Privacy Policy

Last updated: 11 August 2026

Vouch ("Vouch", "we", "us", or "our") is a social discovery platform where the people who know you best help you discover people, experiences and connections worth knowing. A friend vouches for you before you connect. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use and share it, and the choices and rights you have. It applies to the Vouch mobile app and the website at vouchsocial.in.

1. Who we are

Vouch is operated by Ishan Bhanderiya (the "Operator"). For any privacy questions or requests, contact us at support@vouchsocial.in.

2. Information we collect

a) Information you give us

• Account & identity: phone number (used to sign in via one-time password), and your date of birth (to confirm you are 18+).
• Recovery email (optional): you may add an email address in Settings. We use it only to verify it is really you if you lose access to your phone number, and to contact you about your account if we must. It is never a way to sign in, is never shown on your profile, and you can remove it at any time.
• Profile: name, age, gender and who you're interested in, city, job/education, a short bio, your interests, and the photos and optional voice notes you upload.
• Vouches & connections: the vouch messages, media, and endorsements you send or receive, and your matches.
• Content you create: chat messages, pinboard notes, hangout plans, event bookings, and reservations.
• Support: anything you send us by email.

b) Information collected with your permission

• Contacts: if you enable contact sync, we read your device contacts and upload only irreversible, salted hashes of phone numbers to find friends and friends-of-friends already on Vouch. We do not store your contacts' raw phone numbers, names, or other details.
• Location: if you grant location access, we use your approximate GPS location to show people and hangouts in your current city and to show how far away nearby people are. You can turn this off in your device settings.
• Spotify (optional): if you connect Spotify, we access your top artists and currently-playing track to show shared music taste and enable "listen together". We never see your Spotify password, and you can disconnect at any time.
• Notifications: a push token so we can send you match, message, and hangout notifications.

c) Information collected automatically

• Basic device and usage information (device type, app version, and in-app activity) needed to operate, secure, and improve the app.

d) Payment information

When you buy event tickets, table reservations, or a Vouch+ subscription, your card/UPI/bank details are collected and processed directly by our payment providers (PayU for experiences and tickets; Google Play or the Apple App Store for Vouch+ subscriptions). Vouch never receives or stores your full card or bank details. We keep only a record of the transaction (what you bought, amount, and a payment reference).

3. How we use your information

• Create and secure your account and verify you are 18 or older.
• Build your profile and power the vouch, matching, and discovery features.
• Find people and hangouts in your current city and surface friends-of-friends.
• Show shared interests and music, and enable chat, plans, and bookings.
• Process payments and issue tickets, reservations, and subscriptions.
• Send you service notifications and respond to your requests.
• Keep Vouch safe: prevent fraud, abuse, and violations of our Terms.
• Comply with legal obligations.

We rely on your consent (for contacts, location, Spotify, and notifications), the performance of our contract with you (to provide the app), and our legitimate interests in operating and securing the service.

4. How we share information

With other users: your profile, photos, interests, shared music, vouches, and the content you send are shown to other users as part of how Vouch works (for example, to your matches, to people you're vouched to, and within hangouts you join).

With service providers who process data on our behalf under contract:

Legal & safety: we may disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights, safety, and security of Vouch, our users, or the public.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own advertising.

5. Data retention

We keep your information for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we delete or anonymise your personal data within a reasonable period, except where we must retain limited records to meet legal, tax, security, or dispute-resolution obligations.

6. Security

We protect your data with encryption in transit, access controls and row-level security on our database, private storage buckets for photos and media, and one-way hashing of contact data. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but we work to protect your information and continually improve our safeguards.

7. Your rights and choices

• Access & correction: view and edit your profile in the app at any time.
• Deletion: delete your account from Settings, or email us to request deletion of your data. See how to delete your account for the steps and exactly what is removed or kept.
• Withdraw permissions: revoke contacts, location, notifications, or Spotify access at any time via your device settings or the app.
• Manage subscriptions: manage or cancel Vouch+ in your Google Play or Apple App Store account.
• Grievances: contact our Grievance Officer using the details below. We acknowledge every complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within 15 days of receipt.

8. Children

Vouch is only for people aged 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have, we will delete it.

9. International users

Vouch is operated from India and our service providers may process data in other countries. By using Vouch, you understand your information may be transferred to and processed in locations outside your own, with appropriate protections in place.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will change the "Last updated" date above and, for significant changes, notify you in the app. Your continued use of Vouch after an update means you accept the revised policy.

11. Contact & grievances

For any privacy question, request, or grievance, whether under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, or any other applicable law, contact our Grievance Officer:

We will acknowledge your complaint within 24 hours of receiving it, and resolve it within 15 days. Where the law sets a shorter period for a particular type of complaint, for example the removal of certain unlawful content, we act within that shorter period.

If you are reporting another user, you can also do this in the app: open their profile or your chat with them and choose Report. Reporting ends the match, deletes the chat, and stops the two of you appearing to each other.