Privacy Policy

DharmaMitra is built to respect your privacy. This policy covers both the mobile app and this website, and explains what each collects — and, just as importantly, what they don't.

The app is offline-first

Your saved content, bookmarks, profile name, and preferences live on your device and are not sent to our servers. The app is designed to work fully without an internet connection.

No account, no sign-up

You never create an account. The app never asks your phone for its location and requests no location permission at all — you pick a district yourself for the panchang, and that choice stays on your device. When you install the app, it generates a random, secure device identity — a cryptographic key kept in your phone's secure hardware — which is used only to communicate safely with our servers. It says nothing about who you are.

The app has a profile screen where you can enter a name and, if you want to, an email, phone number or date of birth. That is kept on your device alone and is not sent to us. There is one exception: when sending feedback from inside the app you may choose to put your email into the message (see below) — that address then reaches us, and nothing else from your profile does.

Kundali

The app can also cast a kundali (birth chart). That needs three things — a date of birth, a time of birth, and the district of birth. All three, and every chart worked out from them, stay on the device. They are never sent to our servers, never included in usage statistics, never attached to feedback, and never part of any content sync; the chart is calculated on the phone itself. Any kundali can be deleted from its own page, and "Clear all data" removes every one of them along with the birth details inside.

Japa counts and pilgrimage marks

Two other things the app records stay on the device on the same terms. The japa counter keeps what you counted and which mantra you counted, and a pilgrimage page lets you mark that you have done darshan there. Neither is sent to our servers, included in usage statistics, attached to feedback, or part of any content sync — where you have been, and what you chant, are a record of a practice rather than a statistic. "Clear all data" removes both.

Usage statistics

To improve the app, we collect a limited set of usage statistics:

• which screens you visit,
• how often you open the app,
• your app version,
• your device platform (Android/iOS), and
• when you tap a share button — which page it was on, never what you shared.

This is linked only to the random device identifier described above — never to your name, email, phone number, location, or anything you search or read. We do not sell or share this data with third parties. It is used only to understand which features are useful. Usage data is kept for about 90 days and then deleted automatically.

What you read

We also record which scriptures and daily articles are opened, how far a reading gets, and how the end-of-article quizzes go. This is what tells us which texts people find useful and which ones lose them halfway, so we can write and choose better ones.

These records are stored without the device identifier, so they are not tied to your device or to the rest of what you do in the app. They are counted together, not kept against your device.

Crash reports

If the app (or this website) hits an unexpected error, a crash report may be sent to our own servers so we can find and fix the bug. It contains only technical details — device model, OS version, app version, and the error itself — and is scrubbed of personal information (such as authentication data and URL parameters) before it is sent.

Content updates & server logs

The app ships with its devotional texts, panchang, festivals and pilgrimage entries already on board, so it works fully offline from the moment it is installed. About once a week it asks our server whether any of that has changed — a corrected text, new festival dates, next year's panchang — and downloads only what actually changed, which is usually nothing at all.

Some things are fetched as they are needed rather than shipped inside the app: the daily article, which is topped up every few days; the long scriptures such as Sundarkand, which download the first time you open one; and the deity encyclopedia pages and their pictures, which arrive gradually in the background. These are ordinary content requests — they carry your device's authentication, the same as any other call, and nothing about what you have read before.

Like any internet request, our server briefly records standard connection details (such as IP address) in its logs; these are used only for security and troubleshooting, never to identify you.

Notifications stay on your device

Festival and vrat reminders are scheduled entirely on your device. Your notification preferences are never sent anywhere.

Contacting us via this website

If you use the Contact form, we collect the name, email address, and message you provide so we can respond. These messages are stored securely and used solely to reply to and support you. We do not add you to any marketing list, and we do not share your details with third parties.

Feedback you send from the app

The app has a “Tell us” link on its content pages, and a Share feedback screen in Settings. If you use either, we receive exactly what you typed, along with your app version and which page it was about. Unlike the reading records above, this carries your device identity — a report is a conversation rather than a statistic, and we have to be able to tell one person from many. Your email address is sent only if you fill that box in yourself, and is used only to reply to you. Feedback is sent even if you have turned usage statistics off: you asked us to receive it, and quietly dropping it would be the wrong way to respect that choice. Your message is kept for about 90 days and then deleted automatically.

YouTube videos in the app

Some aartis, chalisas and other texts include a recording on YouTube so you can sing along. When you open one of those texts, YouTube's own player is placed on the page and loads from Google's servers — before you press play. From that point Google, not us, may record that your device requested that video, including against your YouTube or Google account if you are signed in on this device. That is governed by Google's privacy policy, not ours.

If a recording will not play — because it was removed, or its uploader turned off embedding — the app stops showing it and sends us that video's id so we can find a replacement. That report names the video, the text it appears in, and the error — nothing more. Unlike the reading records above, it carries your device identity, as every request to our servers does.

No tracking, no other third parties

Apart from the embedded YouTube player described above, the app uses no third-party analytics or tracking SDKs — everything else described here goes to servers we run ourselves. This website uses no advertising cookies or cross-site trackers.

Children's privacy

DharmaMitra is a general-audience devotional app. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children.

Your choices

"Clear all data" in the app's Settings removes what the app has recorded about you — your profile, bookmarks, recently viewed, reading positions, quiz answers, search history, any kundalis saved and the birth details in them, japa counts, the pilgrimage sites marked as visited, and anything not yet sent — and returns the app to a fresh install. The scriptures and articles already downloaded stay, so the app still works offline. The switch at the bottom of the app's Privacy screen (Settings → Privacy policy) turns usage analytics and crash reports off entirely — after that no usage data or crash reports leave that device, and anything still waiting to be sent is deleted. The only thing that still goes is feedback you write and send yourself. To request deletion of a contact message you sent us, just email us and we'll remove it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time; the "last updated" date above will always reflect the latest version.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email chhindwaralabs@gmail.com or use our contact form.