1. Who is responsible for your information
Swadharma is a platform provided by Dharma Poshanam Inc ("DPI") and used by temples, trusts and other institutions to offer their services.
DPI is responsible for your account, the platform itself, the verification of professionals, and the records the platform keeps. The institution you book with is responsible for the ceremony, the money it collects, and its supervision of delivery.
Where this policy says "we", it means both, each for its own part. You may contact either — section 11 says how.
A third party is also involved and is not acting on our instructions: the professional assigned to your booking. Section 4 explains what they receive and why that distinction matters.
2. What we collect
Information you give us
- Your name, email address and phone number — when you create an account, book a ceremony, or make a donation.
- Your house address — only when you book a ceremony to be performed at your home. This is separate from any billing or donation address you give us, and is used for a different purpose. Please read section 4 before booking a ceremony at home.
- Account credentials — your password is stored salted and hashed. We never see it.
- Ritual details — gotra, nakshatra, sankalpa and similar information, where the ceremony requires them.
- What you write to us — enquiries, messages and feedback.
Payment information
Card and bank details are collected and held by our payment providers — Razorpay in India and Stripe in the United States — under their own PCI-DSS certification. Neither DPI nor the institution stores your full card number.
Collected automatically
IP address, browser and device type, and usage records — used to keep the platform secure and to improve it.
Location — what we do not collect
We do not collect or store your location. When a ceremony is to be performed at your home, we convert the address you gave us into map coordinates so that the professional can find it. When a professional is travelling to you, you may be shown their live location — but that is provided by them through Google Maps and is not stored by us. See section 5.
3. Your account works across installations
Swadharma is used by more than one institution. Your account is a single identity across all of them — one email address, one profile, one password. If you book at two temples, that is one account, not two.
What each institution can see is limited to its own bookings and dealings with you. An institution cannot see your bookings with another institution.
4. Your house address — who receives it, and why
This is the most significant disclosure we make. Please read it.
When we collect it. Only when the ceremony you book is to be performed at your home. For a ceremony at the temple we do not need it and do not ask for it.
Who receives it
| Who | Why | When |
|---|---|---|
| The professional assigned to your ceremony — a purohita, cook or helper | They must be able to reach you | From assignment until the engagement is complete |
| The operator of the institution monitoring your booking | To confirm the professional reached you, and to help if they did not | While the booking is open, and in the booking record afterwards |
| To convert the address into map coordinates and provide directions | Once, when the booking is made |
They are not our employee and do not act on our instructions. They are bound by the platform's rules of conduct — they may not keep, publish or reuse your address beyond what your engagement requires — but they receive your address in their own right, and they are responsible for how they handle it.
Who does not receive it. Your address is never shown in any list. It is never given to a professional who has not been assigned to your booking. It never appears on a public or discovery map. It is never sold, rented or traded, to anyone, ever.
If you would rather not give it. You may book any ceremony performed at the temple without giving a house address. A ceremony at your home cannot be performed without one.
5. Live location during a home ceremony
When a professional travels to your home, they may share their live location with you using Google Maps' location-sharing feature, from their own Google account.
- We do not receive their position. Our system holds only a link, which we show to you and to the monitoring operator. The location itself is between the professional, Google and you.
- The share is started by the professional and runs only for the engagement. They may stop it at any time, and we will tell you if they do.
- You are never tracked. This is one-directional: you may see them travelling to you; they cannot see you.
6. What we use your information for
- Delivering the ceremony or accommodation you booked, and assigning a suitable professional.
- Taking payment and issuing receipts, including 80G receipts where they apply.
- Confirming your booking and telling you about changes, by email, SMS or WhatsApp.
- Letting the monitoring operator confirm that your ceremony was delivered.
- Resolving complaints, and issuing a remedy where a ceremony was not delivered.
- Keeping the platform secure and preventing misuse.
- Meeting our legal obligations — tax, audit and statutory record-keeping.
We do not use your information for advertising, and we do not profile you.
8. Where your information is kept
The platform's database is hosted in Mumbai, India.
If you are in the United States, this means your information is transferred to and stored in India, and is handled under this policy and under Indian law as well as the law that applies to you. By using the platform you are informed of this transfer.
9. How long we keep it
| Information | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Booking, payment and donation records, including a home-ceremony address | 7 years, for tax and audit |
| Your account and profile | While your account is open, then 3 years |
| Delivery record — when a professional departed, arrived and completed | With the booking record |
| The professional's location | Not kept at all |
| Messages and enquiries | 2 years |
| Complaint records | 3 years after closure |
When information is no longer needed for the purpose it was collected for, we delete it.
10. Your rights
You may:
- Ask what we hold about you, and who we have shared it with.
- Correct anything inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.
- Ask us to delete your information. Where we must keep a record for tax, audit or legal reasons, we will tell you what we are keeping and why.
- Withdraw consent at any time. Some services — online booking in particular — cannot continue without it.
- Nominate another person to exercise these rights on your behalf if you die or become unable to exercise them yourself.
- Complain to us, and if you are not satisfied, to the relevant authority.
If you are in the United States, you may additionally have the right to know what is collected, to have it deleted, to correct it, to opt out of any sale or sharing — we do neither — and, in some states, to limit the use of sensitive information. We do not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.
11. How to contact us
About your account, the platform, or a professional's conduct
Dharma Poshanam Inc — Swadharma
Email: swadharma@dharmaposhanam.in
WhatsApp · India: +91 99000 82065
WhatsApp · USA: +1 (515) 770-4705
14600 Marigold Dr, Frisco, TX 75035, United States
5703 S 159th Street, Omaha, NE 68135, United States
Mysore, India — dharmaposhanam.in
About a ceremony, your booking, or money you paid an institution
Each temple or trust publishes its own contact and grievance details on its Swadharma site. Contact them first — most matters are resolved there — and escalate to us if they are not. The route is set out in the Service Manual.
Children
The platform is not intended for children under 18. A person under 18 may be named in a booking made by a parent or guardian, but may not hold an account.
Changes to this policy
We will post any change here with a new "last updated" date. Where a change materially affects how your information is used, we will tell you directly.