Privacy Policy

This policy is our notice to you about the personal data KuhuChat collects, why we collect it, who can see it, how long we keep it, and the choices and rights you have. We have tried to write it in plain language. Please read it before you use the app. By creating an account and using KuhuChat, you confirm that you have read this policy and you give your free, specific, informed and clear consent to the processing it describes, for the purposes it describes. If you do not agree, please do not use KuhuChat.

This policy applies to the KuhuChat app, the web app and the kuhuchat.com website. Together with our Terms of Use, it forms part of your agreement with us.

1. Who we are

KuhuChat is a community app operated from India. In this policy, “KuhuChat”, “we”, “us” and “our” mean the KuhuChat team. “You” means anyone who uses the Service. “Samaj” means the community groups and networks inside the app. “Service” means the KuhuChat app, web app and website.

For the personal data you give us, KuhuChat decides why and how it is processed. This makes us the “Data Fiduciary” under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the “DPDP Act”) and the rules made under it. We also follow the Information Technology Act, 2000 and its rules. Where we refer to these laws, we mean them as they apply and as they are amended from time to time.

2. What we collect and why

You choose what optional information to add. Some features cannot work without the related information. For example, we cannot show you which contacts are on KuhuChat unless you sync contacts.

3. Data about other people

KuhuChat involves other people’s information, such as the relatives in your family tree, people in your photos and videos, and the contacts on your phone.

• Only add details or upload photos of another person if you have the right to do so and, where appropriate, their permission. You are responsible for that content.
• If we hold information about you because someone else added it, and you are not a KuhuChat user, you can ask us to correct or remove it by emailing us (see section 21).
• Contact hashes are used only to match phone numbers. We do not use them to send messages to your contacts or to invite them on your behalf.

4. Permissions the app asks for

The app asks your phone for permission before it uses certain features. You can refuse or change these in your phone settings at any time. Some features will not work without the related permission.

• Contacts: to find which of your contacts are on KuhuChat.
• Location: for live location, map pins, business location and shop arrival alerts.
• Camera and photos or files: to take and upload photos, videos and documents.
• Microphone: for voice notes, voice features and calls.
• Notifications: to alert you about messages, reminders and community updates.

5. How we use your data

We use your personal data only for the purposes listed in section 2 and for the following related purposes:

• to provide, maintain, secure and support the Service;
• to deliver messages, posts, media, reminders and notifications, including service messages about your account, safety, changes to our policies and community activity;
• to run the family tree, marriage profile, business hub, map and hotel booking features;
• to verify business credentials and process bookings and payments;
• to power AI features you choose to use;
• to detect, prevent and investigate abuse, spam, fraud, impersonation, illegal content and security incidents, and to enforce our Terms of Use;
• to fix bugs, measure performance, and develop, test and improve features, including by using data that has been anonymised or combined so that it no longer identifies you. We own and may freely use anonymised and aggregated data;
• to send you news and updates about KuhuChat, only if you have agreed to receive them, and you can stop them at any time;
• to respond to your requests and complaints;
• to comply with the law, court orders and lawful requests from authorities, and to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

We process your personal data on the basis of your consent, which you give when you sign up and when you turn on a feature. We may also process it without consent for the “legitimate uses” the DPDP Act allows, such as complying with a law or court order, responding to a medical emergency or a threat to life or safety, or preventing and investigating offences. You can withdraw your consent at any time by deleting your account or by writing to us. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing done before you withdrew it, and some features will stop working. We may keep and use data as the law allows or requires even after you withdraw consent.

We do not sell your personal data. We do not use AI to make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.

6. Who can see your information

• Other samaj members can see your profile details and anything you post to a community space, such as wall posts, gallery posts and map pins, depending on where you post it. Some profile details, including your name, photo, village and community, may be visible to other members.
• Marriage profile: other samaj members can see what you put in your marriage profile, which can include sensitive details such as caste, income, education, birth details and photos. Only add what you are happy for them to see.
• Chats: messages are visible to the people in that chat.
• Business information: your shop name, location, products and services are meant to be seen by others. Your verification credentials (such as GST and PAN) are used for checking and are not shown publicly.
• Moderators and admins: where a samaj or group has admins or moderators, they may see and manage content posted in that group.

You can block people, and you can edit or remove your own content.

7. Messages and encryption

Messages are encrypted before they are stored, using keys that we hold on our servers. They are not end-to-end encrypted, which means we are technically able to access message content. We do not read your messages for advertising, and we limit internal access to what is needed to run the service, investigate abuse or reports, or comply with the law.

Chat messages are deleted automatically after about one month, and wall posts after about 15 days. Please keep your own copy of anything important.

8. AI features

Some features, such as relationship analysis and diary analysis, send the chat text, photos or video frames that you select to an AI service provided by Google, so that it can produce the result you asked for. Other AI features, such as the voice companion and text to speech, send the text or audio you provide to our AI and speech providers in the same way.

• Only use these features on content you are happy to process this way.
• Do not use them on other people’s private conversations or images unless they are comfortable with it, and do not use them to create fake or misleading content about anyone.
• AI results can be wrong, incomplete or unsuitable. They are for general information only and are not advice of any kind, including medical, legal, financial or relationship advice. Please do not rely on them for important decisions.
• We may label, mark or add technical identifiers to AI-generated or AI-altered content, as the law requires.

9. Service providers

We use service providers who process data on our behalf (“Data Processors”) to help us run the app. They may use your data only to provide their service to us and under our instructions, and we require them to keep it secure.

We may add or change providers to run the Service. Some providers, such as the hotel and payment provider, also act on their own for the services they provide to you, and their own privacy policies apply to that. We are not responsible for their independent practices.

If KuhuChat is ever merged with, or taken over by, another organisation, or sells or transfers its business or assets, your data may move with it, and the new owner may continue to use it for the purposes in this policy. We will tell you before it becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

10. Legal disclosures, safety and moderation

We may access, keep, preserve and share your information, including message content and account details, when we believe in good faith that this is necessary to:

• comply with the law, a court order, or a lawful request from a government or law enforcement authority, including helping an authority investigate or prevent an offence within the time the law requires;
• investigate reports of abuse, harassment, fraud, impersonation, spam or illegal content;
• enforce our rules and protect the rights, safety and property of our users, the public and KuhuChat;
• establish, exercise or defend legal claims;
• respond to an emergency involving a risk to someone’s life or safety.

Content that we remove, and related records such as account information and logs, may be preserved for at least 180 days, or longer if the law or an authority requires, for investigation and legal purposes. We may share information with authorities without telling you if the law prevents us from doing so or if telling you could put someone at risk or harm an investigation.

11. Business listings from public sources

To help you find local shops and services, KuhuChat shows business listings that come from publicly available sources and from information submitted by businesses. These listings can include the business name, category, address, phone number, opening hours and photos. If you own a listed business and want it corrected or removed, email us at the address in section 21 with the business name and location, and we will act on your request.

12. Marriage and family features

• Marriage profiles, family trees and matchmaking features are provided to help members of a community connect. Profiles are created by users. We do not guarantee that any profile is true, complete or up to date, and we do not guarantee any match or outcome.
• Please verify the identity and background of anyone you meet or deal with through KuhuChat. Take sensible safety steps, such as meeting in public places and involving family.
• You choose what to put in your marriage profile and your family tree. Information about caste, income, education and birth details is sensitive. Add it only if you are comfortable with other samaj members seeing it.
• You can edit or remove your marriage profile and family tree entries at any time, or ask us to do it for you.

13. How long we keep data

• Chat messages: deleted automatically after about one month.
• Wall posts: deleted automatically after about 15 days.
• Account, profile and other content: kept while your account is active and as long as needed for the purposes in this policy.
• Inactive accounts: if your account is inactive for a long time, we may delete it after giving you notice where the law requires.
• After you delete your account: we delete or anonymise your profile and content, except for what we must or may keep to meet legal, tax, accounting, security or fraud-prevention requirements, to handle disputes, or to enforce our agreements. This includes booking and payment records, security and access logs (which the law may require us to keep for at least one year), and content and records preserved under section 10. Copies in backups are removed as the backups expire.
• Anonymised data: data that no longer identifies you may be kept without limit.

You can delete your account from inside the app or by following the steps on our delete account page.

14. Where your data is processed

Our service providers, including Google, Cloudinary and Cloudflare, may store and process data on servers in India or in other countries. By using KuhuChat you understand that your data may be transferred to and processed in other countries, subject to any restrictions the Government of India may place on certain countries. We rely on providers that use recognised security practices, and we process data in line with Indian law.

15. Security and your responsibilities

We use reasonable security safeguards to protect your data, including encryption of stored messages, access controls, and the security measures of our providers. No system is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, and we are not responsible for unauthorised access that happens despite our reasonable safeguards or because of something outside our control.

You can help by keeping your phone and sign-in codes private, not sharing your account, keeping your phone’s software up to date, and telling us right away if you think someone has accessed your account.

16. Data breaches

If a personal data breach affects your personal data, we will tell you and the Data Protection Board of India as the law requires. Our notice will explain, in plain language, what happened, what it may mean for you, what we are doing about it, and who you can contact.

17. Website and cookies

The kuhuchat.com website and web app may use cookies and similar browser storage that are needed for sign-in, security, language and other essential functions. You can control or delete cookies in your browser settings, but parts of the site may not work without them. Our hosting providers may also keep standard server logs, such as IP address and browser type.

18. Third-party links and services

KuhuChat may contain links to other websites, maps, businesses or services that we do not run. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content or privacy practices. Please read their policies before you share information with them.

19. Your rights and duties

Your rights

You can:

• edit your profile and the content you posted;
• block people and report content;
• turn off contact sync, location features and notifications in the app or in your phone settings;
• delete your account at any time;
• ask for a summary of the personal data we process about you, what processing we do, and the other organisations we have shared it with;
• ask us to correct inaccurate or misleading data, complete incomplete data, or update it;
• ask us to erase your personal data, unless we need to keep it for a legal or other lawful reason;
• withdraw your consent;
• name another person who can exercise these rights for you if you die or become unable to do so;
• raise a grievance with us about how we handle your data.

How to use your rights

Email hiren@kuhuchat.com from the contact details linked to your account, or use the in-app options. Tell us clearly what you want. We may ask you to confirm your identity first, and we may not be able to act until you do. We aim to reply within 30 days and will always reply within the time the law allows. We may refuse or limit a request where the law allows or requires it, for example where we must keep the data, where the request is unclear, repeated or unreasonable, or where it would affect another person’s rights. If we do, we will tell you why.

Please contact us first and give us a chance to resolve your concern. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India, as provided under the DPDP Act.

Your duties

The DPDP Act also places duties on you. When you use KuhuChat, you must follow the law; give true information and not impersonate anyone or hide important facts; not make false or frivolous complaints or grievances; and give only information that is verifiably authentic when you ask us to correct or erase data. Breaking these duties can lead to action under the law and under our Terms of Use.

20. Children

KuhuChat is not for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from people under 18, and we do not allow accounts for them. We do not track, monitor or show targeted advertising to children. If you believe a person under 18 is using the app, please email us and we will remove the account and its data. If you are under 18, please do not use KuhuChat or send us any personal data.

21. Questions, grievances and contact

For questions about this policy, to use your rights, or to make a complaint about how we handle your data, contact:

KuhuChat, India
Grievance officer and contact person for data protection questions: Hiren
Email: hiren@kuhuchat.com

We will acknowledge and resolve grievances within the time limits set by applicable law, as they apply from time to time. You may also use the grievance process in our Terms of Use.

22. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example when we add a feature, change a provider, or when the law changes. When we do, we will change the “last updated” date at the top. If a change is significant, we will also tell you in the app or by another suitable method. If you keep using KuhuChat after a change, you accept the updated policy. Where the law requires fresh consent, we will ask for it, and if you do not agree, you can stop using the Service and delete your account.

23. Governing law and language

This policy is governed by the laws of India. Any dispute about it is handled as set out in our Terms of Use, subject to any rights you have under applicable consumer or data protection law. This policy is written in English. If we provide a translation, the English version applies if there is a difference. Where the law lets you read this notice in an Indian language, you can ask us for a translation.