Privacy Policy

Vihaya is a study-companion app for engineering and school students built around notes, previous-year question papers (PYQs), and developer tools. This policy explains what we collect, why, and your rights — written in plain language. By using Vihaya you agree to these practices.

Account data

• Name and email (via email/password sign-up or Google Sign-In)
• Optional profile fields you choose to fill: phone, bio, profile picture
• Academic context: institution, course, department, year, semester

Activity data

• Notes and PYQs you bookmark, view, or upload
• XP / level progression from completing actions in the app

Technical data (collected automatically)

• Device model, OS version, language, and timezone
• Crash reports and stack traces (Firebase Crashlytics)
• Advertising ID used by Google AdMob to serve ads (see §5)

Device permissions you grant

Vihaya asks for the following permissions on Android and iOS (iPhone/iPad) only when you use the feature that needs them. None of them run in the background.

• Camera — to scan or capture study material you want to save or upload
• Storage / Photos — to save downloaded PDFs for offline study, and to read the PDFs and images you upload (Storage on Android, Photos on iOS)
• Network state — to detect whether you are online before fetching content
• App Tracking (iOS) — on iPhone/iPad we ask, via Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt, before any advertising identifier is used for ads (see §5). You can decline and Vihaya still works.

• To operate the app — show your subjects, notes, bookmarks, XP
• To let you sign in and recover your account
• To diagnose crashes and improve performance
• To show ads that help keep Vihaya free for students

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use your notes to train third-party AI models without your consent.

Some actions in Vihaya are intentionally visible to other users:

• Notes / PYQs you upload appear to other students in the same subject
• Your display name and avatar can appear as the uploader of content

Vihaya is built on the following services. Each has its own privacy policy that also applies when you use Vihaya:

• Firebase Authentication (Google LLC) — sign-in
• Cloud Firestore (Google LLC) — stores your account data, notes, PYQs
• Firebase Storage (Google LLC) — stores PDFs and images you upload
• Firebase Crashlytics (Google LLC) — crash and error reporting
• Google Sign-In (Google LLC) — optional one-tap sign-in
• Google AdMob (Google LLC) — banner and interstitial ads

Google's privacy policy: policies.google.com/privacy

Vihaya is free and is supported by ads served through Google AdMob. AdMob may collect your device's advertising ID and approximate location to show relevant ads. You can control this at any time: on Android, reset or limit your advertising ID in Settings → Google → Ads; on iOS (iPhone/iPad), decline the App Tracking Transparency prompt or turn off Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.

See Google's ads policy: policies.google.com/technologies/ads

Vihaya is intended for students aged 13 and older. If you are under 13, please do not use Vihaya. If you are between 13 and 18 (a minor under the Indian DPDP Act, 2023), you should use Vihaya only with the involvement of a parent or guardian, and your parent/guardian consents to this policy on your behalf.

If we learn that we have collected personal data from a child under 13 without verifiable parental consent, we will delete it. Parents/guardians can request deletion of a minor's account by emailing the address in §11.

• Data is transmitted over HTTPS
• Firestore and Storage access is gated by per-user security rules
• Passwords are handled by Firebase Authentication and never stored by us in plain text

No system is perfectly secure. We cannot guarantee absolute protection of your data, but we work to follow industry-standard practices.

Under the Indian Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (and equivalent laws like the EU GDPR if you reside in the EU), you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Correct inaccurate data — most fields are editable in Profile → Edit Profile
• Delete your account and all associated data directly in the app — Profile → Delete Account — on both Android and iOS. You may also email us (see §11) to request erasure.
• Withdraw consent for non-essential processing (e.g. ads personalization) — via Android settings, or the App Tracking Transparency control on iOS
• File a grievance — see §11 for contact

We keep your data while your account is active. After you delete your account:

• Personal identifiers (name, email, phone, bio) are deleted within 30 days
• Notes / PYQs you uploaded for the benefit of other students remain available, but without your name attached
• Crash logs and aggregated analytics may be retained for up to 90 days for debugging

We may update this policy when the app changes or laws change. The “Last Updated” date below always reflects the current version. Material changes will be flagged in-app the next time you open Vihaya.

Questions, requests, grievances? Reach us at:

• Email: vihaya.app@gmail.com
• Support: support@vihaya.app

We aim to respond to privacy requests within 7 working days.