Privacy Policy

What Sangath collects about you, who inside the community can see it, and how to get it changed or removed.

Last updated 21 September 2026

1. Who is responsible for your data

Sangath is built and run by Chaudhary Devarsh ("we", "us") for the members of Chaudhary Samaj. We hold the database, and we decide what member data is collected and how it is used — which makes us the Data Fiduciary for it under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

Chaudhary Samaj is the community the app serves, not the holder of your data. If you have a question about your data, it comes to us at sangathsupport@gmail.com, not to the samaj.

2. What we collect

When you create an account:

Your mobile number, which is how you sign in.
There is no password. Signing in means receiving a 6-digit SMS code, which stops working after about ten minutes.
We record your mobile number as a verified sign-in identity, and place an internal placeholder address on the account because the login system needs one field of that shape. Nothing is ever sent to it and no one can write to it — it is bookkeeping, not a real inbox.

When you fill in your profile:

Your full name.
Mobile number, date of birth, gender and marital status.
Village, city and state.
Occupation.

When you use the app:

Family members you add — their name, their relation to you, and their date of birth.
News posts and community content you publish, shown under your name.
Facilities you save for later.

Every profile field beyond your name is optional. Leaving one blank means it is not collected and not shown to anyone.

3. Why we collect it

To run a member directory for the community: so members can find and recognise each other, so households can be represented as families, and so community news, events and facilities can be shared with members. We do not use your data for advertising, we do not profile you, and we do not sell or rent it to anyone.

4. Who can see what

Nothing in Sangath is public. Every screen requires you to be signed in, and there is no way to browse member data without an account. Within the signed-in community, this is exactly what is visible:

Your mobile number and the gender field

Your mobile number is shown to other members only if you set your gender to male. If you set it to female or other, or leave it unset, your number is hidden from every other member. You can always see your own number. Changing your gender in Account changes who can see your number, immediately.

Visible to any signed-in member who searches the directory:

Your name, village, city, occupation and marital status.
Your year of birth — the day and month are never shown to other members.
Whether you are a family admin, and your role in the community.
Your mobile number, only under the rule described above.

Visible to any signed-in member who opens your profile:

The family members you have added — their name, their relation to you, their year of birth, and whether the entry is verified.

Visible only to you:

Your exact date of birth.
The facilities you have saved.

Community admins can additionally view and manage member records, add or edit members, and change member roles. Admin actions are limited to running the directory.

5. Family members, and children in particular

When you add a family member you are giving us personal data about someone else. Please add adults only with their knowledge, and tell them what this policy says about who can see their entry.

If you add a child

Only a parent or lawful guardian may add a person under 18, and by doing so you confirm you are acting as that child's parent or guardian. Their name, relation and year of birth become visible to other signed-in members through your family list. We do not track children, show them advertising, or use their data for anything beyond displaying your family. If you would rather a child not appear at all, do not add them — or remove the entry from Manage Family Members at any time.

If you believe a child's details were added by someone who is not their parent or guardian, write to sangathsupport@gmail.com and we will remove the entry.

6. Where your data is stored, and who else handles it

Your member data lives in a Supabase project hosted in Singapore (ap-southeast-1). Supabase acts as our processor: it holds the database on our behalf and does not use member data for its own purposes. Access is protected by row-level security rules inside the database itself, not only by the app screens.

Signing in involves two other companies, because we do not send codes ourselves:

Google, through Firebase, handles sign-in. Your number is sent to Firebase, which delivers the SMS and checks the request is not automated — with a reCAPTCHA check in the browser, or a Google Play integrity check in the Android app. Google processes this on its own servers, which are outside India.
Cloudflare runs Sangath's own server. When you sign in it briefly handles your number to exchange Google's proof for a Sangath session. It does not store the number.

Neither company is permitted to use your data for their own purposes. We use them because sending SMS reliably is not something a community app can do on its own.

Your data is stored outside India

The database is in Singapore, and the sign-in services above run on Google's and Cloudflare's servers, also outside India. The DPDP Act allows personal data to be transferred to any country the Central Government has not placed under restriction, and none of these are currently restricted. We tell you this plainly because you have a right to know where your data physically sits. If that changes, we will update this page.

Because signing in means receiving a code, the mobile number on an account has been proven to belong to whoever signed in with it — you cannot get into an account without receiving its code. That number is also the one shown on your profile; you cannot change it yourself, so it always matches the number you actually sign in with. If it needs correcting — a lost or reassigned number, for instance — write to sangathsupport@gmail.com and we will fix it directly.

7. How long we keep it, and deleting your account

We keep your data for as long as you are a member. You can edit or clear most profile fields yourself from Account, and remove any family member from Manage Family Members.

You can delete your account yourself, at any time, from Account → Danger Zone. It takes effect immediately: your login stops working, and your profile, your family entries, your photo and your saved items are removed from the database rather than hidden.

What survives a deletion

Community news you published stays in the feed with your name removed from it, and events you created stay on the calendar. This keeps the community's record intact — the notice still matters to everyone who relied on it, while the attribution to you is gone. Nothing in what remains identifies you.

One thing deletion does not yet reach on its own: Google still holds the record that proved you own your sign-in number. Deleting your Sangath account does not automatically remove it there. Ask us at sangathsupport@gmail.com and we will delete it, and we intend to make this automatic.

If you would rather we did the whole thing for you, or you cannot sign in, email sangathsupport@gmail.com with the mobile number on your account and we will delete it within 30 days.

8. Your rights

Under the DPDP Act you have the right to:

Ask what personal data of yours we hold and how it is being used.
Have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected — most of this you can do yourself in Account.
Have your data erased when it is no longer needed.
Withdraw your consent, which means closing your account.
Nominate someone to exercise these rights if you die or become incapacitated.
Complain to the Data Protection Board of India if we do not resolve your grievance.

Write to sangathsupport@gmail.com to exercise any of these. We aim to reply within 30 days.

9. Grievances

Chaudhary Devarsh is our Grievance Officer and is responsible for answering complaints about how your data is handled. Reach them at sangathsupport@gmail.com. If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you may escalate to the Data Protection Board of India.

10. Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect or who can see it, we will update this page and the date at the top. Material changes affecting visibility of your data will be announced in the app before they take effect.

11. Language of this policy

This policy is published in English and in Gujarati. The English version is the authoritative one: if the two differ in meaning, the English text governs. The Gujarati is provided so that members can read this policy in their own language, and we will correct any translation error brought to our attention at sangathsupport@gmail.com.