AMCRAFTS · Last updated: 16 September 2026
Published at https://amcrafts.in/Apps/TrainBook/privacy-policy.html, which is the privacy-policy URL given to Google Play. The plain-language version of the same statement is built into the app's About screen.
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TrainBook has no account and collects no personal information itself. It is free, and shows ads served by Google AdMob — a banner, and occasional full-screen ads — see Advertising. Your favourites and recent searches are stored on your device and are never uploaded.
The app declares these Android permissions:
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
INTERNET |
To fetch train information from the TrainBook service |
ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE |
To tell whether you are online, so saved information can be shown instead of an error |
ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION / ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION |
Only for the on-board tracker you start yourself. Requested at that moment, never at launch. |
AD_ID, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_* |
Added by Google's ads SDK, to read the advertising identifier and Android's Privacy Sandbox APIs. Granted at install; never prompted for. |
All of it stays on the device. None of it is uploaded, and it is removed when you uninstall the app. Settings → Clear cached data removes the cached timetable while keeping your favourites and recent searches.
If you have Android's backup enabled, your favourites and recent searches may be included in your own Google account backup, under Google's terms. The cached timetable is explicitly excluded from backup.
TrainBook does not use your location unless you ask it to, on a specific train, on a specific screen.
There is one feature that uses location: the on-board tracker. It appears on a train's live-status screen as "Are you on this train?", and nothing happens until you tap it. If you never do, the app never asks for the permission and never reads your position.
When you do start a session:
What is sent: a coordinate, its accuracy, your speed if the device knows it, and which train and date you said you are on.
What is kept: how far along that train's route you were. The coordinate is used to work that out and is then discarded — it is not written to the database, and it is not written to any log.
What is never sent: any account, any device identifier, any installation id, any advertising id. There is nothing in a report that could link one of your journeys to another, or to you. Reports are grouped for flood control by a salted hash that is recomputed every day, so the same phone on two days is two unrelated reporters even to us.
Reports are deleted automatically, by default after 48 hours. They describe where a train was, which stops being useful within a day.
The app declares the location permission because the feature exists, and Google requires the listing to say so. Whether the feature is available is decided by the operator of the service you connect to; when it is switched off, the tracker does not appear and the permission is never requested.
TrainBook shows a banner ad at the bottom of the screen, and occasionally a full-screen ad when you open a screen or return to the app. Ads are served by Google AdMob, a Google LLC service, and the ads SDK in the app sends data to Google directly — not through TrainBook's service.
To serve and measure ads, and to prevent ad fraud, Google may collect:
How Google uses this is described at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Consent. Where the law requires it — including in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland — the app asks for your consent through Google's consent form before any ad is requested, and Settings → Ad privacy choices lets you change your answer at any time. If consent is not given, ads may be limited or non-personalised.
Your controls. You can reset or delete your advertising ID in your device's Google settings (Settings → Google → Ads on most phones), which stops it being used for personalised ads.
What advertisers never get from TrainBook. The app does not pass your favourites, searches, journeys, alarms, bookings or on-board location to the ads SDK. The ad request carries nothing about which train or station you are looking at.
TrainBook cannot read your messages. It has no SMS permission and no access to your inbox or your email. What it can do is accept a booking message you choose to share with it: you long-press the SMS and pick TrainBook from the share sheet, or paste the text in. That message is read on your device to fill in the train, date and seat, and is not sent anywhere.
If this service is configured with a PNR provider, looking up a PNR sends that number to it. The result is not cached and not logged, and passenger names are discarded before the response reaches the app — TrainBook keeps the coach, berth and booking status, which is what makes the feature useful, and nothing that identifies who is travelling.
Journey alarms are stored on your device and nowhere else. Setting one does not tell the service anything — it is your phone's clock, your timetable and your choice of stop.
When the app requests information, the TrainBook service records the request in order to run reliably and to detect abuse:
The hash cannot be reversed to an address, and no raw IP address is stored. No search terms, station names, train numbers or journey details are attached to any of these records. Request logs are deleted automatically after 30 days.
The service also stores an anonymous cache of recently requested train information. It is keyed by train number and date, and carries nothing about who asked.
When the app is set up to work offline it downloads the whole timetable once and then answers from your device. Searching for a station, planning a journey or opening a train's route makes no request at all — so those actions leave no record anywhere, not even an anonymous one. What the service sees is a periodic bulk download that is byte-for-byte identical for every device, and which therefore says nothing about the person holding it.
The download itself is plain public timetable data. Nothing about you, your searches or your device is sent up in order to receive it.
Timetables, routes and fares are compiled from publicly available railway information. Live running status is included when the railway has published it.
Requests to those sources are made by the TrainBook service, never by your device. They therefore never see anything that identifies you or your device — not your address, not your searches, not the fact that you exist.
TrainBook shows railway information as published, and always states how current it is. Live running status is only shown when the railway has actually reported a position; projected times for stops a train has not yet reached are marked distinctly, and where no live information exists the app shows the scheduled timetable and says so.
Fares shown are indicative general-quota fares for the full source-to- destination journey. Seat availability, booking and PNR status are not part of TrainBook.
Please confirm details with Indian Railways or an authorised channel before travelling.
TrainBook is a public-transport information app suitable for general audiences. It collects no personal information from anyone, including children.
Nothing is shared, sold or transferred to any third party, because nothing identifying is collected in the first place.
Material changes to this policy will be published here with an updated date and noted in the app's release notes.
Questions about this policy or about the app:
AMCRAFTS — contact@amcrafts.in
TrainBook is an independent application. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Indian Railways, IRCTC or CRIS. Train names, numbers and schedules are the property of Indian Railways and are reproduced for information only.