Privacy Policy

LibotBulacan is a tourism guide to Bulacan, Philippines. The app, this website and the server behind them are run by the dev team (“we”, “us”).

This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, who handles it, how long we keep it, and your rights under the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173), its Implementing Rules and Regulations, and the rules of the National Privacy Commission (NPC). For this information, we are the personal information controller.

In brief

• We collect what LibotBulacan needs to work: your account, the spots you visit, your progress and your reviews.
• Your phone works out when you arrive at a spot. We are told which spot, and where you were at that moment so we can check it. We do not get a trail of where you have been.
• Mission photos, and the location sent with an arrival or a mission, are checked and then thrown away.
• Other travelers see your name, profile photo, title, points and badges, and the municipality you live in.
• No ads. We do not sell or rent your information.
• To see or correct your data, email support@libotbulacan.com. You can delete your account in the app (Edit Profile, then Delete account) or by email. We keep a hidden copy of a deleted account’s records.

1. What we collect

Your account

Your first and last name, email address and password when you sign up with email; or your name, email address and profile photo from Google when you sign up with Google. Passwords are handled by our sign-in provider, Clerk, and we never see them. You can add a profile photo later.

The sign-up form also has a middle name field you can leave blank. You can add, change or remove it in Edit Profile. It shows on your own profile only; reviews, the leaderboard and your traveler profile show your first and last name.

Your agreement to the Terms

When you sign up, you tick a box to say you have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions and this policy. We record which version you agreed to and when.

Your home municipality

Sign-up asks which municipality in Bulacan you live in, picked from a list. (An account made before the form asked is asked once, after signing in.) You can change it in Edit Profile. It shows on your traveler profile, which other travelers can open by tapping you on the leaderboard or on one of your reviews. Administrators and moderators see it too, and use it to see where travelers come from.

Your date of birth

Sign-up asks for it only to check that you are at least 13. The check happens on your phone. Your date of birth is not sent to us or stored.

What you do in LibotBulacan

The spots you have visited and when, your points, the missions you have completed, your badges, the municipalities and districts you have finished and the titles they earned you, which title you chose to show, the spots you have saved, the notifications we send you, and when you last used the app.

Reviews

Your rating, what you write, up to four photos, and the likes and dislikes you give to other reviews. If the automatic filter hides words in your review (they show as ***), we also keep what you wrote, which only administrators can see, so they can act on it.

Reports, moderation and appeals

If you report another traveler, we keep the report: who you reported, the reason you chose, what you wrote, and that it came from you. Administrators see who made it; the traveler you reported is not told. Reports about you are kept the same way.

If your account is warned, suspended or banned, we keep a record of what was done, why, by which administrator, and whether it was later lifted. If you appeal, we keep what you wrote.

Problem reports and suggestions

Report a Problem in the app sends your report to support@libotbulacan.com when you press Send, with your account’s email address so we can reply. It includes what you write, the kind of problem you chose, the app version, and your phone’s model and system version.

On this website, Report a problem and Send feedback write an email for you to send from your own email account, with the web page you were on (and, for a problem, your browser). Nothing is sent until you send it.

We receive both as email; they are not kept in LibotBulacan’s database. They are read by the LibotBulacan developers, not by administrators.

Location

LibotBulacan uses your phone’s precise location (GPS), only with your permission.

• On your phone: to show nearby spots and distances, draw the map, tell you when a spot you have not visited is nearby, and notice when you arrive. Each spot sets its own distances; most use about 500 metres for “nearby” and about 50 metres for an arrival. Whether a spot is nearby is worked out on your phone and is not sent to us.
• In the background: only if you allow it, with “Allow all the time” on Android or “Always” on iPhone. LibotBulacan then checks for nearby spots and arrivals while it is closed, and Android shows a notification while it does. An arrival noticed while the app is closed is sent to us the next time you open it. With “While using the app”, this happens only while LibotBulacan is open.
• Sent to us: when you arrive at a spot, the app tells our server which spot and sends your coordinates at that moment, so the server can check that you are there before it records the visit and gives its points (and the spot’s badge, if that was the last thing left to do there). When you complete a location mission, a photo mission or an AR mission, your coordinates are sent for the same check. When you ask for directions, your position and the destination are sent to our server, which works out the route on our own routing service. These coordinates are used for that moment and not stored; what is stored is the visit (which spot, and when).
• Sent to others: when you view a map, OpenStreetMap’s map servers learn which area you are looking at.

Camera and photos

• Photo missions: the photo is sent to our server and checked by an image recognition model that runs on that server (for example, to confirm a photo shows the Philippine flag or a cross). The photo is then thrown away, not stored. The check is automatic; if it says no, you can try again.
• Augmented reality: on Android, AR runs on Google Play Services for AR (ARCore), provided by Google under the Google Privacy Policy. On iPhone, it uses Apple’s ARKit, built into iOS. Either way the camera view is processed on your phone and is not sent to us or anyone else.
• Profile and review photos you upload are stored so they can be shown.

LibotBulacan does not record audio and does not read your contacts.

Technical information

Like any app that goes online, your phone’s IP address and basic device details reach our server and the services listed below. Our own server logs record the kind of request and its result, not your IP address. While the app is open, it keeps a connection to our server so screens update live; that connection carries notices that something changed, not extra information about you. If crash reporting is turned on, a crash report includes your device model, operating system, app version and what went wrong, with your email, IP address and location removed before it leaves your phone.

2. Why we use it

The Data Privacy Act only allows processing for a lawful reason. Ours are:

• To give you the service you signed up for: your account, arrivals, points, missions, badges, saved spots, reviews and the leaderboard.
• Your consent: for location, camera and photos, through your phone’s permission prompts. You can withdraw it at any time in your phone’s settings. The features that need it stop working; the rest of LibotBulacan keeps working.
• Our legitimate interests: keeping reviews fair and safe (moderation, and stopping cheating and abuse), keeping the service secure, fixing crashes, and counting things in aggregate, such as how many people have visited a spot.
• The law: when a court, the NPC or another authority lawfully requires it.

We do not use your information for advertising, and we do not make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects by automated means alone.

3. Who can see it

• Other travelers see your name, profile photo and chosen title on your reviews and on the leaderboard, with your points and the number of spots you have visited. By tapping you there, they can open your traveler profile, which also shows the municipality you live in, when you joined, and how many badges you have. Your reviews show your rating, text and photos, and that your visit was recorded.
• Visitors to this website may see a few recent reviews, with the reviewer’s name and profile photo. When you share a badge from the app, anyone who opens that link sees the badge and your name.
• Moderators look after the spots of one municipality each. For the travelers who visited those spots, a moderator sees their name, profile photo and home municipality, which of those spots they visited and when, their points, and how many warnings and suspensions they have had. Moderators cannot see email addresses or change accounts.
• Administrators can see traveler accounts, reviews (including the words the filter hid), reports and moderation records, to run and moderate the service.
• The super admin, a member of the development team, manages the staff accounts. They can see every account, including archived ones, and a log of sign-ins and actions in the admin console.
• Service providers that handle data on our behalf, only for the purposes above (see the table below).
• Authorities, when the law, a court order or the NPC requires it, or when it is needed to protect someone’s life or safety.

Our service providers

Provider	What it does for us
Clerk	Sign-in, accounts and email verification codes
MongoDB Atlas	Our database
Render	Hosting for our server and our routing service
Cloudinary	Storing and resizing profile and review photos
Google	Google sign-in, and ARCore for AR on Android
Expo	Delivering app updates
OpenStreetMap	Map tiles
GitHub	Storing our encrypted database backups
Vercel	Hosting this website
Sentry	Crash reports, only when crash reporting is turned on

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information.

4. Information stored outside the Philippines

Several of the providers above store or process data on servers outside the Philippines, for example in the United States. We remain accountable for your information wherever it is processed, as Section 21 of the Data Privacy Act requires, and we choose providers that protect data with security measures comparable to those described here.

5. How long we keep it

What we keep, and for how long

Information	How long
Your account and activity	While you use LibotBulacan.
Your account, when you delete it	From the app, your account and sign-in are deleted right away. By email, we confirm the request came from you, then delete them within 30 days.
Records of a deleted, inactive or banned account	Kept for our records, hidden from everyone but staff (see below).
An inactive account	After 30 days or more without use, an administrator may archive it. When you come back, you can ask from the app to have it restored.
A banned account	Closed and hidden, and kept so the ban can be appealed from the app within 30 days.
Moderation records	Kept with the account, including warnings and suspensions that were lifted, to prevent abuse.
Mission photos, and coordinates sent with an arrival, a mission or a route	Not kept.
Backups	An encrypted copy of the database is made weekly and kept for up to 35 days, so something you delete, such as a review, can stay in a backup until that backup expires.

The records we keep after an account is deleted, archived or banned are its name, email, home municipality, profile photo, visit history, points, badges, saved spots, reviews and their photos. That copy is not shown to anyone: it is off the leaderboard, and its reviews and ratings no longer appear in the app or on this website. Only staff can see it.

6. Your rights

Under the Data Privacy Act you have the right to:

• Be informed about how your personal information is processed. This policy is part of that.
• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct it. You can change your name, middle name, photo and municipality in Edit Profile; for anything else, email us.
• Erasure or blocking: ask us to stop processing your data. We do this by deleting your account and sign-in; the copy of your records we keep (section 5) is no longer shown or used. In the app, Edit Profile, then Delete account, does this right away. Without the app, email us at the address below.
• Object to processing, and withdraw consent you have given.
• Data portability: receive a copy of your data in a common electronic format.
• Damages if you are harmed by inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, false or unlawfully obtained information, or its unauthorised use.
• File a complaint with the National Privacy Commission (privacy.gov.ph).

To use any of these rights, email support@libotbulacan.com from the email address on your LibotBulacan account. We may ask you to confirm it is you, and we reply within 30 days. If a user has died or cannot act for themselves, their lawful heirs or assigns may use these rights for them.

7. How we protect it

• Everything between the app and our server is encrypted in transit (HTTPS).
• Passwords are handled by Clerk, not by us.
• Only staff accounts can reach account data: administrators, the super admin, and moderators for their own municipality’s visitors. Staff sign in with a username and password, are locked out for a while after five failed attempts, and are signed out after 12 hours.
• Database backups are encrypted.

No system is perfectly secure. If a personal data breach puts you at real risk of serious harm, we will notify the National Privacy Commission and the affected users within 72 hours of learning of it, as the NPC’s rules require.

8. Children

LibotBulacan is for people who are at least 13 years old. If we learn that a child under 13 has an account, we delete it (the records kept afterwards are in section 5, hidden from everyone but staff). A parent or guardian who believes their child has given us personal information can email us, and we will act on it.

9. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we post the new version here with a new effective date. If a change significantly affects how your information is used, we tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.

10. Contact us

Questions, requests or concerns, including for our Data Protection Officer: support@libotbulacan.com.