Privacy Policy

📋 1. Overview

NearCares ("we," "our," or "us") helps you find nearby hospitals and clinics matched to your symptoms or affected body part, using your location and Google's mapping services. This policy explains what information we collect through our website and mobile app, why we collect it, and how it's handled.

📥 2. Information We Collect

Location Data

When you tap "Use my location" or select a body part / condition to search, we request your device's GPS coordinates (with your permission) to find hospitals and clinics near you. If you prefer not to share GPS location, you can instead type in an address manually, which is converted to coordinates using Google's Geocoding API.

Contact Form Information

If you use our Contact page, we collect the name, email address, and message you voluntarily provide, so we can respond to your query.

Information We Do NOT Collect

• We do not require you to create an account or log in
• We do not collect medical records, diagnoses, or health history
• We do not access your contacts, photos, camera, or microphone
• We do not use advertising trackers or third-party analytics SDKs

⚙️ 3. How We Use Your Information

• Location: sent to our server for the sole purpose of searching nearby hospitals/clinics for your current query, then discarded — it is not saved to our database
• Contact form data: stored securely so we can read and respond to your message
• We never use your information to serve ads or sell it to data brokers

🔗 4. Third-Party Services

NearCares relies on the following third-party services to function:

• Google Maps Platform (Places API & Geocoding API) — when you search, your location coordinates or typed address are sent to Google to find and map nearby hospitals. This is governed by Google's Privacy Policy.
• MongoDB Atlas — our database provider, used to securely store our verified hospital listings and any contact form submissions.
• Vercel — our hosting provider for the NearCares website and backend.

🗄️ 5. Data Storage & Retention

Location data used for a search is processed in real time and is not written to our database. Contact form submissions are retained only as long as needed to address your query, after which they may be deleted. Our verified hospital directory (name, address, specialty) is public information maintained by our admin team and is not personal data.

🚫 6. Data Sharing & Disclosure

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing or advertising purposes. Information is only shared with the third-party services listed in Section 4, strictly to provide the core functionality of the app (finding hospitals near you), or if required by law.

✅ 7. Your Rights & Choices

• Location permission: you can allow, deny, or revoke location access anytime from your device settings — the app will fall back to manual address entry
• Delete your data: if you've submitted a contact form and want it deleted, email us using the contact details below
• No account to manage: since NearCares doesn't use accounts, there's no profile data tied to your identity to begin with

🧒 8. Children's Privacy

NearCares is not directed at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us information, please contact us and we will remove it.

🔒 9. Security

We use industry-standard measures — including encrypted (HTTPS/TLS) connections between the app, our servers, and third-party APIs — to protect information in transit. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we work to protect your information using commercially reasonable safeguards.

🔄 10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for legal reasons. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect the most recent revision. Continued use of NearCares after changes means you accept the updated policy.