Privacy Policy

Apna Chowk is a digital Platform operated by ApnaChowk Private Limited (hereinafter referred to as the "Company"). The Company operates a technology-enabled Platform that connects workers, employers, and businesses through its Website and/or mobile application. The Platform enables Users to create profiles, post job opportunities, search for suitable workers or employment opportunities, and facilitate bookings and workforce engagement.

The Company leverages technology-driven solutions, including location-based Services and automated systems, to facilitate efficient worker-employer matching, manage bookings, improve Platform security, and enhance the overall User experience. Users may upload or provide information, including profile details, contact information, job-related information, location data, photographs, and other relevant information for the purpose of availing the Services offered through the Platform.

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Our Services are intended for workers, employers, businesses, contractors, and other stakeholders seeking to connect for employment opportunities, workforce engagement, and related Services through the Platform. The primary purpose of processing personal data is to enable Users to create and manage profiles, post or search for job opportunities, connect workers with employers, facilitate bookings, communicate regarding engagements, and provide customer support and other Platform-related Services.

The Platform processes User-submitted information, including profile details, contact information, location data, job preferences, skills, and booking-related information, solely for the purpose of facilitating worker-employer matching, managing workforce engagements, verifying User accounts where necessary, enhancing Platform functionality, and delivering the requested Services. We do not use or repurpose personal data for AI model training, research, or any purpose unrelated to providing our Services without an appropriate legal basis or the User's consent.

We may also process limited technical, security, and transactional information to maintain the security and integrity of the Platform, improve service performance, prevent fraud, investigate misuse, comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements, and ensure the efficient operation of our Services. We do not use personal data for unauthorized profiling, marketing without consent, or any unrelated purpose.

We process personal data strictly for the purposes of providing employment and workforce facilitation Services through the Platform. Any information uploaded, submitted, or shared by you remains your property or that of the organization to which it belongs. By submitting such information, you grant the Company a limited, non-exclusive, revocable license to process and use such information solely for providing the requested Services and fulfilling applicable legal and regulatory obligations, in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

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By accessing or using the Platform or Services and/or providing your personal information, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and consent to the collection, use, storage, processing, and disclosure of your personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable laws.

The Company processes personal data on lawful grounds, including your consent, the performance of a contract or pre-contractual measures, compliance with applicable legal obligations, and the Company's legitimate interests, where permitted under applicable law. Where your consent is required, it will be obtained through the Platform and recorded electronically.

Where you voluntarily submit information, including profile details, contact information, location data, job postings, employment preferences, booking details, photographs, or other information through the Platform, you represent that you are authorized to provide such information and consent to its processing for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. You may withdraw your consent at any time; however, such withdrawal shall not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out prior to its withdrawal and may impact our ability to provide certain Services.

Alerts and marketing: The Platform sends in-app alerts when a new job matches a worker ("new work near you") and when a worker becomes available for an employer's job ("a worker is available near you"). They are sent when the matching job is posted or the matching availability is declared, and they appear in your notifications in the app and on the website. They are not sent by SMS or email, and phone push notifications are not sent today. You can turn these alerts off with the Notifications switch in the notification settings on the website. The Platform does not send newsletters or promotional messages; a Marketing updates switch exists, is off unless you turn it on, and nothing is sent under it today. Service-related and legally required communications concerning your account or use of the Platform are not marketing and continue regardless. We will update this Privacy Policy before introducing any new type of message.

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We collect, process, and retain the following categories of information as necessary to provide our Services (collectively referred to as "Personal Data" or "Data"):

• Personal and Account Information: Includes your name, father's name (where provided), mobile number, other mobile numbers you add to your account (which may belong to family members), email address, profile photograph, date of birth (required at signup, to confirm that you are 18 or older), gender (optional, and not shown to other users), address, languages spoken, skills, work experience, expected wages, communication preferences, and other information required to create, manage, and administer your account on the Platform.
• Worker and Employer Profile Information: Includes information provided while creating a worker or employer profile, such as occupation, worker type, shop name (where applicable), business name (where applicable), employment preferences, job categories, availability, hometown city, whether you are willing to work in your hometown, location, profile description, and other information voluntarily submitted to facilitate worker-employer matching. For employer profiles this also includes statutory business identifiers where you choose to provide them, namely your GSTIN and business registration number.
• Job Posting and Booking Information: Includes job titles, job descriptions, work location, wages, work schedules, booking details, engagement records, job-related photographs uploaded by Users, and records of interactions between workers and employers necessary to facilitate workforce engagements through the Platform. If you report or block someone, we record what you reported (a job, a worker or an employer), the reason, any note you add and the time, and whom you blocked; the person you report is not told who reported them, and a block can be undone.
• Payment and Transaction Information: Includes billing information, transaction identifiers, payment status, and other financial records required to process purchases you make on the Platform, such as credits. The Company does not store complete payment card or banking credentials and relies on secure third-party payment service providers for processing financial transactions.
• User Communications and Support Data: Includes enquiries, complaints, feedback, emails, and other communications exchanged with customer support or through the Platform for resolving issues, responding to requests, and improving our Services.
• Technical and Device Information: Includes Internet Protocol (IP) address, device type, browser type, operating system, session identifiers, timestamps, log files, and crash reports automatically collected when you access or use the Platform. If you allow notifications in the ApnaChowk mobile app, the app sends us a notification token for your device so that notifications can reach it. The token is deleted when you delete your account, and the app removes it when you sign out on that device.
• Location, Cookies, and Similar Technologies: Includes your approximate or precise location (where you choose to enable location Services), map coordinates, cookie data, and information collected through similar technologies to facilitate location-based job matching, remember your preferences, improve Platform functionality, and maintain security, subject to your device and browser settings.
• Compliance, Security, and Verification Data: Includes identity verification information (where required), authentication records, login history, access logs, audit trails, consent records, fraud prevention records, and other information necessary to maintain Platform security, prevent misuse, investigate suspected violations, and comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
• Search Queries: When you search for work or for workers, the words you type are stored so we can see which trades and terms people look for and are not yet supported. The table these are written to has no user ID, session ID, IP address or user-agent column, so nothing identifying the account or device is stored alongside a query, and the location saved with it is coarsened to roughly one kilometre. Search records are retained for 730 days (two years) from the date of the search.
• Voice Search: If you tap the microphone on a search box, your browser asks for permission to use your microphone, then records what you say and turns it into text. In some browsers this is done by the browser maker's own speech service (for example, Google for Chrome, or Apple for Safari), under that company's own privacy terms. In the ApnaChowk app, your phone's own speech service does this conversion (usually Google on Android, and Apple on iOS), under that company's own privacy terms; the app asks for the microphone the first time you tap the mic, and you can turn it off at any time in your phone's settings. We receive only the text of your search, never the recording, and we do not store any audio. The text is handled exactly like a typed search (see "Search Queries" above). Voice search is optional: you can always type instead, and you can turn off the microphone for this site at any time in your browser's settings.

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The Platform is intended solely for individuals who are 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect, process, or solicit personal data from individuals under the age of 18. By registering for or using the Platform, you represent and warrant that you are at least 18 years old. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal data from a person under the age of 18, we will take appropriate steps to delete such information from our records, unless retention is required by applicable law.

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The Company may share your Personal Data only where necessary to operate the Platform, provide the Services, facilitate worker-employer interactions, maintain the security and functionality of the Platform, comply with applicable laws, or protect the rights, safety, and integrity of the Company and its Users. The Company does not sell your Personal Data or share it for unauthorized marketing, profiling, or cross-context behavioural advertising. Any disclosure of Personal Data is limited to what is necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy:

• With Workers and Employers: Where necessary to facilitate job opportunities, bookings, and workforce engagements, we share relevant profile information, job-related information, and booking details between workers and employers through the Platform. A worker's mobile number is shown to an employer only when the employer pays to see it, or when the worker has applied to one of that employer's open jobs; in both cases the employer must first have verified their own email address and mobile number. Once a worker withdraws an application or the employer rejects it, the employer no longer sees that worker's number in the list of applicants. An employer's mobile number is never shown to workers. Anyone who is not signed in sees a worker's trade and area, but not their name, photograph or contact details, and the locations shown to other people are approximate, to about one kilometre.
• With SMS Service Providers: To authenticate your account and deliver one-time passwords (OTPs), we share your mobile number and the verification message with our SMS service providers, Fast2SMS and MSG91. Such information is shared solely for User authentication and account security.
• With Location and Mapping Service Providers: Where you search for or select a location, we share the location search text or location information, such as map coordinates, with Google (Google Maps and Places) to provide location suggestions and the names of places, and for location-based job matching. If you use preset locations or disable location Services, only the information necessary to provide the requested functionality will be processed.
• With Cloud Hosting and Infrastructure Service Providers: We use Supabase to host our database and the files you upload, in India (Mumbai); Render to run our application servers; Vercel to serve our website; and Cloudflare to route traffic to our servers and to store backups of our database (Cloudflare R2). Such providers process Personal Data only on our documented instructions and are contractually required to implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures.
• With Communication and Technical Service Providers: We use Resend to deliver the emails we send, such as email-address verification, and Sentry to receive error reports so that we can find and fix faults; an error report may include an internal account identifier. The Company may also engage other service providers for IT support, maintenance, system monitoring, and security. Such providers process Personal Data only for the purposes authorized by the Company and are subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.
• With Payment Service Providers: Where payment functionality is available, payment-related information is shared with our payment service provider (Cashfree or Razorpay, whichever is in use), for transaction processing, refunds, fraud prevention, and compliance with applicable financial and regulatory requirements. The Company does not store complete payment instrument details.
• With Professional Advisors and Legal Authorities: We may disclose Personal Data to our legal advisors, auditors, consultants, insurers, regulatory authorities, law enforcement agencies, or other competent authorities where required to comply with applicable laws, enforce our legal rights, investigate fraud or security incidents, resolve disputes, or protect the rights, property, or safety of the Company, our Users, or the public.

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The Company collects Personal Data in electronic or other forms to operate the Platform, facilitate worker-employer interactions, provide the Services, manage User accounts, process bookings, respond to enquiries, maintain Platform security, and comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements. The Company collects only the minimum Personal Data necessary for the stated purposes and ensures that no excessive, irrelevant, or unnecessary Personal Data is collected or processed.

The following table sets out the categories of Personal Data collected, the purposes for which such data is processed, and the corresponding legal basis for such processing:

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The Company maintains appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the Personal Data processed through the Platform. Our security measures include:

• encryption of Personal Data in transit and, where appropriate, at rest
• role-based access controls to ensure that Personal Data is accessible only to authorized personnel and service providers on a need-to-know basis
• regular security monitoring, system audits, vulnerability assessments, and security testing to identify and mitigate potential risks and
• secure data storage, retention, backup, and deletion practices in accordance with applicable data protection laws and industry standards.

The Company does not sell or rent your Personal Data to third parties. Personal Data is processed solely for providing the Services, facilitating worker-employer interactions, managing User accounts and bookings, maintaining Platform security, preventing fraud, and complying with applicable legal and regulatory obligations.

In the event of a Personal Data breach that is likely to result in harm to Users, the Company will promptly implement appropriate containment and remedial measures and, where required under applicable law, notify the relevant regulatory authorities and affected Users within the prescribed timelines.

The Company continuously evaluates emerging cybersecurity threats and regularly reviews its security controls to strengthen the protection of Personal Data. We implement industry-standard administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to prevent unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, misuse, loss, or destruction of Personal Data and to ensure the security of information transmitted to and stored by the Platform.

While the Company takes reasonable measures to protect Personal Data, Users are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of their account credentials, safeguarding their one-time passwords (OTPs), securing the devices used to access the Platform, and promptly notifying the Company of any unauthorized access to their account or suspected security incident.

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The Company collects Personal Data from Users through the Platform for the purpose of providing its Services, facilitating worker-employer interactions, managing User accounts, processing bookings, responding to enquiries, improving the Platform, maintaining security, and complying with applicable legal and regulatory requirements. Personal Data is processed in accordance with applicable laws, contractual obligations, legitimate business interests, and, where required, the User's consent, while adhering to the principles of data minimisation, purpose limitation, and transparency.

The Company uses Personal Data only for the purposes for which it was collected, as described in this Privacy Policy, and processes only such Personal Data as is necessary to fulfil those purposes.

Users are requested not to provide any excessive or unnecessary Personal Data unless specifically requested by the Company or required for the provision of the Services or compliance with applicable laws.

We collect and use your Personal Data only to the extent necessary for the following purposes:

• User registration and account management: To create and manage User accounts, verify identity through OTP-based authentication, maintain profile information, and enable secure access to the Platform.
• Worker and employer profile management: To create, maintain, and display worker and employer profiles, including skills, experience, availability, business details, and other profile information necessary to facilitate workforce engagement.
• Job posting, search, matching, and booking: To enable employers to post job opportunities, allow workers to search and apply for jobs, facilitate worker-employer matching, manage bookings, and maintain records of engagements through the Platform.
• Processing payments and transactions: To process payments for purchases you make on the Platform, such as credits, and to keep the related transaction records.
• Customer support and Platform communications: To respond to enquiries, provide customer support, resolve complaints, communicate regarding bookings, accounts, Platform updates, and other service-related matters.
• Platform operation, maintenance, and improvement: To operate, maintain, secure, monitor, troubleshoot, and improve the functionality, performance, reliability, and User experience of the Platform, including resolving technical issues.
• Platform security, fraud prevention, and misuse detection: To authenticate Users, detect and prevent fraudulent activities, unauthorized access, misuse of the Platform, fake accounts, spam, and violations of applicable laws or the Company's Terms of Use.
• Compliance with legal and regulatory obligations: To comply with applicable laws, judicial or governmental requests, maintain statutory records, conduct audits, investigate disputes, exercise or defend legal rights, and enforce the Company's contractual rights and policies.
• Service communications: To send notifications and Platform updates relating to your account, bookings, applications, and security. These are service communications necessary to operate the Services, and are not marketing. Unless you turn them off, they also include the alerts about new work or available workers described in section 3.
• Understanding search demand: To see which trades and terms people search for, including searches the Platform cannot yet serve, so that the Services can be improved.

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Our database and the files you upload are hosted in India (Mumbai). Some of the service providers named in this Privacy Policy process data outside India, including in the United States: Sentry, which receives our error reports, Resend, which delivers our emails, and Google, which provides maps and place search, are located in the United States. Vercel, Cloudflare and Render may also process data outside India. These providers process only the Personal Data needed for their service and are engaged subject to appropriate contractual, technical, and organizational safeguards to protect your Personal Data.

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The Company retains Personal Data only for as long as necessary to provide the Services, manage User accounts, facilitate worker-employer engagements, maintain Platform security, respond to enquiries, and comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements. Personal Data is processed in accordance with applicable laws and the principles of data minimisation, purpose limitation, transparency, and accountability.

• Provision of Services: Personal Data is retained for as long as your account remains active or as otherwise necessary to provide the Services, including managing your profile, facilitating job postings, bookings, and User communications.
• Legal and Regulatory Requirements: Transaction (payment) records are kept for 8 years, for accounting and GST law. Consent records are kept for 3 years after an account is deleted. Where applicable law requires a longer period for any record, we follow it.
• Account Deletion: You may request deletion of your account at any time. Upon account deletion, the Company will delete or anonymise your Personal Data, except where retention is required under applicable law or is necessary for legitimate security, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, or compliance purposes.
• Security and Authentication Records: Security and fraud-prevention logs record your mobile number only in masked form. Separately, the Company keeps an authentication record of the mobile numbers, email addresses and third-party sign-in identifiers that are linked to, or unlinked from, an account. That record stores those identifiers in full rather than in masked form, because its purpose is to detect the same identifier being claimed across different accounts and it cannot serve that purpose on masked values. Security logs keep your network (IP) address for 1 year, after which it is removed. Other entries in the authentication record are kept for 1 year. Where an authentication record evidences that an account was deleted, it is retained for 3 years as proof that the deletion was carried out, and therefore continues to hold the identifier in full for that period.
• Periodic Review: The Company periodically reviews its data retention practices to ensure that Personal Data is retained only for as long as necessary and is securely deleted or anonymised when no longer required, subject to applicable legal and regulatory obligations.
• Retention Schedule: These are the periods we keep data for, after which it is deleted or anonymised: one-time login codes, 7 days; notifications, 90 days; de-identified search-suggestion counts, 180 days; records of the sign-in methods linked to an account, 1 year; network (IP) addresses in security logs, 1 year; messages you send us, 1 year after we close them; search text, which is not linked to your account, 730 days; records of your cookie choices, 730 days; the record that an account was deleted, 3 years; consent records, 3 years after an account is deleted; payment records, 8 years. If you have a question about a period, contact our Grievance Officer using the details in the Contact Us section below.

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As a User of the Platform, you have the following rights in relation to your Personal Data, subject to applicable law:

• Right to Access: You may request access to the Personal Data we hold about you and obtain information regarding how it is processed.
• Right to Correction and Erasure: You may request the correction or updating of inaccurate or incomplete Personal Data. You may also request deletion of your Personal Data by deleting your account or by contacting us. You can delete your account in the mobile app or on the website, or, without signing in, at www.apnachowk.com/delete-account with a one-time code sent to your mobile number. If you no longer have access to that mobile number, or if your account is suspended or pending, write to our Grievance Officer at the email address in the Contact Us section and the request will be handled by a person. Upon deletion, your profile, photographs, skills, availability, and any job postings that have not resulted in a booking will be permanently removed, and so will the notifications in your own account. Bookings that have not yet started are cancelled. Where records relate to both you and another User, such as completed bookings or ratings, those records are retained for the other User, but your name is replaced, any written reviews you left are removed, and job postings that resulted in a booking are kept without their description, photographs or exact location. Some older notifications already delivered to other Users may still show your name, and these are not currently removed. Security and fraud-prevention logs, which record your mobile number only in masked form, and authentication records, which record the identifier in full, may be retained where permitted or required by applicable law; the authentication record evidencing your deletion is retained for a longer defined period. Payment records are kept for 8 years and the record of what you consented to for 3 years; reports you made are kept without your name; your blocks are deleted; and messages you sent us are kept without your name or contact details until 1 year after we close them. Account deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time. Such withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal but may limit our ability to provide certain Services.
• Right to Grievance Redressal: You may submit any grievance or complaint regarding the processing of your Personal Data to the Company's designated Grievance Officer. We will address such requests in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
• Right to Manage Communication Preferences: You can turn off the alerts about new work or available workers at any time with the Notifications switch in the notification settings on the website; service messages about your account, bookings, applications and security continue. The Platform does not send promotional messages. We will update this Privacy Policy before introducing any new type of message.

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To exercise any of the above rights, please contact us using the details provided in the Contact Us section of this Privacy Policy.

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The Company takes reasonable steps to ensure that the Personal Data it processes is accurate, complete, and up to date, having regard to the purposes for which such data is collected and processed. Users are responsible for ensuring that the Personal Data and profile information they provide through the Platform, including contact details, skills, job postings, availability, location, and other profile information, is accurate, complete, and current. Users should promptly update their information or notify the Company of any changes or inaccuracies. Where Personal Data is found to be inaccurate or incomplete, the Company will take reasonable steps to correct or update such information upon request or as otherwise required under applicable law.

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Users have the right to be informed, in a clear and transparent manner, about how the Company collects, uses, stores, shares, retains, and protects their Personal Data. This Privacy Policy, together with any notices provided at the time of data collection, explains the categories of Personal Data collected, the purposes of processing, the rights available to Users under applicable law, and the measures adopted by the Company to safeguard such Personal Data.

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Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you access or use the Platform. They help the Company enhance the functionality, security, and performance of the Platform by recognizing your device, remembering your preferences, maintaining User sessions, and improving your overall experience.

The Company uses cookies and similar technologies to facilitate User authentication, improve performance, maintain security, remember User preferences, and support the efficient operation of the Services. Some cookies are essential for the proper functioning of the Platform and cannot be disabled without affecting its core features.

You may manage, block, or delete cookies through your browser settings or any cookie preference tools made available on the Platform. However, disabling certain cookies may affect the availability or functionality of certain features, including User login, account management, job search, job postings, bookings, and other Services offered through the Platform.

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The Company may update, modify, or amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in applicable laws, regulatory requirements, business practices, or the Services offered through the Platform. Any changes will be published on the Platform and will become effective from the date specified in the updated Privacy Policy. Users are encouraged to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about our data processing practices. Continued use of the Platform after the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy constitutes acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

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Where the provision of Personal Data is necessary for User registration, account verification, profile creation, job postings, worker-employer matching, bookings, or compliance with applicable legal requirements, failure to provide such Personal Data may limit or prevent the Company from providing certain features, functionalities, or Services available through the Platform.

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For any questions, concerns, or requests relating to this Privacy Policy or our data protection practices — including any grievance about how your Personal Data is handled — you may contact our Grievance Officer, Arvind Kumar Singh, at hello@apnachowk.com, or use the Grievance Redressal page. You may also write to us at:

• Registered Address: Chachraha, Jainagar, District Madhubani, Bihar 847226
• Email: hello@apnachowk.com
• Website: https://www.apnachowk.com/

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