Last updated: 28 October 2026
BhuTag ("the app") is a camera app that adds GPS location, time and a verification code to photos, and creates land/property reports. This policy explains what data the app uses, why, and your choices. BhuTag is a private service and is not a government record or a legal land survey.
What stays only on your phone
- Your photos and PDF reports are saved on your phone (Pictures/BhuTag and Documents/BhuTag). Photo files are never uploaded to our server.
- Settings, your name/contact/note for the stamp, your logo, the photo log used by "Verify a photo", and the attendance log.
What is sent to the BhuTag server (online verification)
- For each registered photo: Photo ID, a fingerprint (SHA-256) of the photo file, GPS coordinates and accuracy, altitude, capture time, whether GPS time was used, whether a mock-location app was detected, address text, property direction/report ID and status tag.
- For property reports: Report ID, combined fingerprint, list of Photo IDs and the property details you entered (owner, gata/khasra, village, tehsil, district).
- Device information: a random device ID created by the app, a secret token (stored only as a hash), phone model, app version, and a hash of the Android ID so the same phone is recognised after reinstalling. The server records the time and IP address of each request.
- Subscription purchases: if you buy Pro or Pro Max, Google Play handles the payment. Google Play gives the app a purchase token, which is sent to our server to confirm your subscription (product, order ID, start and end dates, status) and is stored with your device ID. We never see your card, UPI or bank details. These purchase records are kept so that your subscription keeps working; they are not removed by Delete my online data.
- By default nothing is registered online. A photo is registered only when you choose it (Menu → My photos → Upload online). You can switch to automatic upload (all photos, or only property/tagged/video) in Settings → Online verification.
Know Your Land (measuring land and land reports)
- When you measure land, the corner points and the area are saved only on your phone (your list of lands).
- To make a land report, the app sends the server a land ID created by the app and one centre point of the land (latitude/longitude). Corner points, the land name you typed and your photos are not sent. The server uses the centre point to look up nearby roads, places, water, rainfall, weather, air quality, earthquakes, greenery and groundwater, and keeps area-level results in a short-term cache so the next report nearby is faster.
- The server records, with your random device ID, which land IDs received a report, so a report that was already paid for is not charged again.
Complete Land Check (one-time purchases and credits)
- A Complete Land Check is bought through Google Play as a one-time purchase (1, 3 or 10 reports). Google Play handles the payment and gives the app a purchase token, which our server checks with Google (product, order ID, quantity, status). We never see your card, UPI or bank details.
- Your remaining report credits, the purchase records and the list of paid land IDs are stored with your device ID. Your credit code (shown in My plan) lets you move remaining credits and paid lands to a new phone; anyone who has the code can claim them, so keep it private.
- If Google Play refunds or cancels a purchase, the server reads this from Google and removes the matching credits or paid report.
- These purchase records are kept for accounting and refunds and are not removed by Delete my online data.
Why we use this data
- So anyone who scans the QR code can check that a photo or report is genuine and unchanged.
- To apply the Free plan monthly limit and the Pro and Pro Max plans, and to keep your plan after reinstalling.
- To prevent misuse (rate limits, fake locations).
Who can see it
- Anyone with a Photo ID, Report ID or the photo file can open the public verification page, which shows the registered details of that photo/report (time, location, address, report details). Share the QR or ID only with people who should see them.
- We do not sell your data and we do not show ads.
Third-party services used by the app
- Map tiles: Esri (ArcGIS) — the map tile covering your location is requested to draw the map on photos and on Complete Land Check reports.
- Google Maps SDK for Android — shows the satellite map while you measure land. Google's SDK itself collects some data (such as device and app version information, crash data, IP address, an identifier and map interactions) under Google's Privacy Policy.
- Address: the Android/Google Geocoder on your phone.
- For land reports, our server (not your phone) sends only the land's centre point to: Google Places (nearby schools, banks, medical stores, markets — Complete Land Check only), NASA POWER (rain and weather), NASA MODIS (greenery), USGS (earthquakes), Open Topo Data (height of the ground), and the Government of India data portals for air quality (CPCB, data.gov.in) and groundwater (CGWB). Roads and places also come from OpenStreetMap and Overture Maps data stored on our own server. No device ID or personal details are sent to these services.
- Weather: for the place you choose, our server sends only its latitude/longitude to MET Norway for the forecast; the app downloads the satellite picture of the area directly from NASA GIBS.
- Google Play — payments for subscriptions and Complete Land Check.
- These services receive only what is needed for that feature. You can turn off the map on photos in Settings.
Permissions
- Camera — to take photos. Location — to stamp GPS coordinates, check property directions and measure land by walking with GPS. Media location — to read a photo's original data when you use "Verify a photo". Internet — maps, address and online verification.
Keeping and deleting your data
- Online records are kept so that QR codes keep working.
- In the app, Settings → About → Delete my online data removes the location, address and report details of all your registered photos and deletes your reports from the server. Afterwards those photos can no longer be verified online. For each photo you registered, only its Photo ID, report ID, fingerprint and times are kept (without location, address or IP address), together with your random device ID and your plan, so that plan limits continue to apply and reinstalling does not reset them.
- You can also remove single photos from the server: Menu → My photos → select the photos → Remove from server (the photos stay on your phone), or Delete (which also deletes them from your phone). A photo removed shortly after upload does not count towards your monthly limit.
- Lands you measured live only on your phone: long-press a land in Know Your Land to delete it. Report data cached on the server is area-level and expires on its own.
- Uninstalling the app deletes the data stored on your phone, except photos and PDFs you saved to the phone's gallery and documents.
- You can also email us to ask for deletion: support@bhutag.com
Children
- BhuTag is not directed at children under 18.
Changes
- We may update this policy. The date at the top shows the latest version.