MeraSocietyMeraSociety ("MeraSociety", "we", "us") is an app and service that housing societies use to manage members, maintenance bills, payments, complaints, notices, amenities and visitors. This policy explains what personal data we process when you use the MeraSociety mobile app, website and API (together, the "Service"), why, who we share it with, and the choices and rights you have. It is written to meet the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (India) and the Google Play and Apple App Store requirements.
1. Who is responsible for your data
Your housing society (through its secretary and committee) decides what to record about its members — for example, who lives in which flat and what each flat owes. For that data, the society is the data fiduciary and MeraSociety processes it on the society's behalf. For your MeraSociety account itself (email, password, devices), MeraSociety is the data fiduciary.
2. What we collect
| Data | Examples | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Name, email address, password (stored only as a one-way hash), language, profile photo | You |
| Residency | Society, building, flat/shop number, owner or tenant, phone number, family members you add, ID or ownership documents you upload | You or your society's secretary |
| Payments | Bills, amounts, UPI reference numbers, payment screenshots, receipts. We do not collect card numbers, UPI PINs or bank passwords — you pay in your own UPI app. | You and your society |
| Society activity | Complaints and their photos and chat messages, notices, poll votes, amenity bookings, visitor passes | You and other members |
| Device | Push-notification token, device type, app version, IP address and server logs | Your device |
We do not collect your location, contacts, call logs or SMS. Biometric unlock (fingerprint / face) happens entirely on your phone; we never receive biometric data.
3. App permissions
- Notifications — to tell you about bills, payment approvals, notices, complaint replies and bookings. You can switch these off in your phone's settings.
- Camera and photos — only when you choose to attach a payment screenshot, a complaint photo, a profile photo or a document.
- Files — only when you choose to upload or download a document, bill, receipt or report.
- Biometrics — optional, to unlock the app on your device.
4. Why we use it
- To create and secure your account and sign you in (including one-time codes sent by email).
- To run your society: raise and track bills, verify payments (including reading the amount and reference from a payment screenshot on our servers), keep the society ledger, handle complaints, notices, polls, amenity bookings and visitor passes.
- To send you service notifications and emails you would expect (we do not send marketing without your consent).
- To keep the Service safe, prevent fraud and abuse, fix problems and meet legal obligations.
We process your data with your consent, which you give when you create an account or accept an invitation, and for legitimate uses permitted under the DPDP Act, such as complying with law.
5. Who can see it
- Your society: the secretary and committee see members, flats, bills, payments, complaints and bookings for their society. Other residents see only what the society chooses to share (for example notices, the committee's contacts and documents marked for all members).
- Service providers who process data for us under contract and only on our instructions: Amazon Web Services (hosting, Mumbai region), Google Firebase Cloud Messaging (delivering push notifications) and our email delivery provider (sign-in codes and notifications).
- Authorities, when required by law or to protect the rights and safety of users.
We never sell or rent personal data, and we do not use it for advertising.
6. Where it is stored and how long we keep it
Data is stored on servers in India (AWS Mumbai). We keep it for as long as your account is active and your society uses MeraSociety. Society financial records (bills, payments, ledger) may be kept for up to 8 years where housing-society and tax laws require the society to retain accounts. Server logs are kept for up to 90 days.
7. How we protect it
All traffic is encrypted with HTTPS. Passwords are hashed, one-time codes expire, download links are signed and time-limited, and access is restricted by role within each society. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects you, we will notify you and the Data Protection Board as the law requires.
8. Your rights and choices
- Access and correction — see and edit your profile in the app, or ask us for a copy of your data.
- Delete your account — email support@merasociety.com from your registered address with the subject "Delete my MeraSociety account". We will delete your account and personal data within 30 days, except records your society is legally required to keep (which are then kept without your login).
- Withdraw consent — you can stop using the Service and request deletion at any time; this does not affect processing already done.
- Grievances — contact our Grievance Officer (below). If you are not satisfied, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India.
- Nominate someone to exercise these rights on your behalf in case of death or incapacity.
9. Children
MeraSociety accounts are for adults (18+). Family members under 18 may be listed by a parent as household members, but they do not get accounts. We do not knowingly collect children's data for any other purpose.
10. Changes
If we change this policy, we will update the date above and, for significant changes, tell you in the app before they take effect.
11. Contact and Grievance Officer
Grievance Officer, MeraSociety
Email: support@merasociety.com
We reply within 7 days and resolve grievances within 30 days.