Privacy policy

1. Information we collect

• Your account. Your name, email address and mobile number, and your password, which we store only in hashed form, never as the password itself. If you sign in with Google, Google shares your name, email address and profile photo with us. The app uses the same account as the website, and you sign in the same way: with your email address and password, or with Google.
• Your bookings. The package and options you choose; the date and time, or your request for a muhurat; the contact name and phone number for the booking; the address where the celebration will take place; any instructions you give us; and any coupon you apply. If you use “Use my location” when saving an address, we save your device’s location with that address.
• Payments. The amounts you pay, the payment status and the reference numbers from our payment partner. You enter card, UPI or bank details on the payment partner’s own page, or in its checkout inside the app. They go straight to the payment partner: we never receive or store them.
• Invitations. The text, photos and designs you add to a digital invitation. They are kept in your browser and, when you are signed in, saved to your account.
• Reviews and enquiries. Ratings and reviews you post, and what you send a vendor through an enquiry: your name, phone number, event date and message.
• Vendor partners. If you apply to or work with RitualEase as a vendor: your business and contact details, the services and areas you cover, your rates, and verification documents such as Aadhaar, PAN, GST, FSSAI and bank details.
• When you contact us. What you tell us on WhatsApp, by phone or by email.
• Technical information. Your IP address, browser and device type, and the requests our servers log to keep the service secure and working.
• App notifications. The app asks before it sends you notifications: customers after their first booking, vendor partners on their jobs screen. If you allow them, we store a notification token for your phone with your account, along with the platform (Android or iOS), the app version and when the app was last used. When you sign out, the token is deleted. You can turn notifications off at any time in your phone’s settings.
• Location in the app. The app uses your location only while you are using it, never in the background. If you tap to detect your pincode, the app sends your phone’s position to our server once, to find your area. A vendor partner shares their position once when they check in at a job, and we store it with that step of the job as proof for the customer.
• Photos and videos of the work. Only the vendor partners’ app uses the camera, microphone and photo library, to take photos and videos of the work at a job as proof for the customer. Photos are resized before they are uploaded, which removes information stored inside them, such as location. Videos are uploaded as recorded. The app does not use the camera for customers.
• Crash reports. When the app crashes or hits an error, it sends a report with your phone’s model, operating system and app version, and a random account id. We remove passwords, tokens, phone numbers, email addresses and addresses before the report is sent. We do not record your screen.

The app has no advertising, analytics or tracking tools. It does not read your contacts, and we do not track you across other apps.

2. How we use it

• to create your account and sign you in;
• to confirm, schedule and deliver your bookings, including passing the details of a job to the vendor partner who will carry it out;
• to take payments, collect balances and make refunds;
• to send you messages about your booking on WhatsApp: the confirmation, your delivery code, the muhurat time and payment links;
• if you allow them, to send notifications to your phone through the app;
• to check that we serve your area and find the right pincode;
• to show the customer proof that a job was done: the vendor partner’s check-in location and the photos and videos of the work;
• to find and fix crashes and errors in the app;
• to answer your questions and help when something goes wrong;
• to verify our vendor partners and pay them for their work;
• to keep RitualEase safe, by preventing fraud and misuse and keeping a record of the changes our staff make;
• to meet our legal, tax and accounting obligations.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

3. Who we share it with

• The vendor partners who carry out your booking. They see what they need to do the job: your name, phone number, the address, and the date and time. They never see what you paid. If a vendor declines a job, your details are no longer shown to them.
• Razorpay, our payment partner, to take payments and make refunds.
• Meta (the WhatsApp Business Platform), to deliver our messages to your WhatsApp number.
• Google, when you choose to sign in with Google, and Google Firebase Cloud Messaging, which delivers app notifications to Android phones.
• Apple (Apple Push Notification service), which delivers app notifications to iPhones.
• Expo (650 Industries, Inc.), whose push service passes our app notifications to Google and Apple, and from whose servers (expo.dev) the app downloads its updates.
• Sentry (Functional Software, Inc., sentry.io), which receives the app’s crash and error reports.
• OpenStreetMap, which turns a device location into an address and pincode, only when you ask us to detect your location.
• The providers who host and store our data for us, such as Vercel (website), Render (servers), MongoDB Atlas (database) and Google Cloud (file storage). They process it on our behalf.
• Authorities, when the law requires it, or when it is needed to protect the rights, property or safety of our customers, partners or RitualEase.
• A new owner, if RitualEase is merged, acquired or restructured, who must continue to protect your information as this policy describes.

Some things are public by design: reviews you post and our vendors’ public profiles can be seen by anyone, and anyone with the link to an invitation you share can view it.

4. Where it is stored

Our service providers store and process data in India and in other countries; our application servers, for example, are in Singapore. Wherever it is processed, we protect it as this policy describes.

5. How long we keep it

• Account details: for as long as your account is open. You can delete them at any time (see “Your rights and choices”).
• Bookings, payments and refunds: for as long as we need them to provide the service and answer questions about it, and for as long as the law requires us to keep such records, for example for tax and accounting.
• Vendor verification documents: while the vendor works with us, and afterwards for as long as the law requires.
• App notification tokens: until you sign out of the app on that phone.
• Server logs: for a limited period, to keep the service secure.

When we no longer need information, we delete it or make it anonymous.

6. How we protect it

Everything travels over encrypted HTTPS connections. Passwords are stored only in hashed form. Vendor verification documents are kept in private storage with no public link, and only authorised RitualEase staff can open them. Staff access is limited to what each role needs, and the changes staff make are recorded. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your information, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

7. Your rights and choices

Under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, you can:

• ask for a summary of the personal information we hold about you and how we use it;
• correct, complete or update it; much of it you can change yourself under My account;
• delete your account and the personal information in it, yourself or by asking us, whether you use the website or the app;
• withdraw your consent, for example by asking us to stop sending you WhatsApp messages, or by turning off app notifications or location access in your phone’s settings;
• nominate someone to exercise these rights for you if you die or become unable to do so yourself;
• complain to us and, if you are not satisfied with our answer, to the Data Protection Board of India.

To use any of these rights, write to us at hello@ritualease.com or message us on WhatsApp at +91 95990 54850. We may ask you to confirm who you are before we act on a request.

You can delete your account yourself. In the app, go to Account and tap Delete account. On the website, sign in, open Account and choose Delete account. Deleting your account explains each step. If you cannot sign in, ask us instead, by email or WhatsApp as above, from the email address or mobile number on your account, and we will delete it for you.

Deleting your account removes your name, email address, mobile number, profile photo and saved addresses, signs you out on every device and stops app notifications to your phone. We keep the records the law requires, such as your bookings, payments and invoices, and only for as long as it requires (see “How long we keep it”); they are no longer linked to you. Reviews you wrote stay on the site, shown as “Deleted user”.

8. Cookies, browser and app storage

We don’t use advertising or analytics cookies. We use your browser’s local storage to keep you signed in, to remember the area you are booking for, and to save invitation drafts. If you sign in with Google, Google may set its own cookies. Clearing your browser’s storage signs you out and removes any drafts not saved to your account.

In the app, your sign-in is kept in your phone’s secure storage (the iOS Keychain or the Android Keystore), and a small preferences file remembers choices such as your pincode. Signing out removes your sign-in from the phone.

9. Children

RitualEase is meant for adults. Accounts and bookings should be made by someone aged 18 or over, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children without a parent’s or guardian’s consent.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as our services change. When we do, we will change the date at the top, and for significant changes we will let you know on the site or by message.

11. Contact and grievance officer

For a question or a complaint about your personal information, contact our Grievance Officer. We will acknowledge your message promptly and resolve it within the time the law allows.