Privacy Notice

Version 1 · published 12 November 2026

Mehfil Privacy Notice · Version 1 · Effective from the Publication Date

In plain words (not part of the notice):

We ask for as little as we can: your email, a first name and what you do in Meetups.
We do not sell your data, show ads, or use third-party analytics.
Hosts see only what you give them for their Meetup. Other guests never see your email.
Addresses and door details disappear seven days after a Meetup ends. Q&A text goes after thirty days.
You can download or delete your data from Settings, and take back any optional choice with one tap.
Some of our service providers are outside India. The list is in section 4.

1. Who is responsible

The Operator decides why and how your personal data is used for the Service. You can reach the Operator at the Contact Email, and the Grievance Officer through Part 6.

2. What we collect, why, and for how long

Personal data	Why we use it (the purpose, and what it lets you do)	Where it comes from	How long we keep it
Email address	To sign you in, send notices about your Meetups, keep the service safe, and handle complaints and legal duties	You, or Google if you sign in with Google	Until you delete your account. A keyed hash is kept for banned accounts so a ban holds
First name	To show who is hosting and who is going, according to the Meetup's visibility rules	You, or your Google profile if you choose	Until you delete your account. After deletion, past guest lists show "Deleted user"
Google account identifier	To sign you in. We receive your name and email from Google and no password. We do not read your contacts, mail or files	Google	Until you delete your account
Age confirmation (a yes)	To keep the service to adults. We do not store a date of birth	You	Until you delete your account
Meetup activity: Meetups you host, requests, RSVPs, confirmations, withdrawals, arrivals confirmed by the check-in, by a code the host scanned, or vouched for by hosts, ratings	To run Meetups, release spots fairly, show hosts accurate counts, and measure how well the service works	You and hosts	While your account exists; summaries without your name may be kept longer
Answers to host questions and notes you type (such as food needs)	So a host can decide on a request and prepare. Please do not enter health details you do not want a host to see	You	Deleted when the Meetup is archived, seven days after it ends
Your phone's location when you tap "I'm here" (a guest)	To check that you are near the Meetup, which decides whether you count as arrived and whether a no-show can be recorded. We read it once, compare it with the Meetup's place, and do not store the coordinates, the time on your phone or a trail of where you go. If you tap "Show my code", we keep that one reading for at most 45 seconds, so the host's phone can be compared with yours, and delete it when the code is scanned, replaced or expires. We keep only the result (near, far or unclear), a distance rounded to 10 metres, and how accurate the reading was	Your phone, when you tap	The result: while your account exists, but the check-in rows are deleted 30 days after the Meetup [ASSUMPTION] and when you delete your account
A host's position when the host taps "I'm here" or "The venue is here" (hosts)	To check the host is at the Meetup and, when the pin was placed slightly off, to let guests who are near the host check in. Guests never see it	Your phone, when you tap	Deleted with the address, seven days after the Meetup ends
Your phone's location when you scan a guest's code (hosts and co-hosts)	To check that the guest's phone and yours are in the same place	Your phone, when you scan	Used once and not stored. We keep only how far apart the two phones were, rounded to 10 metres, with the check-in rows (deleted 30 days after the Meetup [ASSUMPTION])
Address and door details (hosts enter them)	To show them to admitted guests at the right time	Hosts	Deleted seven days after the Meetup ends, unless a report or legal duty requires us to keep them
Questions and answers, and messages to a host	To let people ask and answer about a Meetup	You	Deleted thirty days after the Meetup ends
Your votes in a Meetup's polls (from the open-beta set)	To let the people who are coming decide when and where a Meetup happens, and to count the result. Nobody sees who voted for what; you see the counts once you have voted	You	Deleted seven days after the Meetup ends and when you delete your account; the closed poll keeps only counts, without names
Contact you choose to share (WhatsApp or phone number)	Only if the host turned this on and you chose to share, so the host can reach you about that Meetup	You	Deleted when the Meetup is archived
Notices and delivery records	To send notices and to show whether a notice reached you, which decides whether a spot can be released	Generated by us and our email and browser-notification providers	90 days [proposed]
Browser notification address (a web push endpoint)	To send browser notifications you turned on	Your browser	Until you turn them off, the address stops working, or you delete your account
Which kind of device you use (web or app, phone or computer, and whether the web app is installed)	To see which devices need support and to decide whether a mobile app is worth building. We keep only broad classes: no IP address, no browser string and no fingerprint. It is never used to decide anything about you	Your browser	Until you delete your account
Reports, blocks, moderator actions, grievances	To keep people safe and meet legal duties	You, other users, moderators	See Part 10; no longer than needed
Consent records	To prove what you agreed to and when	Generated when you accept	See Part 10
Technical data: IP address, a device cookie, browser type, error reports	To deliver the site, stop abuse and fix bugs. Our hosting providers see IP addresses to deliver pages. We keep only a keyed hash of it for rate limits and consent evidence. Error reports are scrubbed of personal data before they leave our systems	Your device	Hosting logs about 1 hour; error reports 30 days; hashes as in Part 10
Usage events such as "Meetup viewed" or "joined", tied to a number that identifies your account	To count what works, for example how often people who say they are coming do come	Generated by us	24 months [proposed]

Optional uses (browser notifications, sharing contact with a host, announcements) happen only if you switch them on, and you can switch them off with one tap in Settings → Consents.

3. What we do not do

We do not sell personal data. We do not show advertising. We do not use third-party analytics or tracking tools. We do not post anything on your behalf. We do not ask for your date of birth, your government ID or a payment card.

4. Who sees your data

Other users, according to the stage of the Meetup. A visitor sees the Meetup's public details; a signed-in person may see rules and, for Open Meetups, first names of those going; an admitted guest sees the address and, close to the start, the door details. Hosts see first names and answers for their own Meetup. Guests never see your email address.

Moderators see reports and the content reported. Reading an address needs a recorded, audited action.

Service providers who handle data for us (our "processors"):

Provider	What it does for us	What it receives	Where it processes [UNVERIFIED: confirm with each provider]
Supabase	Hosts our database	All service data	Mumbai, India
Vercel	Hosts the website and application	Requests, cookies and IP addresses; logs for about an hour	Application runs in Mumbai; the company is US-based
Cloudflare	DNS, the sign-in challenge, the scheduler and an encrypted backup store	Request metadata; encrypted backups	Global network
GitHub	Holds our code and runs the backup jobs	Encrypted backups pass through its servers	US
Backblaze	A second, encrypted copy of backups	Encrypted backups	US
Resend	Sends email	Your email address and the message text	US
Google	Sign-in with Google

Authorities when the law or a valid order requires it (Part 7). We tell you if we are allowed to.

5. Data going outside India

Some of the providers above process data outside India. We choose providers that give contractual protection, and we limit what each receives. Counsel confirms that this arrangement is permitted and what the processor contracts must say.

6. How long we keep data

The table in section 2 gives the period for each item, and Part 10 explains the schedule. In short: your account until you delete it; addresses and door details seven days after a Meetup ends; questions and answers thirty days; reports and moderation records for the period the law and safety require.

7. Backups

We keep encrypted backups so that we can recover from a failure. They are kept for up to 35 days. If you delete your account, your data can remain in a backup until the backup expires. If we ever restore from a backup, we first re-apply every deletion and ban recorded outside the database, so a deleted account does not come back.

8. Your rights, and how to use them

You can	How
See and download your data	Settings → Download my data
Correct your data	Edit your profile in Settings, or write to the Contact Email
Delete your account and data	Settings → Delete my account. If you host an upcoming Meetup, cancel it or hand it over first. We withdraw you from Meetups you joined
Withdraw a consent	Settings → Consents. Withdrawing the Terms or the core purposes means deleting the account
Complain	Use the Grievance Officer (Part 6). If you are still not satisfied, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India, once its process applies [UNVERIFIED]
Nominate someone to act for you if you die or cannot act	Write to the Contact Email and we will tell you how [UNVERIFIED mechanism; counsel to confirm]

We answer requests within a reasonable time and, as our target, within 30 days [ASSUMPTION]. We may need to confirm that it is you.

9. Children

Mehfil is for people aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect children's data. If we learn that a user is under 18, we suspend the account and delete the data, subject to any legal duty to keep a record of a report.

10. Security

We separate private details from public ones, limit who and what can read them, encrypt data in transit and in backups, record moderator access, and test our protections. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects you, we will tell you as the law requires (Part 8).

11. Cookies and similar technology

See Part 9. In short, one sign-in cookie, one security cookie, and a cache of the app's static files. No advertising or analytics cookies.

12. Changes

If we change this notice, we tell you in the app and ask you to accept the new version when the change is material (consent item C-10). Older versions are available on request.

13. Contact

Questions and requests: the Contact Email. Complaints: the Grievance Officer in Part 6.