Privacy

Your exact location is never shared

This is the part worth reading twice. When you set your location, BookHome snaps it to a grid cell before it leaves our server — you choose how coarse, between 25 and 100 metres, in Settings. Other members only ever receive the blurred point, never your real coordinates. It isn’t hidden by the map; it is never sent.

The blurring is a fixed grid rather than a random wobble. A random offset that re-rolls each time can be averaged away by watching someone repeatedly; a grid gives the same answer every time, so repeated looks reveal nothing new.

Distances shown to you (“1.2 km away”) are worked out on our server from real positions, so “nearest first” stays accurate while the point you see stays blurred. You can also turn off appearing on the map altogether.

What we keep

• Your email — to sign you in and verify the account.
• Your profile — name, handle, tags, city, photo, bio.
• Your approximate location — as described above.
• Your shelf — books, photos, descriptions.
• What you write — posts, comments, messages, reviews.
• Basic technical data — the ordinary server logs any website keeps.
• Counting visits: a cookieless tool counts page views and shows which pages people read. It sets no cookies, identifies nobody, and does not follow you to other sites.

What we never do

• Sell or rent your data to anyone.
• Run ads, or let advertisers profile you.
• Track you across other websites.
• Share your exact location with another member.
• Show your email address to another member.

Who can see what

Your handle, tags, city and approximate area are visible to other members. Your email and precise location are not.

If you set your profile to Private in Settings, your shelf and posts are visible only to people whose follow request you have accepted, and only they can start a conversation with you. Your handle, tags and approximate area stay visible so you can still be found and asked.

Where it lives

BookHome runs on Railway, with photos stored on ImageKit. Both are outside India, so your data is processed abroad. They host the data; they don’t use it.

Deleting it

Ask and your account goes, along with your listings, posts and photos. Use Send feedback at the bottom of any page, or email hello@bookhome.in. Messages you sent other people may remain in their inbox, the same way a sent letter does, and completed exchanges keep a minimal record so the other person’s history stays honest.

Adults only

BookHome is for people aged 18 and over, and we do not knowingly collect anything from anyone younger. If you believe a child has an account here, tell us and it will be removed along with its data.