- We collect what's on our form — your contact details, and your parents' name, age range, languages, location, and (if relevant) travel details — because a real person on our team needs it to hand-find a match.
- A human reviews every submission. There's no automated matching algorithm deciding anything about your family.
- We never share your or your parents' contact details with another family until you've explicitly said yes to that specific introduction.
- We never sell your data, to anyone, ever.
- You can ask us to delete everything we have on you or your parents at any time — email team@desipadosi.com and we'll confirm within 5-7 business days.
- By submitting the form, you're confirming you have your parent(s)'/relative(s)' permission to share their information with us on their behalf — see "Whose information this is" below.
1. Who we are
Desi Padosi ("Desi Padosi," "we," "us," or "our") is a hand-run community project that matches visiting or newly-settled Indian elders with nearby families and travel companions. This policy covers the information we collect through desipadosi.com (the "Site") and through our direct communication with you by email or WhatsApp.
We are a small, founder-run team — right now, every submission is read and matched by a real person, not software. That matters for this policy because it means your information is seen by people, not processed by an automated system, and we treat it with the same care we'd want a stranger to use with our own parents' information.
Desi Padosi is currently an early beta project and is not yet operated through a registered company. This policy applies regardless of that, and we'll update it the moment that changes.
2. Whose information this policy covers
Our matching form is unusual in one important way: most of what we collect is about someone other than the person filling out the form. We want to be explicit about that.
The adult child (the person submitting the form)
You are giving us your own information directly and knowingly — your name, email, and WhatsApp number — and you are consenting on your own behalf when you submit it.
The parent(s) or elder relative (the person the form is about)
Your parent(s) typically do not fill out or see our form themselves. Their name, age range, languages, city, and travel details are being shared with us by you, on their behalf. Because they aren't completing this submission in person, by submitting our form you are representing to us that you have your parent's or relative's permission to share this information with Desi Padosi for the purpose of finding them a match. If that's not the case — for example, if a parent has told you they don't want to participate — please don't submit their information.
We rely on this representation as our basis for collecting and processing information about your parent(s). If your parent or relative ever contacts us directly and asks us to remove their information, we will do so immediately regardless of what you, as the original submitter, have told us — see Section 8.
3. What we collect
We only collect what's on our matching form, plus a small amount of technical information automatically generated by visiting the Site. Nothing here is collected through hidden tracking, purchased lists, or third parties — it all comes directly from what you type into our form or send us over email/WhatsApp.
3.1 Information you give us about yourself
| Field | Why we ask |
|---|---|
| Your full name | So our team knows who they're corresponding with, and so a matched family knows who they're speaking to. |
| Your email address | To confirm we received your submission and to follow up about a match. |
| Your WhatsApp number, and your consent to be messaged there | Our primary channel for coordinating a match with you — only used if you check the WhatsApp consent box. |
3.2 Information you give us about your parent(s) or elder relative
| Field | Why we ask |
|---|---|
| Name(s) | Needed to identify your parent(s) to our team and, once you approve an introduction, to the matched family. |
| Age group | Helps us match with others of a similar age and life stage — never shared as an exact birthdate. |
| Languages/dialects spoken | The single most important factor in finding a compatible match — we prioritize shared language. |
| City traveling from (optional) | Helps us match flight companions traveling from a similar origin. |
| US city, neighborhood, or zip code | The core factor for local matches — we look for a "padosi" who is realistically nearby. |
| Approximate travel date (optional) | Used only for flight-companion matching, to find another family traveling around the same time. |
| Flight number or airline (optional) | Used only for flight-companion matching, to find someone on the same or a similar flight. |
| Hobbies and interests (optional) | Helps us find a genuinely compatible match, not just a geographically convenient one. |
| Which type of help is needed (flying soon / already here / both) | Routes your submission to the right matching process. |
3.3 Information collected automatically
Like most websites, our hosting provider (Vercel) automatically logs basic technical data when you visit the Site — such as IP address, browser type, and pages visited — for security and performance purposes.
We also use Google Analytics to understand overall Site traffic — for example, how many people visit, which pages they view, and roughly where they're visiting from. Google Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies to do this, and collects information such as your IP address (which Google may use to estimate general location), device and browser type, and pages viewed. We use this only in aggregate, to understand how the Site as a whole is performing — not to identify or track a specific visitor, and not connected to the information you submit through our matching form unless you tell us otherwise. Google's own use of this data is governed by the Google Privacy Policy. You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking using a browser extension such as Google's own Analytics Opt-out Add-on, or by using your browser's "do not track" / cookie-blocking settings.
4. How we use this information
We use the information above only for the following purposes:
- Manual matching. A member of our team reviews your submission and looks for a compatible family or flight companion based on location, language, travel dates, and interests.
- Communicating with you. To confirm we received your submission, ask follow-up questions if needed, and let you know when we've found a potential match — by email and, if you've opted in, WhatsApp.
- Facilitating an introduction — only with your explicit go-ahead. See Section 5.
- Basic safety review. Before we introduce two families, our team does a light manual review (for example, confirming both sides consistently describe a real, matching situation) as a first line of defense against fake submissions.
- Keeping the lights on. Basic technical logs (Section 3.3) are used only for security, debugging, and understanding overall (not individual) usage of the Site.
We do not use your or your parents' information for advertising, do not build advertising profiles, and do not use it to train any third-party AI or machine-learning model.
5. When and how we share information
The core promise: we never share your or your parents' contact information with another family until you have explicitly said yes to that specific introduction — for example, by replying "yes" over WhatsApp or email when we present a potential match.
Until that explicit go-ahead, the other family only ever sees a general, non-identifying description of your parents (e.g. "a Gujarati- and Hindi-speaking couple in their late 60s near Sugar Land, TX, who enjoy morning walks and card games") — never a name, phone number, or exact address.
Outside of an introduction you've approved, we share information only in these limited circumstances:
- Service providers who help us run Desi Padosi — currently Airtable (where we securely store submissions), Google Workspace (our email), Vercel (our website host), and WhatsApp/Meta (if you opt in to WhatsApp messages — see Section 6). Each of these providers can only use your data to provide their service to us, not for their own purposes.
- If required by law — for example, in response to a valid subpoena, court order, or to protect the safety of you, your parents, or others.
- If Desi Padosi is ever acquired or merged — in the unlikely event of a sale, merger, or transfer of the business, your information could transfer as part of that deal, but it would remain subject to a policy at least as protective as this one, and we'd notify you first.
We do not sell your information or your parents' information to anyone, for any reason. We do not share it with advertisers, data brokers, or marketing companies.
6. WhatsApp specifically
If you check the box consenting to WhatsApp messages, we'll use WhatsApp to reach you about your match — this is the fastest way for our small team to coordinate. A few things worth knowing:
- WhatsApp is operated by Meta, and messages sent through it are also subject to WhatsApp's own privacy policy, which is outside our control.
- We will never use WhatsApp to send you marketing or unrelated messages — only communication directly related to your submission and match.
- You can withdraw WhatsApp consent at any time by telling us over email or WhatsApp, and we'll switch to email-only communication.
7. How long we keep information
We keep your and your parents' information for as long as it's useful for finding or maintaining a match, and no longer than necessary. Specifically:
- If we're unable to find a match, or you tell us you're no longer interested, we retain your submission for up to 24 months in case a suitable match becomes available later, then delete it.
- If a match is made and introduced, we retain the record to support the relationship (e.g., if either family later asks us to help with a follow-up or a new match), and will delete it on request at any time.
- You or your parent(s) can request deletion earlier than either timeline at any time — see Section 8. We will always honor a deletion request faster than our default retention period.
8. Your rights, and your parents' rights
You, and separately your parent(s) or elder relative, have the right to:
- Access what information we hold about you or them.
- Correct anything that's inaccurate or out of date.
- Delete your information or your parents' information from our records entirely.
- Withdraw consent for WhatsApp messaging, or for the matching process altogether, at any point — including after a match has already been suggested.
- Ask who we've shared it with, if anyone, beyond what's described in Section 5.
To exercise any of these rights, email team@desipadosi.com from the address you used to submit the form (or, if you're a parent/elder relative contacting us directly, just tell us who submitted the original form so we can locate it). We will confirm receipt and complete your request within 5-7 business days.
If a parent or elder relative contacts us directly — even if they weren't the one who filled out the form — to ask that their information be corrected or removed, we will honor that request directly from them, without needing to go back through the adult child who originally submitted it.
If you are a California, Texas, or other U.S. state resident, these rights are consistent with — and in some respects go beyond — what state privacy laws (such as the California Consumer Privacy Act) require; we extend the same rights to everyone who uses Desi Padosi, regardless of where you live.
9. How we protect information
Given the sensitivity of what we collect, we keep our data footprint deliberately small and access deliberately limited:
- Submissions are stored in Airtable, accessible only to our core team — not published, indexed, or made searchable anywhere.
- Data in transit between your browser and our systems is encrypted (HTTPS).
- We do not store payment information, government ID numbers, or passport/visa details — we don't ask for them, and please don't send them to us unprompted.
- Only team members actively working on matching have access to identifying details; anyone helping with outreach or partnerships sees non-identifying summaries only.
No online service can guarantee perfect security, but given our small scale and manual process, very few people ever have access to your information at all — which is itself a meaningful protection.
10. Children's information
Desi Padosi is a service for connecting adult elders (typically parents or grandparents), not a service directed at or intended for use by children. We do not knowingly collect information about anyone under 18. If we become aware that we've inadvertently received information about a minor, we will delete it promptly.
11. International information
Because many of the elders we help are traveling from India or elsewhere outside the U.S., information you give us — including about a parent still living abroad — may be transferred to and stored in the United States, where our service providers (Airtable, Google Workspace, Vercel) operate. By submitting information to us, you consent to this transfer.
12. Changes to this policy
As Desi Padosi grows past a hand-run beta — for example, if we add further tracking tools, a mobile app, or automated messaging — we'll update this policy to reflect it, update the "last updated" date at the top, and for any change that meaningfully reduces your protections, notify active users directly by email before it takes effect.
13. Contact us
Questions, access requests, corrections, or deletion requests:
team@desipadosi.comWe're an early-stage, home/remote-based team and don't have a public mailing address yet — email is the fastest and most reliable way to reach us.
This policy is governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.