Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

VanshLink (vanshlink.lzworth.in) is run by Vansh Kashyap, New Delhi, India (“we”, “us”). For this policy we are the data fiduciary under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Questions: vk1234888i@gmail.com.

2. What we collect

When you make an account

• Email address, username, full name and password (stored only as a secure hash).
• Your permanent user ID, and anything you add to your profile: photo, bio, a 24-hour note.
• Friends, friend requests, blocks, groups you're in, and your chat settings (pinned, muted, wallpaper, cleared chats).

While you use VanshLink

• Online status: when you were last active (you choose who can see it in Settings).
• Devices: up to one phone, one tablet and one computer per account. For each we keep a random device ID, the device type and a label such as “Chrome on Android”.
• Notifications: if you turn them on, the push address your browser gives us.
• Where you came from: the link, campaign or website that first brought you to VanshLink (for example “Instagram” or an invite link), and a daily count of visits by source. This tells us which promotion works; it is not used for ads.
• Security data: your IP address when you create rooms, send reports or feedback, or try to log in, used to stop spam and brute-force attacks. When CAPTCHA is on, Cloudflare Turnstile checks your browser for signs of a bot.
• Feedback and reports you send us, including star ratings.
• Call records: who called whom, when, voice or video, and how long (not what was said).

Rooms (no account needed)

• The name you type, a random ID for your device, and your IP address (to limit how many rooms one person can open).
• Room messages, the room name and member profiles are encrypted with a key made from the room code (and password, if set). We store the encrypted copies until the room ends.

Permissions

Camera (QR codes, video calls), microphone (voice notes, calls) and location (only when you choose to share it in a chat) are used only when you use those features. We never record in the background.

3. Messages and calls

• Chat messages, photos, videos, voice notes, files and shared locations are encrypted on your device before they are sent. Only the people in the chat hold the keys. We can't read them, and neither can anyone who breaks into our servers.
• The server is a relay: encrypted messages are deleted within about 24 hours, and encrypted files as soon as everyone in the chat has downloaded them (at most 7 days).
• Your chat history is stored on your own device. If you lose or clear the device, history that isn't on another of your devices is gone.
• Voice and video calls go directly between devices and are encrypted (WebRTC, DTLS-SRTP). When a network blocks a direct connection, the encrypted call may pass through a relay (TURN) server, which can't decode it.
• Link previews: when you send a link, our server fetches that page to make a preview, so the website sees our server instead of you.

4. Why we use it

We use your data, with your consent when you sign up, and for these purposes only:

• to run your account and deliver messages, calls and notifications;
• to keep VanshLink safe: stop spam, fake accounts, abuse and attacks, and act on reports;
• to send service emails (welcome email, password reset);
• to understand growth and fix problems (counts, sources, feedback);
• to follow the law and answer lawful requests.

We don't sell or rent personal data, and we don't use your chats for advertising or to train AI.

5. Who else handles it

We use trusted providers who process data for us under their own security and privacy terms:

This means your data may be processed outside India. We share data with authorities only when Indian law requires it, and even then we can't hand over the content of end-to-end encrypted chats because we don't have it.

6. How long we keep it

• Encrypted messages on the server: about 24 hours. Encrypted files: until everyone downloads them, at most 7 days.
• Rooms: deleted when they end (1 hour, 1 day or 7 days, or when everyone leaves a live room).
• Your 24-hour note: 24 hours. Call records: 24 hours.
• Activity records (sign-ups, rooms opened and ended, reports): 30 to 90 days in the database; a summary is kept in our private records sheet while your account exists.
• Daily visit counts: about 13 months, and they don't identify you.
• Your account: until you delete it. Deleting it removes your profile, friends and the messages you sent from our servers straight away, and your name and email from our records sheet within a day.
• Reports and records of suspensions: as long as needed to keep VanshLink safe and handle disputes.

7. Your choices and rights

• See and correct: edit your profile any time. Ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Delete: Settings → Delete my account. You can also delete single messages or whole chats on your own screen (Delete for me, Clear chat, Delete chat).
• Withdraw consent: turn off notifications, camera, microphone or location in your browser or phone settings, or delete your account.
• Last seen: choose who sees it in Settings → Privacy.
• Grievances: write to our Grievance Officer (below). If you're not satisfied, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India.
• Nominate: you can name someone to use these rights for you if you die or can't act yourself.

8. Reports and safety

If you report someone, you choose whether to share the recent part of that chat (up to 30 messages, as they appear on your screen) with our team. That is the only way we ever see chat content, and only the team can read it. The person you report isn't told who reported them. Suspensions are always decided by a person on our team, never automatically.

9. Children

VanshLink is for people 18 and over. If you are between 13 and 18, you may use it only with the permission of a parent or legal guardian. VanshLink isn't for children under 13. If you believe a child is using VanshLink without permission, write to us and we'll remove the account.

10. Security

End-to-end encryption, encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, row-level access rules in the database, limits against spam and password guessing, optional CAPTCHA, and 2-step login for our admins. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects you we will tell you and the Data Protection Board as the law requires.

11. Changes and contact

We'll update this page when things change and show the new date at the top. For important changes we'll tell you in the app.

Grievance Officer: Vansh Kashyap, New Delhi, India · vk1234888i@gmail.com. We acknowledge complaints within 24 hours and resolve them within 15 days.