Privacy Policy
Padi Plan helps Ayyappa devotees find and organise sannidhanams, padi poojas, events, annadanam and seva near them. This policy explains exactly what the app collects, why, who can see it, and how to get rid of it. It describes what the software actually does rather than what we are permitted to do. Using Padi Plan is also subject to our Terms of Use.
What we collect
| Data | Why | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile number | It is how you sign in. We send a one-time code to it by SMS; there is no password. | Until you delete your account |
| Name and profile photo | So fellow devotees and sannidhanam admins can recognise you. | Until you change them or delete your account |
| Personal details: father's name, date of birth, gender; for Individual Swamis also your mala dates and how many times you have taken the mala | To identify you correctly within a sannidhanam and to show your Swami level. Father's name, date of birth and gender are not shown to other devotees. | Until you delete your account |
| Address and location | Your home address (a map point plus the address and house line you enter) and any other addresses you save, to show sannidhanams, events, annadanam and vendors near you. Your phone's location is read only while the app is open and only after you allow it, to fill in an address or sort results by distance. There is no background location tracking and no location history. | Until you change them or delete your account |
| What you post: announcements, chat messages, event details, posters and photos, annadanam announcements, vendor listings and offers, reviews | To share them with the people they are meant for — for example the members of your sannidhanam, the people who follow you, or everyone for a public event. | Until you or an admin delete them (see "Deleting your account") |
| Money records: expenses you log, donation requests and amounts, receipts (donor name, amount, event) | To keep your season's accounts and a sannidhanam's or event's funds. Padi Plan does not process payments; it only records what organisers enter. | Until you delete your account; shared records are anonymised |
| Registrations and requests: event and annadanam registrations, seva and service requests, vehicle bookings, pooja plans, family members you add | To give organisers and our service team what they need to serve you. | Until you delete your account |
| Identity and business documents | Used only to verify a sannidhanam or a vendor before it is listed. | Until you delete the listing or your account |
| Device notification token | To send notifications: reminders before events you registered for, announcements and chat replies from your sannidhanam, Sabarimala news, and updates on your account, requests and listings. | Until you sign out or delete your account |
| Feedback, reports and blocks | Feedback you send (with the app version and phone model, so we can fix problems); content or people you report, so our team can act on it; and people you block, so they are kept out of your view. | Until resolved, or until you delete your account |
| Crash reports | If the app crashes, a report is sent automatically so we can fix it: what went wrong in the code, the app version, your phone model and Android version, and a random ID for this installation. It does not include your name, number or account, and nothing is sent from test builds. | Up to 90 days |
Who can see your information
- Other devotees see your name, photo, city, Swami level and sannidhanam, and what you post to them.
- Your mobile number is not shown to other devotees, with one exception: when you organise an event or collect donations for it, the contact number for that event (or your own number, if you did not give one) is shown to devotees who register or donate, so they can reach you.
- Vendors' numbers are hidden from devotees. When you request a service, our Service Person is given the vendor's contact details and connects you, which keeps devotees from being cold-called and vendor numbers out of a public directory.
- "Let nearby devotees find me" is off unless you switch it on. When it is on, other devotees can see you on the Nearby map at an approximate position (rounded to about a kilometre); your exact address is never shown. You can switch it off at any time.
- Our team. Padi Plan's Super Admins and service team can see contact details to verify listings, handle reports and route requests. Identity and business documents are visible only to you, our Super Admins and our service team who verify vendors — never to other users or on a public listing.
- Reports are seen only by our team. The person you report is not told who reported them. People you block are not told either.
Service providers
We do not sell, rent or trade personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. It is shared only with the providers that make the app work, and only as far as each needs:
| Provider | What for | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services (Mumbai, India) | Hosting, database and encrypted backups | All app data, stored on our behalf |
| MSG91 | Sending your sign-in code by SMS | Your mobile number and the code |
| Google Firebase Cloud Messaging | Delivering notifications to your phone | Your device token and the notification text |
| Google Firebase Crashlytics | Crash reports | The crash report described above |
| OpenStreetMap | Map images | Your IP address and the map area you view |
| Your phone's built-in address lookup (Google, on most Android phones) | Turning a map point into a readable address | The map point |
| Nominatim (OpenStreetMap) and Photon (komoot) | Address search, and address lookup when the phone cannot do it | The text you search for, or the map point |
| Google Fonts | Downloading the app's fonts | Your IP address |
Deleting your account
You can delete your account from inside the app: Me → Delete account. No email, no waiting on a reply. Full instructions, including how to request deletion if you cannot open the app, are on the Delete your account page. If you only want a break, Me → Deactivate account signs you out and hides your listings without deleting anything; contact us to switch it back on.
Deletion destroys everything personal: your mobile number, name, photo, personal details, saved addresses, family member details, uploaded documents, notification tokens and sign-in sessions. Your vendor listings stop being visible to anyone.
Some records are kept in an anonymised form because they belong to other people as much as to you — an annadanam booking a sannidhanam is relying on, a sannidhanam's accounts, or a rating a vendor has earned. Announcements and chat messages you posted stay in their conversation shown as from "Deleted user"; delete them first if you want them gone. None of this can be traced back to you.
Backups
To recover from accidents, the database is backed up every day to encrypted storage in AWS (Mumbai). Daily copies are kept for 30 days, weekly copies for 90 days and monthly copies for up to 12 months; each is then deleted automatically. Data you delete therefore disappears from backups within 12 months at most. Backups are used only to restore the service.
How your data is protected
- All traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted (HTTPS).
- One-time codes are stored hashed, never in readable form, and expire.
- Sign-in sessions expire and can be revoked.
- Identity documents are served only to their owner, our Super Admins and our service team.
- Backups are encrypted.
Children
The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we will remove it.
Your rights
You can view and correct your details in the app at any time, switch off "Let nearby devotees find me", deactivate your account, or delete it as described above. To request a copy of your data, or to raise a concern about how it is handled, contact us at the address below.
Changes
If this policy changes materially, we will show a notice in the app before the change takes effect. The date at the top always reflects the current version.
Contact
Padi Plan is operated by Peco Tech Solutions (India). For questions about this policy, or to request a copy or deletion of your data, contact us at pecotechsolutions@gmail.com.