Last updated 18 October 2026 · App: com.railbuzz.app · Beta release
RailBuzz shows live Indian Railways information and lets passengers on the same train talk to each other. This policy describes exactly what the app collects, why, and who it is shared with. It covers the RailBuzz Android app and nothing else.
What we collect
| Data | Why | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile number | Verifying you are a real person. You can sign in with Google instead, but live chat needs your mobile number verified with the code from the SMS on the phone you chat from: a verified number is what keeps passengers accountable for what they post. | Until you delete your account, then a three-day safety hold — why |
| Live chat phone check | When and how your number was verified with the code from the SMS on the phone you chat from, a scrambled form of the number, and a random ID the app makes for itself, so we know when to ask again — see below. | Until 30 days after its 180 days end; at once if you delete your account |
| Changes of mobile number | If you move your account to a new number: when, from which phone, and the old and new numbers in scrambled form, so that changing number can’t be used to get round a chat block — see below. | A year after each change, also if you delete your account |
| Name and email address | If you sign in with Google, Google gives us your Google account’s name and email address; otherwise you type your name, and an email address is optional. We use them to greet you and to write to you about your account. Neither is ever shown to other passengers. | Until you delete your account; erased the moment you do |
| Email verification | To confirm an address is yours we email it a six-digit code, and once it is confirmed, one welcome email. Neither is marketing. We keep only a scrambled form of the code. | The code stops working after ten minutes or one use. A scrambled form of the address, used to limit how many codes can be sent: one day |
Passenger alias (e.g. Traveller-392) |
This is the only name other passengers see. It is generated for you, not chosen. | Until you delete your account, then a three-day safety hold — why |
| Chat messages and help requests | Delivering them to the other passengers in that train’s room. A help request holds the kind of help you asked for and, if you add them, a short note, your coach and your seat. | See below |
| Likes and dislikes | One per message. Everyone in the room sees how many a message has, never who gave them. They also count towards contribution scores. | Deleted with the message, or at once if you delete your account |
| Reports and blocks | Keeping chat rooms safe. | See deletion |
| Trains you follow | If you subscribe to a train: the train, the travel date and the two stations you chose, so we can send you updates about that journey and nothing else. | Seven days after the journey, or at once if you delete your account |
| Notification token | A code from your phone that lets us send it notifications. It is registered when you join a chat room or follow a train. | Removed when you sign out or delete your account |
| Approximate location | Finding your nearest station, working out whether you are travelling on the train whose room you have opened, and choosing local railway news. | Not stored — see below |
| Contribution score | Worked out each night from what other passengers did with your messages. Seen only by our moderators — see below. | Daily figures 180 days; the score until 30 days after it was last worked out; all of it at once if you delete your account |
| Usage limits | The time of each question to the RailBuzz AI assistant and of each live train lookup, to enforce the daily limits. Never the question itself, and never a PNR number. | Until you delete your account |
| Railway news you have been shown | So the assistant does not show you the same story twice. | Three days |
| Support requests | What you write to Contact Support, an email address for the reply if you give one, and the app version, so we can answer you and keep the record the law requires. | Kept as a record. Three days after you delete your account, your words and email address are removed; what remains says only that a request of that kind was made and how it was handled |
| Feedback | Ratings and comments you send from the app, to improve it. | Deleted three days after you delete your account |
| Usage events (screens opened, messages sent, whether a sign-in code was filled in from the SMS or typed) | Understanding which features are used, so we know what to improve. | Unlinked from you on deletion |
| Crash reports | Finding and fixing crashes. | Up to 90 days |
How long chat is kept
| Who can see it | How long |
|---|---|
| Passengers in the room | Until 15 minutes after the train completes its run |
| RailBuzz, for safety review | 3 days, then deleted |
| Messages that were reported | Up to 90 days |
| Messages other passengers reacted to, reported or blocked over, with the three before and after them | 14 days, our moderators only |
A train’s chat room exists for that journey only. Once the train arrives the room closes for passengers, and its messages and help requests are deleted within three days.
Where a message has been reported, we keep a copy of it and of the surrounding conversation for up to 90 days, so the report can be reviewed properly and so we can respond to a lawful request from the police or a government authority.
You can edit a message for 30 seconds after sending it, and the room then shows it as edited. Passengers may already have seen the first wording, and a notification already sent keeps it. We keep the first wording with the message, where only our safety team can see it, and it is deleted with the room; if the message is reported, it is kept with the copy of the report for up to 90 days.
Where other passengers liked, disliked, reported or blocked someone over a message, we keep a copy of that message and of the three messages before and after it for 14 days, so our moderators can see what a contribution score rests on. These two kinds of copy are the only chat that outlives the three days, and both are deleted automatically when their period ends.
Deleting your account does not shorten the three days. Your messages disappear from every room immediately and nobody using RailBuzz can see them, but a copy only our safety team can reach is held for the same three days that already apply to everyone else, and then erased. Otherwise deleting an account would be the quickest way to destroy the evidence of harassing somebody. The same number also cannot register again during those three days. Your help requests, likes and dislikes, the trains you follow, your live chat phone checks and your contribution score are deleted at once. Full detail on the deletion page.
The live chat phone check
Live chat opens once your mobile number has been verified on the phone you are using, with the code from the SMS: when you sign in with your number, when you verify it in your profile, or when Join Chat asks. When the code arrives, Android asks whether RailBuzz may read that one message; if you tap Allow, the code is filled in from it. RailBuzz has no permission to read your SMS and never sees any other message. A code you type yourself still signs you in or verifies the number, but live chat then asks you to verify it from the SMS.
We record when the number was verified and how, with a scrambled form of the number and a random ID that the app makes for itself and sends with its requests to our server, so we know which phone verified it. Live chat then stays open on that phone for 180 days, also after you sign out. It asks again after that, when the SIM is changed or removed, when your number changes, and on a new phone or after reinstalling the app.
To notice a SIM being changed or removed, the app keeps a scrambled summary of which SIM slots hold a SIM and, when there is only one, which network it is on. It needs no permission for this, and the summary never leaves your phone.
Changing your mobile number
You can move your account to a new number from your profile or Settings. Your Google account must be linked to RailBuzz first — if you signed up with your number, the app asks you to link it: your Gmail stays with your account, so you can always sign back in, even without your old SIM. The new number is then verified with the code from the SMS on this phone, as for live chat; a code you type yourself doesn’t count here. Live chat stays open on this phone with the new number. Your alias, reputation and followed trains stay with your account. You can change your number once every 30 days.
We record each change: when it happened, which phone made it (the random ID above), and the old and new numbers in scrambled form. The record is kept for a year, also if you delete your account in the meantime. For three days the old number can’t start or join another RailBuzz account, and a chat block that is running carries on with your new number and stays with the old one until it ends. We email your Google address to tell you the number changed, with only the last four digits of the new one.
Location, specifically
We do not store your location, and we never send your coordinates to our servers.
Your position is used on your device to work out three things: the nearest railway station, how far you are from the track of the train whose chat room you have opened, and which town and state you are in. Only results leave the device: the distance as a coarse range such as “2–10 km”, and, when you ask the assistant for railway news, the town and state, such as “Secunderabad, Telangana”, so it can choose news for your area. Never a latitude and longitude.
Turning a position into a town name is done by Android’s built-in geocoder, which on most phones asks Google’s location service; RailBuzz does not receive the coordinates. There is no location history, and where you are is never shown to other passengers.
Location is optional. If you decline the permission, everything else in the app continues to work; you will just need to pick your station yourself.
What other passengers can see
Only your passenger alias, the messages and help requests you post, and how many likes and dislikes each message has. Your mobile number, name, email, location and contribution score are never shown to anyone else using the app, and nobody can see which messages you liked or disliked.
Chat rooms are public to the passengers in them. Please do not post anything in a room that you would not want those people to read.
Who we share data with
We do not sell your data and we do not use it for advertising. We use these providers:
| Provider | What reaches them |
|---|---|
| Google Firebase (Authentication) | Your mobile number, to send and check the verification code. If you sign in with Google, your Google account’s name and email address |
| Google Firebase (Cloud Messaging) | Your phone’s notification token, and the text of each notification: in chat, the sender’s alias and the start of the message, with long numbers hidden; for a train you follow, its running status |
| Google Firebase (Crashlytics) | Crash diagnostics and your account identifier, a random code that is not your number or name |
| Supabase | Hosts the database and the server functions that hold your account and everything listed above |
| RailRadar | Train numbers, station codes and dates, and a PNR number when you check one. The requests come from our servers, with nothing that identifies you |
| Google Gemini | What you type to the RailBuzz AI assistant. Also, recent messages from a chat room when our automated safety checks flag that room for review — see below |
| OpenAI | Messages other passengers liked, disliked, reported or blocked over, with the messages around them, when we check whether that reaction was fair — see below. OpenAI does not train its models on what it is sent through its API, and keeps it for up to 30 days to detect abuse of its service |
| Resend | Sends the verification code and the welcome email to the address you give us, and the email telling your Google address that your mobile number changed. Also delivers safety alert emails to our support address; these name the account identifier of a reported passenger and say why the alert was raised. They never contain your messages, your mobile number or your alias |
Resend receives safety alerts only when our automated checks escalate something — a passenger collecting repeated reports, or a chat room flagged for review. Most accounts never appear in one.
Automated safety checks on chat rooms
Chat rooms are monitored automatically for signs that a conversation has turned abusive — a spike in reports and blocks, several people turning on one person, or language associated with threats, sexual harassment, hate, scams or someone’s private details being posted.
Most of this happens inside our own database and nothing leaves it. When those signals suggest a room may have turned abusive, a recent extract of that room’s messages is sent to Google Gemini for a second opinion, because words alone cannot tell an argument from a threat. Before it is sent:
- passenger names are replaced with placeholders (P1, P2, and so on)
- phone numbers and email addresses are removed
- no account identifier, train number or travel date is included
The result is only ever shown to our moderators. It never automatically removes a message, restricts an account or closes a room — a person decides that. We deliberately do not let an automated system silence a chat room, because a room may be the fastest way passengers have to warn each other about a real emergency.
Contribution scores
Each night we work out a contribution score for passengers who chatted, from what other passengers did: how many different people liked or disliked their messages, replied to them or found a reply helpful, and any reports, blocks or posting blocks. How much someone writes earns nothing. Praise counts for less as it ages, and so, more slowly, does misconduct.
The score is seen only by our moderators. We use it to find the passengers who help others most — in future, for badges and a Trusted Contributor status — and those who cause problems. It never restricts an account by itself; a person decides any action.
To check whether a reaction was fair, a message other passengers liked, disliked, reported or blocked over may be sent to OpenAI with the three messages before and after it. Before it is sent:
- passenger names are replaced with placeholders (P1, P2, and so on)
- phone numbers and email addresses are removed
- no account identifier, train number or travel date is included
OpenAI answers only whether each reaction fits what was said. It never gives a score: our own fixed rules turn its answers into points, and a moderator’s decision on a report always overrides it.
Your choices
- Delete your account and data at any time, from the app menu. See Deleting your RailBuzz account.
- Turn off location in Android settings. The app keeps working.
- Turn off notifications in Android settings, or mute a chat room from its menu.
- Stop following a train at any time.
- Take back a like or dislike by tapping it again.
- Reshuffle your alias from the profile screen.
- Ask for a copy of your data by emailing us.
Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act you also have the right to correct or complete inaccurate data, to have it erased, to withdraw your consent at any time, to grievance redressal, and to nominate another person to exercise these rights on your behalf if you die or become incapacitated. To exercise any of them, write to the Grievance Officer named below.
Security
Traffic between the app and our servers uses HTTPS. Access to your data is enforced at the database level, so one passenger cannot read another's profile, private details or reports. This is a beta release, and while we take security seriously, no system can be guaranteed perfectly secure.
Children
RailBuzz is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account, and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone younger. The app puts you in conversation with strangers, and we do not operate the parental-consent mechanisms that Indian law requires for users under 18. If you believe a minor has created an account, email us and we will close it.
How long we keep an inactive account
If you do not use RailBuzz for three years, we will delete your account and personal data. We will email or notify you at least 48 hours beforehand, so you can open the app and keep it if you want to.
Changes
If this policy changes materially, we will update the date at the top and notify you in the app.
Contact, and your right to complain
Our Grievance Officer, who is also our contact person for personal data, is Kiran Kumar — grievance@railbuzz.in.
We aim to respond substantively within 72 hours. The outer limits are 15 days for complaints about content or conduct (IT Rules, 2021) and 30 days for requests about your personal data (DPDP Rules, 2025).
If you are not satisfied, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India about a data matter, or appeal to the Grievance Appellate Committee (gac.gov.in) about a content decision. Full detail, including what to include in a complaint, is on Grievance Redressal.