How we handle your data.

MindfulGrove ("MindfulGrove", "we", "us", or "our") provides a voice-first AI companion that helps people reflect on their thoughts and feelings. Because that work touches on mental and emotional well-being, we hold ourselves to a higher standard of privacy than most apps. This policy explains, in plain language, what we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and the choices you have.

Scope and relationship to the service

This policy applies to the MindfulGrove mobile app, our website at mindfulgrove.com, and the services we offer through them (together, the "Service"). MindfulGrove is a reflective companion — not a licensed therapist, medical provider, or crisis line. If you are in an emergency, please call one of the Indian helplines on our crisis help page before anything else.

Information we collect

Information you give us. When you create an account, we collect what you share with us — typically a phone number or email address for sign-in, and the onboarding answers you choose to provide (preferred language, name or nickname, gender, age range, concerns you want to work on, and goals). During sessions, we process the audio you speak and the messages you type.

Information collected automatically. When you use the Service, we collect technical and usage information: device model and operating system, app version, language and region settings, session length, features you interact with, and diagnostic signals like crash reports. We use first-party identifiers only, and we do not embed advertising trackers.

Payment information. Subscriptions are purchased through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store in Indian rupees. Your card details stay with those stores — we receive only subscription status (active, cancelled, refunded) and an anonymous transaction identifier.

How we use your information

• To provide the Service — running sessions, generating insights, and remembering context between conversations.
• To personalise responses in your preferred Indian language and tone.
• To keep you safe — detecting language that suggests a crisis and surfacing the right helpline.
• To improve the Service — reviewing anonymised and aggregated usage patterns, fixing bugs, and refining safety systems.
• To communicate with you — service updates, security notices, and optional product emails you can unsubscribe from.
• To comply with Indian law and legitimate legal requests.

Health and sensitive information

Mental and emotional information you share during sessions is sensitive personal data. We apply elevated protections: stricter access controls, encryption at rest, and a policy of never selling or renting health-related information to anyone, for any purpose. You decide what to share — you can skip questions, end a session whenever you like, and delete individual transcripts from your history.

Use of AI and third-party providers

To run MindfulGrove, we rely on a small number of trusted infrastructure and AI providers for speech processing, language understanding, cloud hosting, and customer-support tooling. These providers are contractually required to process your data only on our instructions and to apply reasonable security safeguards.

Your voice is streamed for real-time transcription and discarded after — we do not retain voice recordings. Your transcripts and messages are never used to train our AI models, fine-tune third-party models, or for any machine-learning research, by us or by our providers.

How we share your information

We share personal data only in the narrow circumstances below:

• Service providers — cloud hosts, AI providers, analytics, and customer-support tools working on our behalf under written agreements.
• Payment processors — the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for billing.
• Legal requirements — when compelled by valid Indian legal process, or where disclosure is necessary to protect life or prevent harm.
• Business transfers — if MindfulGrove is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, data may transfer subject to the protections of this policy, and we will notify you.

We do not sell your personal data. We do not share it with advertisers, insurers, employers, or family members without your explicit consent.

Crisis events

If the Service detects language suggesting a mental-health crisis, it will surface Indian helpline numbers inside the app and log that a crisis detection occurred so we can refine our safety systems. We do not automatically contact emergency services, family, or any third party on your behalf. The decision to seek help rests with you.

International data transfers

MindfulGrove is operated from India, and we keep primary data storage in Indian data centres where practical. Some of our providers operate globally, which can mean certain processing happens in the United States or the European Economic Area. Where personal data of Indian users is transferred abroad, we do so in line with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and use appropriate contractual safeguards.

Data retention

• Voice recordings — not retained. Discarded after transcription.
• Transcripts and session history — retained while your account is active, so your companion can remember past conversations. Deleted within 90 days of account closure.
• Account data — retained while your account is active. Deleted within 90 days of closure unless a longer period is required by law.
• Diagnostic and crash logs — retained for up to 12 months.
• Anonymised, aggregated metrics — may be retained indefinitely for product analytics. These cannot be used to identify you.

Your rights and choices

Under applicable law, including India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Delete your account and all associated data from inside the app at any time.
• Withdraw a consent you previously gave (though this may limit what we can offer).
• Nominate another person to exercise these rights on your behalf in the event of death or incapacity.
• Raise a grievance with our Grievance Officer (see Contact Us).

If you cannot reach the right control inside the app, email us and we will act on your request within the timelines set by applicable law — typically within seven days.

Security

We encrypt data in transit and at rest, restrict internal access on a need-to-know basis, keep audit logs for access to sensitive data, and review our systems for vulnerabilities on a regular cadence. No system is ever perfectly secure; if we learn of a breach that affects your personal data, we will notify you and the relevant regulator as required by law.

Children's privacy

The Service is not intended for use by anyone under 18. We ask for age confirmation at sign-up and do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has created an account, please write to us and we will delete the account and all associated data promptly.

Changes to this privacy policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will change the effective date at the top of the page, and for material changes we will notify you inside the app and by email where we have one on file. Your continued use of the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the revised policy.

Still being finalized

This remains a working draft. A final version, reviewed by counsel, will replace it before public launch. If anything here is unclear, please get in touch — we would rather answer the question than hide behind legal boilerplate.

Contact us

Questions, requests, or grievances related to your personal data can be sent to themindfulgrove@gmail.com. For grievances under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, please mark your email to the attention of the Grievance Officer, MindfulGrove. We respond to every such message within seven days.