Privacy policy
Dharmic Path is a free guide to Hinduism at dharmicpath.com. It is built to be private: there are no accounts, no ads and no tracking, and we have no server that stores anything about you.
What stays on your device
Everything you do in the app is kept in your browser's storage on your own device, and nowhere else. This includes your city, bookmarks, highlights and notes, practice history and japa counts, favourite prayers, finished lessons and quizzes, reading plans, reminders, the dates of loved ones you add, settings, and any chants you record. We cannot see any of it. Clearing the app's data in your browser, or uninstalling it, deletes it.
Sync with Google Drive (optional)
If you choose to sync between devices, you sign in with Google and the app saves a copy of the data above in a hidden app folder in your own Google Drive. The app asks only for the drive.appdata permission, which lets it see that one hidden folder and nothing else: it can't see, open or change any of your other files. The data goes directly between your device and Google; it never passes through us, and we never see it. Recordings are not synced.
The app uses your Google sign-in only to read and write that folder. It does not read your name, email address, contacts or anything else from your Google account, and it does not share or sell any data. Dharmic Path's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
To stop syncing, tap Turn off on this device on the app's Sync page. You can delete the hidden folder from Google Drive (Settings → Manage apps → Dharmic Path → Delete hidden app data), and remove the app's access at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
Finding mandirs
The mandir finder lists Hindu temples from OpenStreetMap. The list for your city is part of the app and is refreshed once a month; showing it sends nothing about you. If no list has been made for your city yet, the app asks OpenStreetMap for the temples around the city centre, not around you.
Only if you tap Near me does the app ask your browser for your location. It is rounded to about a kilometre on your phone and sent to OpenStreetMap's search service (Overpass) to find nearby temples. The answer is kept on your device for 30 days and is not backed up or synced. We never receive your location. Overpass is run by volunteers; see the OpenStreetMap Foundation privacy policy. Directions open in Google Maps only when you tap them.
Things you choose to send
- Reporting a mistake opens a pre-filled email in your email app. Nothing is sent until you send it.
- Sharing a verse, a recording or a backup file uses your device's own share menu. It goes only where you send it.
- Emails to [email protected] or [email protected] are read only to answer you or, for recordings you offer, to add them to the app with your permission.
Services the app loads
- Hosting: the site is served by GitHub Pages. Like any web server, it may briefly log technical details such as your IP address to keep the service running.
- Fonts: the app loads its fonts from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address when the fonts are downloaded.
- Google sign-in is loaded only if you choose to sync.
- OpenStreetMap (Overpass) is asked for temples only when you use the mandir finder, as described above.
- AI answers (Ask about this chapter in the Gita chapter guides, and Ask AI on the Ask page): only if you tap Ask or Ask AI, your question, with the chapter number or the app's closest written answers, is sent to the app's small server on Cloudflare, which passes them to Google's Gemini AI to write an answer. On Gemini's free service Google may use questions to improve its products, so please don't include personal details. The server keeps only a count of how many questions were asked from your internet address that day (stored scrambled, deleted after two days), to limit each person to 10 AI questions a day. See Google's Gemini API terms.
- YouTube: where a prayer has a recording from YouTube, its small player loads only when you tap play, using YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com); until then only its preview picture is loaded. Once it plays, Google's privacy policy applies. The Listen on YouTube Music and Listen on Spotify buttons simply open a search on those services when you tap them.
Visitor counts
To know how many people use Dharmic Path and which parts help them most, the app counts page visits with GoatCounter, an open-source counter that uses no cookies and does not track you. When you open a page, only its address (for example, /read/gita), the website that sent you there if any, and basic browser details such as screen size and language are sent. Your connection's IP address is used only for a moment to tell one visitor from another that day, then thrown away; GoatCounter stores nothing that identifies you, and it cannot follow you from day to day or across websites. Nothing you save in the app, such as bookmarks, notes, names or your location, is ever sent.
We use no advertising and no tracking cookies.
Notifications
If you turn on reminders, the app schedules them on your device. Calendar files you download are added to your own calendar app; we don't see them.
Children
The app is suitable for families and collects no personal information from anyone, including children.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date.
Contact
Questions about privacy: [email protected].