Privacy policy
Pinspot has no account and no cloud service for your places. Your saved coordinates, names, notes and photos stay on this phone. The app uses the internet for map tiles, an optional nearby-address lookup, Google ads and a version check. Opening another maps app or sharing a spot is your choice.
Who we are
Pinspot is published by Istralo, the name under which Kiran Kashapwar, an independent developer based in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, publishes apps (“we”, “us”). For anything about this policy or your data, write to hello@istralo.com.
Your saved places
When you tap Save this spot, Pinspot asks for location access while you use the app. It gathers GPS readings for up to 45 seconds and uses them to estimate your position and accuracy. It stops when you finish, cancel or leave the app. Pinspot does not follow you in the background or keep a movement history.
A saved spot contains its coordinates, original GPS estimate, estimated accuracy, date, name, optional note, optional nearby address and optional photo. If you adjust the pin, the app records that adjustment. Plus Codes are calculated on your phone without contacting a server.
These records are stored in the app’s private storage. Pinspot excludes them from system cloud backups and Android device transfer. There is no sync or account recovery. Deleting a spot deletes its record and private photo. Uninstalling the app removes its local records. Keep this in mind before changing phones.
Photos and camera
You may choose one photo through the system photo picker or take one with the camera. Pinspot does not ask for broad access to your photo library. It copies the chosen image into private storage, resizes it to at most 1600 pixels on its longest side and saves a new JPEG without the original image’s location metadata. The original in your photo library is unchanged. Camera capture on Android uses your chosen camera app, which has its own settings and privacy policy. Pinspot does not upload photos.
Maps and nearby addresses
Viewing a map requests map tiles from Apple Maps on iPhone or OpenFreeMap on Android. Android uses MapLibre Native with OpenFreeMap’s Liberty street map, based on OpenMapTiles and © OpenStreetMap contributors; it needs no API key or account. Requests reveal your IP address and the map area being viewed to the provider. Pinspot never sends the saved spots list. Pinspot does not enable the map SDK’s live-location layer.
When online, the app may ask the phone’s geocoding service (Apple on iPhone; the device’s geocoding provider on Android) to turn a spot’s coordinates into a nearby address. This sends those coordinates to that provider. The lookup is best effort; you can save without an address or an internet connection. We label the result “Nearby address (approximate)” because the saved coordinates are authoritative.
Apple, OpenFreeMap and the Android geocoding provider handle these requests under their own policies: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/, https://openfreemap.org/privacy/ and, for Google’s geocoding service, https://policies.google.com/privacy. Pinspot never sends your saved names, notes or photos to a map provider as part of viewing its in-app map or looking up an address.
Opening maps, sharing and copying
Directions and Open in Maps hand the chosen coordinates to the maps app or website you open. Share prepares the spot’s name, note (if any), Google Maps link and Plus Code for the app or person you select. The photo is not included. Those destinations handle the information under their own policies. Copy coordinates writes only the selected coordinates to the clipboard; Pinspot does not read your clipboard. Your operating system may make copied content available to other devices if you have enabled clipboard syncing.
Advertising
Pinspot is free and shows Google AdMob banner ads below the controls on the saved-spots list and spot-detail screen. It does not show interstitials or ads during capture, pin adjustment or naming.
To deliver and measure ads and prevent fraud, Google’s software may process your IP address (which gives a rough location), device and advertising identifiers, app and ad interactions, crash information and performance information. Google handles this information under https://policies.google.com/privacy and https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. It may be processed outside India.
Pinspot requests non-personalised ads only, with Google’s PG maximum ad content rating. These ads do not use a personalised advertising profile, but they still involve the data processing above. Pinspot does not give the advertising software your GPS coordinates, saved places, notes or photos.
Where required, Google’s consent message appears before ads are requested. When available, Ad choices in About lets you change your privacy choices. On iPhone, Pinspot does not ask for permission to track you across other companies’ apps and websites and does not receive the advertising identifier through an ATT grant. On Android, you can reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone’s ad settings.
Version checks
Every Istralo app checks whether a newer version is live in its store, on launch and whenever it returns from the background.
Pinspot makes a plain request to https://istralo.com/updates/pinspot.json, at most once every 30 minutes unless a required update is pending. The request contains no saved places, coordinates, names, notes, photos, device identifiers or installed-version parameter. Version comparison happens on your phone. As with any website request, our hosting provider receives the IP address and normal connection information needed to serve it. We do not use the check for analytics or profiling. The last valid update information and your three-day reminder snooze are cached locally.
What we keep and your choices
We run no server for your places and receive no copy of your saved records. We do not add app analytics or a separate crash-reporting service. Advertising and map providers process the information described above independently. If you email us, we use your message to reply and delete it when no longer needed.
You can edit or delete spots in the app, remove a photo, revoke location or camera access in Settings, change ad choices where shown, or uninstall Pinspot. Since we do not hold your spots, we cannot retrieve or delete them remotely. For Google’s advertising data, use Ad choices, your phone’s ad settings or https://myadcenter.google.com.
For questions or complaints about your information, including rights under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, email hello@istralo.com. We aim to reply within 30 days.
Children, security and changes
Pinspot is intended for people aged 18 and over and is not designed for children. The app stores its records within operating-system app isolation. Its own version check uses HTTPS; Apple, OpenFreeMap and Google services use encrypted network connections. Your device lock and operating-system protections matter for the local records.
If our handling of information changes, we will update this page before that app version ships and change the date above. Significant changes will also appear in the release notes.