Privacy Policy
Your trust matters to us. Pardah is built for women and the businesses they run, so we collect only what we need to make the app work, keep it safe and help you connect — and we never sell your personal data.
1. Who we are
Pardah (“Pardah”, “we”, “us”) is a community and business directory app that helps people discover and connect with women-led businesses, and gives women entrepreneurs tools to list, promote and grow their work. Pardah is available as a mobile app (Android and iOS) and on the web at pardah.app.
Pardah is developed and managed by TIJARAT VENTURES (OPC) PRIVATE LIMITED, which is the data controller (“data fiduciary”) for the personal data described in this policy.
This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it and the choices and rights you have. It applies to the Pardah app, the website, the Pardah Admin and our official WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and other social channels.
2. Information we collect
a) Information you give us
- Account details – mobile number (verified by a one-time code), and if you choose: name, username, email address, password (stored only as a secure hash), profile photo or avatar, short bio and your preferred language.
- Sign in with Apple – if you use it, Apple shares your Apple ID identifier and, if you allow it, your name and email (which may be a private relay address).
- Business listings – business or brand name, legal business name, owner name, listing type (business or independent), category, description, services, opening hours, contact email, phone and WhatsApp numbers, website and Instagram handle, address, city, state, country, postal code, an optional exact map pin, and registration details you choose to add.
- Messages – chats you send to businesses and their replies.
- Reviews and ratings – star ratings and any text you write, shown with your display name.
- Pardah Circle – posts, photos, comments, likes, polls/answers, businesses you tag and reports you make about content.
- Events – events you like and businesses you add to an event.
- Saved items and notes – businesses and places you save, and personal notes/reminders you write in the app (visible only to you).
- Safety (SOS) features – trusted contacts you add (name and phone number). When you start a live location share or SOS, we process your location for the time you choose and create a private link for the people you send it to.
- PardahAI – the questions you type to our in-app assistant and your “helpful / not helpful” feedback.
- Payments, points and invoices – what you buy (listing fee, featured listing, Pardah Points top-ups), the amount, currency, applicable tax (for example GST or VAT), coupon used, payment status and invoice details. Card, UPI and bank details are entered directly with our payment partners (Razorpay or Stripe) and are never stored by Pardah.
- Pardah Points and referrals – your points balance and history, referral code, and who joined using your code.
- Support and requests – what you send us by email, WhatsApp or the “request your city” form on our website (name, contact, city, country and your note).
- Communication choices – whether you opted in to updates on WhatsApp, and your notification settings.
b) Information collected automatically
- Location – with your permission, your device’s approximate or precise location to show businesses and events near you, fill in addresses, place your listing on the map and power SOS live location. You can change this anytime in your phone settings. If you don’t allow it, you can still type a city.
- Device and usage information – device type, operating system, app version, language, IP address, crash and error logs, and pages or screens used, so we can keep Pardah secure and working.
- Push notification token – a device token from Apple / Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging) so we can send you notifications you’ve allowed.
- Listing activity – counts of views, saves, calls, WhatsApp taps and messages on a listing, shown to that business owner as statistics.
- Security signals – Google reCAPTCHA checks on sign-in and forms to block bots and abuse; sign-in sessions and, for Pardah staff, two-step sign-in (2FA) records.
c) Information from others
- Payment status from Razorpay or Stripe, and verification results from Apple when you use Sign in with Apple.
- Content other members post that mentions or tags your business, and reviews about your listing.
3. How we use your information
- To run Pardah – create your account, verify your number, show and search listings, connect customers and businesses, deliver messages, reviews, Circle posts and events.
- To review listings – our team checks new listings and edits before they go live, to keep Pardah safe and genuine.
- To personalise – show nearby businesses, your language, categories and suggestions.
- To process payments – listing fees, featured listings and points top-ups; calculate tax by the country of your login number; issue receipts and invoices (which we may send to your registered number on WhatsApp).
- To keep you safe – SOS and live location sharing, fraud and spam prevention, enforcing our Terms and Circle rules, and handling reports.
- PardahAI – answer your questions about Pardah and suggest matching listings; we review unanswered questions to teach better answers.
- To communicate – sign-in codes, notifications about your listing, messages, payments and events, and (only if you opted in) updates on WhatsApp. You can turn these off at any time.
- To improve Pardah – understand which features are used, fix bugs and measure performance, mostly with aggregated statistics.
- Legal reasons – meet tax, accounting and legal obligations, and respond to lawful requests.
We process data because it is needed to provide the service you asked for (contract), with your consent (for example location, WhatsApp updates and notifications), for our legitimate interests in keeping Pardah safe and improving it, and to comply with law.
4. What other people can see
- Live listings are public: business name, category, description, services, hours, city, contact buttons, photos, website/Instagram, ratings and reviews. Your exact map pin is shown only if you choose to show it.
- Reviews show your display name and rating.
- Pardah Circle posts, comments and your display name/avatar are visible to other Circle members.
- Messages are visible only to you and the business (or customer) you are chatting with, and to our team when we investigate a report.
- Your mobile number, email and payment history are never shown publicly.
6. PardahAI
PardahAI only answers questions about Pardah and its listings. Your questions are sent to our AI provider (Google Gemini) to create an answer, together with public listing information that matches your question. Please don’t share sensitive personal details with the assistant. We keep questions and answers to improve PardahAI and may review questions it could not answer.
7. Location and SOS
- Location is used only after you allow it, and you can switch it off in your phone settings at any time.
- We store the city/area you pick and, for listings, the map pin you set.
- Live location sharing (SOS) works only while a share is active and stops automatically when the time you chose ends or when you stop it.
8. How long we keep information
- Account and listing data – while your account is active. When you delete your account, we delete or anonymise your personal data within 30 days.
- Messages, reviews and Circle posts – until you delete them or your account; reviews and posts may stay in anonymised form (“Pardah member”).
- Sign-in codes – expire within minutes and are stored only as a secure hash.
- Payment, tax and invoice records – kept for as long as tax and accounting laws require (in India, generally 8 years), even after account deletion.
- Backups and security logs – kept for a limited time and then overwritten.
9. How we protect your information
We use HTTPS encryption for all traffic, hashed passwords and codes, access controls, two-step sign-in (2FA) and role-based permissions for our team, bot protection with reCAPTCHA, regular backups and limited staff access. No system is 100% secure, so please keep your phone and sign-in codes private and tell us at once if you think your account was misused.
10. Your choices and rights
Depending on where you live (including under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the EU/UK GDPR and similar laws in the Gulf region), you can:
- access the personal data we hold about you and get a copy;
- correct or update it – most details can be edited in the app (Profile, My listings);
- delete your account and personal data – see Delete your account;
- withdraw consent – for example turn off location, notifications or WhatsApp updates;
- object to or restrict certain uses, and ask us to move your data to another service;
- nominate another person to exercise your rights if you are unable to; and
- complain to your data protection authority (in India, the Data Protection Board of India).
Write to [email protected] from your registered email, or message us from your registered number. We answer within 30 days and may ask you to confirm your identity.
11. Deleting your account
You can ask us to delete your Pardah account and the personal data linked to it at any time. In the app go to More → Delete my account, or follow the steps on pardah.app/delete-account. Your public listings, Circle posts and chats are removed, and any remaining Pardah Points are forfeited. Records we must keep by law (such as invoices) are kept as described above.
12. Children
Pardah is not meant for children under 13, and you must be at least 18 years old to create a business listing or make payments. We don’t knowingly collect data from children; if you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
13. International transfers
Pardah is used in India, the Gulf region and other countries. Our servers and some providers (such as Google, Apple, Meta and Stripe) may process data in other countries. When we transfer data, we use providers with strong safeguards and only as allowed by applicable law.
15. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when Pardah adds features or when laws change. We’ll change the date at the top and, for important changes, tell you in the app before they apply.
16. Contact and grievance officer
For privacy questions, requests or complaints, contact our Grievance Officer:
Grievance Officer – Pardah
TIJARAT VENTURES (OPC) PRIVATE LIMITED
Email: [email protected]
Website: pardah.app
pardah.app is developed and managed by TIJARAT VENTURES (OPC) PRIVATE LIMITED.
Questions about this policy: [email protected]