Privacy policy
In short: we keep your name, mobile number, flat and the records you and your apartment create in the app, so your apartment can run bills, payments, issues and announcements. The data is stored in India. We don't handle your money, show ads or sell your data.
1. Who we are
CommunitySetu ("the app", "we", "us") is a community app for the apartments in a residential colony. It is run on behalf of the colony by its administrators. This policy covers the Android and iOS apps and the website apartmentconnect.site.
Questions or requests about your data: laaoa.apartment@gmail.com.
2. What we collect
When you register or are added
- Your name and Indian mobile number. The mobile number is your sign-in ID; we don't send SMS or one-time passwords to it.
- Your apartment, block and flat number, whether you are an owner or a tenant, and your role (resident, treasurer, watchman, apartment admin or super admin).
- Your 4-digit PIN, stored only as a salted, keyed hash. Nobody, including us, can read the PIN you chose.
- Account history: when you registered, were approved or rejected (with the reason), moved in or moved out, and who made each change.
When you use the app
- Bills and payments: bill amounts and due dates, payment status, the UPI transaction reference (UTR), cheque number or other reference you or the treasurer enter, the payment method and date, and who recorded or approved it.
- The apartment's payment account: the UPI ID and payee name that residents pay to, with a log of changes.
- Issues: what you report (title, details, category, whether it's in your flat or a common area) and the replies and status updates on it.
- Announcements posted by your apartment admin.
- Notifications: a push-notification token for each phone you sign in on, and your notification settings.
Usage statistics (you can switch this off)
- The app uses Google Analytics for Firebase to count which screens are opened and which features are used (for example "raised bills" or "logged an issue"), your role (such as resident or treasurer), when you sign in or register, the app version, device model, operating system and language, and a random identifier for the app on your phone. Google also derives an approximate location (country or city) from your connection.
- It does not include your name, mobile number, flat, amounts, what you type, or your phone's advertising ID, and it isn't used for advertising.
- It's on by default. Turn it off any time in the app: Settings → Share usage statistics.
Technical information
- Our hosting providers keep short-lived technical logs of requests to our servers (such as IP address, time and the action requested) for security and troubleshooting.
- To stop people guessing PINs, we count wrong PINs per network. We store this count against a scrambled (keyed hash) form of your network address, never the address itself, and only for as long as the block or count lasts.
What we don't collect
- Card, bank account or UPI PIN details. You pay from your own UPI or banking app; the app only records that a payment was made.
- Your location, contacts, photos or files.
- Advertising identifiers. The app has no ads and doesn't track you across other apps or websites.
3. Why we use it
- To sign you in and keep your account secure, including locking an account after 5 wrong PINs (for 15 minutes at first, longer if it keeps happening) and briefly blocking a network that enters many wrong PINs.
- To let your apartment admin confirm that you live in the flat you registered for.
- To raise maintenance bills, record payments, issue receipts and produce monthly collection reports for your apartment.
- To send issues to the people who handle them and keep you updated.
- To send push notifications you've chosen to receive, plus account and payment notices.
- If you allow usage statistics, to see which features are used and where the app needs improving.
We use your data only to run the app for your apartment. By registering, you agree to this use; you can withdraw by asking us to close your account (see section 7).
4. Who can see your information
| Who | What they can see |
|---|---|
| You | Your profile, your flat's bills, payments and receipts, the issues you raised, and announcements. |
| Your apartment admin | Residents, watchmen and the treasurer of your apartment; registrations; all issues; payment records (view only). |
| Your apartment's treasurer | Residents of your apartment, all bills and payments of the apartment, and its reports. |
| Your apartment's watchmen | Issues raised in the apartment, with the name and flat of the person who raised each one. |
| The colony's super admin | Apartments and their admins, and non-financial totals. Not residents' payments. |
People in other apartments can't see your information.
5. Service providers and where data is stored
- Google Firebase (Google LLC): sign-in, the database, push notifications and, if you allow it, usage statistics (Google Analytics for Firebase; Google keeps event data for the period set in our Analytics settings, 2 months by default). The database is in Google Cloud's Mumbai, India region. Push notifications are delivered through Google's and Apple's notification services.
- Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc.): hosts our servers and this website. Requests pass through Cloudflare's global network to reach them.
These providers process data only to provide their services to us. We don't share your data with anyone else, except where the law requires it.
6. How long we keep it
- Your account and records are kept while you live in the apartment and use the app.
- When you move out, your account is archived rather than deleted. You can still sign in for 90 days to see your payment statement.
- Bills and payment records are kept after you move out, because they form part of your apartment's accounts. Payment entries are never edited or deleted; a mistake is corrected with a reversing entry.
- Push tokens are removed when you sign out of a phone.
7. Your rights
Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, you can ask us to:
- tell you what personal data we hold about you and how we use it;
- correct or complete it (you can also change your name in the app);
- erase it, except records we must keep for your apartment's accounts or by law;
- close your account and withdraw your consent;
- nominate someone to act for you.
Write to laaoa.apartment@gmail.com from the details registered with us, or ask your apartment admin. We'll reply within the time the law requires. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India.
8. Security
- All traffic is encrypted (HTTPS).
- PINs are stored only as keyed hashes. Repeated wrong PINs lock the account temporarily, and a network that tries many wrong PINs is blocked for a while.
- Database rules and our servers check every request against your role, so people see only what their role allows.
No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach affecting your data, we'll inform you and the authorities as the law requires.
9. Children
The app is meant for adults. Accounts are for residents aged 18 or over, and for the staff who look after the apartment.
10. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top and, for significant changes, tell you in the app.
11. Contact
CommunitySetu · laaoa.apartment@gmail.com