The short version
- Bound has no accounts. We don't know your name, number or email unless you write to us.
- Your saved places, recent searches and trip totals stay on your phone.
- To find places and plan routes, your search or route goes to our server and our map data provider. Neither Bound nor our logs keep it.
- No ads, no analytics, and we never sell data.
What stays on your phone
Home, Work, favourites, up to six recent places, your profile name, totals of how many trips and kilometres you've driven, and your settings (voice, map appearance, toll and payment choices, your car). If you support Bound, also your trip diary: where each trip began and ended, its distance, time and tolls. None of this leaves the phone unless you export the diary yourself. Clear recent places or the diary in Bound's Privacy screen, or delete the app to remove all of it.
Supporting Bound
Supporting Bound in the app is a one-time purchase through the App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google handles the payment under their own privacy policies; Bound receives no card details and keeps no record of who paid. The phone asks the store whether you are a supporter.
You can also support Bound by DuitNow from our website. That payment goes from your bank or e-wallet to ours through Malaysia's DuitNow network. Our bank statement then shows the name on your account, the amount and any reference you add. We keep it only for our accounts, for the 7 years Malaysian tax law requires, and never use it for anything else or list your name unless you ask.
What leaves your phone, and why
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Searches
- What
- The words you type, and your area rounded to about 1 km.
- Why
- To find places near you.
- Who handles it
- Bound's server (run on Cloudflare) and TomTom, our map data provider (Netherlands, EU servers).
- How long
- Not stored by Bound, and never written to our logs.
-
Routes
- What
- Where you are, where you are going, any stops, and the direction you are facing. While you drive, your position is sent again every 10 minutes to recheck traffic, and whenever you leave the route.
- Why
- To work out the route and your arrival time with live traffic.
- Who handles it
- Bound's server and TomTom.
- How long
- Not stored by Bound. Our servers never keep where a drive started or ended.
-
The map
- What
- The parts of the map you look at, and your phone's internet (IP) address.
- Why
- To draw the map.
- Who handles it
- MapTiler (Switzerland), which supplies the map images.
- How long
- Under MapTiler's own privacy policy. We plan to serve the map ourselves before Bound is in the app stores.
-
Hazard reports
- What
- The kind of hazard and where it is, to about 5 m. Nothing that links it to you or your phone.
- Why
- To warn drivers nearby.
- Who handles it
- Bound's server, and other drivers who pass that way.
- How long
- Shown for 30 minutes to 24 hours depending on the hazard. A speed camera that many drivers confirm stays on the map.
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What you tell us about places and roads
- What
- A place you report as closed, renovating or wrongly pinned; a place you add; a toll fare you paid, including the plazas where you entered and left the expressway; which toll lanes take which payment; and whether a hazard is still there. Each comes with the time and a device code (explained below).
- Why
- To keep the map accurate for everyone, and to stop one phone flooding it with false reports.
- Who handles it
- Bound's server. Places you add appear in Bound's search for everyone once accepted. A place is marked closed only after two different drivers report it.
- How long
- The device code is removed from a place you added once it has been reviewed. Other reports are kept for now; we will set and publish deletion periods before this policy takes effect.
-
Crash reports
- What
- What went wrong in the app, and your phone's model and system version. Locations, addresses and searches are removed on your phone before anything is sent.
- Why
- To find and fix bugs.
- Who handles it
- GlitchTip, an error tracker Bound runs itself on a server in Singapore (DigitalOcean).
- How long
- Deleted automatically after 90 days.
-
Every request
- What
- A random install code made on your phone the first time you open Bound, and your IP address.
- Why
- To limit how many requests one phone can make, so nobody can overload the service.
- Who handles it
- Cloudflare, which runs Bound's server.
- How long
- Our logs record only the kind of request, whether it worked and how long it took: no locations, searches or codes. Logs are deleted after at most 7 days.
-
Emails you send us
- What
- Whatever you write, your email address, and your name if your email shows it.
- Why
- To reply to you and fix what you report.
- Who handles it
- Cloudflare passes it on without keeping it, to Bound's inbox at Proton Mail (Switzerland).
- How long
- Only as long as we need it to help you. Ask and we delete it.
The device code
When you report something, your phone sends its install code. Our server scrambles it with a one-way code before saving it, so we can tell that two reports came from the same phone without knowing whose phone it is. Because the same scrambled code is saved with each report, reports from one phone can be linked to each other. It is never linked to a name, number or account, because Bound has none of those.
Your location
Bound uses your location while the app is open, to show where you are and find places near you, and during navigation, to guide you. Guidance keeps working with the screen locked; on Android a notification shows while it runs. When a drive ends, navigation stops using location. Bound asks for location only while you use the app, never "always".
What we don't do
- No advertising, and no advertising or analytics companies in the app.
- No selling or renting of data to anyone.
- No tracking you across other apps or websites.
- This website uses no cookies, analytics or trackers.
Where your data is handled
Our rule is that Bound's own data stays in Malaysia, or Singapore at most. Four services we rely on are outside that today: Cloudflare (a US company that runs our server on its network worldwide, normally at the location nearest you), TomTom (Netherlands, with servers in the EU), MapTiler (Switzerland) and Proton Mail (Switzerland), where emails you send us are kept. We chose each because no Malaysian or Singaporean service could do the job yet, and we will review them as that changes.
Your rights
Under Malaysia's Personal Data Protection Act 2010, you can:
- ask what personal data we hold about you, and for a copy;
- ask us to correct it;
- ask us to stop using it, or to delete what you've contributed;
- complain to the Personal Data Protection Commissioner (pdp.gov.my).
Because your reports carry only a scrambled code, we can find them only if you can tell us your phone's install code. We are adding a way to see it in the app.
Children
Bound is made for drivers and is not aimed at children.
Changes
If we change what Bound collects, we'll update this page and the date at the top before the change reaches the app, and say so in the app when it matters.
Contact
Bound is run by Ng Qi Heng, Malaysia. Questions or requests: hello@get-bound.app.