# SHG - Digital Register — Privacy Policy
_Last updated: 3 August 2026_
SHG - Digital Register is a digital record-keeping app for Self-Help Groups (SHGs). This policy explains how the app handles information.
> **Maintainers:** this file is the source text. The version Play links to is
> published separately at <https://sites.google.com/view/shg-privacy> (Google
> Sites, manually edited). **Editing this file changes nothing until you
> republish there** — and Play's Data safety answers must match whatever is
> live. See [PUBLISHING.md](PUBLISHING.md).
## The short version
The app works **fully offline** and everything you enter is stored on your phone. If you choose to link your phone number, the app also keeps a copy of your group's records in the cloud, so every member of the group can see the same register on her own phone and so nothing is lost if a phone breaks. When your phone is linked, **member photos**, **meeting register photos**, and **meeting voice recordings** are also stored in the cloud for the group.
## What the app stores on your device
- Group details (name, village, gram panchayat, block, district, meeting schedule, the usual contribution amount)
- Member details (name, nickname, photo, phone number, role, joining date, consent date, and — if she leaves the group — the date she left)
- Savings entries and withdrawals
- Internal loans given by the group, their interest rate and repayments
- The group's bank loan account: the lending bank, the amount borrowed, each member's share and monthly EMI, and every EMI payment recorded
- Meeting details, attendance, voice recordings of meeting decisions, and photos of the paper register
- A log of who recorded what in the app
This information is entered by the group's record-keeper and belongs to the group.
## When you link your phone number
Linking a phone number is how the app identifies you. You enter your number, receive a one-time code by SMS, and confirm it. It is required to create a group and to share the register with other members.
Once a number is linked, these things leave your device:
- **Your phone number**, verified through Google Firebase Authentication. It identifies which group you belong to and which device is currently yours, and it is used as the identifier your records are stored under.
- **The group's register** — group details, member names, phone numbers and roles, savings, internal loans, repayments, the bank loan account and its EMI payments, meeting notes, attendance, member photos, meeting register photos, and meeting voice recordings (when your phone is linked), and the activity log — stored in Google Firebase (Firestore and Cloud Storage) so every member of that group can see it on her own phone. The president and secretary can record entries; other members' phones keep a read-only copy.
- **An encrypted backup** of the same records, stored under your phone number's account and used to restore your data if you reinstall the app or change phones. It is uploaded automatically when your records change and you have signal; there is nothing to remember or press.
- **A notification token**, stored against your phone number, so the app can tell other members of your group when something is recorded.
**Only one device at a time** may be linked to a phone number. If you link the same number on a new phone, the previous phone signs itself out. If you change the number on a phone, that phone's records are erased once the new number is verified, so one person's records are never left behind on another person's device.
**What never leaves your device without linking:** if you never link a phone number, member photos, meeting register photos, meeting voice recordings, and all other media stay in your phone's app storage only.
All transfers use encrypted connections (HTTPS), and the backup is additionally encrypted before upload.
**Being honest about what that encryption protects.** The backup's encryption key is stored alongside the backup, protected by access rules that stop *other users of the app* reading your records. It is **not** end-to-end encryption, and it does not make your records unreadable to the people who administer the Firebase project — that is, the app's developer. If that matters to you, do not link a phone number: the app is fully usable without one and transmits nothing.
If you never link a phone number, the app still works completely and transmits nothing.
## Backup files you make yourself
Separately from the automatic cloud backup, the app can export the group's records as a single encrypted `.shg` file, protected by a passphrase you choose. You decide what happens to that file — you might keep it on the phone, or send it to yourself over WhatsApp, email or Drive.
Two things follow from that:
- **Once you share the file, it is subject to whatever service you sent it through**, not to this policy. Sending it over WhatsApp puts a copy on WhatsApp's servers.
- **Nobody can recover the passphrase for you**, including the developer. A backup file with a forgotten passphrase cannot be opened.
Member photos, meeting register photos, and meeting voice recordings are not included in these backup files — only the ledger data.
## Problem reports
When the app stops working, it can send us a report so we can fix the fault. These reports contain:
- what went wrong inside the app (the technical details of the failure),
- your phone's model and Android version, and the version of the app,
- an identifier for this installation of the app.
**They contain none of your group's records** — no names, no phone numbers, no savings, loan or meeting entries. They are used only to find and fix faults.
You can turn this off at any time: in the app, under **Settings → Problem reports**. Everything else in the app works exactly the same either way. Reports are handled by **Google Firebase Crashlytics**, part of the same Firebase service described below.
## Who we share it with
**Nobody.** Your group's records are not sold, shared, or used for advertising. The app contains no advertising identifiers, and nothing in it tracks what you do or builds a profile of you.
Data is stored on **Google Firebase** (Authentication, Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Messaging and Crashlytics), which processes it on our behalf as our infrastructure provider and does not use it for its own purposes. No other third party receives your data.
## How long we keep it
Records stay for as long as your group uses the app, because a register is meant to be a permanent history — a member's savings from three years ago still matter to her.
- Records on your phone remain until you delete them or uninstall the app.
- The cloud copy and the encrypted backup remain while a phone number is linked to the group. Each new backup replaces the previous one.
- Problem reports are kept for up to 90 days and then deleted automatically.
- When you delete the SHG or unlink your number, the corresponding records are deleted as described under **Data deletion** below.
We do not keep records for any purpose of our own after that.
## Device permissions
- **Camera / Photos** — to take or choose member photos and photograph the paper register. Photos are stored on your device and, when your phone is linked, in the group's cloud storage.
- **Microphone** — to record meeting decisions as voice notes. Recordings are stored on your device and, when your phone is linked, in the group's cloud storage.
- **Notifications** — to tell you when another member records something in your group.
The app does not ask for and cannot read your location, your contacts, your SMS messages or your call logs. Nothing in it needs them — including the problem reports described above.
## Consent, and withdrawing it
Member records should be added with that member's consent, and the app records the date consent was given for each member.
A member whose phone number is added to a group is asked, **on her own phone**, to accept or reject being in that group. Rejecting removes her record. A member may also leave the group later; her past savings, loans and attendance stay in the register as history, because the group's accounts have to remain correct, but she is excluded from the active roster and from future records.
To withdraw consent altogether, use any of the deletion routes below, or write to the contact address and we will delete the records held for your phone number.
## Your rights
Under India's **Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023**, you may ask us to:
- **tell you what personal data we hold about you** and who it has been shared with;
- **correct or complete** anything inaccurate — most of this you can edit directly in the app;
- **erase** your personal data, where we are not required to keep it;
- **nominate** another person to exercise these rights on your behalf if you are unable to.
Write to the address in **Contact** below and we will respond within a reasonable period. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you may complain to the **Data Protection Board of India**.
## Data deletion
You can delete your data at any time:
- **Delete the SHG** — in the app, under the group's Advanced settings. Deletion requires **both** the president and the secretary to confirm, so no single person can erase the group's register.
- **Leave the group** — your record is taken off the active roster.
- **Unlink your phone** — in the app, under Settings. This removes the records and the phone link from that device.
- **Uninstall the app** — deletes everything the app stored on that phone.
- **Delete your cloud copy** — write to the address below from, or quoting, the phone number concerned, and we will delete the register copy, the encrypted backup and the notification token held for that number.
## Children
This app is for adults keeping their group's accounts and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. A member's record is created by her group's record-keeper, not by a child using the app.
## Changes to this policy
If the app starts collecting something new, or handling it differently, this policy is updated **before** that version is released, and the date at the top changes. Where a change materially affects what leaves your phone, the app will say so rather than relying on you re-reading this page.
## Important disclaimers
- This app is a **bookkeeping tool**. Records in the app are maintained by the group itself and do not constitute official bank records or financial advice.
- The app never holds, moves, or lends money. It has no payment, wallet, or UPI feature. It does not offer, arrange, or broker loans — it only records the loans a group has already agreed among itself or taken from its own bank.
## Contact
Questions about this policy, requests under **Your rights**, or to request deletion: **satwikappdevelopment@gmail.com**
This address is also the grievance contact for any complaint about how your data has been handled.