Privacy Policy

1. Scope

This policy explains how Shoonya Origins (“we”, “us”) handles information in connection with Basis: the reporting form, the citizen dashboard, the marketplace, the moderation tools and the free calculators on this website. It adds to our general Shoonya Origins Privacy Policy, which covers the rest of the site.

2. What we collect

If you report anonymously, we receive the photo you attach, the city and issue category you choose, the location you set (a map pin and any landmark text you type), and the time of the report. We do not ask for your name, phone number or email.

If you create an account, we collect your email address, the name you enter (if any), and your sign-in method (password or Google). Passwords are handled by our authentication provider and are not visible to us.

If you use the rewards features while signed in, we also record the reports you file (category, description, coordinates, photo), the disposals you log, your credit balance, and the vouchers and products you redeem.

If you register a shop, we collect its name, category, contact details, address and location, and the products and vouchers you list.

If you are a moderator, we record which review decisions you made and when.

Technical data. Like any website, our hosting and infrastructure providers process technical data such as IP address and device or browser details when you connect. Your browser also stores small items locally, such as your theme choice, a short-lived security token and a counter that limits rapid repeat submissions.

3. Photos, location and AI training

Photos and locations are the core of a report. We use them to show and analyse civic problems, and, importantly, to improve our detection model.

• A computer-vision model analyses submitted photos and proposes boxes around the problem it sees.
• Trusted moderators review those results. Photos that a moderator approves or corrects may be added to a training set used to fine-tune the model, including on cloud GPU servers run by our compute providers.
• Photos a moderator rejects are not used for training.

Hidden metadata. Photos can carry embedded information, such as when and where they were taken, depending on your phone's settings. Basis does not currently remove this before storing a photo. If you do not want it included, turn off location tagging in your camera or remove metadata before uploading.

Please do not photograph people. Report the problem, not the person. Avoid capturing faces, vehicle number plates, house numbers or documents where you can. If a photo contains this, tell us and we will remove it.

4. How we use information

• To receive, display and analyse reports, and to show aggregate counts such as how many reports have been filed.
• To run accounts, credits, the marketplace, vouchers and partner shops.
• To keep the service safe: to detect spam, duplicate or abusive submissions and fraud.
• To train, evaluate and improve our detection models, as described above.
• To prepare anonymised, aggregated summaries of civic issues, which we may share with municipal bodies.
• To communicate with you about your account or a request you make.

5. Who we share it with

We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers.

We use service providers to run Basis. They process data on our behalf and only for that purpose. They currently include a database, authentication and file-storage provider (Supabase), an edge-computing provider for anonymous report submission (Cloudflare), an application hosting provider for our API (Render), cloud GPU compute for model training (RunPod), map tiles (OpenStreetMap), font delivery (Google Fonts) and, on the Basis home page, Google Analytics for aggregate visit statistics. These providers may process data outside India.

Reports that we escalate to civic bodies are intended to be aggregated and free of personal identifiers. Anonymous reports are not linked to a named person because we do not hold one. We may also disclose information where the law requires it.

6. Security

We use encrypted connections, access controls on our database, restricted moderator access and validation of what is submitted. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee that information will never be accessed without authorisation. If you believe something has gone wrong, contact us straight away.

7. Retention and deletion

We keep reports for as long as they are useful for showing civic patterns and for improving detection. Account data is kept while your account is open. You can ask us to delete your account and the personal information tied to it. Because anonymous reports are not linked to an identity, we usually cannot find and delete one on request, though we can remove a specific photo if you point us to it. Data already used to train a model cannot be extracted from that model, but we will stop using your photos in future training when you ask.

8. Your choices and rights

You can choose not to create an account and still report. You can ask us to access, correct or delete the information tied to your account, to stop using your photos for future training, or to remove a photo you uploaded. Email yogeshjathalkar@gmail.com. We will respond within a reasonable time and handle personal data in line with applicable Indian law.

9. Children

Basis is not directed at children under 13 and accounts are intended for adults. If you believe a child has given us personal information, tell us and we will delete it.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Basis grows. The effective date at the top shows the current version. If a change is significant, we will say so on the site.

11. Contact

Shoonya Origins, Pune, India. Email yogeshjathalkar@gmail.com.