Lokal Buddy Privacy Policy

1. Introduction & Overview

Welcome to Lokal Buddy (“we”, “our”, or “us”). Lokal Buddy is a community-driven hyperlocal service discovery and mutual-aid platform operated by Kriya IT Solutions, available via our mobile application and web portal at lokalbuddy.com.

We are dedicated to safeguarding your privacy and ensuring transparency about how your information is gathered, utilized, safeguarded, and shared when you access our applications, services, and website.

2. Information We Collect

We collect information you provide directly to us when registering, booking services, or creating a skilled user profile:

• Account & Profile Details: Your full name, mobile phone number, email address, password hash, profile avatar, and preferred language.
• Hyperlocal Location & Address: Selected constituency, district, city/village, neighborhood, and optional GPS coordinates to discover nearby helpers and calculate transit proximity.
• Skilled Professional Profile: If you register as a helper/skilled provider, we collect your service category (e.g., Electrician, Plumber, Appliance Repair), hourly/daily rates, experience, bio, qualifications, certifications, proof documents, and preferred service areas.
• Service Bookings & Requests: Details of service requests made or received, booking times, status updates, pricing quotes, ratings, and customer reviews.
• Communication & Call Metadata: Timestamps, caller/callee IDs, call durations, and call statuses (missed, completed, rejected) for in-app audio calls and chat conversations. Note: We do NOT record or store audio conversations.

3. Device Permissions (Mobile App)

To provide core mobile features, the Lokal Buddy Android application requests the following permissions:

4. How We Use Your Information

• Facilitating Service Connections: Connecting residents who need skilled assistance with verified local specialists in their neighborhood.
• Enabling Real-time Calls & Chats: Facilitating direct, encrypted audio communication and messaging without revealing private personal phone numbers.
• Trust & Community Verification: Verifying skilled user credentials, badges, reviews, and maintaining community standards.
• Service Notifications: Sending automated alerts regarding booking requests, call notifications, and urgent community announcements.
• Platform Security: Detecting, preventing, and addressing fraud, abuse, spam, unauthorized logins, and technical issues.

5. Real-Time Audio Calling & WebRTC

Lokal Buddy integrates direct internet audio calling powered by WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) technology:

• End-to-End Media Encryption: Audio streams transmitted during calls are encrypted in transit using standard DTLS/SRTP protocols.
• No Voice Recording: Audio conversations are strictly peer-to-peer and are NEVER recorded, eavesdropped, or archived on our servers.
• Call Logs: We store basic metadata (caller, callee, call duration, timestamp, and missed/completed state) so users can view their call history within their chat thread and Call Logs screen.

6. Data Sharing & Disclosure

We respect your confidentiality. We share data only under the following strict circumstances:

• With Other Users (Upon Interaction): When you book a helper or post a service request, your display name, general locality, and request details are visible to the assigned helper to fulfill the service.
• Public Profile for Helpers: If you activate Skilled User mode, your public professional profile (name, photo, services offered, rates, rating, and preferred areas) is visible to nearby neighbors looking for assistance.
• Legal Requirements: If compelled by lawful court orders, subpoenas, or applicable regulatory laws to protect life, health, or property safety.
• Zero Commercial Sale: We will never sell, lease, or monetize your contact or usage data to advertising networks.

7. Data Security & Storage

• Password Cryptography: Passwords are one-way hashed using salted bcrypt algorithms before storage.
• Transport Layer Security: All API communication, WebSockets, and media signaling are encrypted via modern HTTPS / TLS 1.3 protocols.
• Session Authentication: JSON Web Tokens (JWT) with strict validity windows and secure credential headers.
• Access Control: Strict role-based permission policies restricting backend database access.

8. Your Rights & Account Deletion

• Access & Update: You can edit your profile details, phone number, address, services, and photo anytime directly in the app.
• Skilled Mode Toggle: You can pause or deactivate your skilled profile visibility anytime with a single toggle switch.
• Account & Data Deletion: You have the right to permanently delete your account, service history, call records, and profile. To request immediate permanent deletion, you can tap “Delete Account” in the app settings or email us at privacy@lokalbuddy.com.

9. Contact Information & Grievance Redressal

If you have any questions, clarifications, feedback, or grievance reports concerning this Privacy Policy, please contact us: