Privacy Policy

Effective: 2026-05-16 · Last updated: 2026-05-16

1. Introduction

SnehBandh ("we", "us", "our") is a platform to help adults find a life partner, operated in India by SnehBandh (sole proprietorship). This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and your rights under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 (DPDP Act) and other applicable Indian law.

By using SnehBandh you consent to the practices described here. If you do not agree, please do not use our service.

SnehBandh is intended for users who are 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If we discover that a user is under 18, we will immediately delete their account and all associated data.

2. Data We Collect

Account data — mobile phone number (required), email address (optional), preferred language. We collect your phone number to verify identity and enable login via OTP.

Profile data — name, date of birth, gender, height, marital status, religion, community, mother tongue, city, district, education, profession, annual income, about-me text. Collected only if you choose to create a profile.

Photos — images you upload for your profile. We resize, convert to WebP, and strip EXIF metadata (including GPS location data) before storage on our servers.

Partner preferences — age range, height range, community, education, profession, and location preferences you specify.

Usage data — pages visited, search queries, profiles viewed, interests sent/received, messages. Collected to improve the service and surface relevant profiles.

Device data — IP address, browser type, operating system, device identifiers. Collected automatically for security and analytics.

Camera and media — if you upload a photo using your device camera or gallery, we access only the specific image you select. We do not access your camera roll or any media beyond what you explicitly share.

Push notifications — if you grant notification permission, we use your device token solely to send you in-app alerts (new interest, new message, account updates). You can withdraw this permission at any time in your device settings.

Communications — if you contact our support team, we retain those communications to resolve your issue.

3. Why We Use Your Data

To provide the service — match you with compatible profiles, enable messaging, send OTP codes, and manage your account.

To verify identity — phone OTP ensures each account is linked to a real person, helping us maintain a genuine community.

To personalise recommendations — we use your profile data and preferences to rank and suggest profiles that may be relevant to you. No automated decisions with legal effect are made solely by algorithm without human review.

To ensure safety — we analyse reports, detect fraud and scam behaviour, and take action against policy violations.

To communicate with you — service notifications, interest alerts, and (with your explicit consent) promotional messages.

To comply with law — we retain certain data as required by Indian law, including the IT Act 2000, IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2021, and DPDP Act 2023.

4. Who We Share Data With

Other members — your profile (name, age, city, community, photos, about-me) is visible to registered members based on your privacy settings. Your phone number is never shown to other members.

Service providers — Cloudflare (CDN, DNS, DDoS protection), Hetzner (hosting/VPS), Google Firebase (phone OTP verification), Fast2SMS (SMS notifications), Resend (email). Each provider processes data only on our instructions and under a data processing agreement.

Legal authorities — we disclose data when required by a valid court order, legal process, or to protect the safety of users or the public.

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with advertisers, data brokers, or any third party for their own commercial use.

5. How Long We Keep Data

Active account — retained for as long as your account is active.

Deleted account — after you request deletion, your profile is removed from search immediately and all personal data is purged within 30 days. Encrypted backups are purged within 60 days.

How to delete — go to Account → Delete Account in the app, or visit snehbandh.app/account-deletion for step-by-step instructions.

OTP codes — deleted within 24 hours of creation.

Session tokens — revoked on logout; expired sessions are purged weekly.

Legal hold — if data is subject to a legal hold or government investigation, we retain it until the hold is lifted.

6. Security

All data in transit is encrypted with TLS 1.2+. Data at rest is encrypted using AES-256.

We use OTP-based authentication — no passwords are stored, eliminating credential-stuffing risks.

Access to production systems is restricted to authorised personnel with multi-factor authentication.

We conduct periodic security reviews and vulnerability assessments.

Despite our measures, no system is 100% secure. Please report any suspected security issue or breach to security@snehbandh.com.

7. Your Rights (DPDP Act 2023)

Access — you may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you by emailing privacy@snehbandh.com.

Correction — you may correct inaccurate data by editing your profile directly or contacting us.

Erasure (Right to be Forgotten) — you may delete your account at any time. Data is purged within 30 days.

Grievance — you may raise a complaint with our Grievance Officer at /grievance or with the Data Protection Board of India once operational.

Nomination — under the DPDP Act, you may nominate a person to exercise your data rights in the event of death or incapacity.

Withdrawal of consent — you may withdraw consent at any time by deleting your account. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

To exercise any right, contact: privacy@snehbandh.com. We will respond within 30 days.

8. Cookies & Local Storage

We use a session cookie (sbh_session) and a CSRF token cookie — both strictly necessary for secure authentication. We do not use tracking, advertising, or analytics cookies.

We use browser local storage to remember your language preference.

If we introduce analytics or optional cookies in the future, we will update this policy and ask for your explicit consent before setting them.

9. Children's Privacy

SnehBandh is strictly for adults aged 18 and above. We do not knowingly collect personal data from minors.

If you believe a minor has created an account, please report it immediately to safety@snehbandh.com. We will investigate and delete the account within 24 hours of confirmation.

If you are under 18, you are not permitted to use this service.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be notified via in-app notification and email (if provided) at least 30 days before taking effect.

The updated effective date will be shown at the top of this page.

Continued use of SnehBandh after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

11. Contact Us

Data Controller: SnehBandh, India.

Privacy enquiries: privacy@snehbandh.com

Security issues: security@snehbandh.com

Grievance Officer: grievance@snehbandh.com (see /grievance for full details and response SLAs)

For account deletion instructions: snehbandh.app/account-deletion