Privacy Policy

1 Information We Collect

When you use Calzada, we may collect the following types of information:

• Registration data: Your email address, used to create and identify your account.
• Authentication credentials: Your password, stored in hashed form via Firebase Authentication. We never see or store your password in plain text.
• Google account data (optional): If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address, and profile picture from Google's OAuth service.
• Search and place queries: What places or routes you look up within the App, to provide relevant results.
• Chatbot conversations: Messages sent to Routie (our AI assistant) are processed by the Groq API to generate responses. These messages are not stored permanently on our servers.
• Session and activity data: Login timestamps, device/browser type, and session logs, stored in Firestore for security and academic analysis purposes.

2 How We Use Your Information

The information we collect is used to:

• Authenticate your identity and manage your account
• Provide personalized place-finding and route guidance within Calamba
• Power the Routie chatbot to answer your commuting questions
• Monitor login sessions for security and abuse prevention
• Analyze usage patterns for academic research and system improvement

We do not use your data for advertising, profiling, or any commercial purpose.

3 Third-Party Services

Calzada uses the following third-party services. When you use features that rely on them, some data leaves our own servers:

• Google Firebase Authentication & Database
  Used for user registration, login (including Google Sign-In), and storing session/activity data in Firestore. Google's privacy policy applies to data processed through Firebase. Firebase Privacy


• Groq API AI Chatbot
  Powers the Routie chatbot. Messages you send to Routie are transmitted to Groq's servers to generate responses. Groq's data retention policies apply. We recommend not sharing personally sensitive information through the chatbot. Groq Privacy

4 Data Security

We take reasonable steps to protect your data:

• Passwords are hashed using industry-standard algorithms via Firebase Authentication — never stored in plain text
• All data transmissions between the App and servers use HTTPS encryption
• Firestore database access is restricted to authenticated users only, via Firebase Security Rules

As an academic project, our security measures are implemented in good faith but may not match commercial-grade standards. We encourage users not to reuse passwords from other services.

5 User Rights

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access: Request a summary of data associated with your account
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate account information
• Deletion: Request deletion of your account and associated data

To exercise any of these rights, contact us via the Feedback page. As this is a capstone project, we will do our best to accommodate requests in a timely manner.

6 Contact Information

For questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, reach us through the Feedback page. You may also review our Terms of Service for the rules governing use of the App.