Directory Privacy and Consent Policy

Draft for review by qualified Indian legal counsel.

This policy explains how the private resident-group directory on NangalDewat.com (the "Platform") is operated, what data it holds, who can see it, and the rights of the people listed in it.

1. Who operates the directory

The directory is operated privately by the owner of the Platform. It is not maintained by, for, or under the authority of any Resident Welfare Association, residents' body, village committee, or public authority. It is a private, invite-only record of a selected group of residents who have chosen to participate.

2. Why data is collected

Directory data is collected for one purpose: to let the consenting participants of the directory find and contact one another within the boundaries each participant has chosen. It is not used for advertising, profiling, or sale, and it is never exposed on public pages or to search engines.

3. What is collected

Only minimal information is collected. A listing consists of a name and, at the participant's option, additional fields such as a display name, a locality descriptor (never a full address by default), profession, interests, phone number, or email address. Aadhaar numbers and government identity numbers are never collected.

4. Per-category visibility

Every sensitive field carries its own visibility setting. The available visibility categories are:

• Owner only — visible to the platform owner alone.
• Directory administrators — visible to the small set of roles that administer the directory.
• Approved members — visible to approved directory participants.
• Selected groups — visible only to the specific directory groups the participant chooses.
• Self — visible only to the participant themselves.

Phone numbers, email addresses, and household references are private by default and become more widely visible only if the participant chooses so.

5. Voluntary participation and consent

Participation is entirely voluntary and by invitation. No resident is required to join, and declining to join has no consequence of any kind. Consent is recorded with its purpose, scope, and the way it was captured, and a participant may review what they have consented to.

6. Withdrawal and removal

A participant may at any time:

1. Ask for their listing to be corrected.
2. Narrow the visibility of any field.
3. Withdraw consent and have their listing deactivated or removed.

Requests may be made through the contact page (choose "Directory removal" or "Privacy request") and receive a reference number. Withdrawal is honoured without penalty; limited traces may remain in the audit log where required for its integrity, with minimal personal data.

7. No ownership or governance rights

Joining the directory, appearing in it, or administering any part of it confers no ownership of, and no governance, membership, voting, or administrative rights over, the Platform, the directory, the domain, or any database. Directory access is personal, limited, revocable, and subject to the Platform's terms.

8. Safeguards

Directory pages are excluded from indexing, protected by authentication, rate limited to deter enumeration, and covered by the audit log. Bulk export of directory data requires explicit approval by the platform owner.