Privacy Policy

Summary

• We collect only what the app needs to work. We don't sell your data or show ads.
• Other members see your public profile, never your exact location or email address.
• Your location is used to show activities near you. You can turn it off at any time.
• You can delete your account and data from inside the app, at any time.

1. Information we collect

Account information. Your name, a username, your email address and your password (stored securely by our authentication provider; we never see your password). You can sign in with your username or email.

Profile information. Your profile photo, which is always a live selfie taken with your phone's front camera, plus anything you choose to add: a bio, answers to profile prompts, your city or neighbourhood, and your interests.

Verification. When you verify your account, we record that you took a profile selfie and confirmed your email with a one-time code. We don't use facial recognition or collect biometric data.

Location. With your permission, we use your phone's location while you use the app to show activities within your chosen distance. If you save a home location and search radius in your profile, we store those too. When you host an activity, we store the place you choose for it.

Check-ins. To check in at an activity, you either scan the host's QR code with your camera or share your location. Your location is only compared with the activity's place to confirm you're there; we don't store it. We record that you checked in and when.

Activity and participation. Activities you host, join requests you send or receive, the activities you join, save or pass on, waitlist places, attendance, and the show-up rate calculated from them.

Content you share. Posts, photos (taken with your camera or chosen from your photo library), comments and poll votes in activity feeds, and any reports you submit.

Technical information. When the app talks to our servers, we log each request: the time, the action requested, the information sent with it, and an error message if something fails. Passwords and sign-in tokens are always removed from these logs. We use them to keep the service running and secure. We also record when you were last active.

We don't collect your contacts, your location in the background when the app is closed, or any advertising identifiers.

2. How we use your information

• To create and run your account, and to keep you signed in.
• To show you activities near you that match your interests.
• To handle join requests, waitlists, check-ins and attendance.
• To show you notifications in the app, such as approvals, waitlist updates, cancellations and new posts in activities you've joined.
• To build trust between members, through verification badges and show-up rates.
• To keep the community safe: reviewing reports, enforcing our rules, and preventing fraud and abuse.
• To fix problems and improve the app.

We process your information to provide the service you've asked for, with your consent (for example, for location, camera and photo access), and where needed to keep members safe or to meet legal obligations.

3. What other members can see

Your public profile is visible to other signed-in members: your name, profile photo, verification badge, city or neighbourhood, bio, prompt answers, interests, how many activities you've hosted and attended, your show-up rate, when you joined, whether you've been active recently, and the upcoming activities you host.

Activities you host, including their place and time, are visible to members searching nearby.

Activity feeds (posts, photos, comments and polls) are visible only to the host and members who've been approved to join that activity.

Never shown to other members: your email address, your password, your saved home location, and your exact current location. People nearby see an approximate distance to an activity, not where you are.

4. Who we share information with

We don't sell or rent your personal information, and we don't share it with advertisers. We share it only with service providers that help us run ghulmil, and only as far as they need to do their job:

• Supabase, for our database, sign-in and photo storage. Your data is stored in Mumbai, India.
• Our server hosting provider, which runs the service that connects the app to the database.
• Google Maps (Android) and Apple Maps (iOS), to display maps and look up addresses when you choose a place.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, to respond to a valid legal request, or when we believe in good faith that it's needed to protect someone's safety.

5. How long we keep it

We keep your information for as long as your account is open. When you delete your account, we permanently delete your profile, photos, posts, comments and the activities you host. Copies in our backups are overwritten within 30 days.

We may keep a limited record of reports and safety actions for longer, where we need it to protect the community or meet legal obligations.

6. Your choices and rights

• See and edit your information: update your profile at any time from the You tab.
• Location, camera and photos: turn access on or off in your phone's settings. Without location, you can still browse, but results won't be sorted by distance.
• Delete your account: go to You → Delete account. This permanently deletes your account and data, as described above. No longer have the app? See how to delete your account by email.
• Block and report: you can block anyone, and report profiles, activities, posts or comments that break our Community Guidelines.

Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to request a copy of your data, to have inaccurate data corrected, to object to or restrict certain uses, or to withdraw consent. To make any request, email us at support@ghulmil.app. We'll reply within 30 days.

7. Age requirement

ghulmil is for people aged 18 and over, because members meet in person. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 is using ghulmil, contact us at support@ghulmil.app and we'll remove the account.

8. Security

We protect your information with encrypted connections (HTTPS) and access controls that let each member reach only their own private data. Feed photos are only shown inside their activity's feed, but each photo is stored at a hard-to-guess web address, so anyone who has a photo's direct link can open it. No service can be completely secure, so please use a strong password that you don't use anywhere else.

9. Meeting in person

ghulmil helps you meet people offline. What you choose to share with other members, in person or in messages, is up to you. Meet in public places, tell someone where you're going, and report anyone who makes you feel unsafe.

10. Changes to this policy

We'll update this policy as ghulmil changes. If we make significant changes, we'll let you know in the app before they take effect. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.

11. Contact us

Questions, requests or complaints about your privacy can go to Angshuman Roy at support@ghulmil.app. If you're in India, this is also the contact for grievances under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.