Privacy Policy
Last updated: 30 October 2026
Gaon is a mobile app for farmers in India: mandi prices, weather, crop information, government scheme information, tutorials and a community forum called Farm Talk. This policy explains what personal data the app collects, why, who else handles it, how long we keep it, and how you can have it deleted. We have tried to write it in plain language.
1. Who we are
Gaon is operated by Radhe Labs (Parth Agarwal), 228 Mohalla Makbara, Kotdwar Road, Najibabad – 246763, India (“we”, “us”). For anything about your data, including complaints, write to parthagarwal1984@gmail.com. That address is also our grievance contact under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
2. What we collect
| Data | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | When you sign in. Required. | To create your account and email you a one-time login code. We do not use passwords for farmers. |
| Profile details | When you set up your profile after first signing in. Your name and state are required; district, village and phone number are optional. You can change them at any time. | Your name, preferred language, state, and optionally district, village and phone number. Used to personalise the app and to show your name and village next to your Farm Talk posts. |
| Location | Only if you allow it in your phone's permission prompt, and only while the app is in use. Optional: you can enter your place by hand instead. | Your coordinates are saved to your profile to show local weather, find nearby mandis and fill in your state and district. If you use your current location when saving an address, the coordinates are saved with that address and are visible only to you and the Gaon team. You can decline, and you can turn the permission off in your phone's settings. |
| Crops | You choose at least one crop when setting up your profile; sowing dates and acreage are added by you later. | The crops you grow, sowing dates and acreage, to show relevant prices and information. |
| Profile photo | Only if you choose to add one. Optional. | A photo you take with the camera or pick from your gallery, shrunk on your phone and kept in private storage. Other signed-in users can see it next to your name in Farm Talk (see section 4). You can remove it at any time. |
| Saved addresses | When you add an address in the app. Optional. | The name, phone number and address you type, so you can reuse it when you apply for a service or programme. Only you and the Gaon team can see it. |
| Service requests | When you ask for a service: a soil test, a drone spray, the Saarthi Programme (application or card), or when you send a sale receipt. | What you type in the request (for example crop, field size, preferred date, a note), your phone number and place from your profile, and for the Saarthi Programme the address you pick and a card number you enter. Used so the Gaon team can act on and reply to your request. Only you and the Gaon team can see it. |
| Sale receipt photos | Only if you choose to send one. Optional. | A photo of a sale receipt that you take or pick, shrunk on your phone and kept in private storage that only you and the Gaon team can open. A receipt may show details such as names, phone numbers or amounts that you choose to include, so please cover any bank, Aadhaar or card number before you take the photo. Sending a receipt does not earn a reward or a payment. |
| Farm Talk activity | When you use Farm Talk. | Posts, comments, poll votes, likes, follows, blocks and reports you make. Posts and comments are visible to other signed-in users (see section 4). |
| Messages to our experts (WhatsApp) | Only if you tap Ask an expert, Video call, Vet call or Chat on WhatsApp, and then tap Send yourself. | The app opens WhatsApp with a message already typed: your name, your village, district and state and your crops (only what is in your profile), and your question. You can edit or delete the message before you send it. We do not store this message ourselves; once you send it, it is held by WhatsApp (Meta) and by the Gaon expert, under WhatsApp's own policy. |
| Notification data | If you allow notifications. | A push token (an identifier for your device) and the device platform, so we can send you notifications such as replies, likes and followers. We also keep a list of your in-app notifications. |
The app also stores your login session on your phone so you stay signed in. We do not run advertising in the app, we do not use advertising identifiers, and we do not use third-party analytics or crash reporting tools.
Not collected: your contacts, files, microphone, or precise location while the app is closed. The app uses your camera or your photo gallery only when you choose to add a profile photo or a sale receipt photo, and it does not read any other photo on your phone. Some features shown in test builds (a shop, loans and complaint tracking) are switched off in the public release and collect nothing.
3. How we use it
- To let you sign in and to run the app: prices, weather, crop pages, Farm Talk.
- To show relevant content for your location and crops.
- To send notifications you have allowed.
- To keep Farm Talk safe: reviewing reports, removing harmful content and banning repeat abusers.
- To respond to your requests, including deletion.
We do not sell your personal data and we do not use it for advertising.
4. Who can see your data
Other Gaon users can see your name, village and profile picture (if any), and the posts, comments, polls, likes and follows you make in Farm Talk. They cannot see your email address, phone number, coordinates, crops, saved addresses, service requests or receipt photos.
The Gaon team can see your service requests, saved addresses and receipt photos, so that we can act on what you ask for. They are not shown to anyone else.
Service providers that handle data on our behalf, only to provide the service:
| Provider | What it does | Data it handles |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, file storage and login. Our project runs in Mumbai, India. | Everything in the table above, including the photos you choose to add. |
| Brevo | Sends the one-time login code by email. | Your email address and the email content. |
| Expo push service and Google Firebase Cloud Messaging | Deliver push notifications to your phone. | Your push token, device platform and the notification text. |
| Open-Meteo | Weather forecasts and place search. | Coordinates or a place name we send from our servers. Not your name, email or account. |
| India Post pincode service (api.postalpincode.in) | Fills in your state and district when you type a pincode for a saved address. | Only the 6-digit pincode. Not your name, email or account. |
| WhatsApp (Meta) | Carries the message you choose to send to our expert. | The message you send, as described in the table above. |
Mandi prices come from the Government of India’s open data portal (data.gov.in / Agmarknet); no personal data is sent to it. Your phone’s operating system may use its own location services to turn coordinates into a place name; that is governed by your phone maker’s and Google’s policies. Some providers above may process data outside India. We may also disclose data if the law requires it.
Some buttons open other apps on your phone: Call (your phone dialler), Directions (Google Maps) and Share (WhatsApp). What you do there is under their own policies. Share sends only the text you chose to share, never your account details.
5. How long we keep it
We keep your data while your account exists. When you delete your account, your data is deleted from our database immediately and permanently, and so are your profile photo and receipt photos. See how to delete your account. Copies held by our providers are governed by their own retention (for example, delivery logs of login emails kept for a limited period). We do not currently keep separate database backups; if that changes, deleted data could remain in a backup for a limited period and we will update this policy.
6. Your choices and rights
- Access and correct: view and edit your profile and crops in the app.
- Delete: Profile → Delete account, or by email as described on the delete page.
- Location, camera and notifications: turn each off any time in your phone’s settings. You can remove your profile photo in the app, and you can cancel a service request while it is waiting.
- Receipt photos: you can ask us to delete a receipt photo by email. We may also delete old receipt photos once their request is closed.
- Ask us: to see what we hold, correct it, or complain about how it is handled, email us. We reply within 30 days.
You have the rights given to you by the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may approach the Data Protection Board of India once it is operational.
7. Children
Gaon is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has an account, email us and we will delete it.
8. Security
Data travels between the app and our servers over HTTPS, and our database applies access rules so that each user can only read and change their own private data. No system is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
9. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will update the date above and, where appropriate, tell you in the app.
10. Contact
Radhe Labs (Parth Agarwal), 228 Mohalla Makbara, Kotdwar Road, Najibabad – 246763, India — parthagarwal1984@gmail.com.