Privacy policy

Who we are

TNPSC Guide is a Tamil-first learning app and website for TNPSC exam aspirants. It is run by Eagleminds Technologies ("we", "us").

• Legal entity and registered address: [[FOUNDER: registered legal name, type of entity and registered address]]
• Contact email: [[FOUNDER: contact email]]

This policy covers the TNPSC Guide Android app, this website and our enrolment page.

What we collect and why

What we collect	Why we need it
Your phone number	To sign you in with Firebase phone authentication (a one-time code by SMS), and to match a payment to your account.
Exam choice, level, daily study time, reminder time and days, quiet hours and app language	To build your 30-day plan and to remind you only when you want.
Learning activity: diagnostic answers, lessons played, answers to practice questions, mock tests, revision, bookmarks and progress	To plan your days, schedule revision, and show your progress and weekly report.
A device token for notifications (in a later app update)	To send study reminders and notices such as "Access unlocked". Only when notifications are switched on.
Crash and usage data	To fix crashes and improve lessons. Collected only after you agree in the app; you can withdraw at any time in Settings.
Payment records from Razorpay: order ID, payment ID, amount, status and the phone number used	To unlock your access and to handle refunds or disputes. We never receive or store card, UPI or bank details.
Support messages, error reports and tutor questions	To answer you, correct wrong questions and improve answers.
Technical logs: IP address, device model and app version	To keep the service secure and to find faults.

What we do not do

• We do not sell or rent your data.
• We do not show advertising and we use no advertising trackers, in the app or on this website.
• There are no in-app purchases. Enrolment and payment happen only on our website.
• We show no ranks or public leaderboards. Your scores are never shown to other learners by name.

Profile photo

• Adding a profile photo is optional.
• We store one copy of it, re-encoded by your browser or the app before upload; its location and other metadata are removed.
• Only you see it, in the app and on this website. We show it to no other learner and share it with no one.
• It is deleted when you remove it, or when you delete your account.

AI in the app

• Tutor questions. When you ask the AI tutor, the question text is sent to our AI provider, Anthropic (Claude), to write the answer. To find the study notes that match your question, the question text is first turned into embeddings (lists of numbers) by Voyage AI. We send the question and the matching notes, not your phone number.
• Voice questions. A voice clip (up to 30 seconds) is sent to Google Cloud Speech-to-Text and turned into text that you can edit before sending. The audio is deleted right after it is transcribed; we do not keep voice recordings.
• AI never publishes on its own. AI helps our team draft practice questions and notes, but a human reviewer checks every question, note and lesson before any learner sees it.
• AI can be wrong. If you are unsure about an AI answer, use "Ask a human" and a teacher will reply.

Who processes data for us

These service providers process data only to provide their service to us:

• Google Firebase (Google): phone sign-in, notifications, and crash and usage data after your consent.
• Razorpay: payments on our website.
• Anthropic: answers from the AI tutor and AI drafts of practice questions for our reviewers.
• Voyage AI: turns tutor question text and our study notes into embeddings to find the matching notes.
• Google Cloud Speech-to-Text (Google): transcribes voice questions.
• Our hosting provider: runs our servers and database. [[FOUNDER: hosting provider name and server location]]

Some of these providers process data outside India, under their own security and privacy terms.

How long we keep data and how to delete it

• Account and learning data (phone number, settings, learning activity, bookmarks, tutor questions, support messages and error reports): kept while your account exists, and deleted at once when you delete your account. There is no waiting period.
• Your sign-in record at Firebase (phone number and Firebase user ID): deleted right after your account is deleted.
• Payment records (order ID, payment ID, amount, status and the phone number used): deleted together with your account. Razorpay keeps its own record of the payment under its own terms.
• The payment summary Razorpay sends us (technical details we keep to settle each payment, such as the payment method and any error code): cleared 180 days after the payment is settled. The order ID, payment ID, amount and status stay while your account exists.
• Voice clips: deleted right after transcription.
• Crash reports: kept by Firebase Crashlytics for up to 90 days.
• Technical logs: kept for [[FOUNDER: log retention period]].

To delete your account and its data: in the app, open Settings and choose "Delete account". Once you sign in again with the one-time code sent to your phone, the account is deleted at once; this cannot be undone. If you cannot use the app, ask us from your registered phone number through [[FOUNDER: account-deletion channel outside the app: the support contact (email or WhatsApp number) on the Help page]], and we delete your account the same way.

Your rights and grievance contact

You can ask us to show you the data we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it. You can withdraw your consent for crash and usage data at any time in the app's Settings.

TNPSC Guide is meant for adults preparing for TNPSC exams. [[FOUNDER: confirm the minimum-age wording]]

Grievance officer: [[FOUNDER: name, email and postal address of the grievance officer]]. We reply within [[FOUNDER: response time]].

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we update the version and the date at the top of this page. If a change affects how we use your data, we tell you in the app before it takes effect.