What we keep, what we don't, and why.

This policy describes how the Samarkand companion guide ("the platform") collects, uses and stores information when you use the web app, the mobile app or the editorial console. We aim for the smallest possible footprint: most of the platform works without an account and without sharing personal data.

1. Information we collect

Account information

If you create an account, we store your email address, a hashed password and your chosen display name. Authentication is handled by Amazon Cognito; we never see your plaintext password.

Itineraries and favourites

When you save a place, build an itinerary or rate a venue, we store that record against your account so it follows you across devices. You can delete any of it at any time from your account page.

Location

The mobile app may request your location to show nearby attractions and the closest hospital. Your location is used on the device and is not transmitted to our servers unless you explicitly share an itinerary that includes it.

Usage analytics

We record anonymised, aggregated usage — which pages are visited, which categories are popular, and whether requests succeed — so we can fix slow pages and prioritise new content. We do not build advertising profiles and we do not sell data.

2. How we use it

• To run your account, save your itineraries and sync favourites across devices.
• To improve the editorial coverage (which places to visit, which to update).
• To investigate abuse, fraud or technical problems.
• To send transactional email — account confirmations and password resets only.

We do not send marketing email and we do not share your data with advertisers.

3. Where data is stored

Data is stored in AWS in the eu-central-1 region (Frankfurt, Germany). Backups remain in the same region. Static media is served through CloudFront, which may cache files at edge locations worldwide.

4. Third parties

The platform uses a small number of named services to function:

• Amazon Web Services — hosting, authentication, storage.
• Google Cloud (Generative Language & Text-to-Speech) — itinerary suggestions and Uzbek-language audio guides. Prompts may include place names, but never your email or account identifiers.
• MapLibre & OpenStreetMap — maps and tiles.

We do not use third-party analytics or advertising trackers.

5. Your rights

You can:

• Export your saved itineraries and favourites at any time from the account page.
• Delete your account, after which we purge personal records within 30 days.
• Ask us what we hold about you by writing to the address below.

6. Children

The platform is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has created an account, please contact us and we will remove it.

7. Changes to this policy

We will update the date at the top of this page whenever the policy changes materially. If the change affects what we collect or who we share it with, we will notify account holders by email before the change takes effect.

8. Contact

Questions about privacy go to privacy@samarkand.travel.