “Yesterday”. It is not updated while the app is closed and it does not pretend to be current; it is simply the last place you were, labelled as such. Only riders you are connected to see it.
  You can switch it off whenever you like, in Settings → Hide my location. That stops the updates and deletes the position already stored. Motogram does not collect your location while the app is closed.
• What you post. Feed posts, 24-hour statuses, comments, chat messages, group messages, photos and voice notes.
• Online status. Whether the app is open, and the time you last had it open, so other riders see "online" or "last seen".
• A push notification token from Firebase Cloud Messaging, which is what lets your phone ring when a message arrives.
• How the app is used, with nothing that names you. Google Analytics for Firebase counts events like a screen being opened, a sign-up finishing, a ride being created — along with your device model, Android or iOS version, app version and country. It is how a feature that is broken for everybody gets noticed without waiting for somebody to report it. No phone number, no email address, no name, no message text and no coordinates are ever sent with it, and nothing in it is tied to your account.

2. What we do not collect

• No payment or card details. Motogram is free and processes no payments.
• No advertising identifiers. There are no ads and no ad networks.
• No background location tracking, no location history, no call logs, no SMS contents, no browsing history. Each position replaces the one before it, so no trail of where you have been is kept.

3. Why we collect it

Every item above exists to make one feature work: a Google or Apple account so you can sign in without an SMS, a @username so riders can find and mention you, location so an SOS reaches riders who are actually nearby, a push token so the phone buzzes, usage counts so a broken feature is found before a rider has to report it. Nothing is collected "just in case", and nothing is used to profile you or to build an advertising audience.

4. Who can see what

• Every rider sees your name, @username, photo, bike model, bio and how many riders you are connected to. That is the part of a profile anyone can open.
• Riders you are connected with see your posts and your 24-hour statuses. Riders who are not connected to you do not — your profile opens for them, your rides do not.
• Only the people in a conversation can read that conversation. Chats are private to their participants.
• Only riders you send it to receive your live location, and only for as long as the share lasts.
• Nobody else. We do not sell your data, rent it, or share it with advertisers or data brokers — ever.

5. Where it is stored

Motogram runs on Google Firebase. Profiles, messages and posts sit in Firebase Realtime Database (Singapore region); photos and voice notes in Firebase Cloud Storage; sign-in is handled by Firebase Authentication; notifications by Firebase Cloud Messaging. Access is controlled by security rules so that, for example, only you can read your own notifications and only you can edit your own profile. Google's own privacy terms apply to their infrastructure: firebase.google.com/support/privacy.

6. How long we keep it

• Statuses are deleted automatically 24 hours after posting.
• Posts, comments and messages stay until you delete them.
• Your profile stays until you delete your account.
• Push tokens are removed when you sign out.

7. Your choices

• Permissions. Location, camera, microphone and notifications are each optional and each requested only when the feature that needs it is used. You can revoke any of them in your phone's settings; the rest of the app keeps working. Motogram never asks for your contacts.
• Delete your content. Any post, comment, status or message can be deleted from inside the app.
• Delete your account. Settings → Delete my account removes your profile, posts, statuses, comments, likes and group memberships immediately and for good. If you cannot open the app, write to the address at the bottom of this page, quoting the email address you signed in with, and we will do it for you within 30 days.
• Turn off location sharing. Settings → Hide my location takes you off other riders' maps and deletes the position already stored. You stay findable by name and @username — you simply stop carrying a distance, and stop being suggested to riders because you happened to be close.
• Block riders. Blocking stops all contact in both directions.

8. Age requirement

Motogram is for riders aged 18 and over. Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, anyone under 18 is a child, and their data may only be processed with verifiable parental consent — and they may not be tracked or profiled at all. Rather than build that, we do not accept under-18 accounts. Since build 38 the app asks your age when you create your profile and will not let anyone under 18 through. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18; if you believe a minor has created an account, write to the address below and we will delete it.

9. Security

All traffic between the app and Firebase is encrypted in transit.

Database rules keep your private data private. Your conversations can only be read by the two riders in them; your inbox, your saved routes and your notification tokens can only be read by you. Your posts are shown only to riders you are connected with. A report you file cannot be read by any rider at all.

Some things are deliberately visible to every signed-in rider, because the app cannot work otherwise: rider names, @usernames, profile photos, bikes, bios, connection counts, groups you are in, and online status. Your posts and statuses are not in that list — they need a connection.

That said, treat anything you post as visible to the Motogram community rather than to a chosen few. The connection filter is enforced by the app, and a connection is one tap for anyone who wants one.

Motogram is not end-to-end encrypted. Messages are stored so they reach the other rider and survive a reinstall, which means the Motogram team can technically access them — we only do so when a report or a legal request requires it. If that is not good enough for something you need to say, say it somewhere else.

No system is perfect. If you notice a security problem, please report it to the address below rather than disclosing it publicly.

10. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes materially, the date at the top changes and the app will point you here again. Continuing to use Motogram after a change means you accept the updated policy.

11. Contact

Questions, deletion requests or complaints: motogram.in@gmail.com