Meerkat
Meerkat Privacy Policy
Last updated: 28 September 2026
Effective date: 28 September 2026
App: Meerkat (listed as "Meerkat: Pokhara Together" on the App Store and Google Play)
Publisher: Aarambha IT Research Center, Pokhara, Nepal
Contact: meerkatnepal@gmail.com
In short
- We collect what Meerkat needs to run: your account and profile, what you post and join, and, when you join a trek that needs a permit, your permit details.
- Organisers see what they need to run the activities you join. We don't sell your data and we don't show ads.
- Location is optional, used only for local weather, rounded to about 1 km, and not stored on our servers.
- You can delete your account from the app at any time.
What we collect
| Data | Why | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Name, email, profile photo and bio | Your account and profile | Other members see your name, photo and bio |
| Sign-in details (password, or your Google or Apple sign-in) | To log you in. Passwords are stored only in hashed form | Only our systems |
| Phone number and social handles, if you add them | Shown on your profile so people can reach you | Other members |
| Passport or citizenship number, date of birth, nationality and emergency contact | Trek sign-ups and trekking permits | The guide of that trek and Meerkat staff who arrange the permit |
| Photos you upload | Posts, stories, comments and permit applications | Depends on where you post them |
| Posts, comments, stories, reviews and messages | The community board, chats and reviews | Posts and reviews are visible to members; messages only to the people in the chat |
| Activities you join, save or organise | Sign-ups, reminders and your history | The organiser of the activity sees who has joined |
| Approximate location, only if you allow it | Local weather | No one: see "Location" below |
| A notification token for your phone | To send you notifications | Only our systems and the notification service |
| Crash reports and app usage statistics | To find bugs and keep the app stable | Only our team |
We don't collect your precise location, contacts, health data, financial or payment details, or browsing history.
Location
If you allow location, Meerkat uses it only to show the weather where you are. The app rounds it to about 1 km before sending it to MET Norway's weather service, finds your town's name with your phone's own geocoder, and does not send your location to our servers. You can turn location off at any time in your phone's settings; the app then shows the weather for Pokhara.
Calendar
If you choose "Add to calendar", Meerkat adds the event to your phone's calendar. It never reads your calendar.
Who we share it with
- Organisers. When you join a trek, event or volunteering day, its guide, host or NGO sees your profile and the sign-up details the activity needs.
- Trekking permits. When a trek needs a permit (for example ACAP, MCAP or GCAP), your permit details are used to apply for it with the authority that issues it.
- Other members see what you post publicly: your profile, posts, comments, stories and reviews.
- Service providers that run parts of Meerkat for us, only for that purpose:
- Google Firebase, for notifications, crash reports and usage statistics;
- Google and Apple, if you sign in with them;
- Cloudflare, which stores the photos you upload;
- MET Norway, which receives your rounded location to return the weather;
- our email provider, to send account emails such as password resets.
- The law. We may share information when the law requires it, or to protect members' safety.
We don't sell your data and we don't use it for advertising.
How long we keep it
We keep your account while it is open. Past sign-ups, reviews and chats stay so your history and other members' conversations make sense. Server logs of account activity are kept as an audit trail.
Deleting your account
Open Settings → Delete my account in the app. This happens straight away and can't be undone:
- your name, email, photo, bio and other profile details are wiped, and every login is removed;
- your contacts, stories, devices, notifications, friends, wishlist, trek sign-up details and permit applications (including passport data) are deleted;
- treks, events or volunteering days you organise that haven't ended are cancelled, and the people who joined are told;
- you are taken off upcoming activities you had joined.
Posts, comments, reviews and chat messages you wrote stay, credited to "Former member", so other people's threads still make sense. If you can't use the app, email us and we will delete your account for you.
Your choices
- Edit your profile, and remove your phone number or social handles, at any time.
- Turn location, notifications and photo access on or off in your phone's settings.
- Ask us what we hold about you, or to correct it, at the contact below.
Children
Meerkat is not meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their data. If you think a child has given us their details, contact us and we will delete them.
Security
The app talks to our servers only over encrypted connections (HTTPS). No system is perfectly secure, but we limit who can see personal data, such as permit details, to the people who need it.
Changes to this policy
When we change this policy we will update the effective date above. The new version applies once it is published here.
Contact
Aarambha IT Research Center, Gairapatan 04, Pokhara, Nepal · meerkatnepal@gmail.com