Privacy policy

Version 1.0 · Effective 2 October 2026

Ushta is a free, verified, members-only matchmaking app for Zoroastrians. This policy explains what personal data we hold about you, why we hold it, who can see it, how long we keep it, and what you can ask us to do with it. It follows the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the DPDP Act) and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (the IT Rules).

Who we are

Ushta is built by a member of the community, for the community. Ushta decides how your personal data is used and is responsible for it: the Data Fiduciary, in the words of the DPDP Act. In this policy "we", "us" and "our team" mean Ushta and the people who help to verify members and read reports.

You can write to us at [email protected]. Our full contact details are at the end of this policy.

What we collect, and why

We collect only what Ushta needs in order to work.

Your account: your email address, which you sign in with, and your phone number, which our team calls to verify you. We also record when you agreed to our Terms of use, this policy, our Community guidelines and the ID check, and which version you agreed to.
Your profile: what you fill in when you join, or later in Edit profile. That is your name, date of birth, gender and who you would like to meet, height, city and country and where you grew up, community and practice, family background and priestly family, marital status and children, what you are looking for, education and work, lifestyle, languages, interests, qualities, a few lines about yourself, your prompt answers and your partner preferences. Some questions are optional, such as your income, your family details and your LinkedIn and Instagram, and you can leave them blank.
If a family member manages your profile: their name, their relationship to you and their phone number, and your own phone number, so that we can confirm with you that you agree.
Your photos: two to six photos of yourself, and who you choose to show them to: everyone on Ushta, or only people you match with.
Verification: a picture of one government ID (PAN card, driving licence, passport, voter ID or masked Aadhaar), a selfie taken in the app, and the notes our team makes on the verification call. We use them only to verify you, and delete them 30 days after our decision.
How you use Ushta: the profiles we show you each day and whether you pass or write, the notes you send and receive, your chats and the photos you send and receive in them, a phone number you choose to share in a chat, the members you block, the reports you make and any screenshots you add to them, and your settings.
People you hide from: the numbers you add under Hide specific people or paste in for Hide from people I know. We keep only a scrambled version of each number (a hash), never the number itself and never a name.
Your device: nothing beyond what any browser or phone sends when it connects, such as its IP address and the type of device and browser, and, on a device where you allow notifications, a token that lets us send them there. You can turn notifications off with All notifications, in Settings, under Notifications, but a verification decision or a note from our team is always sent: by email while Email is on, and by push while Push is on, to any device where you allow notifications. We never read your location or your contacts, and the camera is used only when you choose to take a picture in Ushta: your verification selfie, or a photo for your profile, your ID, a report or a chat. The app keeps you signed in on your device, and uses no advertising or tracking cookies.

We use this information to:

create your account and sign you in
verify that every member is a real person who is who they say they are
show your profile to members who might suit you, and choose the three profiles we show you each morning from your preferences and theirs; this is done automatically, and nobody on our team picks them
deliver your notes and messages
keep members safe: look into reports, keep blocks and hidden numbers working, and stop members we have removed from joining again
answer you when you write to us, and meet our duties under Indian law

We use your personal data because you agree to it. You give that consent at the sign-in screen, which says "By continuing you agree to our Terms of use and Privacy policy." On the last step of sign-up you confirm it and agree to the ID check, and we record when you agreed and to which version. That record is shown in Settings, under Legal, Your consent.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by deleting your account with Delete my account, in Settings, under Account, or, if you cannot reach Settings, for example while you are signing up or waiting to be verified, by writing to our Grievance Officer. Withdrawing does not undo what was done with your data before, and we keep what the law requires us to keep, for as long as it requires, as set out under How long we keep it.

What other members see

Only verified members who are signed in can see profiles, and only the profiles Ushta shows them: the members in their three, people they have exchanged notes with, and their matches. Your profile is never public on the web. People you have blocked or hidden from never see it, and you never see theirs; the same holds for anyone who has blocked you or hidden from you.

Members who can see your profile see:

your first name, and the initial of your surname, or your full surname if you choose to show it
your age, but never your date of birth
your city, region and country, and where you grew up, but never your exact location
your photos once our team has approved them, unless you choose in Settings, under Privacy, to show them only to people you match with; then other members see a placeholder in their place
the rest of your profile: height, community, practice, family background, priestly family, marital status, children, what you are looking for, education, work, lifestyle, languages, interests, qualities, what you wrote about yourself, family details and prompt answers
whether you are verified, whether you joined in the last two weeks, how complete your profile is, and roughly when you were last active, unless you turn that off
whether a family member manages your profile, and their relationship to you, but never their name or number

Only your matches also see:

your full surname
your income, and your LinkedIn and Instagram, if you added them
your photos, if you chose to show them only to people you match with
whether you have paused your profile or left Ushta, and, while our team has your profile hidden, that your chat is paused
whether you have Read receipts on

Your phone number is never on your profile. A match sees it only if you share it in your chat, and then only the two of you can see it. Once it is shared they may keep it, so share it when you are ready. Other members never see your email address.

Our team can see your whole profile, your ID and selfie until they are deleted, and the reports you make or that are made about you. We read a chat only when a member reporting it chooses to share it with us.

What we never do

We never sell your personal data, and we never share it with anyone for advertising.
Ushta shows no ads, and has no plans or boosts to buy.
We never use Aadhaar eKYC, and we never ask for your full Aadhaar number. If you choose masked Aadhaar as your ID, mask the first eight digits before you upload it.
We never read your phone's contacts. For Hide from people I know you paste in the numbers yourself, and we store only a scrambled version of each, never the numbers and never the names.

How long we keep it

While you are a member: we keep your data for as long as your account is open, including while it is paused.
If you stop part-way through sign-up: we keep what you have filled in, so that you can carry on where you left off. Write to our Grievance Officer if you would rather we deleted it.
Your ID and selfie: deleted 30 days after our verification decision, together with our notes from the call.
When you delete your account: your profile disappears at once and your chats go quiet for both sides. You have 7 days to change your mind. After that your account and everything in it, including your chats, is removed for good, apart from the records below that the law asks us to keep.
Closed chats: when a chat is closed by an unmatch or a block, we keep it for 90 days in case either of you reports it, then delete it.
If we remove an account for breaking our rules: we keep its phone number and email address, as scrambled versions, for 180 days so that the same person cannot simply join again, and remove the account at the end of that time.
Reports, and the record of what our team did about them: kept for 180 days, as the IT Rules require, then deleted. A report is kept for that time even if the member who made it deletes their account.

Messages you delete or edit are removed from the chat but kept by us for up to 180 days so we can act on reports.

Who handles your data for us

Four companies help us run Ushta:

Supabase stores our database, sign-in and files, in its Mumbai region in India.
Cloudflare hosts the Ushta website and web app.
Resend sends the emails we send you, such as your sign-in codes.
Google supplies the typefaces Ushta is set in, the engine the web app draws its pages with, and the Firebase code the web app uses for notifications. Your browser downloads them from Google's servers, fonts.gstatic.com and www.gstatic.com, when you open the Ushta website or web app, whether or not you allow notifications, and the app on your phone downloads the typefaces from fonts.gstatic.com. As with any download, Google sees your IP address and the type of device and browser, but nothing you write or post in Ushta. If you allow notifications on a device, Ushta registers that device with Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging, which gives it the token we keep and carries each notification to it. Google sees what each one says, such as the first name of the member who wrote to you, but never your notes or messages.

Supabase, Cloudflare and Resend handle your data only on our instructions and only to provide their service. Google handles what it sees under its own privacy policy. Cloudflare, Resend and Google may handle data outside India in order to deliver their service. We share your personal data with nobody else, unless Indian law requires it, for example a lawful order from a court or a government agency.

If a breach of security affects your personal data, we will tell you and the Data Protection Board of India, as the DPDP Act requires.

Your rights

Under the DPDP Act you have these rights, and in Ushta you use them like this:

To see your data: Download my data, in Settings, under Account, gives you your profile, settings, notes, chats and the reports you have made, as one file. For anything else, including a summary of how your data is used and who handles it, write to our Grievance Officer.
To correct it: change your profile with Edit profile, on Me, and your email address and phone number in Settings, under Account. A few things are fixed once you are verified, such as your date of birth and who manages your profile; write to us to change them.
To erase it: use Delete my account, in Settings, under Account. You have 7 days to change your mind. If you cannot reach Settings, for example while you are signing up or waiting to be verified, write to our Grievance Officer instead.
To complain: write to our Grievance Officer. We acknowledge every complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within 15 days of receiving it.
To nominate someone: you can name a person to use these rights for you if you die or become unable to, by writing to our Grievance Officer.
To escalate: if our answer to a complaint does not settle it, you can take it to the Data Protection Board of India.

You also choose who sees you, in Settings, under Privacy: show your photos only to people you match with, show only the initial of your surname, hide from people you know or from particular numbers, and turn off Show when I was last active. Read receipts are off until you turn them on there. Photos in chat is on until you turn it off there; while it is off, nobody can send you a photo in a chat, and the photos you have already received stay. Blocked members, on the same page, lists everyone you have blocked and lets you unblock them. To block someone, tap ⋯ on their profile or in your chat and choose Block.

Children

Ushta is only for people aged 21 and over. We check your date of birth against your ID, and we do not knowingly hold personal data about anyone younger. If we learn that a member is under 21, we remove the account; if you think someone is, report them. Please do not post photos that show children's faces.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will publish the new version here, with its version number and date at the top, and tell you before it takes effect. The version you agreed to is shown in Settings, under Legal, Your consent.

Contact

For any question about this policy or your personal data, or to use any of your rights, write to our Grievance Officer:

Name: Ushta Grievance Desk
Email: [email protected]
Post: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

We acknowledge every message within 24 hours, and resolve every complaint within 15 days of receiving it. You can also write from Write to our Grievance Officer, in Settings, under Safety and support.