Garhwa Wale Official Privacy Policy & Citizen Information Charter
Effective Date: October 2026 • Scope: Android Application (garhwa.wale.app), Garhwa News Feed, Tourist Guides, Live Chat, and Web Portal (https://garhwawale.vercel.app)
Our Privacy Commitment to Garhwa Citizens
Garhwa Wale is built by and for the people of Garhwa District, Jharkhand. We operate on principles of transparency, data minimization, and civic service. We do not sell user data, track you across the internet, or harvest personal details for targeted advertising.
garhwa.wale.app1. Purpose of the Platform & Scope
Garhwa Wale is an all-in-one civic and community portal established to empower residents, visitors, and students across the Garhwa district of Jharkhand. Our mission is to provide verified local tourist guides (such as Shri Banshidhar Temple, Sukhaldari Falls, Gurusindhu Waterfalls, and Gulgulpat), promote talented local digital content creators, provide a real-time community chat platform, and offer daily district news and announcements to help citizens access vital regional information.
This Privacy Policy governs the manner in which Garhwa Wale collects, uses, maintains, and discloses information collected from users of the Android mobile application (garhwa.wale.app), administrative dashboards, and web portal services.
2. Garhwa Citizen Daily News & Civic Information Services
A cornerstone of Garhwa Wale is our Daily News & Civic Updates Feed, dedicated to keeping citizens informed of important events happening in Garhwa town, Meral, Ranka, Nagar Untari, Bhawnathpur, Majhiaon, Ramna, and all blocks across the district.
How We Protect Citizen Privacy in News Services:
- Frictionless Public Access: Any citizen or visitor can view daily news headlines, public health notices, weather advisories, examination dates, electricity/water supply updates, and civic announcements freely without mandatory registration or invasive tracking.
- No Behavioral Profiling: We do not track what specific news stories you read or build psychological, commercial, or political profiles based on your reading history.
- Source Verification & Anti-Misinformation: News entries are curated from reputable district correspondence, official administrative communiqués, and verified community correspondents. We enforce a zero-tolerance policy against misleading rumors, communal discord, inflammatory gossip, or unverified claims.
- Protection of Whistleblowers & Citizen Reporters: When a citizen provides an informational tip or grievance regarding local civic issues (e.g. road damage, public facilities, water shortages), their identity and contact information are held strictly confidential and never published without explicit written authorization.
- Child-Safe News Content: All news bulletins undergo family-safe editorial review. We strictly forbid graphic images of accidents, gruesome crime scene photography, adult material, or any content that compromises the psychological well-being of young readers.
3. Information We Collect
We adhere strictly to the principle of Data Minimization under Indian data protection jurisprudence:
- Account Registration & Authentication: When you register an account or sign in with Google OAuth, we collect your name, email address, chosen username, optional contact phone number, and avatar image.
- Creator KYC Verification: When creators apply for the official Garhwa Wale verified creator badge, we collect their channel links (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook), public metrics (subscriber counts), and voluntarily uploaded verification proof.
- Community Submissions & Places: User-submitted recommendations of scenic spots, temples, waterfalls, and local heritage, including place titles, descriptions, coordinates or directions, and photos.
- Community Chat Messages: Real-time messages posted in public discussion channels, including text content, timestamp, and sender public display name.
- Help & Incident Reports: Information submitted via our in-app reporting desk regarding inappropriate behavior, spam, or child safety violations, including incident descriptions and reported user/content IDs.
- Technical Telemetry: Approximate network-derived location (city/district level), device operating system version, crash diagnostics, and session authentication tokens required for maintaining active logins.
4. How We Use Collected Information
All data collected is used solely to provide and improve platform operations:
- To authenticate citizen accounts and secure them against unauthorized takeover.
- To curate, verify, and broadcast authentic tourist guides and local district news.
- To review creator eligibility for verified creator ID cards and leaderboard rankings.
- To transmit real-time messages in public discussion rooms.
- To dispatch critical transactional communications, including login security alerts, password resets, and KYC status updates via secure SMTP.
- To monitor, investigate, and triage user abuse, safety violations, or child endangerment reports within 24 hours.
5. Android Mobile Application Device Permissions
The Garhwa Wale Android application (garhwa.wale.app) requests only standard, runtime-controlled permissions strictly necessary for its features:
- Photo Library & Storage (READ_MEDIA_IMAGES / READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE): Used exclusively when you choose to upload a photo of a local tourist location, set your profile avatar, or provide verification proof for a creator badge. The app does not scan or access any other photos on your device.
- Camera (CAMERA): Used only if you choose to take an immediate picture for a place submission or creator document.
- Network Access (INTERNET, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE): Required to fetch news updates, verify credentials, receive live chat messages, and submit tickets over encrypted HTTPS/TLS.
- Push Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS): Used solely to alert you to breaking civic notices, verification status changes, or direct replies. Users can disable notifications anytime in Android Settings.
We never request background location tracking, call logs, SMS access, address book contacts, microphone audio, or device hardware identifiers for ad targeting.
6. In-App Reporting & Safety Mechanisms
In full compliance with Google Play standards and our commitment to community safety, users have access to an immediate, frictionless in-app reporting tool:
- Direct Path: Go to
Profile → Settings → Help & Safety → Report a Problem. - Categories: Select from Child Safety Concern, Inappropriate Content, User Abuse/Harassment, or Other Safety Issue.
- Context Reporting: In the live chat, you can long-press any message and choose Report Message or tap the top safety shield icon.
- Zero Friction: Reporting works entirely inside the app without requiring an external browser, web redirection, or third-party email client.
7. Absolute Prohibition of Data Selling
Garhwa Wale maintains an irrevocable, blanket prohibition against the commercial sale, leasing, monetizing, or bartering of personal citizen data. We do not partner with data brokers, ad networks, or telemarketing agencies.
8. Data Security, Encryption & Storage Architecture
We apply rigorous security protocols to safeguard all citizen and visitor records:
- Transport Security: All API communication, website traffic, and real-time sockets utilize 256-bit TLS/SSL encryption.
- Password Hashing: User credentials are protected using adaptive bcrypt salting and hashing. Plaintext passwords never exist on our servers.
- Cloud Storage: Media files are stored securely on Cloudinary CDN over HTTPS with restricted access tokens.
- Database Clusters: Primary records are securely housed in MongoDB Atlas cloud clusters with strict firewall policies and role-based access.
9. User Rights & Complete Account Deletion
Under Indian data protection laws and Google Play requirements, you possess full control over your personal data:
- Right to Rectification: Edit your name, avatar, bio, and district village directly through Account Settings.
- Right to Erasure / Account Deletion: You may request complete and permanent deletion of your account, KYC data, and submissions at any time by emailing
teamgarhwawale@gmail.comor using the in-app support ticketing desk. Upon verification, all records are permanently scrubbed from production databases within 7 business days. - Right to Withdraw Consent: You may revoke device permissions or opt out of non-essential communications at any time.
10. Children’s Privacy Protection
Protecting the safety and privacy of minors is a foundational duty of our platform. We do not intentionally target minors under 13 for personal data collection. If a parent or guardian discovers that a child has created an account or shared personal information without supervision, please reach out to our dedicated Child Safety Desk at teamgarhwawale@gmail.com. We will immediately purge all corresponding records.
For our exhaustive policy and zero-tolerance commitments against Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE), review our companion Child Safety Standards Policy.
11. Designated Grievance Officer & Contact Desk
In accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the designated contact for privacy inquiries, grievance redressal, and regulatory compliance is: