Bhakti Darbar
हिन्दी

Bhakti Darbar Privacy Policy

Last updated: 31 October 2026

Bhakti Darbar is a Hindu devotional app and website made by Shreesh Katyayan ("we"). It shows the Hindu calendar and festivals, aartis, chalisas and mantras, and links to devotional playlists.

We decide how your data is used. That makes us the Data Fiduciary under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, and the controller under the GDPR.

The short version

  • What we collect. How you use the app and the website, your type of device, your approximate area, and identifiers: cookies on the website, and in the app an ID for your install and your phone's advertising ID. If you sign in, a random ID links what you do in the app and on the website. It is never your name, email or phone number.
  • Why. To see what people read, so we know what to improve; to measure our ads; and to show our ads, chosen for you, to people who have used Bhakti Darbar.
  • Who receives it. Google (Google Analytics, Firebase and Google Ads) and Meta (the company behind Facebook and Instagram).
  • How long. 14 months from your last visit or use.
  • Your choice. In most countries it's on until you turn it off, with a switch in the app and Cookie settings on the website. In the European Economic Area, the UK, Switzerland, Brazil, Canada and South Korea, and in India from 13 May 2027, it stays off until you say yes.
  • Children. We don't knowingly track anyone under 18 or target ads at them.
  • What stays on your phone. Your language, your city and your reminders are never sent to anyone.

A playlist you play inside the app, and a prayer's video on the website, play in YouTube's own player, which YouTube runs. See "Playlists" and "The website" below.

What stays on your phone

The app remembers a few choices so it can show you the right thing next time:

  • the app's language
  • the language you pray in, which the library opens on
  • your city, and the panchang the app works out for it
  • whether you turned on festival reminders

These stay on your phone. They are never sent to us or to anyone else. Uninstalling the app removes them.

Location

Sunrise, Rahu Kaal and festival days depend on where you are, so the app asks for your city. You can pick it from a list that comes with the app.

If you tap Use my location instead, the app asks Android for your approximate location (never your precise location). It uses it once, on your phone, to find the nearest city in that list, and keeps only the city. Your location itself is not stored, and it is never sent to us or to anyone else. You never have to share it: the list always works.

Separately, Google and Meta work out your approximate area from your IP address when the app or the website sends them analytics. See "Analytics and ads".

Content updates

Once a day, the app asks api.bhaktidarbar.com whether anything it shows (the library's texts, festival dates, cities, the app's own words) has been added or corrected, and downloads only what changed. The request carries nothing about you: no account, no device ID, no location. Like any website, our host (Cloudflare) sees your phone's IP address in order to answer; we keep no logs of these requests.

Reminders

If you turn on reminders, the app schedules notifications on your phone for the evening before festivals and Ekadashi. No server is involved. You can turn reminders off in the app or in your phone's settings at any time.

Playlists

Some playlists play inside the app, in YouTube's own embedded player. The app uses YouTube API Services for this, and plays them only when you tap play.

  • What YouTube receives: the player runs in YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode. When it loads and plays, YouTube receives what any YouTube player does, such as your IP address, your type of device and what you play. This is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.
  • YouTube's terms: by playing, you agree to the YouTube Terms of Service. Our Terms of Use say the same.
  • What the app keeps: nothing about what you play. Analytics may record that you opened a playlist (see "Analytics and ads").

Other playlist buttons, and "Listen along", open YouTube or Spotify themselves. What happens there is covered by their own privacy policies: the Google Privacy Policy for YouTube, and the Spotify Privacy Policy.

Your account

You can sign in to personalise Bhakti Darbar, keep your order history, and use the features that need an account. Accounts are for adults: you must be 18 or over to sign in. Your account holds what you give us: your name, your phone number or email, your choices in the app, your order history and, for features that need them, your birth date, time and place.

When you sign in, your account is given a random ID: a string of letters and numbers made up for the purpose, never your name, email, phone number or anything else about you. The app and the website give this ID to Google Analytics, so what you do in the app and on the website, on any of your devices, can be counted as one person's. When you sign out, the app and the website stop sending it.

Analytics and ads

The app and the website use Google Analytics (in the app, through Google's Firebase), Google Ads and Meta's tools to understand how Bhakti Darbar is used and to advertise it.

What they record

  • What you do: the screens and pages you open, the buttons and links you tap, the prayers you read to the end, and the ad, search or site that brought you.
  • Your device: its type and model, its operating system, your browser, your phone's language, and the app's version.
  • Your approximate area: country, region and city, which Google and Meta work out from your IP address. Google Analytics doesn't keep the IP address itself.
  • Identifiers: on the website, cookies (see "The website"); in the app, an ID for your install of the app, and your phone's advertising ID, an ID Android gives apps for ads, which you can reset or delete.
  • The random ID, if you're signed in (see "Your account").

Why

  • To count visits and see what people read, so we know what to add and fix.
  • To measure our ads: which ad led someone to the website, to install the app or to come back.
  • To show our ads on Google, Facebook and Instagram to people who have used Bhakti Darbar (remarketing).
  • To let Google and Meta choose which of our ads to show you, using this together with what they already know about you (personalised ads).

Who receives it

  • Google. Google Analytics receives everything above from the app and the website. We share our Analytics audiences and conversions with Google Ads, for remarketing and personalised ads. Google's use of it is covered by the Google Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.
  • Google signals. If you're signed in to a Google account and have let Google personalise your ads, Google links what you do here to that account. That gives us reports by age group, gender and interests, and lets Google recognise you across your devices. We see only totals, never who you are.
  • Meta. The Meta Pixel on the website and Meta's SDK in the app send Meta what you do, with your device details, your IP address and Meta's cookie or your advertising ID. Unless you've turned ads off, our server also sends the website's events to Meta directly (Meta's Conversions API), so they arrive even when a browser blocks the Pixel. Meta may match them to your Facebook or Instagram account. This is covered by the Meta Privacy Policy.
  • What Google doesn't get. We've turned off Google's use of our Analytics data for its own products and services, for benchmarking, and by its support staff and account specialists, and Firebase's use of it to improve Google's services.
  • Our hosts. Vercel serves the website and Cloudflare serves api.bhaktidarbar.com; each sees your IP address to do so. For the pages it makes on request (the panchang), Vercel keeps a short record of the page, your browser and the time, for up to a day, so faults can be found. We keep no logs of our own.

The website

bhaktidarbar.com uses Google Analytics, Google Ads and the Meta Pixel as described above. They set cookies on your device to tell a return visit from a new one and to know which ad brought you. Google Analytics' cookies last 13 months, and Google Ads' and Meta's up to 90 days.

  • Where we ask first. In the European Economic Area, the UK, Switzerland, Brazil, Canada and South Korea, and in India from 13 May 2027, analytics and ad cookies stay off until you choose Accept in the banner at the bottom of the page.
  • Everywhere else, they're on: analytics starts a few seconds after a page opens.
  • Changing your mind. Cookie settings, at the bottom of every page, turns analytics and ads on or off, each on its own, at any time. Turning them off deletes their cookies. Your choice is kept on your device for six months.
  • Global Privacy Control. If your browser sends this signal, we treat it as a no to analytics and ads, unless you turn them on yourself in Cookie settings.
  • How we know where you are. For the rules above, the site asks Vercel, which serves it, for the country of your connection. Your browser keeps the answer until you close the tab.
  • Videos. Some prayer pages have the prayer's video, in YouTube's player in its privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com). When the player comes into view, YouTube receives your IP address and the page you're on; it stores nothing on your device until you press play. When you play, it receives what any YouTube player does. The Google Privacy Policy and the YouTube Terms of Service apply to it.

Turning it off

You can turn analytics and ads off at any time:

  • In the app: Settings › Account › Privacy turns analytics and ads off. The app then stops sending anything to Google Analytics and Meta. In the countries listed under "The website", the app asks first, and they stay off until you say yes.
  • On the website: Cookie settings, at the bottom of every page (see "The website"). Your browser's Global Privacy Control signal counts as a no.
  • Google's ads: turn off personalised ads in My Ad Center.
  • Google Analytics on every website: install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
  • Meta's ads: change what Meta uses in your Meta ad preferences.
  • Your advertising ID: on Android, go to Settings › Privacy › Ads (on some phones, Settings › Google › Ads) to reset or delete it. Once it's deleted, no app can use it for personalised ads.

Turning these off doesn't stop ads: you may still see ours, but not because of what you did here.

How long we keep it

  • Google Analytics: 14 months. Each time you come back, the 14 months start again from then.
  • Cookies: Google Analytics' last 13 months; Google Ads' and Meta's up to 90 days; your cookie choice six months.
  • Meta: keeps what it receives under the Meta Privacy Policy.
  • Your account: until you delete it. Then your account details are erased (see "Deleting your account").
  • On your phone: until you uninstall the app.

Children

Bhakti Darbar is meant for a general audience. We don't knowingly track anyone under 18 or target ads at them; India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act forbids both. Accounts are for adults only. If we learn that we hold data about someone under 18, we'll delete it. Parents can write to us at hello@bhaktidarbar.com.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

  • tell you what we hold about you and how we use it, and give you a copy
  • correct it or bring it up to date
  • delete it
  • stop using it, by withdrawing your consent; that doesn't undo what we did before you withdrew it

Write to hello@bhaktidarbar.com, or to our Grievance Officer (see "Contact"). We may need to check that it's you. We'll reply within 30 days.

Where you live can give you more:

  • India (Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023): you can also name someone to use these rights for you if you die or can't. Bring a complaint to our Grievance Officer first; if we don't resolve it, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India.
  • The EEA, the UK and Switzerland (GDPR, UK GDPR and Switzerland's data protection law): we use analytics and ads only with your consent, and run your account because you asked us to (our contract with you). You can also object to how we use your data, ask us to restrict it, and ask for it in a form you can take elsewhere. You can complain to your data protection authority; in the UK, that's the ICO.
  • The UAE (Personal Data Protection Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021): you have the same rights, including to object to the use of your data for marketing, and you can complain to the UAE Data Office.

Google, Meta and Vercel may handle your data outside your country, including in the United States, under their own safeguards for international transfers.

Deleting your account

We erase your account details: everything that says who you are, such as your name and contact details. What's left, such as your past activity and order history, stays filed under your random ID, which then no longer points to anyone. The same goes for what Google Analytics holds under that ID until its 14 months run out.

What's on your phone goes when you uninstall the app.

Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including encryption when it travels between your device and our servers.

Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed.

Contact

Questions about this policy: hello@bhaktidarbar.com

Grievance Officer: Shreesh Katyayan, hello@bhaktidarbar.com