Understanding Location Services

This document explains how our AI platform uses your location to provide richer, more relevant experiences and how you can manage your privacy.

How Location Enhances Your Experience

When you choose to enable Location Services, our AI can offer several benefits:

• "Near Me" Queries: Get real-time, relevant recommendations for businesses, services, or events close to your current location. This includes finding the closest coffee shop, a highly-rated restaurant, or local news updates.
• Contextual Information: Receive more accurate weather forecasts, understand trending topics or local news relevant to your city or region.
• Improved Search Accuracy: By knowing your general vicinity (e.g., your city), the AI can better understand the context of your queries, leading to more precise and helpful answers.

How Location Data is Handled (Your Privacy First)

We are committed to protecting your privacy. Our approach to location data is built on transparency and user control:

Our Privacy Principles

• Opt-In Only: Location Services are never enabled by default. You must explicitly grant permission for us to access your location data.
• Granular Control: You can choose the level of precision:
  • Approximate Location: Provides general regional data (like your city or neighborhood). This is sufficient for many contextual queries.
  • Precise Location: Uses your device's GPS for exact coordinates. This is primarily used for highly specific "near me" searches.
• Ephemeral (lasting for a very short time) Data Use:
  • Precise Coordinates: When you grant precise location access, your exact GPS coordinates are used only for the immediate request and are then discarded. They are never used for long-term training purposes.
  • Approximate Location: Your general city or region data may be temporarily cached for the duration of your session to optimize performance and reduce requests, but this is also not used for long-term training.
• Transparency: We provide a clear indicator within the app when Location Services are active.
• No Tracking: We do not build a history of your movements or create location-based profiles of your activity.

Managing Your Location Settings

You have full control over Location Services:

Enabling/Disabling Location Services

1. When Prompted: The first time you use a feature that requires location (like asking "what's nearby?"), you'll see a system prompt asking for your permission. You can choose to Allow or Deny.
2. In App Settings:
   • Navigate to Settings.
   • Select Data Controls.
   • Find the "Location Services" toggle and switch it ON or OFF.
   • You may also find an option to set a "Default Location" here as a manual override if you prefer not to use GPS.
3. Device Settings: You can also manage location permissions for our app directly in your device's operating system settings (e.g., under your phone's Privacy or App Settings).

Manual Location Override

If you prefer not to use your device's GPS, or if GPS is unavailable:

• Via Chat: You can often type a location directly into the chat prompt (e.g., "Find restaurants in downtown Austin"). The AI will use this as your specified location for that query.
• Via Settings: As mentioned above, a "Default Location" field in your app Settings allows you to set a persistent manual location.

By understanding how Location Services work and managing your settings, you can enjoy the benefits of a context-aware AI while maintaining full control over your personal location data.