Privacy Policy — Shiv Darshan

Effective date: 27 May 2026 Last updated: 30 July 2026

This policy explains what data the Shiv Darshan mobile application (“Shiv Darshan”, “the app”, “we”) collects, how it is used, where it is stored, who it is shared with, and the rights you have over it.

Shiv Darshan is published by SHIV DARSHAN, a sole proprietorship registered in India (“we”, “us”, “our”). SHIV DARSHAN is the data controller — and, under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the data fiduciary — for the purposes of that Act, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA / CPRA).

For any question about this policy or your data, contact: privacy@shivdarshan.com

What changed on 30 July 2026. This version of the app has no voice feature and no purchases, and the policy has been corrected to match. Previously it described microphone capture, on-device speech recognition, and text-to-speech through Google Cloud and Sarvam AI — none of which this app now does. It also described Lite and Pro subscriptions, which have been removed; there are no purchasable products. Nothing was added to what we collect; several things were removed. If voice or purchases return, this policy will be updated before they ship, not after.

1. Summary

Shiv Darshan is a devotional app. Almost everything you do in it — japa counting, the mantra library, the 21-day Arc, the daily verse, notification reminders, the Yatra planner — happens entirely on your device. We see none of it.

One feature sends information to a server by necessity: Ask (a typed question about Shiva, answered by AI). The question text is processed by our backend (Cloudflare Workers) and by Google Gemini to generate a reply. The minimum required to make Ask work is sent, and only what is described in section 3.

Ask is text-only. The app does not request microphone access and does not record, transmit or process audio of any kind.

Signing in (Google, Apple, or Truecaller) is optional — the app is fully usable as a guest. Only if you choose to sign in do we receive an account identifier and your email or phone number, as described in section 6A.

There is nothing to buy. The app is free, has no advertising, and no in-app purchase products exist.

Separately, only if you opt in, the app sends anonymous, behaviour-only usage events to help us improve it — described in section 7. This is off by default, never includes your prayers, your words, or your name, and you can turn it off at any time.

We do not run advertising. We do not sell or share your data for advertising or marketing. We do not use third-party analytics SDKs that profile you across apps.

2. Data that stays on your device (never leaves)

The following stay on your device, in local storage (SharedPreferences) or in the local database used by the audio player. We have no copy and cannot retrieve it:

• Your preferred name (if you entered one during onboarding)
• Your chosen intent (moksha, vairagya, health, devotion, pitru tarpan)
• Your preferred language, and your calendar tradition (Purnimanta or Amanta)
• Japa counts and streak history
• Notification times for morning / evening reminders, and whether the ambient chant is muted
• 21-day Arc progress and reflections
• Yatra plans created in the planner
• Audio playback state and cached audio
• Whether you have dismissed in-app banners (e.g. the AI disclaimer)

If you delete the app, this data is deleted with it.

3. Data sent to our servers (only when you use Ask)

When you type a question in Ask and send it, the following is transmitted over HTTPS to our backend hosted on Cloudflare Workers at shiva-darshan.caroner-tech.workers.dev:

No audio is involved at any point. The app requests no microphone permission, performs no speech recognition, and generates no spoken replies. Only text you have typed leaves your device.

4. Third-party services we use to deliver Ask

To generate AI replies, our Cloudflare Worker calls the following services and shares only the data listed:

We do not give these providers your name, contact details, location, or any identifier other than the anonymous device ID described above.

Firebase (Google LLC) is used only if you sign in or if you opt in to diagnostics — see sections 6A and 7.

5. Conversation memory (stored on our servers)

To make Ask feel continuous across sessions, the last 10 exchanges (questions and replies, each clipped to 200 characters) are stored in Cloudflare KV under the key memory:<your-device-id>.

• Stored for 90 days from the most recent exchange, then automatically deleted by Cloudflare
• Used only to provide context to the AI on your next Ask session
• Never shared with any third party other than Google Gemini for the purpose of generating the next reply
• Never linked to your name, contact, or any external identifier

You can erase this memory at any time from Settings → Forget our earlier exchanges. This sends a request to our server to delete memory:<your-device-id> immediately. The same effect occurs automatically 90 days after your last exchange.

6. Daily usage quota (stored on our servers)

To prevent abuse and to keep server costs sustainable, we count the number of Ask messages each device sends per day in Cloudflare KV under a per-device key. This counter resets every 24 hours and contains no personal information beyond your anonymous device ID. The counter is automatically deleted by Cloudflare 48 hours after the last message.

6A. Accounts and sign-in (only if you choose it)

Signing in is optional — the app is fully usable as a guest, with every feature available. If you sign in, this section applies.

Sign-in. You may sign in with Google, Apple, or Truecaller (Android only). We use Firebase Authentication (Google LLC) to verify you and issue a stable account identifier (Firebase UID). Depending on the provider, we receive and store:

• Google / Apple — your email address, and your name if the provider supplies it.
• Truecaller (Android) — your phone number and name, released by Truecaller only after you approve its consent screen.

These are used solely to recognise you across sessions and devices. They are never used for advertising and never sold.

Purchases. This version of the app has none. No in-app purchase products exist, nothing is behind a paywall, and we hold no payment or transaction data. If a paid option is ever offered, this policy will be updated before it ships, and payment would in any case be handled entirely by Apple or Google — we would never receive your card details.

Deleting your account. You can delete your account and all associated server-side data at any time — see the Account Deletion page or email privacy@shivdarshan.com.

7. Anonymous usage insights and crash diagnostics (only if you opt in)

By default this is off and nothing described here is collected. If — and only if — you turn on Settings → Anonymous usage insights (or accept it on the consent screen during onboarding), the app sends anonymous, behaviour-only events to our own backend, and enables crash reporting through Firebase Crashlytics (Google LLC), so we can understand how the app is used and fix what breaks.

What is collected (anonymous, keyed to the same random device ID used for Ask):

• Which screens and features you use, and counts (e.g. a practice was opened, a mala was completed)
• Your chosen language and intent category (the same category you picked yourself — e.g. “devotion”), app version, and platform
• Crash reports and performance diagnostics: the stack trace, device model, OS version and app version at the moment of a crash

What is never collected here:

• Your prayers, the words you write to Shiva, chat transcripts, or any conversation content
• Any audio — the app has no microphone access
• Your name, email, phone number, location, or any free text

Behavioural events are stored in Cloudflare Workers Analytics Engine inside our own account. Crash reports are processed by Firebase Crashlytics. We use no advertising SDK and no third-party profiling SDK. The data is used solely to improve the app. It is never sold, never licensed, never shared with advertisers.

Legal basis: your explicit, opt-in consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a), and Art. 9(2)(a) for the intent category; consent under India’s DPDP Act 2023). We do not infer or derive religious beliefs — the only devotional signal stored is the intent category you selected yourself.

Retention: events expire automatically under the dataset’s retention window and are aggregated for analysis; aggregated insights are not personal data. Crash reports are retained under Firebase Crashlytics’ own retention period.

Opting out: turn off Settings → Anonymous usage insights at any time. The app stops sending immediately, disables crash collection, and clears any events still queued on your device. Because stored events are anonymous and aggregated, individual events cannot be singled out and deleted retroactively; they age out under the retention window.

8. Permissions the app requests

The app does not request microphone access, camera access, contacts, photos, or precise location. Earlier versions of this policy listed Microphone and Speech recognition; those permissions have been removed from the app entirely.

You can revoke any permission at any time from your device Settings without affecting the rest of the app.

9. Data we do NOT collect

We want to be explicit about what we never see:

• If you use the app as a guest (don’t sign in), we collect no name, email, or phone — any name you enter during onboarding stays only on your device
• We receive your email / phone / name only if you sign in (Google, Apple, or Truecaller) — optional, and described in section 6A
• We collect no payment or purchase data, because there is nothing to buy
• We collect no audio. The app has no microphone permission
• We do not collect your contacts, photos, calendar, health data, or files
• We do not send your location anywhere; temple sorting happens on your device
• We do not use advertising or marketing SDKs
• We do not sell, rent, or trade any user data
• We do not run cross-app or cross-website tracking
• We do not collect any usage analytics or crash reports unless you opt in (section 7)

10. Age requirement — 18 and over

Shiv Darshan is intended for adults aged 18 and over. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18.

India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 treats anyone under the age of 18 as a child, and requires verifiable parental consent before a data fiduciary may process a child’s personal data. Rather than build a parental-consent mechanism we could not verify honestly, we do not offer the app to under-18s at all.

If you believe someone under 18 has used the app, contact privacy@shivdarshan.com and we will delete any associated server-side data — the conversation memory and quota counter for that device ID, and any account created.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have the following rights:

Under India’s DPDP Act 2023, you have the right to:

• Confirm whether we process your personal data and access it
• Request correction or erasure
• Withdraw consent
• Nominate someone to exercise these rights on your behalf
• Lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Board of India

Under EU GDPR, you additionally have the right to:

• Object to or restrict processing
• Request data portability
• Lodge a complaint with your local Data Protection Authority

Under California CCPA / CPRA, you additionally have the right to:

• Know what categories of data we collect and the purpose
• Request deletion
• Opt out of sale or sharing (we do not sell or share personal data)
• Non-discrimination for exercising any right

How to exercise these rights:

• Erase your conversation memory immediately: open the app → Settings → Forget our earlier exchanges
• Delete your account and all server-side data: see our Account Deletion page or email privacy@shivdarshan.com from any address with your anonymous device ID (visible in Settings)
• Any other request: email privacy@shivdarshan.com and we will respond within 30 days

We may ask you to verify the request (typically by asking you to send us a code displayed in the app on the device whose data is being requested) so we do not act on a third party’s behalf without authorization.

11A. Grievance redressal

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data or your request, you may raise a grievance with our Grievance Officer:

• Grievance Officer: Swapnil Chaudhari, proprietor, SHIV DARSHAN
• Email: privacy@shivdarshan.com, with “Grievance” in the subject line
• We will acknowledge within 7 days and respond substantively within 30 days

If you are in India and remain unsatisfied after we respond, you may escalate to the Data Protection Board of India under the DPDP Act, 2023. Nothing in this policy limits that right.

12. International data transfers

Our Cloudflare Worker runs at the Cloudflare edge location nearest to you. Conversation memory in Cloudflare KV is replicated across Cloudflare data centers globally for availability.

Google Gemini processes your Ask question text in Google’s infrastructure, which may be located outside India. Firebase (authentication, and Crashlytics if you have opted in) likewise. By using Ask you consent to your question text being transferred to Google for the purpose of generating a reply.

We rely on standard contractual clauses and the providers’ own compliance frameworks for these transfers.

13. Data retention

14. Security

• All traffic between the app and our backend is encrypted with TLS 1.3
• Conversation memory is stored in Cloudflare KV, encrypted at rest
• Our API keys are stored as Cloudflare Worker Secrets and are never exposed to the client
• We do not store any data on devices you do not control
• We follow industry standard practices, but no system is perfectly secure. If you become aware of a vulnerability, please email security@shivdarshan.com

15. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in any material way, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top and, where the change reduces your privacy in a meaningful way, surface a notice inside the app the next time you open it. Continued use of the app after such notice constitutes acceptance.

16. Contact

SHIV DARSHAN Grievance Officer: Swapnil Chaudhari (proprietor) Email for privacy matters and grievances: privacy@shivdarshan.com Email for security reports: security@shivdarshan.com

For data-protection inquiries under the EU GDPR, you may also contact us at the email above.

Shiv Darshan is a devotional application. Replies in Ask are generated by artificial intelligence for the purpose of devotional reflection. They are not a substitute for a human teacher and are not medical, legal, or financial advice.