Privacy policy

ASKOBO TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE LIMITED ("Askobo", "we", "us") of Sf.No.456/1, Site.No.147, Breeze Garden, Athipalayam, Coimbatore-641110, Tamil Nadu, India decides why and how personal data is processed on the Askobo website and apps. Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 we are the data fiduciary. Under the GDPR and UK GDPR we are the controller.

This policy covers:

• Seekers: people who book sessions, join webinars, buy courses or products, send custom requests or use the study planner.
• Experts: people who list services, host sessions and receive payouts.
• Organisation members: owners, managers, panel experts and learners of an organisation (a coaching institute, for example) that runs batches on Askobo.
• Visitors: people who browse the website, use the contact form or the support chat without an account.

Experts and organisations are separately responsible for personal data they take off Askobo, for example your contact details or notes they keep outside the platform, or recordings they download. They must handle that data under the law and their own privacy notices. We are not responsible for what they do with data after it leaves Askobo.

Askobo is a marketplace. The service you buy is a contract between you and the expert (see the Terms of use). This policy covers what we, as the platform, do with your data.

We never see or store your card, UPI or net-banking details. You enter them on Razorpay's hosted checkout. We pass Razorpay your name, email and phone number so the checkout can be filled in.

Chat messages are encrypted when stored. Askobo administrators can view them for support and safety work.

We do not use your data for any purpose that is not in this table. If we add a new purpose, we update this policy and tell you under section 16 before it starts.

AI features

• AI summaries. After a session, the host expert can ask for a summary. Google's Gemini service creates it from the transcript. It is labelled AI-generated, can be wrong, and is not professional advice.
• Writing help. Experts can use Gemini to draft service descriptions, bios, forms and agendas, and can upload a resume for profile drafting.
• Study planner coaching. The planner uses AI to write coaching notes from your progress.
• Speech-to-text. While live transcription is on, audio goes to AssemblyAI or Sarvam AI.

We do not use recordings, transcripts or summaries to train our own AI models. Our AI providers' handling of the data is listed at Recording, AI and providers. We use their paid business plans with model training switched off, so none of our AI providers use your content to train their models.

Automated checks

• Refund abuse rule. After 3 completed refunds in 90 days, later refund claims go to manual review by our team.
• Fraud and security checks. We run automated checks, for example on sign-ins and payments, and our team reviews what they flag.
• Search ranking. Software orders experts in search results using the factors listed in the Expert terms: relevance to your search, the expert's ranking score, profile completeness, price, and listing priority from some billing plans.

None of these checks alone closes your account without a person reviewing it first. Refund amounts are worked out automatically from the refund option on your purchase, and you can ask for a person to review any refund decision. If you think an automated result is wrong, email [email protected] and ask for a person to review it.

The people you deal with

• The expert you book sees your name, booking details and what you share with them (messages, files, forms).
• An organisation you belong to sees its members' activity in the organisation workspace (membership, batches, hub posts, group-call attendance). Your study-planner progress is shared with an organisation only if you turn sharing on.
• Other participants in a group session or webinar see your display name in the meeting.

Service providers

These companies process data for us, only to provide the service. By type they are: payments (Razorpay), video meetings (LiveKit; Zoom for experts who connect it; Daily.co for some older meetings), speech-to-text (AssemblyAI, Sarvam AI), AI (Google Gemini), file storage and delivery (Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare), email and WhatsApp (our email provider, Mailgun, ChatMitra), internal alerts (Telegram), analytics and advertising measurement (Google Analytics, PostHog, Meta Pixel), error monitoring (Sentry), sign-in and calendar (Google), and approximate location from your IP address (ip-api.com, ipinfo.io). The full list, what each receives and where it is located is at Recording, AI and providers. We update that list, and give notice under section 16, before we add a provider of a new type.

Others

• Legal requests. We give data to a court, regulator, tax authority or the police when a valid order or law requires it, and only what it requires. We tell you first where the law allows.
• Business transfers. If Askobo merges with or is bought by another company, your data moves to the new owner. The new owner must keep to this policy or tell you before using your data differently.
• Protecting rights. We share the minimum needed to stop fraud, enforce our terms or defend a legal claim.

Files, media and recordings are stored mainly in India (Amazon Web Services, Mumbai). Some media is also held in the United States. Several providers process data outside India, mostly in the United States, including Google (Gemini, Analytics, sign-in), Meta, AssemblyAI, Daily.co, Zoom and Sentry. The country for each provider is in the provider list.

Indian law allows transfers to any country the government has not restricted. For users in the EU and UK, we rely on standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision, as applicable. You can ask for a copy of the safeguards at [email protected].

An open dispute, a legal claim or a legal duty to keep a record extends any period above for as long as it lasts. We tell you if we need to keep something you asked us to delete, and why.

• All traffic to Askobo uses HTTPS.
• Passwords are stored only as bcrypt hashes.
• Sign-in sessions use HttpOnly cookies that scripts on the page cannot read. An older sign-in path on the askobo.com website also keeps sign-in cookies the page can read (see the cookie policy).
• Access inside Askobo is limited by role, and sensitive actions are written to audit logs.
• PAN numbers and chat messages are encrypted when stored. Zoom tokens are encrypted.
• Bank account numbers are protected by access controls.
• Downloads of recordings use time-limited secure links.
• Card, UPI and net-banking details are handled by Razorpay and never reach our servers.

No method of storage or transfer is 100% secure, so we cannot promise absolute security. Keep your password private and use a unique one. If you think your account is compromised, email [email protected] at once.

• Experts must be 18 or older.
• A seeker under 18 uses Askobo with the consent of a parent or legal guardian. At sign-up they confirm that they are 18 or older, or that a parent or guardian has agreed.
• Organisation learners under 18 join through their organisation, which is responsible for getting the parent's or guardian's consent.
• We do not show targeted advertising to minors.

A parent or guardian can ask us to access, correct or delete a minor's data at [email protected].

You have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you and know who it was shared with.
• Correct or complete data that is wrong or missing. You can edit most profile details yourself in the app.
• Erase your data (see what deletion does and does not remove below).
• Withdraw consent at any time. Settings > Privacy has switches for personalisation, AI processing, analytics and marketing. Withdrawing is as easy as giving consent and does not affect what we did before.
• Nominate another person to exercise your rights if you die or cannot act (India).
• Complain about how we handled your data (section 17).

How to use your rights

1. Email [email protected] from the address on your account, saying what you want. Add a booking or order ID if it helps.
2. We confirm it is you before we act, to protect your account.
3. We acknowledge your request within 24 hours and answer within 30 days.
4. If we refuse, we say why and how to appeal to the grievance officer.

Deleting your account

Go to Settings > Privacy > Delete account and enter your password. This:

• removes your profile details and anonymises your account;
• deletes your study-planner data;
• keeps bookings, payments and invoices, anonymised where possible, for tax, accounting and dispute reasons.

It does not automatically remove chat messages, notes, reviews, hub posts, recordings, transcripts and summaries. Email [email protected] to have them removed. We remove them unless the law or an open dispute requires us to keep them.

Getting a copy of your data

You can export study-planner data in the app. For everything else, email [email protected] and we send you a copy.

• Email. We send the newsletter only if you ticked the box at sign-up (it starts unticked) or subscribed. Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link. Service emails (booking, payment, security) are not marketing and continue while you have an account.
• WhatsApp. Verifying your phone number turns on WhatsApp booking messages. To stop them, reply STOP or email [email protected]. There is no in-app switch for WhatsApp messages today.
• Advertising. The Marketing switch in Settings > Privacy controls Askobo's own marketing events. It does not switch off the Meta Pixel (see section 12).

We use cookies and browser storage to keep you signed in, remember settings and measure use. On askobo.com, Google Analytics, the Meta Pixel and PostHog load only after you choose Accept all in the cookie banner. In the Askobo app (app.askobo.com), you agree to the cookie policy, including PostHog and the Meta Pixel, when you create an account or use the app. The Settings > Privacy switches control only Askobo's own analytics events. The cookie policy lists every cookie, who sets it and how to block it.

Our site does not change how it works when your browser sends a Do Not Track signal. Third-party analytics and advertising tools on our site (Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, PostHog) collect data about your use of our site, and Google and Meta can link it to your use of other sites. Section 12 and the cookie policy explain how to block them.

India

Today the Information Technology Act 2000 and the SPDI Rules 2011 apply. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and the DPDP Rules 2025 come into force in stages, with the main duties around May 2027. We are aligning with them now.

EU and UK

If you are in the EU or UK you also have the right to restrict or object to processing, to data portability, and to ask that a person review an automated decision. Our legal bases are in section 3. Contact us at [email protected].

California

California residents can ask what personal information we collected, and ask us to correct or delete it, and we do not treat you worse for asking. We do not sell personal information. Use the contact in section 17.

If a breach affects your personal data, we tell the affected users and the authorities as the law requires. Indian rules require us to report certain incidents to CERT-In within 6 hours, and the DPDP Rules, once in force, require notice to the Data Protection Board within 72 hours. Our notice to you says what happened, what data was involved, what we have done and what you can do.

We change this policy for one of these reasons: a new law or regulator instruction, a new or changed feature, security or fraud prevention, or a change of provider. For a material change we email you and show a notice in the app at least 15 days before it takes effect, except where the law or safety requires a faster change. A change does not give us new purposes for data we already hold without telling you first, and you can close your account if you do not agree.

The version number and date are at the top of this page.

Grievance officer (resident in India): Email [email protected]. Address: Sf.No.456/1, Site.No.147, Breeze Garden, Athipalayam, Coimbatore-641110, Tamil Nadu, India. See Grievance redressal for timelines.

If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India once it is constituted. If you are in the EU or UK, you can complain to your national data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office). Consumers can also use the routes in the Terms of use.