Privacy Policy
In short
- We collect only what each activity needs, and we tell you why before you share anything.
- Health screening answers are stored securely in Google Sheets. Only authorised SVIRA project staff can see them.
- We never sell your information or use it for advertising.
- WhatsApp messages are sent only if you ask for them, and only after you confirm your number with a code.
- Young people aged 12–17 can be screened only at a SVIRA camp or school session, with a parent’s or guardian’s permission given in person.
- You can ask to see, correct or delete your information at any time. We reply within 90 days at most.
1. Who we are
SVIRA Foundation (Sustainable Vision for Inclusive and Resilient Actions) is a not-for-profit company registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, based in Maharashtra, India. We work in public health, education, women’s empowerment, the environment and rural development.
For the personal information described in this policy, SVIRA Foundation decides why and how it is used. Under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, this makes us the “Data Fiduciary”, and you the “Data Principal”.
2. What this policy covers
This policy applies when you:
- visit our website, svirafoundation.org, including its blog and events sections;
- use our health screening tools at app.svirafoundation.org;
- take part in a SVIRA camp, school session or community programme;
- contact us, or apply to volunteer or partner with us;
- receive WhatsApp messages from us.
3. Information we collect
| Activity | What we collect |
|---|---|
| Health screening | Name; gender; date of birth and age; mobile number; email address; education; occupation; taluka and district; preferred language; your consent choices and which version of the consent wording you agreed to; your answers to the screening questions; the scores and result categories calculated from them. |
| Screening for ages 12–17 | Everything listed above, plus the parent’s or guardian’s occupation and the name of the camp or school session where the screening took place. |
| WhatsApp results | Your WhatsApp number; whether you confirmed it with a one-time code; whether each message was delivered. |
| Contacting us | Whatever you choose to include. Our website’s contact form opens your own email app, so your message reaches us as an ordinary email. |
| Donating | Name, email, mobile number, city, the amount and cause you chose, and the payment reference. If you ask for an 80G receipt: your PAN and postal address, which we need to issue the receipt and to report donations to the Income Tax Department. |
| Volunteering or partnering | The details you enter in the application form, such as your name, contact details, skills and availability. |
| Using our websites | Technical information needed to run the websites and keep them secure, such as your IP address and browser type, which our hosting provider records automatically. Your language choice is remembered on your own device. |
We do not ask for Aadhaar numbers, bank details or passwords. Please don’t send them to us.
4. Why we use it
We use your information only for the purposes explained to you when you share it:
- To screen and show your result. Your answers are scored automatically and the result is shown on screen.
- To send your result on WhatsApp, only if you ask for this and confirm your number.
- To follow up on safety concerns. If your answer to the question about thoughts of self-harm is anything other than “Not at all”, the website shows helpline numbers straight away, and your record is marked for review by our team.
- For research. Screening data is used for SVIRA Foundation’s research project, Mental Health in Rural and Urban Maharashtra Study. Research findings are published only as combined, anonymous figures that cannot identify you.
- To run and improve our programmes, and to report on them to partners and funders using anonymous figures only.
- To reply to you when you contact us or apply to volunteer or partner.
- To keep our services safe, for example by blocking repeated automated attempts to misuse them.
- To meet legal obligations, where a law requires us to keep or share information.
We rely on your consent, which you give before the screening begins. For young people aged 12–17, we rely on the permission of a parent or legal guardian together with the young person’s own agreement. You can withdraw your consent at any time (see Your rights).
5. Health screening
Our mental health screening starts with the PHQ-2, a two-question check. Everyone can then continue to the full PHQ-9; we recommend it when the PHQ-2 answers suggest it would help. The website adds up your answers and places the total in a standard range, from minimal to severe.
A screening result is not a diagnosis. It can show whether it would help to talk to a qualified health professional. Only a qualified professional can diagnose a health condition.
If your answer to the question about thoughts of self-harm is anything other than “Not at all”, the website shows you helpline numbers straight away, and your record is marked so that our team can review it.
6. Children and young people
- We do not screen anyone under 12.
- Young people aged 12–17 can be screened only at a SVIRA camp or school session. A parent or legal guardian must give permission in person at the session.
- At the session, we give out an access code. The screening website will not accept a screening from anyone under 18 without a valid code. Each code belongs to one camp or session and stops working after a set date.
- We record the name of the camp or session with the screening, so we can show that it took place in a supervised setting.
- We never use children’s information for advertising, and we do not track or profile children’s online behaviour.
If you believe a child’s information has reached us without proper permission, please contact us (see Contact and complaints) and we will investigate and delete it where appropriate.
7. WhatsApp messages
- Receiving your result on WhatsApp is optional. You can complete the screening without it.
- Before we send anything, we send a 6-digit code to the number you entered. Your result is sent only after you enter that code, so it cannot be sent to someone else’s number by mistake. We store only a scrambled version of the code, and delete it once it has been used or has expired after 10 minutes.
- The result message contains your name, your score and the result category. If your answers raise a safety concern, a second message gives helpline information.
- We send WhatsApp messages only about your screening. We do not send promotional messages.
- WhatsApp messages are delivered by Meta Platforms, which processes them under WhatsApp’s own privacy policy.
8. Where it is stored and who helps us
We use a small number of service providers. They process information only to provide their service to us:
| Provider | What they do for us |
|---|---|
| Google (Google Sheets, Apps Script and Forms) | Stores screening records and application forms, and runs the automatic scoring. |
| Meta Platforms (WhatsApp Business Platform) | Delivers verification codes and screening results on WhatsApp. |
| Razorpay | Processes online donations (UPI, cards and netbanking). We never see or store your card or bank details. |
| Hostinger | Hosts our websites and their server software. |
| Google Fonts | Supplies some of the fonts on our websites. When a page loads them, your browser connects to Google, which can see your IP address. |
These providers may store information on servers outside India. Indian law allows this unless the Government restricts transfers to a particular country, and we will follow any such restriction.
9. Who can see your information
- Authorised SVIRA project staff, only where their work needs it.
- Qualified health professionals, only to arrange support or referral for you, and only with your agreement, unless there is an immediate risk to someone’s life.
- Research collaborators, only in anonymous form that cannot identify you.
- Government or legal authorities, only where the law requires it.
We never sell your information, rent it, or share it for advertising.
10. How long we keep it
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Screening records that can identify you | Until the research project ends (December 2027 or depend upon funding). After that, we delete them or make them anonymous. |
| WhatsApp verification codes (scrambled) | Until used or expired. Each code expires after 10 minutes. |
| Security records (for example, scrambled IP addresses used to block repeated attempts) | Up to one year, then deleted. |
| Donation records | As long as Indian tax and company law requires us to keep accounting records (at least 8 years), then deleted. |
| Emails and applications | As long as needed to respond and for our organisational records. |
If you withdraw your consent, we stop using your information and delete it, unless a law requires us to keep it. Information that has already been made anonymous and combined into research results cannot be removed from those results, because it can no longer be linked to you.
11. Your rights
Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, you can:
- Get a summary of the personal information we hold about you and how we use it.
- Correct or update information that is wrong or incomplete.
- Ask us to delete your information.
- Withdraw your consent at any time. It is as easy as giving it: just write to us.
- Nominate someone to exercise these rights for you if you die or become unable to do so.
- Complain to us about how we have handled your information.
To use any of these rights, write to our privacy contact (see Contact and complaints). Include the mobile number or email address you used, so we can find your records. We may ask you to confirm your identity before acting, to protect your information from anyone pretending to be you.
We will respond as soon as possible, and within 90 days at most. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India.
12. How we protect it
- All our websites use encrypted connections (HTTPS).
- The screening website checks every submission on our server before saving it, and blocks repeated automated attempts.
- Passwords and access keys for our systems are kept outside the public parts of our website.
- Only authorised staff can open screening records.
- Our website server’s error logs do not record participants’ answers or contact details.
No online system can be made completely secure. If a breach of personal information occurs, we will inform the people affected and the Data Protection Board of India, as the law requires.
13. Cookies and device storage
Our main website and screening tools do not use advertising or tracking cookies. They remember your language choice on your own device, and nothing is sent to us about it.
Our blog and events sections run on WordPress, which may set basic cookies needed for it to work, for example if you leave a comment.
Our websites link to other sites, such as WhatsApp and Google. We are not responsible for their privacy practices; please read their policies.
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when our services or the law change. The new version will appear on this page with a new effective date. If a change affects how we use screening information you have already given us, we will ask for your consent again where the law requires it.
15. Contact and complaints
For questions, requests or complaints about your personal information, contact our privacy contact:
For general enquiries, write to info@svirafoundation.org.
16. Health notice and helplines
Our screening tools and results are for screening, awareness, research and referral. They are not a substitute for diagnosis, treatment or emergency care.
For free, confidential mental health support 24×7, call Tele-MANAS, the Government of India helpline, on 14416 or 1-800-891-4416. In an emergency, call 112.