Privacy Policy — Vaidic Dharma Sansthan

1. Who we are

Vaidic Dharma Sansthan ("VDS", "we", "us") is a charitable trust that arranges Vedic pujas, homas, samskaras and related programmes. We decide why and how your personal data is used on vaidicpujas.org, so under Indian law we are the "Data Fiduciary".

Address: Vaidic Dharma Sansthan, 21 Km Kanakapura Road, Udayapura, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560082.

2. The personal data we collect

We collect only what we need for the purposes in section 3.

Contact and identity: name, mobile number, email address, gender, and postal address (house, street, city, state, PIN code).
Sankalpa details: gotra, rashi, nakshatra and date of birth, for you and for each family member you book for.
Birth details for the Rashi calculator: time of birth and place of birth, only if you ask us to find your rashi and nakshatra (see section 4).
Tax details: your PAN, only when a single offering is ₹10,000 or more, because Indian tax law requires it on the receipt.
Booking and payment records: the puja, date, amount, receipt number and the payment reference from Razorpay. We do not receive or store your card, UPI or bank login details.
Account: if you sign in with a mobile one-time password or with Google, the mobile number or email you sign in with, and the family members you save.
Location: a PIN code or city you type, or your device location if you allow it, to show pujas near you. This is kept in your browser.
Technical and campaign data: IP address, browser and device type, the pages you visit, and the link or campaign that brought you to the site (see section 9).
Other details you choose to give us, for example in a feedback form, a question, or a volunteer or teacher profile.

When you book for a family member, you give us their details. Please tell them, and book for them only with their agreement or as their parent or guardian.

3. Why we use it

We use your personal data for these purposes:

To perform the puja you book: the priest takes the sankalpa in your name with your gotra, rashi and nakshatra. Coordinators use the attendance answer to plan seating and prasadam.
To take payment and issue receipts: including tax receipts and the records that Indian tax and accounting law requires us to keep.
To keep you informed about your booking: confirmations, receipts, changes of date or venue, and live-stream links, by SMS, WhatsApp and email.
To prefill your next booking: if you are signed in, we save your details and your family members to your profile.
To answer your questions and give support.
To keep the site safe: to stop fraud and misuse, and to fix errors.
To improve the site: we look at how pages are used, mostly as totals and trends.
To tell you about upcoming pujas, festivals and programmes, which you can stop at any time (section 5).

We do not sell or rent your personal data to anyone.

4. Date, time and place of birth

We collect your date of birth, time of birth and place of birth only to find your rashi and nakshatra and to perform the puja you request. We do not use them for any other purpose.

Date of birth is required for each person on a booking. It identifies the person in the sankalpa and in our booking record, keeps the same person from being booked twice by mistake, and lets us find the rashi and nakshatra when they are not known. If you are signed in, we save it to your profile so you do not need to type it again.
Time and place of birth are optional.We ask for them only if you tick "I don't know the rashi / nakshatra". We use them once to find the rashi and nakshatra, and we do not store them.

You do not have to know your gotra, rashi or nakshatra. If you do not know them, tick "I don't know" on the form. The priest then uses Shubha Gotra, Shubha Rashi and Shubha Nakshatra, which is the traditional practice.

A rashi and nakshatra found from an approximate time of birth can be wrong, because the Moon changes nakshatra about once a day. For an exact result, use the time on your birth certificate.

5. Updates about pujas and events

When you book a seva, register for a programme or join one of our WhatsApp groups, we may send you updates about upcoming pujas, festivals and programmes. They come as direct messages on WhatsApp, SMS or email, and in the WhatsApp groups you join.

You can stop these updates at any time. Reply to the message to tell us, email [email protected] with the mobile number or email to remove, or leave the WhatsApp group. We then stop sending updates. Messages about a puja you have already booked still come, because they are part of the service.

Associated trusts of the Art of Living family may also tell you about their programmes. If you ask us to stop updates, we pass that on too.

6. Who we share it with

We share personal data only as far as each task needs it:

Priests, ashram teams and coordinators who perform or organise your puja.
Razorpay, to process your payment.
Messaging and email providers: MSG91 for SMS and one-time passwords, WATI for WhatsApp, and Resend and Mailgun for email.
Hosting and infrastructure providers,including Cloudflare, which carry and store the site's data for us.
Analytics and advertising tools: Google Analytics, Meta (Facebook) Pixel and Plausible (section 9).
Government authorities when the law requires it, for example the Income Tax Department for receipts, or a court order.

Our service providers may use your data only to do the work we give them, and must protect it. Some of them process data outside India. They do so under their own security and privacy terms and Indian law.

7. How long we keep it

Booking, payment and receipt records: for as long as Indian tax and accounting law requires us to keep them, usually eight years.
Your profile and saved family members: until you ask us to delete them.
Your contact details for updates: until you ask us to stop.
Server and security logs: for a short period, then deleted.

8. Your rights

Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, you can ask us to:

give you a summary of the personal data we hold about you and how we use it;
correct, complete or update it;
erase it, unless the law requires us to keep it (for example a tax receipt);
withdraw a consent you gave;
nominate a person to use these rights for you if you die or cannot act yourself.

To use any of these rights, email [email protected] from the email or with the mobile number we hold, so that we can confirm it is you. We answer within the time the law sets, and as quickly as we can.

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

9. Cookies and analytics

The site uses cookies and similar browser storage for these purposes:

Essential: to keep you signed in, hold your cart, and remember your location for nearby pujas.
Campaign: to remember which link or campaign brought you to the site (kept for up to 90 days), so we know which announcements reach devotees.
Analytics and advertising: Google Analytics, Meta Pixel and Plausible measure visits and bookings. Google and Meta may use this to show our announcements on their platforms.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The site still works, but you will need to sign in again.

10. Security

We follow reasonable security practices, as the Information Technology Act, 2000 requires. All traffic to the site is encrypted (HTTPS). Personal data is stored on secured servers, and only authorised staff and volunteers who need it for their work can see it. We do not collect passwords, card or bank details, or health or biometric data; payments are handled by Razorpay. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal data, we will tell you and the Data Protection Board of India as the law requires.

11. Children

A person under 18 must not register or give us personal data without a parent or guardian. A parent or guardian may book a puja or samskara for a child and give the child's details. We do not track children or target advertising at them.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. We post the new version on this page with a new "last updated" date. If a change affects how we use data you have already given us, we will tell you, and ask for your consent again where the law requires it.

13. Grievance Officer and contact

For questions, requests or complaints about your personal data, contact our Grievance Officer:

Designation: Grievance Officer and Data Protection Officer
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +91 95381 86844
Post: Grievance Officer and Data Protection Officer, Vaidic Dharma Sansthan, 21 Km Kanakapura Road, Udayapura, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560082

We acknowledge a complaint within 48 hours and resolve it within one month of receiving it. Please give your name, mobile number or email, the receipt number if there is one, and what went wrong.