Privacy Policy

Acharya is built by people who believe a birth chart is one of the most personal artifacts you can hand over. This policy explains what we collect, what we don't, and what we do with what we keep.

What we collect

Birth particulars

Name, date of birth, time of birth, and place of birth — for you and any family member you choose to add. We need these to cast a chart. Without them, Acharya can't read anything.

Conversation history

The questions you ask Acharya and the readings Acharya returns. We store this so you can revisit past conversations and so Acharya can remember context within your account.

Prediction feedback

When you mark whether a prediction played out (or didn't), we record that. This is how Acharya learns to be more accurate for you over time.

Account information

The email address and authentication identifier from your sign‑in. On the web you sign in with a one‑time email link or with Google; in the iOS app, with Sign in with Apple. We only receive the minimal identity your provider shares — for example, with Sign in with Apple we never see your full Apple ID.

Technical telemetry

Crash reports, performance metrics, and aggregate usage signals that help us fix bugs and improve the app. No conversation content is included.

What we don't collect

• We do not collect your contacts, calendar, photos, or location unless you explicitly grant permission for a feature that needs it (e.g., a future panchang‑aware calendar feature).
• We do not run third‑party advertising trackers.
• We do not sell, rent, or share your data with marketing partners. Period.

How we use what we keep

• To read your chart — birth particulars are passed to our astrological computation engine.
• To answer your questions — your chart and conversation context are sent to our AI provider (currently Anthropic) under commercial terms that prohibit them from using your data to train their models.
• To improve Acharya — aggregate, de‑identified signals (e.g., which kinds of questions are common, which features get used) inform product decisions. Your individual content is not used for model training.
• To recalibrate predictions — your prediction feedback informs how confidently Acharya makes claims to you. With your consent, anonymized feedback may contribute to cohort‑level calibration (the long‑run "Acharya Codex" project) — and you can opt out at any time.

Where data lives

Charts and conversation history are stored in a Postgres database we operate on infrastructure in the United States. Authentication is handled via your sign‑in provider (a one‑time email link, Google, or Apple). AI requests are sent to Anthropic under commercial terms that prohibit them from using your prompts to train their models.

How we protect your data

• Encrypted in transit — every connection between your device and Acharya, and between our own services, uses TLS. Your questions and birth details are never readable on the wire.
• Encrypted at rest — the databases that hold your charts, conversations, and feedback are encrypted at the storage layer with AES‑256.
• No passwords — sign‑in is a one‑time email link, Google, or Apple. There is no Acharya password to steal or reuse.
• Payment details never touch our servers — payments are processed by Razorpay, a PCI‑DSS certified payment processor. We store only a payment reference and its status, never your card or bank details.
• Least access — production credentials are held in environment configuration, not code, and administrative surfaces require separate keys.

One honest note: Acharya is not "end‑to‑end encrypted" — our systems must read your question to compute your chart and compose a reading. What we promise instead is narrower and true: your data is encrypted in transit and at rest, only used to serve you, and never sold or used for advertising.

Sensitive data, treated as sensitive

Using an astrology service can itself reveal something personal — your spiritual leanings. Some optional features (like chart verification) may ask about past life events, including health‑adjacent facts you choose to share. We treat all of this as sensitive data: we collect it only when it is strictly necessary to provide the reading you asked for, we never sell it or share it for advertising under any circumstances, and features that ask more personal questions are opt‑in and clearly framed before you answer. You can decline or skip any question, and delete what you've shared at any time.

How long we keep it

We keep your data for as long as your account exists, because a janam patri is a living record — the value of Acharya is precisely that your chart, readings, and verified predictions accumulate over years. When you delete your account (or a family member's profile), the associated data is removed from active databases within 30 days and ages out of backups within 90. We don't keep what you've deleted.

Our service providers

A small set of providers process data on our behalf, each under terms limiting use to providing their service to us: Anthropic (AI readings — prohibited from training on your data), Neon (database), Render and Vercel (hosting), Cloudflare (network), Upstash (caching), Resend (transactional email), Razorpay (payments), and Google/Apple (sign‑in only). We'll update this list if it changes.

Your rights

• Access — you can request an export of everything we hold on you.
• Deletion — you can delete your account from inside the app. Charts, conversations, and feedback are removed from active databases within 30 days; backups age out within 90.
• Correction — birth particulars can be edited at any time inside the app.
• Opt‑out of calibration — your prediction feedback can be excluded from the cohort‑level calibration loop.

To exercise any of these rights, use the Data & Privacy controls in your account, or email hello@acharya.life — we respond to verified requests within 45 days (usually much faster).

Children

Acharya is intended for adults; you must be 18 or older to create an account. Parents and guardians may add a child's birth details to their own family patri — by doing so, you confirm you are the child's parent or guardian and consent on their behalf, and you can delete the child's data at any time. Readings for a child are limited to age-appropriate topics (character, strengths, education, wellbeing); we do not provide marriage, romance, or other adult readings for a minor. We do not knowingly allow anyone under 18 to create their own account, and we do not knowingly collect data directly from a child.

Changes to this policy

If we make a material change, we'll surface it inside the app and email you. The effective date above is updated whenever the policy is revised.

Contact

Questions, concerns, or requests: hello@acharya.life.