Before Maps is an exploration-led travel collective founded by Uddip. We collect only what is strictly necessary to organize small-group expeditions, design custom routes, and communicate with you directly. We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information with anyone.
1. What We Collect
Depending on how you interact with Before Maps, we may collect the following personal data:
- Journey & Retreat Applications: Your name, email address, WhatsApp phone number, age, nationality, previous trekking/travel experience, and your written reasons for wanting to join the route.
- Custom Journey Inquiries: Your name, email, phone number, preferred travel dates, destination interests, group size, and budget preferences.
- Safety & Operational Details: For confirmed applicants on high-altitude or backcountry routes, we may request dietary restrictions, emergency contact details, and basic physical fitness information to ensure your safety in remote regions.
- Newsletter Subscriptions: Your email address when you voluntarily sign up for our field notes and dispatch updates.
- General & Partner Inquiries: Name, contact details, organization, and message content when you reach out via our contact, careers, or partnership forms.
2. Why We Collect It (Purpose Limitation)
We collect and process your personal data strictly for defined and transparent purposes:
- Application Curation: Because our journeys are strictly capped at 8–12 explorers, we personally review applications to curate balanced, cohesive groups suited to the route terrain.
- Field Safety & Logistics: To arrange local homestays, inner-line permits, forest department clearances, and transport in remote Himalayan or rural sectors.
- Direct Communication: To answer your questions, send booking confirmations, share packing lists, and coordinate departure dates.
- Editorial Dispatches: To send field notes, new route announcements, and founder letters if you have subscribed to our newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any newsletter email.
3. Where It Lives & How Long We Keep It
Your information is stored securely in structured cloud databases and encrypted email communication channels:
- Sanity CMS: Form submissions and application records are stored in our secure Sanity content database.
- Retention Policy: We retain application and inquiry data only for as long as necessary to process your request, coordinate active journeys, or comply with statutory record-keeping requirements in India.
- Right to Erasure: If you wish to have your submitted records permanently deleted from our database, email us at [email protected] and we will purge your data within 30 days.
4. Third-Party Infrastructure & Services
We do not share your data with advertisers or data brokers. We work only with reputable technical infrastructure providers to operate the website:
- Vercel: Website hosting, edge delivery, and cloud infrastructure.
- Sanity.io: Headless content management and structured data storage.
- Resend: Transactional email delivery for form receipts and confirmations.
- Cloudflare Turnstile: Privacy-preserving spam and bot protection on our public forms.
- Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Privacy-oriented, aggregated web analytics to understand how visitors discover and navigate our stories and journeys. No personally identifiable information is passed to GA4.
5. Your Rights (Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023)
In accordance with India's Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 and applicable privacy principles, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- Right to Access: You can request a summary of the personal data we hold about you.
- Right to Correction: You can ask us to correct or update inaccurate or incomplete information.
- Right to Erasure: You can request that we delete your personal data when it is no longer required for the purpose it was collected.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: You can withdraw consent for communication or newsletter subscriptions at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, please send an email with your request to [email protected]. We will acknowledge and process your request within 30 days.
6. Cookies & Tracking
Before Maps uses minimal cookies essential for website functionality and anonymous analytics through Google Analytics 4. We do not use third-party behavioral advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, or cross-site tracking. You can adjust your browser settings at any time to block or alert you about cookies.
7. Contact & Grievance Redressal
If you have any questions, concerns, or grievances regarding this Privacy Policy or our data handling practices, you can contact our Data Grievance Desk directly:
Before Maps Travel
Attention / Grievance Officer:Uddip (Founder & Scout)
Email: [email protected]
Website: beforemaps.com