Privacy Policy

1. Scope

This privacy policy applies to the bharatsurvey.org website, the Bharat Survey web panel (client panel and company panel) and the Bharat Survey Android app. “We” means the entity that operates the Bharat Survey platform (its legal name and registration details will be added here before launch).

The policy covers data about three groups of people:

• Website visitors and leads: people who fill in the demo or contact form, or email us.
• Clients and their users: leaders / Owners, Admins, supervisors, Viewers, booth in-charges and field volunteers / enumerators who use the panel or the app.
• Respondents: people from whom our client’s team collects information in a survey.

2. Roles under the DPDP Act: the client is the data fiduciary, we are the processor

In the language of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act): survey answers, location evidence and photos are collected on the instructions of our client (a candidate, agency, company, NGO or government department). The client is the data fiduciary for that data and decides its purpose, consent text and retention. For that data Bharat Survey acts as a data processor: we process it on the client’s instructions, under this policy and the service agreement, and never use it for purposes of our own.

For website leads and client user accounts (name, mobile, role), we are the data fiduciary ourselves.

3. Data we collect on the website

• Demo / contact form: name, mobile, organisation type, (optional) state and area, team size, message. Purpose: to contact you, schedule a demo and send a quotation. Not used for anything else and not shared with any third party. No OTP is sent to your mobile.
• Server logs: IP address, browser, page and time — for security, abuse prevention and troubleshooting. Kept only as long as needed for security and audit.
• No advertising trackers: we do not use Facebook / Google ad pixels or third-party behavioural tracking. If we ever add privacy-respecting analytics, this policy will be updated first.

4. Data we collect in the app and panel

4.1 User accounts

Name, mobile number (for OTP login), role, assigned area, device identity (one volunteer = one authorised device) and app version. Purpose: login, seat management, assignments and security.

4.2 Location — only during a shift, foreground, user-initiated

• A volunteer’s location is recorded only after they tap “Start shift” in the app themselves. Throughout the shift a persistent notification on the phone shows that location is being shared. Collection stops as soon as they tap “End shift”.
• No background tracking. If the app is closed or no shift is running, no location is taken. This follows Google Play’s location policy.
• Each survey submission records the location, time, accuracy, age of the fix and a mock-location signal at that moment — this is evidence of where the survey happened, not surveillance of a person.
• Leaders and managers see location only for shift time, with the time of the last update.
• Respondents and voters are never location-tracked.

4.3 Survey answers, photos and consent

• Survey answers are collected according to the client’s form and belong to the client (tenant).
• Respondents see an introduction and consent screen in the app: who is running the survey, for what purpose, that it is voluntary, that any question can be skipped, and that “declined” is a valid outcome. The consent time and consent-text version are stored with the record.
• Contact details (mobile / email) require separate consent and are kept in a vault apart from survey answers, under separate permissions.
• Photos are by default of public issues (roads, drains, facilities); photos of faces are not the default. Photos are compressed on the phone.
• Sensitive questions (such as religion, caste or political leaning) go live in a client’s form only after Bharat Survey approves them, and they are always optional for the respondent.

4.4 Quality and audit data

Time spent per question, navigation, edits and sync status — to catch fake or implausibly fast interviews and keep data accountable. Every significant action in the panel (who, what, when, why) is written to an audit log; access to sensitive data is logged with a reason.

5. Purpose limitation: what we use data for

• Providing the service: login, assignments, offline sync, live map, QA, reports, exports, seat management and billing.
• Security: preventing abuse, fake GPS, duplicates and unauthorised access.
• Support: diagnosing a problem when you ask us to.
• Legal obligations: where the law requires it.

We do not sell client or respondent data, do not use it for advertising, do not show one client’s data to another, and do not combine data across clients to build profiles of individuals. Personal data from the electoral roll is not imported in v1.

6. Tenant isolation: every client’s data kept apart

Each client’s (tenant’s) data is separated at every layer — API, database (row-level security), file storage, exports and live connections. A user sees only their own tenant, role and assigned area; this is checked on every API request. When an agency runs several projects, each of its clients’ data still stays separate.

7. Storage, encryption and security

• Data in India: servers and backups are hosted in India. Data is not transferred outside India, except through the third-party services listed in section 10.
• Encryption: HTTPS/TLS in transit; encryption at rest for sensitive fields (contacts, location); an encrypted local database on the phone, so a lost phone does not expose data.
• Access control: role- and area-based permissions; limited permissions for Bharat Survey staff; every staff access to client data is audited with a reason.
• Audit logs: who / what / when / why — edits, exports, seat changes, consent and sensitive access.
• Backups: daily database backups plus weekly snapshots, in India, encrypted; restores are tested regularly.
• Security incidents: in the event of a breach involving personal data, we inform affected clients without undue delay and make the notifications required under the DPDP Act.

8. Retention: how long data is kept

• Website leads: kept only to respond to you and never sold or shared for advertising; ask us any time to delete them.
• Server logs: kept as long as needed for security and audit.
• Survey answers, location evidence, photos, contact vault: kept for as long as the account or contract lasts, and afterwards as needed for legal, audit and client export purposes; deleted on a valid request under the DPDP Act or when the client instructs. When a plan ends, data stays read-only and the client can ask us to export it later. Location trails are collected only during shifts.
• Audit logs: kept for security and accountability, including after survey data is deleted.
• Backups: when data is deleted on request, it also leaves the backups once the backup cycle completes.

9. Cookies

The website uses only essential cookies / local storage — for example your language preference and your login session in the panel. No advertising, remarketing or third-party tracking cookies. That is why there is no cookie banner; if non-essential cookies are ever added, a consent banner and this section will be updated on the same day.

10. Third-party services

To deliver the service we use a small number of providers, with the minimum data and only for that task:

• OTP / SMS gateway: mobile number, to send login OTPs.
• Push-notification service: device token for app notifications (no survey data).
• Google Sheets (optional, only if the client chooses it): a one-way copy of reports into the client’s own Google Sheet — the client can switch it off at any time.
• Hosting and object storage: servers and file storage located in India.

We do not give data to any data broker or advertising network. Data will be shared only when legally required (a valid order of a court or competent authority), and where possible we will inform the client first.

11. Your rights under the DPDP Act, 2023

Under the DPDP Act 2023 you have the right to access information about, correct and erase your personal data, withdraw consent and raise a grievance.

• Website leads and client users: write to us directly at support@bharatsurvey.org; we reply within 30 days.
• Respondents: your data was collected on the instructions of our client (the data fiduciary). You can send your request to that organisation or to us — we pass it to the client, help process it and tell you the status within 30 days. The organisation’s name was shown on your consent screen at the time of the survey.
• Withdrawing consent: a volunteer can stop location sharing immediately with “End shift”; a respondent can withdraw contact consent, and their contact details are then removed from the vault.

12. Grievance officer

As required by the DPDP Act 2023, a grievance officer will be appointed; their name and contact details will be published in this section before launch. Until then, send all privacy complaints to support@bharatsurvey.org with the subject “Privacy”. We will reply within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you may approach the Data Protection Board of India.

13. Children

Bharat Survey accounts (panel and volunteer app) are only for people aged 18 or over. Data relating to minors can be collected in a survey only if the client’s form explicitly allows it and verifiable consent of a parent or guardian is obtained under Section 9 of the DPDP Act; such forms go live only after Bharat Survey approves them. Children are never tracked or subjected to behavioural monitoring in any form.

14. Special rules for political use

• Personal data from the electoral roll is not imported in v1; work is done on booth-level masters (part number, building, voter count).
• No individual profiling or location tracking of voters.
• We do not offer a service for sending political messages over WhatsApp or SMS; team notifications stay inside the app.
• The client is responsible for following Election Commission rules (such as the silence period); the platform provides features that support compliance with them.

15. Changes to this policy

Changes will be published here with a new effective date and version number. For significant changes (a new type of data, a new third party, a change in retention) clients will be told by email and app users inside the app. Earlier versions are available on request.

16. Contact

For any privacy question, request or complaint: support@bharatsurvey.org (subject: Privacy). The company’s legal name, registered address and grievance officer details will be added here before launch.