Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Telangana Rakshana Sena (“TRS”, “the Party”, “we”, “us”), a political party in Telangana, India, collects, uses, shares, stores and protects personal information through:

• the Telangana Rakshana Sena mobile app for Android and iOS, and its web version;
• this website, telanganarakshanasena.com;
• membership drives, events and the party office systems that support them.

We decide why and how your personal data is processed, so for the purposes of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (“DPDPA”) we are the Data Fiduciary. This policy is also written to meet the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the rules made under it, including the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

In short: we collect what the app needs to work, we never sell your data, we show no advertising, and we use no advertising or third-party analytics trackers. You can download a copy of your data, or delete your account, at any time from inside the app.

The app and membership are for people aged 18 years or older. You confirm your date of birth when you register. See section 13.

What we hold about you depends on the features you use. Items marked optional are never required to use the app.

• Account and profile. Your mobile number (verified by a one-time password sent by SMS), name, date of birth, profile photograph, and, if you choose to add them, a short biography, education, occupation, party role, year of joining and links to your social media profiles, and the language you choose for the app. We assign you a member ID (for example TRS-000123), which appears on your digital member ID card. The photograph you add when you register is checked automatically to make sure it shows one face (see section 7); the check returns only a yes or no, and it is not used to identify or recognise you.
• Where you live. Your district, assembly constituency, mandal, ward and village, which you give when you register so we can connect you with your local unit. Your PIN code, which the website's Join page asks for, and your residential address if you give it for membership verification, and a delivery address when you order merchandise.
• Your email address. Asked for when you register on the website, and kept on your membership record so the party office can reach you about your membership. It is seen only by party office staff, it is not used to sign you in, and you can ask us to delete it at any time (section 15).
• Political affiliation. By registering in the app you tell us that you are a member or supporter of Telangana Rakshana Sena. We treat this as sensitive information because it reveals a political opinion, and we process it only with your consent (see section 5).
• Government identity numbers (optional membership verification, KYC). If you choose to verify your membership: your Aadhaar number, PAN and/or voter ID (EPIC) number, the name as it appears on them, your father's or spouse's name, gender, address and PIN code, and an emergency contact name and phone number. You are not asked to upload images of these documents for membership. Verification is optional; the app works without it.
• Office-bearer (leader) profile (optional). If you hold a party position and fill in a leader profile in the app: your name in English and Telugu, photograph, gender, date of birth, father's or spouse's name, blood group, education, occupation, alternate and WhatsApp numbers, email address, address, village, mandal, assembly and parliament constituency and PIN code, your level, wing and area of responsibility in the party, previous party and positions, elections contested, achievements, a short biography, links to your social media profiles and your voter ID (EPIC) number. The party office reviews it and keeps it as part of the party's organisational records (see section 6).
• Precise location, only for SOS. When you raise an emergency SOS alert, the app asks for your phone's precise (GPS) location and attaches it, with an optional landmark, to that alert so that help can reach you. Location is read only at the moment you raise an alert, only while the app is open, and only with your permission. The app does not track your location in the background. When the party office approves your alert, it is sent to the party members in the area the office chooses (a ward or village, mandal, constituency or district, normally where you are, or, for a serious emergency and only on a senior administrator's decision, every member in the state), and it includes your location (the GPS coordinates and the area name), the landmark you gave and your message, so that members nearby can get directions to you. Your name and phone number are not included. A member who taps for directions opens that location in Google Maps on their own phone. Who receives the alert is decided by the district, mandal, ward and village on each member's profile, not by tracking anyone's phone.
• Photos, videos and other content you upload. Your profile photo; posts, reels (short videos), captions, comments and replies in the community feed; stories you posted while the app offered them; photos you submit as proof of a completed task; images you attach to a form answer; attachments to a grievance or an SOS alert; and the photograph you upload in Campaign Studio. In Campaign Studio, the background of your photo is removed on our own servers (it is not sent to any outside service) and the cut-out is composed into party posters and videos with you in them. Videos you post are chosen from your phone's gallery; the app does not record sound or video itself.
• Social activity. Who you follow and who follows you, likes, saved posts, replies you sent privately to other members' stories, the members you block, and the reports you make about posts, comments or members (including the reason you give). When you report a story or a news comment, we keep a copy of it with the report, so that it can still be reviewed if its author deletes it.
• Grievances and form answers. Requests and complaints you send through Kavitha Connect (title, description, attachments, and the reply from the office), and your answers to registration forms and surveys the party publishes in the app.
• People you register on a form. Some party forms let you register another person (for example a family member) for a programme or event. You give their name, mobile number, gender, date of birth, district, mandal, village and address, and they confirm by entering a one-time password we send by SMS to their phone. Please register someone only with their agreement. The record is theirs: it is kept with the form even if your own account is later deleted (section 9).
• Family members (optional). If you list your household in the app, the names and relationships you enter and, if you add them, their phone numbers, dates of birth and member IDs. Please add someone only if they are happy for you to do so. This information is never shown to other members.
• Participation and app activity. Event RSVPs and check-ins at events you attend; tasks you take up and their status; quiz answers; points earned and rewards redeemed (points have no cash value); referrals (the code you joined with, which the Android app can also read from the Google Play install link you used, and the people who joined with yours); the news articles you open, like, bookmark or comment on; and the notifications sent to you.
• Merchandise orders (purchase history). The items, quantities and prices you order, the name, phone number, delivery address and PIN code for the order, any delivery note, and the order's status. Merchandise is paid for online at checkout through our payment gateway, Cashfree Payments (section 7), or on delivery only where the order screen offers that option. For an online payment we keep the payment status and the payment reference that Cashfree returns to us. We never receive or store your card, UPI, net-banking or wallet details.
• Donation records. Donations are made through our web app, not through the Google Play or Apple App Store apps. For each contribution we keep the amount, date, cause, how it was paid, the name for the receipt and your phone number. An online donation is paid on the secure checkout of our payment gateway, Cashfree Payments (section 7), and we keep the payment status and the payment reference that Cashfree returns to us. A contribution you record as made directly to the party office is a pledge: the party office confirms receipt against its bank records (and notes the payment reference) before it is counted as received. When your contributions in a financial year (April to March) reach ₹20,000, the law requires identity verification, so we also collect your PAN, Aadhaar, voter ID or passport number (for Aadhaar we keep only the last four digits) and a photograph of that document. We never receive or store card, UPI, net-banking or wallet credentials.
• Information collected at membership drives. If a party volunteer signs you up in person (for example at your door or at an event), they record your name, mobile number, and, if you give them, your date of birth, district, mandal, ward, PIN code, constituency and a short note, in the party's enrolment system. Volunteers record these details only with your agreement, which they confirm on the enrolment form. They are used only to contact you about membership and are seen only by party office staff. You can ask us to delete them at any time (section 15).
• Device and technical data. A push-notification token issued by Google Firebase Cloud Messaging, your device platform (Android or iOS), sign-in session records (when they started and were last used, with the IP address and the device description your app or browser sends), and server logs of requests and errors, which include IP addresses. They are used to deliver notifications, keep you signed in, secure the service and fix faults.

Visiting this website. The website has no sign-in, no analytics and no advertising cookies. The site is available in English and Telugu. When you choose a language, your choice is stored on your own device in a first-party cookie and in local storage, both named trs_lang. It is a strictly functional preference, it is not shared with anyone, no third party is involved, and it is remembered for up to one year. Our host (Vercel, section 7) receives your IP address to deliver the pages. The Videos page shows thumbnails from YouTube and plays videos in YouTube's player (see section 7). This website does not itself collect payment details: online donations and merchandise payments are completed on Cashfree's secure checkout (section 7).

What we do not collect: your contacts, call logs, SMS messages, browsing history, health data, advertising identifier, or payment credentials. The app shows no advertising and contains no third-party advertising or analytics SDK.

• To run your account: sign you in with an OTP, show your profile and member ID card, and keep your session secure.
• To organise the party: connect you with your district, constituency, mandal and ward unit, and prevent duplicate or fraudulent memberships.
• To verify identity where you choose membership KYC, or where the law requires it for a donation; and to check that a registration photo shows a face.
• To operate app features: the community feed, news, events, tasks and points, quiz, referrals, forms, Kavitha Connect, Campaign Studio, the merchandise shop and donations.
• To process payments: send Cashfree the details it needs to take an online donation or merchandise payment (section 7), record the payment status and reference it returns, issue receipts, and make refunds under our Refund & Cancellation Policy.
• To respond to emergencies: route your SOS alert, with its location, to the party office, and, once the office approves it, alert the members in the affected area with it so those nearby can reach you.
• To communicate with you: send OTPs by SMS, and push notifications about news, events, tasks, emergency alerts, your orders and replies to your grievances.
• To confirm the people you register on a form: send them a one-time password so that only they can confirm the registration.
• To alert the party office to an SOS: email the staff on duty when an alert is raised (the email names the kind of emergency, its mandal and district and the time, not who raised it).
• To keep the community safe: review reports, remove content that breaks our Community Standards, and suspend or remove accounts that abuse the platform.
• To fulfil merchandise orders and handle returns.
• To answer your requests to see, download, correct or delete your data, and your grievances.
• To meet legal obligations, including contribution reporting to the Election Commission of India and tax authorities, and lawful requests from courts or law enforcement.
• To secure and improve the service: detect abuse, investigate faults and measure overall usage in aggregate.

We do not use your data for advertising, profiling for third parties, or automated decisions that have legal effects on you.

We process your personal data on the basis of your consent under Section 6 of the DPDPA, which you give when you register and accept this policy and our Terms of Service in the app; we record which version of this policy you accepted and when. Because membership reveals a political opinion, we use it only for your membership and the party activities described here. Identity numbers are asked for only when you choose to verify your membership, or when the law requires them for a donation. Device permissions (camera, photos, microphone, location, notifications) are asked for only when you first use the feature that needs them, and you can refuse or revoke them in your phone's settings; only that feature stops working.

Some processing is done for legitimate uses permitted by Section 7 of the DPDPA without separate consent: meeting a legal obligation (for example, retaining donation records), responding to a medical emergency or a threat to safety (SOS), and complying with a court order or a lawful request from a government authority.

You can withdraw consent at any time, as easily as you gave it: delete your account in the app (Settings → Delete my account, section 12), remove an optional detail from your profile, turn off a permission in your phone's settings, or write to the Grievance Officer (section 15). We then stop the processing that relied on that consent. Withdrawal does not affect processing already carried out, and some records must still be kept by law (section 9).

• Other members see what you choose to publish: your name and profile photo, your posts, reels, comments and likes, and your followers and following. They do not see your phone number, date of birth, address, identity numbers, grievances, donations or orders, and they do not see your location, except as set out in the next point.
• Members alerted by an SOS. When the party office approves an SOS alert you raised, the members in the area it chooses receive the alert with your location (GPS coordinates and area), the landmark you gave and your message, and can open directions to you. They do not receive your name or phone number. The alert stays in their alert inbox, and is deleted from it if you delete your account.
• Party office staff use an access-controlled admin console. Each person sees only what their role needs; for example, only senior administrators can view a full Aadhaar, PAN or voter ID number given for membership verification or a donation, and every such view is logged.
• Leader profiles are seen by the party office staff who manage the leadership directory, including the voter ID number in the profile, and they can export the directory for the party's organisational work. Leader profiles are not shown to other members.

We share personal data only with the following providers, only what each needs to perform its service for us, and only under terms that require them to protect it and not use it for their own purposes:

• Amazon Web Services hosts our servers, database and on-server backups in the Mumbai (ap-south-1) region in India. All of the data described in this policy is stored there, except uploaded media files and the encrypted off-site backup copies (both with Cloudflare, below). AWS also runs the automated check on the photograph you add when you register (Amazon Rekognition, Mumbai region): it receives that one photo, reports whether it shows a single face, and we keep only the photo itself, not any face data. It is not used to identify or recognise you.
• Vercel Inc. hosts this website, the web version of the app (used, for example, to record a donation) and the party office's admin console. What you enter in the web app, including any identity number or document, and what office staff open in the console pass through it on their way to and from our servers. It handles that traffic in transit; we do not use it to store your data.
• Cloudflare, Inc. stores the photos and videos uploaded to the app (Cloudflare R2 object storage) and our encrypted off-site backups, and provides our domain name service and network protection.
• Google LLC (Firebase Cloud Messaging) delivers push notifications to your phone. It receives your device's push token and the content of each notification.
• Airtel IQ (Bharti Airtel Limited), a DLT-registered SMS service, delivers your one-time passwords, and those for people registered on a form. It receives the mobile number and the text of the message.
• Cashfree Payments India Private Limited (India), a payment aggregator authorised by the Reserve Bank of India, processes online donations and online payments for merchandise orders. For each payment it receives the amount, the order or donation reference, and your name, phone number and email address (if you gave one). You enter your card, UPI, net-banking or wallet details on Cashfree's own secure checkout, where Cashfree processes them under the Reserve Bank of India's rules for payment aggregators; we never see or store them. We receive back only the payment status and the payment reference.
• Resend, Inc. (United States) delivers the console's emails to party office staff: password resets, and SOS alerts to the staff on duty. An SOS email contains the kind of emergency, the mandal and district and the time; it does not contain the name, phone number, message or location of the person who raised it. We send no email to members.

On-device translation. The app can translate posts and news using Google ML Kit, which runs on your phone. Language models are downloaded from Google, but the text being translated stays on your device. This website is available in English and Telugu, and both are our own text: no translation service is used and no language data is sent to anyone. Apart from the Videos page (below), this website loads nothing from Google.

Other Google services. News videos in the app play in YouTube's embedded player, provided by Google, which receives your device's IP address and may set its own cookies while you watch. On this website, the Videos page loads each video's thumbnail image from YouTube (i.ytimg.com) as soon as the page opens, which shows Google your IP address; a video you choose to play there runs in YouTube's privacy-enhanced player (youtube-nocookie.com), which likewise receives your IP address and may store its own cookies or similar data while you watch. The app may also download its typefaces from Google Fonts when it first opens, which likewise shows Google your device's IP address. Nothing else about you is sent to these services.

Link previews. When a post contains a link, our server fetches a preview of that page (its title and image) from the website it points to. That website sees our server's request, not you.

Other disclosures. We disclose personal data to the Election Commission of India, tax authorities, courts or law enforcement only where the law requires it.

We do not sell, rent or trade personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers.

Identity numbers and documents are collected in two situations only: optional membership verification, to confirm that each membership belongs to one real person; and donations of ₹20,000 or more, as required by Section 29C of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and Election Commission of India guidelines.

• Aadhaar, PAN and voter ID numbers are encrypted with AES-256-GCM before they are stored, and duplicate Aadhaar and PAN numbers are detected using a one-way keyed fingerprint rather than the number itself. For a donation, only the last four digits of an Aadhaar number are kept.
• The app only ever shows the last four digits back to you.
• Identity document images (collected only for donations, see section 3) are encrypted and kept in a private store that is never publicly reachable; they can be opened only by senior administrators through the admin console, and every opening is logged.
• A full number can be revealed only by a senior administrator, only when it is needed to check your identity, and every reveal is recorded against that administrator's account.
• We do not share these numbers or documents with anyone except where compelled by law.

The voter ID number an office-bearer gives in a leader profile (section 3) is kept with that profile for the party's organisational records. It is not covered by the encryption and reveal logging described above; see section 6 for who can see it.

• Account, profile, leader profile and membership data: for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account it is deleted straight away, as described on our Delete Account page.
• Identity verification (KYC): until you delete your account, at which point the record is deleted entirely.
• SOS alerts and their location: kept while your account exists, so the response can be reviewed; deleted with your account, including the copies in other members' alert inboxes.
• Membership drive records taken by a volunteer: kept until you ask us to delete them, and deleted automatically when an app account with the same number is deleted.
• Posts, reels, stories, comments and uploaded photos and videos: stay until you or a moderator remove them, or until you delete your account, when they are deleted.
• Grievances, form answers, task submissions, event RSVPs and check-ins, news you opened, points and family members: kept while your account exists; deleted with your account.
• People you registered on a form: their registration is kept with the form for as long as the party needs it for that programme, including after your own account is deleted (without your name or number on it). A person you registered can ask us to delete it.
• Notifications in your in-app inbox: deleted automatically after 180 days.
• Sign-in codes (OTPs): deleted after 7 days. Sign-in session records: deleted 90 days after they end, except your most recent one, whose IP address and device description are cleared. Notification tokens of ended sessions are removed every night.
• Campaign Studio videos made on our servers: deleted after 30 days.
• Merchandise orders: kept for our accounts; on account deletion the delivery name, phone number, address and PIN code are removed from them, and an order not yet shipped is cancelled.
• Donation records: kept for the period required by the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the Income-tax Act, 1961 and Election Commission record-keeping norms, even after an account is deleted. On account deletion your phone number and any ID document image are removed from every contribution record, and:
  • contributions the office has confirmed in a financial year in which your confirmed total reached ₹20,000, and any confirmed contribution that needed identity verification, keep your name and your PAN or ID number (encrypted), because the statutory contribution report must name the donor;
  • a pledge the office has not yet confirmed keeps your name and any ID number until the office confirms it (it then stays, as above) or cancels it (your name and ID are then removed);
  • every other contribution record loses your name and ID details.
• Records of the party office's own actions (audit logs, for example who reviewed a verification or revealed an identity number): kept to show how the service was run. They refer to your account by an internal number, not your name or phone number.
• Referral check: if your sign-up earned someone a referral reward, we keep a one-way keyed fingerprint of your phone number, also after your account is deleted, so that the same number cannot earn a referral reward twice. The fingerprint cannot be turned back into the number.
• Server logs (which include IP addresses): overwritten as they reach a fixed size, and web access logs after at most 30 days.
• Backups: our database and uploaded files are backed up every night. The copies kept on our server are readable only by its administrators and are deleted after 7 days; the off-site copies are encrypted (AES-256) before they leave our server and are deleted after 60 days. A copy of the database is also taken before some software updates; the ten most recent are kept and older ones deleted.

• All data is encrypted in transit using HTTPS/TLS between the app, the website and our servers.
• Aadhaar, PAN and voter ID numbers given for membership verification or a donation, and donation identity document images, are additionally encrypted (AES-256-GCM), with the key held outside the database. Backups are encrypted before they leave our server.
• Members sign in with one-time passwords sent to their phone; we store no member passwords. Deleting your account signs you out on every device.
• Card, UPI, net-banking and wallet details are entered only on Cashfree's secure checkout. They never reach our servers, and we do not store them.
• The admin console uses role-based access, and access to sensitive records is logged.
• We rate-limit requests to resist abuse, and keep regular backups.

No system is completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs, we will inform the affected members without delay (what happened, what it may mean for you, what we are doing about it and what you can do) and report it to the Data Protection Board of India, as the DPDPA and the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 require.

Our servers and database are in India (AWS Mumbai). Some of our providers process data outside India: Cloudflare (uploaded media files and encrypted off-site backups), Google (Firebase push notifications, YouTube videos and thumbnails in the app and on this website), Vercel (this website, the web app and the admin console, in transit) and Resend (emails to party office staff, in the United States). Where this happens, it is done under the providers' contractual safeguards and in line with any restrictions the Central Government notifies under Section 16 of the DPDPA.

Under the DPDPA you have the right to:

• Access and download a summary of the personal data we hold about you and how it is used. Most of it is visible in the app on your profile, membership, orders and donation screens. For a copy of the data your account holds, go to Settings → Download my data in the app. If you cannot use the app, write to the Grievance Officer (section 15) with your registered mobile number, and we will send it to you once we have confirmed the request is yours.
• Correct or update it. Edit your profile in the app, or write to us for anything you cannot change yourself.
• Erase it by deleting your account. In the app, go to Settings → Delete my account. If you no longer have the app, follow the steps at telanganarakshanasena.com/delete-account.
• Withdraw consent at any time, for example by turning off notifications or location in your phone settings, by removing an optional detail from your profile, or by deleting your account (section 5).
• Nominate another person to exercise these rights on your behalf in the event of your death or incapacity, by writing to the Grievance Officer with your registered mobile number and your nominee's name and contact details.
• Raise a grievance with our Grievance Officer (section 15), and, if you are not satisfied with our response, complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

To use any of these rights without the app, write to the Grievance Officer (section 15) with your registered mobile number, and your member ID if you have it. We use these only to confirm the request is yours, and answer within the times in section 15.

You can also block any member, and report any post, comment or member, from inside the app.

The app and membership are only for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will delete it. If you believe a child has registered, please tell us using the details in section 15. Please do not register a child on a form or list one as a family member with their own contact details. If you are the lawful guardian of an adult with a disability who wishes to take part, contact us first.

We may update this policy as the app changes or the law requires. We will change the “Last updated” date above and, for material changes, tell you in the app before the change takes effect.

For questions about this policy, requests about your personal data, or complaints, contact our Grievance Officer, appointed under Rule 3(2) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and the DPDPA:

• Grievance Officer: Rangu Naveen Achari, Grievance Officer, Telangana Rakshana Sena
• Email: naveenachari.trs@gmail.com
• Phone: +91 80991 66666
• Postal address: Telangana Rakshana Sena, TRS Party Office, Road No. 12, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, 500034, Telangana, India

We acknowledge every complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within 15 days of receipt. Please include your registered mobile number so we can find your account. For general queries, write to info@telanganarakshanasena.com, call +91 80991 66666, or use our Contact page.

If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India under the DPDPA.