Privacy Policy
Version 0.1-draft · Last updated 2026-08-02
⚠️ DRAFT — REQUIRES LEGAL REVIEW BEFORE PUBLICATION. This is a technically accurate description of what the Saanjha app actually does with personal data, written from the system design. It is not legal advice and has not been reviewed by counsel. Do not publish it, and do not submit it to an app store, until a practitioner qualified in the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 has reviewed and adapted it.
1. Who we are
Saanjha is operated by TO BE CONFIRMED PRIVATE LIMITED ("we", "us"). We are the Data Fiduciary for the personal data described here, as that term is used in the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 ("DPDP Act").
Contact: privacy@saanjha.ai
2. What Saanjha does, in brief
Saanjha lets neighbours pool their grocery orders. One member travels to a wholesale market and buys on behalf of others in their community. We coordinate the order, hold the payment until goods are handed over, and maintain the trust signals that make this safe between people who are not close friends.
Understanding that helps explain why we collect what we do: almost all of it exists to make a transaction between two neighbours safe.
3. What we collect, and why
3.1 Information you give us
| Data | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile number | Your identity on Saanjha. Used to sign in and to reach you about an order. | Necessary to provide the service |
| Name and photo | So neighbours know who they are handing goods to | Necessary to provide the service |
| Email address | Account recovery and statements | Necessary to provide the service |
| Flat or house number | To confirm you live in the community you are joining | Necessary to provide the service |
| Government ID reference, via DigiLocker or a licensed verification partner | Required before you can host a trip or handle other members' money | Consent, plus legal obligation |
| Bank account (sellers only) | To pay you | Necessary to provide the service |
| Photographs you upload | Receipts, and evidence when you report a problem with an order | Necessary to resolve disputes |
| Messages you send | Coordinating a trip or pickup | Necessary to provide the service |
3.2 Information collected automatically
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Approximate and precise location, only while the app is open | To show communities near you, to confirm you are inside a community boundary, and to corroborate a handover at the pickup point |
| Device identifiers, model, OS version, app version | Security, fraud prevention, crash diagnosis |
| IP address | Security and abuse prevention |
| App usage events | To understand which parts of the product work |
We do not collect location in the background. The app cannot track you when it is closed. This is enforced technically, not only by policy: the Android build explicitly blocks the background location permission.
3.3 Contacts
If you choose to invite neighbours from your contacts, your device computes a one-way cryptographic hash of each phone number and sends only those hashes. We never receive or store your contact list, your contacts' names, or the numbers of people who are not Saanjha users.
3.4 What we never collect
- Your Aadhaar number. Verification is done through DigiLocker or a licensed partner, and we retain only a verification reference and the last four digits.
- Your card details or UPI PIN. Payments happen inside your bank or UPI app.
- Your face, as a stored image. If you complete biometric verification, the selfie is compared and then deleted; only the result is retained.
- Anything from your chats, for advertising purposes. Chat content is never used for targeting.
4. How we use it
To operate trips, orders, payments and handovers. To verify identity and residence. To compute trust scores and badges. To prevent fraud, including detecting fake bids, collusion and manipulated evidence. To resolve disputes. To send you notifications about your orders. To meet legal obligations, including tax and financial record-keeping.
Automated decisions. Some decisions are automated: trust tier, exposure limits, badge eligibility, and the automatic approval of small refund claims. Where an automated decision restricts what you can do, we tell you which rule caused it, and you can appeal to a human.
5. Who we share it with
| Recipient | What | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Other members of your community | Your name, photo, badges, trust tier, flat number, and your order contents where relevant to a shared trip | The service does not work otherwise |
| Our payment partner, an RBI-authorised payment aggregator | Payment details | To collect and settle payments |
| Identity verification partner | Verification data | To verify you |
| Delivery partner, if you choose delivery | Name, phone, address | To deliver |
| Cloud and communications providers | Data necessary to run the service | Infrastructure |
| Law enforcement or regulators | Where legally required | Legal obligation |
We do not sell your personal data. We do not share it with advertisers for their own use.
6. Where it is stored
On servers located in India (AWS Asia Pacific, Mumbai and Hyderabad). We do not transfer personal data outside India except where a service provider requires it and a lawful basis exists.
7. How long we keep it
| Data | Retained |
|---|---|
| Order, payment and handover records | 8 years, for tax and company law |
| Verification records | 5 years after the relationship ends |
| Consent records | For as long as needed to evidence consent |
| Chat messages | 90 to 180 days |
| Location captured for an invite | 90 days after the invite is resolved |
| Notification and analytics logs | 90 days |
| Dispute evidence | 3 years |
| Selfie images used for verification | Deleted immediately after matching |
8. Your rights
Under the DPDP Act you may:
- Access the personal data we hold about you
- Correct anything inaccurate or incomplete
- Erase your data, subject to records we must keep by law
- Nominate someone to exercise these rights if you die or become incapacitated
- Withdraw consent at any time, as easily as you gave it
- Complain to us, and then to the Data Protection Board of India
Use Profile → Settings → Privacy in the app, or write to privacy@saanjha.ai. We respond within 30 days.
To delete your account: https://saanjha.ai/account/delete
9. Consent
We ask for consent separately for each purpose. Consent boxes are never pre-ticked. Declining marketing messages does not affect your ability to use Saanjha — you will still receive messages about your own orders, because those are necessary to provide the service you asked for.
You can change any of this in Settings → Notifications.
10. Children
Saanjha is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If we learn that we have, we will delete it.
11. Security
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Access to personal data by our staff requires a documented reason and is logged. Sensitive fields are masked by default. We run regular security testing.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects you, we will notify you and the Data Protection Board as the law requires.
12. Changes
We will tell you in the app before a material change takes effect, and we keep previous versions available.
13. Contact and complaints
Privacy questions: privacy@saanjha.ai Data Protection Officer: TO BE CONFIRMED, dpo@saanjha.ai Grievance Officer: see https://saanjha.ai/legal/grievance
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India.