Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

KitabPadhoIndia is run by [Legal entity name], [Registered address] (“KitabPadhoIndia”, “we”, “us” or “our”).

Under the DPDP Act, we are the Data Fiduciary for your personal data. This means we decide why and how your data is used, and we are responsible for protecting it. You are the Data Principal: the person the data is about.

Your PatienceAI sign-in

You sign in to KitabPadhoIndia with a PatienceAI account. It is a shared sign-in: you can use the same account for other PatienceAI apps. The sign-in itself (your email address, your name and, if you use Google, your Google profile) is the same in every PatienceAI app you use. The data you add to KitabPadhoIndia, such as your profile, listings and chats, is used only for KitabPadhoIndia. Other PatienceAI apps have their own privacy policies.

2. What data we collect

You can browse listings, Semester Kits and colleges without an account. We collect personal data only when you sign in and use KitabPadhoIndia, and only what we need.

Data you give us

• Account details: your name and email address. If you sign in with Google, Google shares your basic profile with us (name, email address and profile picture). If you sign in with email and password, your password is managed by Google Firebase Authentication, and we never see it in readable form.
• Consent record: that you agreed to our Terms of use and this policy and confirmed you are 18 or older, which versions you agreed to, and when.
• Profile details: your college, course, branch and year of study.
• College ID photo: a photo of your college ID card, which you upload to get verified.
• Listings: 1 to 6 photos of your item, category (Book, Instrument or Kit), title, ISBN (optional), semester, condition grade, MRP, your price, extra details (optional) and the campus pickup point you choose.
• Wanted requests: the item you need and the semester.
• Chats: the messages you send and receive in the app, including quick replies, photos and short videos (up to 60 seconds and 25 MB).
• Exchange confirmations and ratings: a record that you tapped “Exchange done”, with the item and its price, and the rating (1 to 5 stars) and optional comment you give the other student.
• Reports and blocks: what you report, the reason you choose, any details you add, and the people you block.
• Settings: your choices for online status, read receipts, notifications, data saver and video playback are saved with your account. Appearance settings (theme, language and reduce motion) are saved on your device.
• Messages to us: emails you send us, such as questions, requests or complaints, and our replies.

Data we create or collect automatically

• Account status: whether your college ID is verified, your average rating and how many items you have sold.
• Chat activity: while you use chat, our server keeps track of whether you are online, when you were last seen, when you are typing and when you have read a chat, so the app can show this to the people you chat with. You can turn off online status and read receipts in Settings.
• Safety records: the results of automatic safety checks on your listings, messages, Wanted requests and profile name (for example, whether something was hidden, flagged or blocked, and why), and any warnings (“strikes”) on your account. See Automatic safety checks.
• In-app notifications: for example, when you get a new message or when an item matching your Wanted request is listed.
• Upload details: the type, size and dimensions of the photos and videos you upload, and how long videos are.
• Technical data: basic details such as your device type, app or browser version, IP address and sign-in times. Our server and Cloudflare use these to keep the service working and to protect it from attacks and spam, for example by limiting how many requests can come from one place.
• Sign-in storage: the app saves your sign-in session on your device so you stay signed in. This website doesn't use cookies for tracking, analytics or ads.

What we don't collect

• Phone number and contacts: we don't ask for your phone number, and we never access your phone's contacts.
• Precise location: the app doesn't ask for location access and doesn't track where you are. Meet-ups happen at fixed campus pickup points. Photos can contain location data (EXIF). We remove it, and re-compress the photo, before anyone else sees it. Videos are stored as they are sent, so if your camera saves your location in videos, turn that off before you record one to share.
• Payment details: you pay the seller in person, by UPI or cash. KitabPadhoIndia doesn't process payments, so we never see your bank, card or UPI details. We will never ask you for advance payment.

The app uses your camera or photo gallery only when you choose to add a photo or video. The Android app also asks for permission to install apps (Android calls this “Install unknown apps”). It uses it only to install KitabPadhoIndia updates that it downloads from kpi.patienceai.tech.

3. Why we use your data

We use your data only for these purposes:

• Your account: to sign you in, set up your profile and keep your account secure.
• Verification: to check, through a campus ambassador of your college, that you study there. Only verified students can sell, chat, post Wanted requests, confirm exchanges and rate.
• The marketplace: to show listings (including in Semester Kits and on shared listing links), tell you when an item you want is listed, run the chat (including typing indicators, read receipts, photos and videos), record exchanges and show ratings.
• Safety: to run automatic safety checks, hide contact details typed in chats, warn people about likely scams, review reports, apply blocks, remove fake, pirated or banned listings (see our list of prohibited items), act on harassment and fraud, and enforce our Terms of use.
• Keeping the service working: to find and fix problems, prevent spam and misuse, and deliver Android app updates.
• Talking to you: to send in-app notifications, verification results, password reset emails and replies to your messages. We don't send marketing SMS or emails.
• Legal duties: to follow the law, respond to valid legal requests and handle grievances.

If we want to use your data for a new purpose, we will tell you first and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

4. Automatic safety checks

To keep KitabPadhoIndia safe, we check listings, chat messages, Wanted requests, profile names and reports automatically.

• Our own filters come first. They look for abuse, scams (such as requests for advance payment or an OTP), pirated books, prohibited items and contact details. Phone numbers, email addresses and UPI IDs typed in a chat are hidden. Obvious abuse is blocked. If a message looks like a scam, the person receiving it sees a warning.
• An AI safety model takes a closer look. New listings, the photos you add to listings and chats, and messages that our filters flag may be checked by an AI safety model, Anthropic's Claude. Anything that still looks suspicious may be reviewed by our team. Only the content being checked is sent to Anthropic, without your name or email address. Anthropic does not use data sent through its API to train its models.
• What happens next. If our checks block something you post, the app tells you why. If you keep posting content that gets blocked, the app may stop you from sending chat messages for 24 hours. Repeated problems are sent to our team, and only our team decides to suspend or close an account.

Automatic checks can make mistakes. If you think a decision about your content or account is wrong, contact our Grievance officer.

5. Your consent and how to withdraw it

Before you sign in, you tick a round checkbox to agree to our Terms of use and this policy, and to confirm that you are 18 or older. The Google and email sign-in buttons work only after you tick it. By doing this, you consent to us using your data for the purposes above. We store which versions you agreed to and when. When you upload your college ID photo, you consent to us using it only to check that you study at your college.

In a few cases the law allows us to use data without asking for consent, for example to follow a law or a court order, or in a medical emergency.

How to withdraw your consent

You can withdraw your consent at any time:

• In the app: open Settings, then tap Delete account.
• By email: write to [email protected] from the email address linked to your account, with the subject “Account deletion request”.

After you withdraw consent, we stop using your data and delete it as explained in How long we keep your data, unless the law requires us to keep it. Withdrawing consent doesn't affect what we did with your data before. KitabPadhoIndia can't work without basic account data, so withdrawing consent means closing your account.

You can also choose not to upload a college ID. You can still browse, report and get notifications, but you won't be able to sell, chat, post Wanted requests, confirm exchanges or rate. And you can turn off your online status and read receipts in Settings at any time.

6. Who can see your data

KitabPadhoIndia is a marketplace, so some of your data is shown to others. Here is who can see what.

Other students and visitors

• Anyone, even without an account, can see active listings: photos, title, details, price, condition, semester, college and pickup point. Visitors without an account don't see who the seller is.
• Anyone with a shared listing link (like kpi.patienceai.tech/l/…) can open a preview page with the listing's public details, such as its photo, title and price. The preview page doesn't show who the seller is. Apps like WhatsApp may show this preview where the link is shared, and while the listing is active, search engines such as Google may show it too. The link opens the listing in the app if it is installed.
• Signed-in users can see your public profile: your name, college, course, branch, year, whether you are verified, your average rating, how many items you have sold and listed, and when you joined. They can also see your reserved and sold listings.
• Verified students of your college can see your Wanted requests, so seniors know what you need.
• The student you exchanged with can see the rating and comment you gave them. Everyone else sees only your average rating.
• The student you chat with can see your messages, photos and videos, your exchange confirmation, and when you are typing. If you allow it in Settings, they can also see when you are online (or when you were last seen) and when you have read their messages. Read receipts show only when both of you have them turned on.
• People you block can't message you or start a new chat with you.

Other students never see your email address. We don't collect your phone number, so it is never shared.

Campus ambassadors and our team

• Campus ambassador: the campus ambassador of your college sees your college ID photo while reviewing it, through a private link that expires after 10 minutes. Our admin team can also see it if needed. The photo is deleted right after review.
• Our team: we see the reports you send and the content our automatic checks flag. To handle a report, a flag or a grievance, or to follow the law, we may look at the listings, chats and accounts involved.

Service providers

A few companies run parts of KitabPadhoIndia for us. See Service providers below.

Government and legal requests

We may share data with the police, courts or other government authorities when the law requires it, for example in response to a valid legal order.

What we never do

• We don't sell your personal data.
• We don't share your data with advertisers.

7. Service providers (data processors)

These providers process data on our behalf, as our data processors, only to provide their services to us:

• Google Firebase (Google)

  What they do for us

  Sign-in (Firebase Authentication) and our database (Cloud Firestore).

  Data involved

  Your account details, profile, listings, chats, Wanted requests, exchanges, ratings, reports, blocks and settings.

• Google Cloud (Google)

  What they do for us

  Runs our server, in a United States region.

  Data involved

  Everything the app sends to our server, including photos and videos while they are processed.

• Cloudflare

  What they do for us

  Network protection for our website, app and server (security, encrypted connections and caching), and R2 storage for photos and videos.

  Data involved

  IP addresses and other technical data; listing photos, chat photos and videos; college ID photos, which are stored privately.

• Anthropic

  What they do for us

  Automated safety checks with its Claude AI model: new listings (text and photos), photos sent in chats, and messages that our own filters flag. If you ask the app to suggest listing details from a photo, Anthropic's model creates the suggestion.

  Data involved

  Only the content being checked, such as the listing text, a smaller copy of the photo or the flagged message (or the photo you chose for a suggestion). We do not send your name or email address with it. Anthropic does not use data sent through its API to train its models.

If you sign in with Google, Google also handles that sign-in under its own privacy policy.

8. How long we keep your data

We keep your data only as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy.

• College ID photo: deleted right after review, whether it is approved or rejected. We keep only the result.
• Original uploads: we keep only the processed copy of a photo (re-compressed, without location data). The original file you upload is deleted after processing, or within 24 hours if it is never processed.
• Account and profile: kept until you delete your account.
• Listings: you can remove a listing at any time in the app (Profile, then My listings).
• When you delete your account, we delete your profile, your unsold listings and their photos, your Wanted requests, your notifications and your verification record.
• Chat messages: kept while your account is open. To help with safety reports, you can't delete a message after sending it. After you delete your account, your chat messages are kept for up to 30 days, only so we can investigate safety reports. Then they are deleted automatically.
• Items already sold: stay marked as sold, without your name, as a record of the exchange.
• Exchange confirmations and ratings: kept as a record of completed exchanges. Ratings you gave others stay part of their rating, without your name.
• Reports and safety records: kept as long as needed for safety or legal reasons.
• Your PatienceAI sign-in: deleting your KitabPadhoIndia account doesn't delete your PatienceAI sign-in, because you may use it for other PatienceAI apps. To delete it too, email [email protected] with the subject “Delete my PatienceAI sign-in”.

If a law, a court order or an ongoing investigation requires us to keep some data for longer, we keep only that data, only for as long as required, and use it only for that purpose. See also Delete your account.

9. How we protect your data

We take reasonable steps to protect your data:

• Data travels between your device and our servers over encrypted connections (HTTPS), through Cloudflare's network protection.
• Our database (Google Firebase) and our file storage (Cloudflare R2) encrypt data when it is stored.
• Photos and videos are kept in private storage and shown through our server. Listing photos are public. Chat photos and videos use long, random links that are shared only with the people in the chat. College ID photos are never public: reviewers get a link that expires after 10 minutes.
• Access rules control who can see what. For example, only you and the reviewers can open your college ID photo, and chats can be read only by the two students in them, and by our team when handling a report, a safety flag, a grievance or a legal request.
• Every photo is re-compressed before anyone else sees it. This removes location (EXIF) data and anything hidden in the file.
• We keep as little data as we can. We delete ID photos right after review, and we don't ask for phone numbers, location or payment details.
• Only team members who need it for safety, support or legal reasons can access personal data.
• Passwords are managed by Google Firebase Authentication. We never see them in readable form.

No system is completely secure. If a personal data breach happens, we will inform you and the Data Protection Board of India as the law requires.

You can help too: use a strong password, don't share your login, sign out on shared devices, and download the Android app only from kpi.patienceai.tech/download. For tips on meeting other students, read our safety guidelines.

10. Your rights

Under the DPDP Act, you have the right to:

• Access: ask for a summary of the personal data we hold about you, how we use it, and who we have shared it with.
• Correction: ask us to correct, complete or update your data. You can edit your name, course, branch and year in Settings (Account details), and change or remove your listings in the app (Profile, then My listings). To correct anything else, such as your college, email us.
• Erasure: delete your account in the app (Settings, then Delete account), or ask us to erase your data. We will erase it unless the law requires us to keep it.
• Grievance redressal: complain to our Grievance Officer if you are unhappy with how we handle your data (see Grievance officer below).
• Nomination: nominate another person to use these rights for you if you die or become unable to act. Email us their name and contact details.

How to use your rights

Email [email protected] from the email address linked to your account, with the subject “Data request: …” (for example, “Data request: access”), and tell us which right you want to use. We may ask for some information to confirm that it's really you. We acknowledge requests within 24 hours and aim to complete them within 15 days.

The DPDP Act also asks you to give true information, not to pretend to be someone else, and not to file false or frivolous complaints.

11. Only for students aged 18+

KitabPadhoIndia is only for students aged 18 and above. You must confirm that you are 18 or older before you sign in. We don't knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18.

If we find that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will delete it. If you think someone under 18 is using KitabPadhoIndia, please email [email protected] with the subject “Report: under-18 user”.

12. Where your data is stored

Our server and our database run on Google Cloud and Google Firebase in the United States. Photos and videos are stored with Cloudflare R2, and Cloudflare's network handles traffic in data centres around the world, including in India. Anthropic processes the content sent for safety checks on its own servers, which may be outside India.

If your data is processed outside India, we do this only as allowed by Indian law. We will not transfer your data to any country that the Government of India restricts.

13. Grievance officer

If you have a complaint or a question about how we handle your personal data, contact our Grievance Officer:

Please include your name, the email address linked to your account and the details of your complaint. To learn how we handle complaints, see our Grievance officer page.

If you are not satisfied with our reply, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when we add features or when the law changes. We will change the “Last updated” date at the top. If a change is important, we will tell you in the app before it applies, and the app will ask you to agree again where the law requires it.

KitabPadhoIndia is free for students today. We may introduce optional paid features later. If we do, we will give clear notice and update this policy if they change how we use your data.

15. Contact us

We have one mailbox for everything: [email protected]. Please use these subject lines so your email reaches the right person quickly:

• Questions about your personal data or requests to use your rights: “Data request: …”
• Deleting your account: “Account deletion request”
• Deleting your PatienceAI sign-in: “Delete my PatienceAI sign-in”
• Complaints: “Grievance: …”
• General questions: any subject
• By post: [Legal entity name], [Registered address]