Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Handydove is a marketplace that helps clients find and contact independent local professionals for home and technical services, with optional Home advertising and Pro Shops for professionals. We are not the employer of professionals and do not perform the jobs ourselves.

Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the “DPDP Act”) and the DPDP Rules, 2025, Handydove is the Data Fiduciary for the personal data described here: we decide why and how it is used. This policy is our notice to you under the DPDP Act.

2. Grievance Officer

Grievance Officer: Haresh Shukla, [email protected]

Write to the Grievance Officer with any question about your personal data, to use your rights below, or to complain. You can also report a user or a job, or chat with support, in the app; every report and support chat gets a ticket number you can follow in Settings → Your data & privacy. We acknowledge complaints within 24 hours and resolve them within 15 days; requests to remove content that invades privacy, impersonates someone or is sexual or obscene are handled within 72 hours. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India (the law asks you to use our grievance process first), appeal a decision about content to the Grievance Appellate Committee (gac.gov.in) within 30 days, or contact the National Consumer Helpline (1915).

3. Personal data we collect and why

We collect only what each purpose needs:

• Phone number — to sign you in with a one-time code, keep one account per person, and, once a professional accepts a request, let the client and the professional call each other. Other users never see it before then; our own support staff can see it when helping you.
• Name, profile photo and bio — shown to the people you deal with in the app.
• Location — your location while the app is open, and any home or work location you pin, to show professionals near you, match requests and give directions for a job. We do not track you in the background.
• Professional details — services, service areas, visit charges, verified contact phones, availability, and the ads and shop items you publish, so clients can find you. Ads and shop items can be seen by anyone in the app.
• Requests, chats and media — job requests, messages, photos, files and short videos you share, to carry out the job.
• Support chat — the messages you send us in the app and our replies, to help you. They stay in Handydove's own systems.
• Searches — what you search for and the area, to find professionals and improve search. The area is removed after 90 days.
• Ad statistics — which Home ads you saw or opened, to count results for the professionals who paid for them.
• Reviews, reports and blocks — to keep the Platform safe and show trust ratings.
• Payment records — for paid Home ads: amount, status and the payment provider's reference. Card, UPI and bank details go to Razorpay, never to us.
• Device data — a device identifier and sign-in token to keep you signed in, push tokens to send the notifications you allow, and limited technical logs to run and protect the service.
• Security logs — sign-ins and failed sign-ins, account deletions, views of your data summary and our staff's access to personal data, with the network (IP) address and app or browser type, to detect and investigate misuse.
• Consent records — which Terms version you accepted, when, on which device, and that you confirmed you are 18 or older.

We do not collect your contacts, call logs or SMS messages (on Android the app can read only the one-time sign-in code, when you allow it), and we do not build advertising profiles.

4. Why we may use it

We use your personal data with your consent, which you give by tapping “Get started” or “Agree & continue” after our Terms and this policy are shown to you. Without consent we use it only where the DPDP Act allows (“legitimate uses”), for example to comply with the law or a court order, or in a medical emergency or a threat to someone's safety. We use your data only for the purposes in this policy.

5. Who we share it with

• Other users — what a job needs: your name and profile; your phone number only after a professional accepts. For professionals: your public profile, ads and shop.
• Service providers (Data Processors) that work for us under contract: Google Firebase (phone sign-in codes, file storage and Android notifications), Expo (app notifications), Railway (our servers and database), Cloudflare (our domain, website and email), Razorpay (ad payments), the call or SMS provider we use, if any, to verify a professional's contact phone, and, when we switch it on, OpenAI (the text of a long search, to understand which service you need — never your name or phone number). Map and place-search services — Mappls (MapmyIndia), OpenStreetMap and Photon — receive the place you type and the map area you view when you pick a spot on a map, never your name or phone number. Browser push services deliver notifications to the iPhone web app.
• Authorities — when the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety.

We do not sell your personal data and do not share it with anyone for their own advertising.

6. Device permissions

The Android app may ask for location, camera, photos/media and notification permissions (it never uses the microphone); the iPhone web app may ask for location and notifications in the browser. You can deny or turn these off at any time in your phone or browser settings; some features will not work without them.

7. How long we keep it

• While your account exists, we keep your account data so the app works.
• Chat and request media: about 7 days (chat files 24 hours after they are downloaded).
• When you delete your account, you have 30 days to change your mind. After that we erase your phone number, name, photo, bio, saved locations, the reviews you wrote, your signed-in devices and support chat, unlink your search history, and — for professionals — remove your shop, catalog, ad content and contact phones. We keep only what other people or the law need, without your phone number or name: past jobs and the messages in them (they are also the other person's record; addresses are removed and the job area is rounded to about 1 km), ad view counts, and payment records for paid ads (tax law).
• Searches: the area is removed after 90 days; the search text is kept for search statistics.
• Security logs: one year, as the DPDP Rules require, then deleted — also after an account is deleted. Other technical logs: only as long as needed to run and protect the service.
• Registration details after deletion: your phone number, name and account dates are kept sealed for 180 days after your account is erased — only to answer lawful requests from authorities, as the Information Technology Rules, 2021 require — then deleted.

Our service providers must delete data when we ask them to.

8. Your rights

Under the DPDP Act you can:

• See your data — Settings → Your data & privacy shows a summary of the personal data we hold about you and who we share it with. Ask the Grievance Officer for anything more.
• Correct or update it — edit your name, photo, bio, locations and services in the app, or ask us.
• Erase it — delete your account in Settings (see “How long we keep it”).
• Withdraw consent — at any time, as easily as you gave it: delete your account, or turn off location or notifications in your phone settings. This does not affect what was lawfully done before, and features that need the data stop working.
• Nominate someone — to use these rights for you if you die or cannot act. Email the Grievance Officer with their name and contact details.
• Complain — to the Grievance Officer, then to the Data Protection Board of India.

We answer requests within 90 days at most and may first check that the request comes from you (for example from the phone number on your account).

9. Children

Handydove is only for people aged 18 or older, and you confirm this when you sign up. We do not knowingly process children's personal data and never track or target children. If we learn that a user is under 18, we delete the account. If you think a child is using Handydove, tell the Grievance Officer.

10. Security and data breaches

We use HTTPS, access controls, authenticated APIs, private file storage and rate limits. No system is fully secure: protect your phone and never share your one-time code. If a breach affects your personal data, we will tell you without delay — what happened, what it means for you and what you can do — and report it to the Data Protection Board of India as the law requires.

11. Where your data is processed

Our service providers may store or process data outside India (for example in Google's or Railway's data centres). We do not transfer personal data to any country the Government of India has restricted, and our providers must protect it.

12. Language

This policy is also available in Hindi (हिन्दी): use the link at the top of this page. To read it in another language of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India, email the Grievance Officer and we will provide it. If the Hindi and English texts differ, the English text applies.

13. Changes

When we change this policy we update the date above. If a change affects what we do with your data, we tell you in the app and ask you to agree again before it applies to you. Simply using the app is never treated as agreement.