Privacy Policy

1. Information we collect

We collect the information you provide when you create and use your profile — such as your name, age, gender, location, photographs, and the devotional details you choose to share (for example your Sampradaya, guru-parampara, and initiation status). We also collect limited technical information needed to operate the service securely.

Rasik Bandhan is an Android matrimony (marriage-matchmaking) platform for the Hindu and Gaudiya Vaishnava devotional community, and is intended strictly for adults who are 18 years of age or older. This section explains, in line with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the "DPDP Act"), the categories of personal data we process and the role your consent plays.

1.1 Profile information you provide

When you register and build your profile, you may provide the following categories of personal data:

• Name
• Age / date of birth (used in part to confirm you are 18 or older)
• Gender
• Location / city
• Height
• Marital status
• Education
• Profession
• Languages
• Family details
• Religious and devotional details you choose to share — for example your Sampradaya, guru-parampara, and diksha / initiation status
• Profile photographs
• Phone number — used for OTP (one-time password) sign-in and account security
• Email address (optional)

The devotional and religious details you provide are shared at your discretion to help you find a spiritually compatible match. You decide how much of this information to add to your profile.

1.2 Technical and usage information

To operate, secure, and improve the Service, we also collect limited technical data, including:

• Device information and app version
• IP address and log data
• Usage analytics
• A push-notification token (so we can deliver in-app notifications)

1.3 The role of consent

We process your personal data on the basis of the consent you give when you create your account and use the App, and for the lawful, specified purposes set out in Section 2. By providing information that is optional (such as your email or particular devotional details), you consent to our processing of that information for those purposes. You may withdraw your consent at any time as described in Section 5 ("Your rights"); withdrawing consent for information essential to the Service may mean we can no longer provide certain features or maintain your account.

2. How we use your information

We use your information to verify profiles, provide spiritually-aware matching, enable interests and chat after mutual acceptance, keep the platform safe, and respond to your requests. We do not sell your personal data.

We process your personal data only for the specified, lawful purposes described below, consistent with the DPDP Act. Those purposes are:

• Creating and managing your account — registering you, signing you in by OTP using your phone number, and maintaining your profile.
• Verifying members and profiles — confirming that you are 18 or older and that profiles on the platform are genuine, to maintain a trustworthy community.
• Matchmaking — showing your profile to, and surfacing relevant profiles from, other verified members based on the details you provide, including devotional compatibility.
• Enabling connections — allowing members to express interest and, after there is mutual interest, to reveal photos and contact details and to communicate within the App.
• Safety and content moderation — reviewing photos and content to detect and remove prohibited or unsafe material (see Section 3).
• Service operation and improvement — understanding how features are used and improving the App through analytics.
• Notifications — sending you in-app and push notifications about interests, matches, and account activity.
• Payments — facilitating optional premium plans billed through Google Play Billing (see Section 3).
• Support and communications — responding to your questions, requests, and grievances.
• Legal compliance and protection — meeting our legal obligations, enforcing our Terms, and protecting the rights, safety, and security of users and the public.

2.1 Analytics and the advertising identifier

The App uses Google Analytics for Firebase to understand how the Service is used and to improve it. This service may use an advertising identifier (AD_ID) on your device, but it is used by us for analytics purposes only. The App shows no third-party advertisements and does not use the advertising identifier for advertising, ad targeting, or building advertising profiles about you.

2.2 We do not sell your data

We do not sell your personal data to anyone, and we do not use it for unrelated commercial purposes. We process it only to operate, secure, and improve the Service and to meet our legal obligations.

3. Sharing

Your profile is shown to other verified members within the app. Photos remain blurred and contact details remain protected until there is mutual interest. We share data with service providers only as needed to run the app, and with authorities where required by law.

3.1 How your profile is shown to other members

Your profile is visible only to other verified members within the App — it is not made public or indexed on the open internet by us. To protect your privacy, your photographs remain blurred and your contact details remain protected until there is mutual interest — that is, until both you and another member have expressed interest in connecting. Only after mutual interest do photos become clear and direct communication becomes possible.

3.2 Content moderation

To keep the community safe, profile photos and content are reviewed using a combination of automated systems and human review to detect prohibited or unsafe content. Our automated review includes the use of third-party AI content-moderation service providers. Content flagged by automated systems may be escalated to trained human reviewers. This process helps us enforce our Terms and our Child Safety Standards and to comply with applicable law.

3.3 Third-party processors

We share personal data with carefully selected service providers (data processors) only to the extent needed to operate and secure the Service, and only under appropriate obligations to protect that data. These include:

• Google / Firebase — for authentication (OTP sign-in), analytics, messaging / push notifications, and app integrity / abuse prevention.
• Google Play Billing — for optional premium plans (see below).
• Content-moderation service providers — for the automated and AI-assisted review described in Section 3.2.

3.4 Payments

Optional premium plans are sold and billed solely through Google Play Billing. The App does not collect or store your card or bank details — those are handled by Google. Refunds follow Google Play's refund policies. Please see our Refund & Cancellation Policy for more details.

3.5 Disclosures required by law

We may disclose personal data to courts, law-enforcement, regulators, or other authorities where we are required to do so by law, or where disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with a legal obligation, enforce our Terms, prevent fraud or abuse, or protect the rights, safety, and security of our users, the public, or Rasik Bandhan. We act in accordance with the DPDP Act, the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, and, in matters of child safety, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.

3.6 We do not sell personal data

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with third parties for their own independent marketing.

4. Data security

We apply reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information against unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, but we work continually to safeguard your data.

In line with our obligations under the DPDP Act to take reasonable security safeguards, the measures we use include:

• Encryption in transit — data exchanged between the App and our servers is protected using industry-standard encryption.
• Secure authentication — sign-in uses OTP verification of your phone number, reducing the risk of unauthorised access.
• Privacy by design — photos stay blurred and contact details stay protected until mutual interest, limiting exposure of your information to other members.
• Access controls — access to personal data is restricted to authorised personnel and processors who need it to operate the Service.
• Trusted infrastructure — we rely on established providers such as Google / Firebase, which maintain their own security and app-integrity protections.
• Monitoring and moderation — automated systems and human review help detect abuse and unsafe content.

While we work continually to safeguard your data, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is perfectly secure. In the event of a personal data breach, we will notify the affected Data Principals and the Data Protection Board of India as required under the DPDP Act and applicable rules.

5. Your rights

You may access, correct, or update your information from within the app. You may also request a copy of your data or its deletion. To exercise these rights, use the in-app settings or email us.

As a Data Principal under the DPDP Act, you have the following rights in respect of the personal data we process about you:

• Right to access — to obtain confirmation of, and a summary of, the personal data we process about you and how it is processed.
• Right to correction and updating — to correct inaccurate or misleading data and to complete or update your information; much of this you can do directly in the App.
• Right to erasure / deletion — to request deletion of your personal data, subject to data we are required by law to retain.
• Right to withdraw consent — to withdraw consent you previously gave for processing; this does not affect processing carried out before withdrawal.
• Right to grievance redressal — to have your concerns about our handling of your data addressed (see below and Section 8).
• Right to nominate — to nominate another individual to exercise your rights in the event of your death or incapacity, as provided under the DPDP Act.

5.1 How to exercise your rights

You can access and correct much of your information directly from within the App. To request a copy of your data, to delete your account, or to exercise any other right, you may use the in-app settings (Settings → Delete account) or email us at rasikbandhan@gmail.com. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request, and we will respond within the timelines required by applicable law.

5.2 Grievance redressal

If you have any complaint or concern about how we handle your personal data, you can contact our Grievance Officer as set out in Section 8 ("Contact"). We take grievances seriously and will work to resolve them in accordance with the DPDP Act and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. If you are not satisfied with the resolution provided by our Grievance Officer, you may escalate your complaint to the Data Protection Board of India under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

6. Data retention

We retain your information for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide the service. When you delete your account, we remove your profile data, retaining only what the law requires us to keep, and only for as long as required.

We keep personal data only for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this policy, or for as long as we are required to retain it under applicable law.

6.1 Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time from within the App (Settings → Delete account) or by emailing us at rasikbandhan@gmail.com. When you delete your account:

• We remove your profile data from the active Service.
• We retain only the limited information that the law requires us to keep, and only for as long as the law requires.
• Backups that may contain residual copies of your data are purged on a rolling schedule, after which those residual copies are no longer available.

Once deletion is complete, your profile will no longer be visible to other members. Some anonymised or aggregated information that does not identify you may be retained for analytics and service-improvement purposes.

7. Children (18+ only)

Rasik Bandhan is strictly for adults aged 18 and above. We do not knowingly collect data from minors. Any account found to belong to a minor is removed. See our Child Safety Standards.

As a matrimony platform, the App is intended only for persons who are legally adults and eligible to marry. We do not knowingly create accounts for, or knowingly collect personal data from, anyone under the age of 18. If we learn that an account belongs to a person under 18, we will remove that account and the associated data.

We maintain a zero-tolerance approach to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and to any content that endangers minors. We use automated systems (including third-party AI moderation providers) and human review to detect such content, and we act in accordance with applicable law, including the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and report to the appropriate authorities where required. If you believe a minor is using the App, or you encounter content that harms a child, please report it immediately at rasikbandhan@gmail.com. For more information, please read our Child Safety Standards.

8. Contact

For any privacy question or request, email rasikbandhan@gmail.com.

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your rights, or want to raise a privacy concern, you can reach us at rasikbandhan@gmail.com. You can also use this address for any safety, account, or grievance query.

8.1 Grievance Officer

In accordance with the DPDP Act and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, you may contact our Grievance Officer to raise and have addressed any complaint about how your personal data is handled:

• Grievance Officer, Rasik Bandhan
• Email: rasikbandhan@gmail.com

If you are not satisfied with the response or resolution provided by our Grievance Officer, you have the right to escalate your complaint to the Data Protection Board of India under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

This Privacy Policy is governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India, and any disputes are subject to the courts of competent jurisdiction in India.