Privacy Policy

This policy applies to all visitors who browse the directory, customers who search for and contact local listings, vendors and merchants who create accounts, list businesses, or manage service offerings, and anyone who submits enquiries or feedback through our platform.

Separate terms may apply to specific products, premium vendor campaigns, or beta features; where those terms conflict with this policy, the more specific notice or agreement will prevail for that feature.

Account & Profile Information: When you register as a vendor, we collect your name, email address, mobile phone number, business name, category choices, physical address, business description, and operating hours.

Verification & MSME Documents: To protect the integrity of our community and display trust tags, we may collect government-issued IDs, GSTIN registration details, MSME/Udyam certificates, and physical location coordinates.

Listing Content: We store and display descriptions, pricing catalogs, promotional photographs, service locations, and other marketing materials you choose to upload to your public profile page.

Usage & Technical Data: We collect approximate log and device data, including IP addresses, browser types, operating systems, referring URLs, pages viewed, time spent, and overall clickstream navigation patterns.

Communications: We retain records of messages, support tickets, intellectual property claims, and call or WhatsApp inquiry metadata triggered through our click-to-contact links.

To Operate and Optimize the Directory: Providing relevant local search results, matching categories, and establishing direct communication lines between local citizens and businesses.

To Audit & Ensure Authenticity: Moderating listing quality, preventing listing scams, validating government registry statuses, and preventing rating/review spam using our Bayesian algorithms.

To Communicate: Sending verification OTPs, service updates, policy modifications, billing receipts, and administrative alerts.

To Prevent Abuse: Investigating suspicious activities, blocking scrapers, and enforcing our Terms of Use and local laws in India.

Aggregate Data: We compile de-identified and aggregated analytics to measure city-wise category demand, directory performance metrics, and general user engagement trends.

We use first-party cookies and browser local storage to maintain secure vendor sessions, prevent CSRF security attacks, remember user preferences (such as selected cities or dark mode settings), and track listings you add to the Compare Tool.

You can choose to disable cookies through your browser settings. However, doing so may restrict your access to key interactive features of the website, such as staying signed into your vendor dashboard or comparing services side by side.

We integrate third-party advertising services, including Google AdSense, to serve relevant advertisements to users who browse our local directory.

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies and device identifiers to serve advertisements based on a user's prior visits to Bharat Seva Setu or other websites on the Internet.

Google's use of advertising cookies (specifically the DoubleClick cookie) enables it and its partners to serve personalized advertisements to you based on your visits to our site and/or other sites across the Internet.

You have the absolute right to opt out of interest-based personalized advertising. You may choose to opt out of Google's personalized ads by visiting the official Google Ads Settings page (https://www.google.com/settings/ads). Alternatively, you can opt out of other third-party vendors' use of cookies for interest-based advertising by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative WebChoices tool at http://www.aboutads.info/choices/.

Public Business Profiles: Any information you mark as public on your listing (business name, address, contact details, description, services, and community reviews) is made visible to all users browsing the internet.

Trusted Service Providers: We share information with payment processors (such as Razorpay), cloud hosting providers, transactional SMS gateways, and analytics partners. These entities handle your data under strict confidentiality obligations.

Legal and Regulatory Enforcement: We may disclose data if required by law, subpoena, court order, or when we believe disclosure is necessary to protect public safety, combat financial fraud, or defend our platform's rights.

Business Transitions: In the event of a merger, acquisition, corporate restructuring, or asset sale, user information will be transferred subject to equivalent confidentiality commitments.

Data Retention: We retain personal information for as long as your merchant or user account remains active, or as required to comply with statutory accounting audits, resolve billing disputes, and enforce agreements.

Security Safeguards: We implement administrative, technical, and physical security measures, including HTTPS/TLS encryption, secure database hashing, and firewalls. However, no internet transmission is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute safety.

You have the right to access, inspect, and export the personal data associated with your profile.

You have the right to correct, update, or edit incorrect listing information directly through your merchant dashboard.

You have the right to request the deletion (erasure) of your account and associated listings. To do so, please email us with the subject line 'Account Deletion' at safety@bharatsevasetu.com.

You have the right to object to automated content moderation, withdraw consent for marketing communications, or object to specific data processing activities.

Our directory is not targeted at children under the age of 13 (or the relevant age threshold requiring parental consent in your local jurisdiction). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe we have done so inadvertently, please contact us immediately.

We operate primarily in India under Indian law. If you access the service from outside India, please note that your information will be transferred, processed, and stored on servers located in India, where data protection laws may differ from those in your home country.

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. The 'Last updated' date at the top of this document will reflect the date of the latest revisions.

Your continued use of Bharat Seva Setu after a revision has been published constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

If you have any questions, concerns, or legal requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our general data handling practices, you can contact our privacy desk at contact@bharatsevasetu.com or write to our postal address displayed in the website footer.