Privacy Policy for KhetBook (AgriRegister)

Last Updated: May 22, 2026

Welcome to KhetBook (the "App"), developed to help small and medium Indian farmers manage their agricultural operations, financial ledgers, and marketplace activities. Your privacy is of paramount importance to us. This Privacy Policy outlines our commitment to protecting your personal and agricultural data in compliance with the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 of India, as well as Google Play Store and Apple App Store guidelines.

1. Executive Summary

• Offline-First by Design: KhetBook stores your farm logs, expense ledgers, and transactions directly on your own device using a secure local SQLite database (via Drift). By default, nothing is sent to our servers.

• Optional Cloud Synchronization: You can opt-in to sync your records to the cloud (Firebase) to access them across multiple devices or share access with family members or bookkeepers.

• No Commercial Data Monetization: We never sell, rent, or trade your agricultural yields, transaction books, or personal information to third-party marketing companies, banks, or fertilizers/pesticides corporations.

• Location Privacy: We use location coordinates exclusively to fetch local weather updates and reverse-geocode village names. This data is processed in real time and is not tracked.

2. Information We Collect and How We Use It

A. Personal & Profile Information (Optional)

• Phone Number: Collected only if you choose to authenticate via OTP (One-Time Password) to enable cloud sync. It is processed securely via Firebase Authentication.

• Farm Profile Details: When creating your farm profile, you may optionally provide:

  • Farm Name

  • Location (Village, District, State)

  • Mobile Number (for contact info)

• Use Case: To identify your books and customize financial ledger receipts (PDFs/Excel sheets).

B. Agricultural & Financial Records

All transactional data you enter is stored securely on your device:

• Income & Expense Ledgers: Amounts, categories, dates, active crops, and optional notes.

• Service Logs: Details about agricultural labor contracts, farm equipment leases, and service charges.

• Crop Diary & Activity Logs: Records of sowing, irrigation, fertilizer/pesticide sprays, harvesting, and crop yields.

• Bookkeeping Ledger (Parties): Credit (Udhar) and debit (Naman) logs with party names and transaction dates.

• Use Case: To compute seasonal Profit & Loss (P&L) statements, return on investment (ROI), and insights.

C. Device Permissions & Sensor Data

• Location (GPS Coordinates):

  • How it's used: To fetch the local weather forecast from the Open-Meteo API and to automatically resolve your village name using OpenStreetMap's Nominatim API.

  • Privacy: Your raw location is sent directly to these secure geocoding APIs. We do not store or track your continuous background location.

• Camera & Media Files:

  • How it's used: Allows you to take photos of bills, receipts, or crop health.

  • Privacy: Bill scanning is parsed completely on-device using on-device Optical Character Recognition (OCR via Google ML Kit). Your documents are not uploaded to any remote server for parsing.

D. Mandi Crop Prices API Configurations

• How it's used: KhetBook displays live crop prices from government sources. You can supply your own personal API key from data.gov.in (AGMARKNET).

• Privacy: Your custom API key is stored securely in your device's SharedPreferences cache and is sent directly to the government resource endpoints.

3. Data Storage, Sync, and Sharing

Local Database (Drift SQLite)

By default, all your ledgers, expenses, income records, and diaries are stored in an encrypted database file on your physical device. If you uninstall the App without enabling cloud sync, this local data is permanently deleted.

Cloud Synchronization (Optional Firebase Sync)

If you sign up and log in, the App establishes a secure synchronization link to Firebase Cloud Services (Google Cloud Infrastructure):

1. Firestore Database: Syncs ledger books, diaries, and transactions so they are saved in case of device loss.

2. Firebase Storage: Saves uploaded receipts and crop photos securely.

3. Sharing with Family & Bookkeepers: If you explicitly choose to add a family member or bookkeeper via the Family Access Card in Settings, those individuals will gain view/edit access to your shared ledger book. You can revoke their access at any time from your device.

4. Third-Party Services We Use

We integrate with reputable third-party service providers to offer crucial farm features. These providers process requests in accordance with their respective privacy policies:

1. Firebase (Google Cloud):

   • Purpose: Authentication, optional database sync, and storage.

   • Data Shared: Phone number (for SMS OTP verification) and synced database records.

2. Open-Meteo API:

   • Purpose: 7-day local weather forecasts.

   • Data Shared: Latitude and longitude coordinates. No personal identity is shared.

3. OpenStreetMap Nominatim API:

   • Purpose: Reverse geocoding of coordinates into village/town names.

   • Data Shared: Latitude and longitude coordinates.

4. Data.gov.in (Government of India Portal):

   • Purpose: Live market prices (Mandi rates).

   • Data Shared: Crop type, state, and user-provided API key.

5. Your Rights Under DPDP Act, 2023 (India)

As a farmer and a data principal, you hold absolute authority over your personal information:

• Right to Access & Portability: You can review all your entries inside the App and export your entire financial history to local PDF files or Excel spreadsheets at any time.

• Right to Correction: You can modify, update, or correct any entry (such as income, expense, farm profile) directly from the screens.

• Right to Erasure (Forget Me):

  • Local Data: You can delete all your records by using the Reset / Clear App Data button inside the settings menu.

  • Cloud Data: If you have enabled cloud sync, you can request full erasure of your synced database and account.

• Right to Withdraw Consent: You can turn off GPS permissions in your device settings or log out of your synchronized account to halt all cloud-related activities.

6. Children's Privacy

KhetBook does not target children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18.

7. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to align with new features or regulatory shifts. Any update will be made visible in the App's Settings panel, and the "Last Updated" date at the top will change accordingly.

8. Contact & Grievance Officer

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding your data privacy, or wish to file a grievance under the DPDP Act 2023, please reach out to our team:

• Email: devteamtejas@gmail.com