SanghaSetu by Niyantha

Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 26, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Bermer Software Pvt Ltd collects, uses, stores, and shares information when you use SanghaSetu: the Android app and the web app at sanghasetu.niyantha.in. SanghaSetu helps Isha volunteers coordinate rides to and from Sadhguru Sannidhi, offer and request seats, message each other in channels and direct messages, ask and answer volunteer questions, and get help from an assistant. Your SanghaSetu login is a Niyantha account that also works in the other Niyantha and Bermer apps.

Who Can Use SanghaSetu

SanghaSetu is for approved volunteers. Access is granted when the email address you verify in the app matches an address on the volunteer list maintained by the programme coordinators. We store that email address, its verification status, the date you were approved, and any volunteer roles the coordinators assign to you.

Information We Collect

• Account and contact information: your name, mobile number, email address, one-time passwords or an optional password, account identifiers, and session tokens.
• Volunteer profile information you choose to share with other volunteers: a profile photo, a short "about" text, and an optional @handle. Other volunteers never see your mobile number or email address through the app.
• Ride information: rides you offer or request, pickup and drop points, route and stops, dates and times, seat counts, the vehicle you describe, saved places, and who has booked or been boarded on a trip.
• Location information: your approximate or precise location, used while the app is open to find rides passing near you, to suggest pickup points, and to show a trip's live position to its passengers and driver during the trip. SanghaSetu does not collect location in the background.
• Messages and files: channel messages, direct messages, thread replies, reactions, mentions, mention groups you create, trip chat, and the photos, documents, and other files you attach. Files are stored privately and served through short-lived links to the members of that conversation.
• Questions and answers you post in the volunteer Q&A, and votes on them.
• Assistant conversations: the questions you type to the assistant and, in the web app, your voice while a voice call is active.
• Notification and device information: push notification tokens, a random installation identifier generated by the app (we do not collect your advertising ID, IMEI, or hardware serial numbers), device type, operating system, app version, language, and network status.
• Support communications and operational records when you contact us or when coordinators help resolve an access, ride, or safety issue.

How We Use Information

• To create and secure your account and to verify that you are an approved volunteer.
• To publish your ride offers and requests to other volunteers, match seats, and let drivers and passengers coordinate a trip.
• To show a trip's live position to the people on that trip while it is in progress.
• To deliver channel messages, direct messages, mentions, replies, and trip chat to their intended recipients, and to alert you about them.
• To answer your questions through the assistant, using your rides, seats, and the volunteer Q&A as context.
• To send one-time passwords, ride confirmations, trip updates, mention and reply alerts, and other service notifications by SMS, email, or push.
• To detect, prevent, and investigate misuse, unauthorized access, safety incidents, or technical issues, and to maintain and improve the service.

We do not use your information for advertising. SanghaSetu contains no advertising and no third-party analytics SDKs.

Location Data

SanghaSetu asks for location permission to find rides near you, to suggest pickup points, and to share a trip's live position with its passengers and driver while the trip screen is open. Location is used only when you grant permission and only while you are using the app; the Android app does not request background location. You can turn the permission off in your device settings, in which case you can still browse rides by typing places, but nearby suggestions and live trip tracking will not work.

Messages, Files, and Other Volunteers

Messages you send in a channel are visible to every member of that channel; direct messages are visible only to the two participants. Your name, @handle, profile photo, and "about" text are visible to other approved volunteers wherever you appear in the app. Please share only what you are comfortable with other volunteers seeing, and do not post other people's personal details without their consent.

Assistant and Voice

When you type to the assistant, your message and the relevant ride, seat, and Q&A data are sent to our servers to produce the answer. In the web app you can also start a voice call; your voice is streamed to our servers only while the call is active and is not kept after the call. Assistant answers and speech processing are produced by cloud AI services working on our instructions (Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Anthropic) under business terms that do not allow your content to be used to train their models. Please do not dictate OTPs, passwords, or other people's sensitive details to the assistant.

Sharing of Information

We do not sell your personal information and we do not share it with third parties for advertising. We share information only as needed for the service, including with:

• Other approved volunteers, to the extent described above: your ride offers and requests, trip participants and live trip position, your messages, your Q&A posts, and your volunteer profile.
• Programme coordinators, who manage the volunteer list and can see the email addresses, approval status, and roles on it.
• Service providers that work on our instructions to host infrastructure, databases, and file storage (Microsoft Azure), deliver push notifications (Expo push service, Google Firebase Cloud Messaging, and web push), send OTP and notification SMS and email, provide maps and routing (Google Maps), and produce assistant answers (Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Anthropic).
• Government, law enforcement, regulators, courts, or other parties when required by law or to protect rights, safety, and platform integrity.

Retention

We keep information for as long as needed to provide SanghaSetu, keep the volunteer community safe, comply with legal obligations, and resolve disputes. Rides, trips, messages, and Q&A posts remain available to their participants as part of the service; deleted messages are removed or replaced by a placeholder when they have replies. Voice audio is not kept after a call. Account deletion requests are processed within 30 days, subject to records we must retain for legal, safety, or security reasons.

Deleting Your Account and Data

You can request deletion of your Niyantha account and its associated data without contacting support: open niyantha.in/delete-account, sign in with the mobile number of the account and the one-time password sent to it, and confirm. Because the account is shared across Niyantha and Bermer apps, deleting it also removes your access to those apps. You can also email admin@bermer.in from the account's registered email or mobile number to request access to, correction of, or deletion of specific data, or to be removed from the volunteer list.

Your Choices

• You can edit your name, photo, "about", and @handle in the app, and change or remove your email and mobile number.
• You can leave channels, mute conversations, choose which conversations notify you, and turn push notifications, location, camera, or file access off in your device or browser settings. Features that depend on a permission will not work while it is off.
• You can delete or edit your own messages and Q&A posts, and remove ride offers or requests you created.
• You can request access, correction, deletion, or support for your data by contacting us.

Security

All data is transferred over encrypted (HTTPS/TLS) connections. We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards to protect information, including access controls on our servers. No internet or mobile service can be guaranteed to be completely secure, so please keep your device, OTPs, passwords, and account access safe.

Children

SanghaSetu is intended for adult volunteers and is not directed to children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The updated version will be posted on this page with a new last updated date.