Privacy Policy

Welcome to Aspirenet. Your privacy is important to us. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information.

1. Information We Collect

We collect the following:

Account and Identity Information

• Email address
• Password (stored as a cryptographic hash; never stored in plain text)
• Authentication method (email/password, Google Sign-In, or AppleID sign-in)
• Account creation date

Profile Information

• Name and username
• Profile photo (avatar)
• Biography / description (up to 150 characters)
• Ambition or goal statement
• Skills (array of user-provided tags)
• Interests (array of user-provided tags)
• What you want to work on (project description, up to 120 characters)
• Collaboration preference (short-term or long-term)
• Experience rank and XP points
• Social links (platform, label, and URL for each)

Location Information

• Precise/Approximate GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) — only when you explicitly enable location features
• City and country (text, optional)

Message Information

• Text messages — the content of messages you send and receive
• Voice messages — audio recordings you create and send within the app
• Media and attachments — images, files, and other content you share in conversations
• Reactions — emoji reactions you apply to messages
• Message metadata — timestamps, delivery status, read receipts, and the identifiers of sender and recipient(s)
• Reply context — references to messages you reply to

Discovery and Matching Data

• Skills, interests, ambition, bio, collaboration preference, and "want to work on" description are used as matching inputs
• Location service and experience rank are used as suggestion sorting mechanisms

Event Data

• Event title, description, cover image, location name, location type (virtual, physical, or hybrid)
• For physical events: latitude and longitude of the event venue
• Event start and end times
• Items to bring (organiser-specified)
• Registration status for each attendee (registered, waitlisted, cancelled, or checked in)

Collaboration and Task Data

• Collaboration group membership (which users are in which collaboration)
• Tasks: title, description, deadline, assigned users, subtask items, completion status, score (0–100)
• Monthly task completion records (task ID, completion status, and timestamps per month)
• Approval status and approver identity

Connection / Link Data

• Link requests sent and received (requesting user, receiving user, request message up to 500 characters)
• Link status (pending, accepted, rejected)
• Timestamps for each status change

Push Notification Tokens

• Device push notification token (a device-specific identifier issued by Firebase Cloud Messaging)

Automatically Collected Information

• Activity streaks (number of consecutive active days)
• Unread message counts per conversation
• Online/active status (maintained via Redis; not visible as a public status indicator)

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the above services for the following:

Account and Identity Information

• To create and authenticate your account
• To verify your identity via one-time password (OTP) sent by email on registration
• To manage your session and keep you logged in

Profile Information

• To display your profile to other users
• To power the discovery and matching features
• To generate personalised event recommendations
• To enable full-text search across users by name, username, skills, and bio

Location Information

• To optionally sort discovery results and event suggestions by proximity (closest to farthest from your location)
• GPS coordinates are fetched from your device at the time of use and either stored on your profile or passed to the server temporarily for sorting; they are never tracked in the background

Messaging Information

• Delivering messages — transmitting your messages, voice recordings, and attachments to the intended recipients in real time
• Storing message history — retaining your conversation history so it is accessible across your devices and sessions
• Displaying reactions and context — rendering emoji reactions, reply threads, and read/delivery status within the app
• Hosting attachments — storing media and files you share on secure cloud infrastructure (AWS S3) so recipients can access them
• Improving reliability — using aggregated, non-identifiable metadata (e.g., delivery failure rates) to diagnose and improve messaging performance

Discovery and Matching Data

• Similar user matching: A recommendation model computes similarity scores between your profile and other users’ profiles based on shared interests, skills, and ambitions. Results are ranked by similarity and optionally by proximity
• Complement user matching: An AI service (Anthropic Claude) analyses your "want to work on" project description to identify skill gaps — what skills your project needs that you do not have — and surfaces users who have those complementary skills. Only your skills and project description are sent to the Claude API for this purpose
• Streak tracking: Your daily activity streak (consecutive days active) is tracked to encourage engagement

Event Data

• To display and manage events
• To recommend relevant events to users based on their interests, ambitions, and proximity
• When sort-by-location is active, physical event coordinates are used to compute Haversine distance between the event and your location. Virtual and hybrid events are always ranked above physical ones in this mode
• Registered participants receive push notifications when events are updated or cancelled

Collaboration and Task Data

• To manage collaborative projects between users
• To track task progress, completion rates, and scores
• To calculate XP and experience rank awarded on task completion

Connection / Link Data

• To manage your professional network within the app
• Connected users may see fuller profile details than non-linked users

Push Notification Tokens

• To deliver push notifications for incoming calls, new messages, connection requests, and event updates
• Tokens are automatically invalidated and removed when they are reported as expired by the notification service

3. Third-Party Services

We may use third-party services to help us operate and improve Aspirenet. These services may have access to your information only to perform tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for other purposes.

4. Device Permissions Requested

Aspirenet may request access to certain device features such as your camera, microphone, photo library, and location services. These permissions are only used when you actively engage features that require them. You can manage these permissions at any time through your device settings.

5. Data Security

We take the security of your personal information seriously and implement industry-standard technical and organizational measures to protect it against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

Your data is transmitted using TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption and stored on secure servers. Audio messages, images, and other attachments are stored on encrypted cloud infrastructure (AWS S3) with access controls that restrict retrieval to authorized parties only.

However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for any activity that occurs under your account.

If we become aware of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify you in accordance with applicable law.

6. User Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Access — You may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction — You may request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Deletion — You may request that we delete your account and associated personal data.
• Portability — You may request that we provide your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Objection / Restriction — You may object to or request that we restrict certain types of processing.
• Withdraw Consent — Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at aspirenetcontact@gmail.com. We will respond to your request within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling your request.

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

7. Children's Privacy

Aspirenet is not intended for use by individuals under the age of 18.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information without your consent, please contact us immediately at aspirenetcontact@gmail.com or via support. Upon verification, we will promptly delete the information from our systems.

If we discover that we have inadvertently collected personal information from an individual under the applicable minimum age, we will take immediate steps to delete that information.

8. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or the features of Aspirenet. When we make changes, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page.

For material changes, we will provide more prominent notice — such as an in-app notification or an email to the address associated with your account — prior to the change taking effect.

Your continued use of Aspirenet after the updated Privacy Policy has taken effect constitutes your acceptance of the revised terms. If you do not agree with the updated policy, you should discontinue use of the app and may request deletion of your account.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.

9. Data Retention Period

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will remove your profile data and messages from our active databases within 30 days, except where retention is required by law.

10. In-App Account Deletion

You may delete your account at any time through the ‘Settings’ menu within the Aspirenet app. This will trigger the permanent deletion of your profile, links, and message history.

11. Data Processing Basis (GDPR/CCPA)

We process your data based on your consent (e.g., for location services), the performance of a contract (e.g., delivering your messages), and our legitimate interests (e.g., improving app reliability).

12. International Data Transfers

As our servers (AWS, MongoDB) are located in the Asia Pacific (Mumbai) region, your data may be transferred to and processed in India. By using Aspirenet, you consent to this transfer.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, contact us at:

aspirenetcontact@gmail.com or via support