Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

We collect what you give us: your name, email address, phone number, the details of your business listings and ads, the photos you upload, your messages, and, if you ask for a verified badge, the identity documents you send. We also collect some details automatically when you use the site: your device and browser, your IP address, the pages you visit, and your approximate location if you allow it. If you sign in with Google or another provider, or pay through a payment partner, we receive the details they share with us.

2. How We Use Your Information

• To run your account, your listings and your ads, and to show them to visitors.
• To let members contact each other through chat and enquiries.
• To keep Hingola safe: checking ads and accounts for fraud, spam and abuse, and stopping automated copying of our data.
• To take payments for paid features and keep the records the law requires.
• To send you the emails and messages you asked for, and important notices about your account.
• To improve search and suggest things that may interest you.

We collect only what we need for these purposes.

The phone number on your listing or ad

A phone number is required on every business listing and classified ad, and we check it with a one-time code before the listing goes live. We keep it even when you choose "Chat only". We use it for three separate purposes:

• Running your listing: checking that the number is real and reachable, and contacting you about your own listing (for example a problem with your ad, a moderation decision, or an ad about to expire). This is part of providing the service.
• Showing it to visitors: only if you chose to show it, and only to the visitors our settings allow.
• Sales and upgrade calls: only if you tick a separate box to allow them. This is off unless you turn it on, you can turn it off at any time in your preferences without affecting your listing, and in India these calls follow the TRAI rules on commercial calls (including Do Not Disturb). We record when you gave and withdrew this permission.

We never use a number collected to run a listing for sales calls unless you allowed them.

3. Sharing & Disclosure

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only: with other members as you choose (for example the details on your public listing); with service providers who work for us under contract, such as hosting, email, text messages, payments and AI services, who may use it only to provide their service to us; and with authorities when the law requires it.

4. Data Retention

We keep your data while your account is active. If an account is inactive for two years, its data is deleted. When you ask us to erase your account, we do so within 30 days; this also removes your notices, your chat photos, voice notes and documents (which then show as "Attachment removed"), and your devices registered for notifications. Some records, such as payment records and security logs, are kept for as long as the law requires.

5. Your Rights

Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, and the GDPR where it applies, you can see, correct, download and erase your personal data, and withdraw any permission you gave. Use your account privacy settings to download your data or ask for erasure, or contact our Grievance Officer.

6. Cookies

We use cookies that the site needs to work, such as keeping you signed in. Other cookies, such as those that measure how the site is used, are used only if you allow them in the cookie banner, and you can change your choice at any time.

7. Security

Everything you send to Hingola travels encrypted. Sensitive data such as identity document numbers and payment details is encrypted when stored, access to it is logged, and our backups are encrypted. Card details are handled by our payment partners and are never stored by Hingola. If a breach affects your data, we tell you and the authorities as the law requires.