Privacy Policy

1Information we use

Your institution provides the details that set up your account:

• Students: name, student ID, mobile number, optional email address, programme, batch, campus and preferred language.
• Parents and guardians: name, relationship to the student, mobile number and optional email address, and which children are linked to them.
• Staff: name, mobile number, institution and the roles the institution gives them.

When you use the app, the service also keeps what you choose to send: reports and SOS alerts (your written account, voice recordings, photos, PDFs, audio or video files, the types of incident, the people involved, places and times), counselling requests (topics and how you would like support), later updates, messages with your support team, appeals and Mingle Time messages. It also records when things happen to your request, such as a responder being assigned or a decision being recorded.

2Signing in

You sign in with the mobile number your institution registered and a one-time code sent to it. Signing in on one device ends your previous login. When sign-in codes are sent by text message, Google (Firebase) receives your phone number to send and check the code and to prevent abuse.

My Requests is protected by a four-digit secret PIN that you choose. Choose four digits for your private requests. This is separate from your sign-in code.

3Your identity in reports

Reports are not anonymous. The service knows who submits each report.

The service knows who submits the report. Confidential hides your identity from usual review screens. You can instead choose to request to share your identity, so that reviewers may see who you are.

A staff member can reveal a confidential reporter’s details only when they are assigned to the request, give a reason and confirm with a code sent to their own registered mobile. The details hide again after a short time, and every such access is recorded.

If a committee refers a request to an outside authority, such as the police or the Child Welfare Committee, the institution prepares the referral report itself. Your details are included only when the committee decides they are needed, and each download of such a report is recorded. The service does not send referrals on its own.

4Who can see your information

• You: your own requests, their timeline, messages and decisions in My Requests.
• Staff at your institution: only the requests and details their role and assignment allow, such as the responder assigned to your request, the committee handling it or the counsellor who accepts your counselling request.
• Counsellors: the counsellor who accepts a counselling request sees who asked and the student’s name, course and phone number, so they can contact you. Other staff do not see them.
• University, district and state review teams: when a concern moves to them, a limited summary of the request. District and state teams do not see names, contact details, your written account, exact locations, messages or files.
• Parents and guardians: their own reports, and only the requests a student chooses to share with them. A shared request shows its progress and what the student sent; attachments, voice recordings and messages stay private.
• Mingle Time rooms: other current and future members of a room see your messages, name and batch or staff role and programme. Phone numbers and other contact details are never shown in rooms.

Statistics and trend charts use counts only. Very small counts (one or two) are withheld so that individuals cannot be picked out.

5Location

The app uses your location only if you choose “Use my current location” when sending an SOS. That one-time location is shared with the responders handling your SOS for one hour and is then removed. You can add a landmark instead, or send an SOS without any location. Parents describe where their child is instead of sharing a device location.

Maps in the app load map images from OpenStreetMap.

6Notifications, devices and this website

• App notifications are delivered through Google Firebase Cloud Messaging. Notifications carry only a general alert, not the details of a report.
• The app asks for the camera, microphone, location and notifications only when you use a feature that needs them. You can write a report without allowing them.
• This website does not use advertising or analytics cookies. The staff workspace uses secure session cookies to keep staff signed in, and the staff sign-in page may use a Google security check (reCAPTCHA) when text-message sign-in is switched on.

7Where information is stored and how it is protected

Information is stored in a database and private file storage hosted in Mumbai, India, and the website and its services run on Vercel. Files you upload are kept in private storage and are opened only through the service after your access is checked.

Every request to see or change information checks the person’s current role, institution and assignment. Sensitive staff actions need a code sent to the staff member’s registered mobile, and access to requests is recorded. No system is completely secure; please keep your phone, sign-in codes and PIN to yourself.

8How long information is kept

Reports, their history and decisions are kept so that requests can be followed, reviewed and appealed. What you send is kept as you sent it; later changes are added as updates.

Closing your account ends sign-in access; it does not remove past reports. Specific retention periods have not yet been finalised; this policy will be updated when they are.

9Your choices and requests

In the app, under My account, you can ask your institution to:

• give you a copy of your information
• limit the use of your information
• remove information
• close your account access

Your institution reviews each request. Some information, such as a submitted report and its history, may need to be kept, for example while a request is open or under review. To correct your enrolment details, contact your institution.

Official information about India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 is linked from the Help centre.

10Parents and children

A parent or guardian linked by the institution can report a concern or ask for support about their child. The child’s own requests stay private unless the child chooses to share one. For urgent care and protection of a child, call the Child Helpline on 1098.

11Changes to this policy

When the way the service handles information changes, this page is updated and its version and date change.