Privacy Policy — Shiv Darshan

Effective date: 27 May 2026 · Last updated: 31 May 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 operated by Swapnil Chaudhari, an individual based in India ("we", "us", "our"). Swapnil Chaudhari is the data controller for the purposes of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (India), 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: [email protected]

1. Summary

Shiv Darshan is a devotional app. Most of what you do in the app — japa counting, mantra playback, the 21-day Sankalpa Arc, 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: TALK (the AI conversation with Shiva). Voice and text from TALK are processed by our backend (Cloudflare Workers) and by third-party AI services (Google Gemini, Google Cloud Text-to-Speech, Sarvam AI) to generate replies. The minimum required to make TALK work is sent, and only what is described in section 3.

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, words, voice, or 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 SQLite 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
• Japa counts and streak history
• Notification times for morning / evening reminders
• 21-day Sankalpa Arc progress and reflections
• Yatra plans created in the planner
• Audio playback state and cached audio files
• 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 TALK)

When you tap TALK and send a message (by voice or text), the following is transmitted over HTTPS to our backend hosted on Cloudflare Workers at shiva-darshan.caroner-tech.workers.dev:

Voice audio from your microphone is never sent to our servers. Speech is converted to text by your device's built-in speech recognition (iOS Speech Framework / Android SpeechRecognizer). Only the resulting text leaves your device.

4. Third-party services we use to deliver TALK

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.

5. Conversation memory (stored on our servers)

To make TALK feel continuous across sessions, the last 10 exchanges between you and Shiva (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 TALK 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 TALK exchange.

6. Daily usage quota (stored on our servers)

To prevent abuse and to keep server costs sustainable, we count the number of TALK 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, sign-in, and subscriptions (only if you choose them)

Signing in is optional — the app is fully usable as a guest. If you sign in, or buy a subscription, 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 (a) recognise you across sessions and devices and (b) make the same identity available across our family of devotional apps ("Pantheon Pass"). They are never used for advertising and never sold.

Subscriptions. If you buy a Lite or Pro subscription, payment is handled entirely by Apple or Google — we never receive your card details. We store the purchase/transaction identifier, the product purchased, and your entitlement status in Cloudflare KV, to unlock your subscription and verify it on our server.

Deleting your account. You can delete your account and all associated server-side data at any time — see the Account Deletion page or email [email protected].

7. Anonymous usage insights (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 so we can understand how the app is used and make it better.

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

• Which screens and features you use, and counts (e.g. a paywall was shown, a practice was opened)
• Your chosen language and intent category (the same category you picked yourself — e.g. "devotion"), your subscription tier, app version, and platform

What is never collected here:

• Your prayers, the words you say to Shiva, chat transcripts, or any conversation content
• Your voice (voice is transcribed on-device and never sent for analytics)
• Your name, email, phone number, location, or any free text

Events are stored in Cloudflare Workers Analytics Engine inside our own account. We use no third-party analytics or advertising SDK for this. The data is used solely to improve the app and decide what to build. 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.

Opting out: turn off Settings → Anonymous usage insights at any time. The app stops sending immediately 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

You can revoke any of these permissions 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), and a purchase identifier only if you subscribe — both are optional and described in section 6A
• We do not collect your contacts, photos, calendar, health data, or files
• We do not track your location for any purpose other than the Yatra planner, and even then only on-device
• We do not use third-party 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 unless you opt in (section 7), and even then only anonymous behavioural events — never your prayers, words to Shiva, voice, name, or any content

10. Children

Shiv Darshan is intended for users aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has used the app, please contact us at [email protected] and we will delete any associated server-side data (the conversation memory and quota counter for that device ID).

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 the entire app and all server-side data: see our Account Deletion page or email [email protected] from any address with your anonymous device ID (visible in Settings)
• Any other request: email [email protected] 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.

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, Google Cloud TTS, and Sarvam AI process data in their respective infrastructure, which may be located outside India. By using TALK, you consent to your TALK message text being transferred to these providers 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 for Google and Sarvam 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 [email protected]

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

Swapnil Chaudhari (operator, Shiv Darshan)
Email for privacy matters: [email protected]
Email for security reports: [email protected]

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

Shiv Darshan is a devotional application. The voice and replies in TALK 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.