Privacy aur Data

1. Who we are

KaunHoTum is run by Ankit Lokare, an individual based in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India ("we", "us"). Under India's data protection law we are the Data Fiduciary: the one who decides why and how your personal data is used, and who answers to you for it.

Grievance Officer (the person who handles your complaints and data requests): Ankit Lokare, +91 79776 14306, grievances@sagewabbit.com.

2. Words used in this notice

KaunHoTum has its own names for some features. This is what each one means.

Kirdaar: your personality result from the first quiz, shown as a Bollywood character.

Layers: short follow-up quizzes, each about one part of you (for example how you handle conflict). They sharpen your profile and your match readings.

Villain layer: a layer about how you behave at your worst in a relationship. Only you see your result; no other user ever does. In matching it works only as a safety brake: it can lower a match score, never raise one.

Kashish layer: an optional layer about your romantic-chemistry style. It asks you nothing until you agree to it.

Chemistry: a reading of how two personality types get along. You pick both types yourself. It needs no account, and the pairs you look at stay on your phone.

Compatibility code: a short code you can share. Someone who enters it sees one compatibility number for the two of you, and nothing else, only while you keep the code switched on.

Poori chemistry report: if you and another person each enter the other's compatibility code and both switch on "share full report", each of you sees the other's result type for the layers you have both done, with a short reading of the pair. Never your answers, and never the villain or kashish layer. When either of you switches it off, it closes and your shared result types are deleted.

Haan / Nahi: the yes and no buttons on a profile (a like or a pass). When two people both say Haan, it becomes a match.

Weekly slate: the three people the app picks for you to look at each week.

Weekly introductions: on a paid plan, if you are verified and your profile is complete, the app can introduce you to up to three people a week with the chat already open. You can switch this off in Account.

Pehli Jhalak: the photo reveal. Your photo stays hidden from a match until both of you choose to reveal. Either of you can pause it.

Dono Bolo: question cards inside a chat. You and your match answer the same question, and your answer stays hidden until the other person has answered too.

Safety contacts: people you add so you can text them your date plan in one tap. The text goes from your phone, not through us.

Main: the account tab of the app. Its screen "Aapka data, aapka haq" ("Your data, your right" in the English edition) is where you use your data rights.

Data Processor: a company that handles data for us under contract, only for the job we hire it to do.

3. What personal data we collect

Account: your email address and sign-up date.

Profile: name, date of birth, gender, city, bio, photos and personality type; and, only if you choose to answer, your religion and what you would prefer in a partner's faith.

Quizzes: your answers and results, including your Kirdaar and any layers you take (the villain and Kashish layers too, if you take them).

Life goals and deal-breakers you set, and your match preferences, including the age range you want to meet. Matching uses your city and that range: you are shown only to people in the same city (or, if you both choose to be open to other cities, to people elsewhere who chose the same), and only when each of you falls inside the other's range.

Matching: your Haan / Nahi on profiles, your matches, your weekly slates and introductions, your compatibility code, and who you have shared a Poori chemistry report with, together with your layer result types, kept only while that sharing is on.

Chats: text messages, voice notes, reactions, quoted replies and your Dono Bolo answers.

Pehli Jhalak: for each match, whether you chose to reveal, paused or left, and when the photos were revealed.

Approximate location, only if you switch it on. It is rounded to about 1 km on your phone before it is sent.

Identity verification, only if you choose to verify: the result and a reference number. The selfie itself is held by our verification provider (see §6).

Safety contacts you add: their name, phone number and relationship to you.

Hidden contacts ("Jaan-pehchaan walon se chhupo"), only if you use it: the phone numbers you choose, each turned into a fixed code (a SHA-256 hash) on your phone before it is sent. Your contact list itself never leaves your phone. We compare these codes only with the verified phone numbers of KaunHoTum accounts, to keep you and those people out of each other's discovery, picks, slates and introductions. Existing matches and chats are not affected. Removing a number deletes it, and deleting your account deletes them all.

Phone number, only if you choose to verify one: the number and when it was verified. We text a one-time code to it to confirm it is yours. A verified number is used only to make hidden contacts work (see above) and to keep your sign-in safe. Other users never see it.

Weekly kirdaar note, only if you switch it on: that it is on, the language for its notification, and which note reached you each week. The note text stays in the app. Switching it off stops new notes.

Your consent records and your data requests.

Device, log and usage data. App usage events are sent only if you switch app analytics on.

Ad measurement, only if you switch it on: that the app was installed and opened, that your account was created, and on Android your device advertising ID (see §6).

Crash and diagnostic reports: technical facts about a crash, freeze or failed request (see §6).

Payment status: the purchase reference and plan status from Google Play or the App Store. We never receive your card or UPI details.

Website waitlist: if you joined the waitlist on kaunhotum.com with the same email that is verified on your app account, we link the two on our servers so you keep your place in the Founding Season queue. The app never sees the waitlist. If your sign-in hides your email (Sign in with Apple can), no link is made. Deleting your account removes the link.

4. Why we use it

We use your data only for these purposes: to create and show your profile; to confirm you are 18 or over; to match you and work out compatibility; to run chats, Dono Bolo and Pehli Jhalak; to keep people safe (moderation, fraud checks and child-safety checks); to run subscriptions and weekly introductions; to keep the service secure and fix crashes; and to comply with the law.

5. Our legal basis

We process your data on the basis of your consent (DPDP §6). A few activities may rely on the narrow "legitimate uses" in DPDP §7, such as complying with a legal order or responding to a safety or medical emergency. We do not rely on "contractual necessity", which is not a lawful basis under the Act.

6. Who we share it with

We share the minimum needed with vetted Data Processors under contract:

Supabase (cloud hosting and database) stores your account, profile, quiz answers, chats and uploaded media.

Sightengine (content moderation) automatically checks uploaded images for nudity and violence, and checks text.

Project Arachnid Shield, run by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (child-safety check), compares every uploaded image against a database of known child sexual abuse material before it is stored or shown to anyone. Sightengine and Arachnid Shield both receive the uploaded image in order to run these checks.

Didit (identity verification, only if you choose to verify) receives the selfie and liveness images you submit for that check and sends us back a result. No ID document is asked for. We do not store those images: we keep only the outcome (verified or not). Didit deletes your verification data one month after the check, and at once if you delete your account.

MSG91, run by Walkover Web Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (SMS delivery, only if you verify a phone number), receives your phone number and the one-time code in order to send you that text message.

Sentry, run by Functional Software, Inc. (crash reports), stores reports in its European Union data region (Frankfurt, Germany) and deletes them after 90 days. Reports are sent only after you have given consent in the app, and stop if you withdraw it. We use them only to find and fix crashes, freezes and slow screens. When the app crashes, freezes, runs out of memory or a request to our servers fails, a report carries: your phone's operating system and version, make and model; the app version, build number and over-the-air update id and channel; the language edition you use; whether the phone was low on memory; the network type (Wi-Fi or mobile data) where the phone reports it; the screen and feature area you were on; our internal error code; and, for a failed request, only the server address and status code. We also count app sessions to measure how often the app runs without crashing, and time how long screens take to load in about 15% of sessions. A report identifies you only by a one-way scrambled (salted hash) id, never your account id, and Sentry is set not to store your IP address. A report never contains your messages or voice notes, photos or photo links, quiz answers or results, your name, phone number or email, your precise location, payment or sign-in tokens, or the contents of any request; the app removes these before anything is sent. Screenshots, screen recordings and session replay are switched off.

Product analytics run on our own Supabase setup, and no third-party analytics company receives them. The one exception is ad measurement (next line), which is off unless you switch it on.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook and Instagram ads) receives ad-measurement events only if you switch on Ad measurement: that the app was installed and opened, and that an account was created, plus your device advertising ID on Android. On iPhone the app never asks to track you and sends no advertising ID. Meta uses this to tell us which of our ads led to an install. It never receives your profile, quiz answers, faith, chats or photos. You can switch it off any time in Main → Privacy & data, and it stops if you withdraw consent. Meta handles this data under its own terms and may process it outside India.

Payments are handled by the app store you bought your plan from (Google Play or the Apple App Store), under their own terms. We never receive your card or UPI details; we receive only a purchase reference and your subscription status.

We do not sell your personal data. We may disclose data to law enforcement on a lawful request, and we are legally required to report child sexual abuse material to NCMEC and Indian authorities.

7. How long we keep it

We keep personal data only as long as we need it for the purposes above, and erase it when you withdraw consent or delete your account, except where the law requires us to keep it. Security logs are kept for at least one year, as the DPDP Rules require. Crash and diagnostic reports are deleted after 90 days. Identity-verification data held by Didit is deleted one month after the check. Accounts with no sign-in for 24 months are erased.

8. Your rights

You can, at any time: access a summary of your data and who it was shared with; correct/complete/update it; erase it (delete your account); raise a grievance; nominate someone to exercise your rights on death or incapacity; and withdraw consent. Exercise these in the app under Main → "Aapka data, aapka haq", or via the Grievance Officer. To nominate someone, email the nominee's name and contact details to grievances@sagewabbit.com — we record the nomination manually, acknowledge it, and honour it with the same discipline and timelines as any other data request. We respond within the timelines set by the DPDP Rules, and resolve grievances within 90 days.

9. Children

KaunHoTum is strictly for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly process the data of anyone under 18. If we learn a user is a minor, we remove the account and delete the data. India's data protection and child-protection laws (the DPDP Act and POCSO) are why the age check at sign-up is enforced.

10. How we protect your data

We use reasonable security safeguards: encryption in transit and at rest, access controls, and monitoring. Screens that show another member's profile, photos or your chats block screenshots and screen recording where your phone allows it. You can still save a record of your own chat from the report sheet for a complaint: the app builds it on your phone, you choose where to share it, and we do not receive or keep a copy.

11. Cross-border transfer

If any processing or storage happens outside India, it happens only in places the DPDP Act and its notifications allow. Crash and diagnostic reports (§6) are stored in the European Union (Frankfurt, Germany). Identity verification (§6) is processed by Didit in the European Union. Ad-measurement events (§6), if you switch them on, are processed by Meta, including in the United States.

12. Data breaches

If a personal-data breach occurs, we will notify affected users without delay, and file the detailed report the DPDP Rules require with the Data Protection Board of India within 72 hours. The Board has not yet been constituted, so no filing channel exists today; that does not reduce the duty, and your notice does not wait for it.

13. Grievances & complaints

Contact our Grievance Officer first (grievances@sagewabbit.com). Under the DPDP Act you must give us the chance to resolve it before escalating. If it stays unresolved, the Act lets you complain to the Data Protection Board of India; the Board exists in law but has not been constituted, and there is no filing portal yet, so we will not point you at one that does not exist. We will publish its route here as soon as it opens. For content and intermediary grievances the live escalation today is the Grievance Appellate Committee (gac.gov.in) within 30 days of our decision.

14. Changes to this notice

We will tell you about material changes and, where required, ask for your consent again.

15. Contact

Ankit Lokare, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Email grievances@sagewabbit.com, phone +91 79776 14306.