Privacy Policy

Welcome to AskPondy ("we," "our," or "us"). AskPondy is an innovative hyperlocal social platform for Auroville and Pondicherry that connects the community for sharing events, workshops, bike sharing, and local discovery using AI-powered insights. We value your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit and use our website (https://askpondy.com) and our mobile applications or other services (collectively, the "Service").

1. Information We Collect

We may collect several types of information from and about users of our Service, including:

• Account Information: When you register an account, we collect your email address, display name, password (encrypted), and profile picture (if uploaded). You may also sign in using Google Auth, which shares your name, email address, and profile picture with us.
• User-Generated Content: We collect the content you publish on the Service, including posts, descriptions, tags, event dates, votes, and images.
• Chat Messages: When you communicate with other users via our private one-to-one chat, we collect and store these messages securely on our databases to facilitate communication.
• Technical & Usage Data: We collect details of your visits to our Service, including traffic data, location data, logs, browser type, device information, and reference links, primarily processed using standard tools like Google Analytics.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for various purposes, including to:

• Provide, operate, maintain, and improve the Service.
• Verify your identity and manage your user account.
• Publish your posts and display them to other users according to your preferences.
• Power our AI chatbot, which processes public posts to answer user inquiries about local events and workshops.
• Address security, prevent fraud, and troubleshoot technical issues on our platform.
• Fulfill our legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Service.

3. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties. We may share your information under the following circumstances:

• With Other Users: Your display name, profile picture, public posts, ratings, and leaderboard standing are visible to other users of the Service.
• Service Providers: We share data with third-party vendors who perform services on our behalf, such as cloud hosting providers (Amazon Web Services), database managers, and analytics platforms (Google Analytics). These providers only access data necessary to perform their tasks.
• Legal Compliance: We may disclose information if required by law, regulation, or legal process to protect our rights, safety, or the safety of our users.

4. Data Storage and Security

We host our infrastructure and databases using secure, industry-leading cloud infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). We implement standard technical, administrative, and physical security measures to guard your information against unauthorized access, loss, or alteration. However, please note that no internet transmission is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

5. Cookies and Tracking

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track activity on our Service and store certain information to improve user experience. We use Google Analytics to monitor and analyze web traffic. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent.

6. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access and Update: You can edit your profile information (display name, profile picture) directly from your profile settings on the platform.
• Deletions: You can delete any posts you have authored. If you wish to delete your account permanently, you can contact us at our email address.
• Opt-Out: You may opt-out of cookie tracking through your browser settings.

7. Children's Privacy

Our Service is not directed to individuals under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If we discover that a child under 13 has provided us with personal data, we will take immediate steps to delete such information from our servers.

8. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date at the top. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at: