Who we are
DesiFam is operated by HonestTech Services LLC, a Delaware limited liability company at 8 The Green, Suite B, Dover, DE 19901, United States (“HonestTech”, “we”, “us”). HonestTech is responsible for the personal information described in this policy.
Information we collect
Account information. When you register, we collect your name, username, email address, phone number, date of birth (DesiFam is for adults 18 and up) and a password (stored as a salted hash — we never see or keep your plain-text password). We also collect your country and your postal code or city at signup so we can show you the right defaults; this is separate from the “home area” you set in the header, which drives what you actually see (see Location data below). If you followed a campaign link or a member’s invite to DesiFam, we also record the campaign tag or who invited you when you create your account. When you sign up you can choose to get marketing email — the box is unticked unless you tick it.
Confirming your phone and email. We confirm your mobile number with a one-time code when you sign up, and your email address later with a code we email you. Until you confirm it we send that address nothing except that code, and if someone else confirms the same address first it is removed from your account and you can add a new one.
Content you post. Marketplace and classifieds listings, rental listings and room requests, job posts and job-seeker posts, professional, tutor, training, restaurant, home-food, pandit, event-vendor and travel-agent listings, matrimony profiles, community posts and replies, event listings, reviews, and any photos or video you upload with them. Messages you send through our in-app threads (buyer/seller, landlord/tenant, matrimony interest, and every other section with its own message thread). If you buy event tickets, the names you put on each ticket.
Classes. If you enrol yourself or your child in a class a tutor or training provider runs on DesiFam, we keep the student’s first name and age group (never a surname or a date of birth), the class, the enrolment’s status and — if the teacher records it — attendance.
Things you save and searches you save (with their alert settings) are kept with your account so we can show them to you and tell you about price drops, events you saved being cancelled or moved, and new matches. Other members never see who saved what; a listing’s owner may see how many people saved it.
Payments. Every card payment on DesiFam — a paid listing package or add-on, event tickets, an ad campaign, ad-image credits — is taken by Stripe on Stripe’s own pages. DesiFam’s servers never see or store your full card number. What we keep is the order itself: what you bought, the amount and currency, any promo code you used, timestamps, and Stripe’s reference for the payment. If you choose to save a card for later (for example, to auto-renew a listing), Stripe stores the card and we keep only its reference, brand and last four digits.
Payouts. If you sell tickets to your own event, you set up payouts through Stripe. The bank-account and identity details Stripe asks for go to Stripe, not to us; we store your Stripe account reference and whether it’s ready to receive payouts.
Advertising without an account. A business can buy an ad campaign on DesiFam without registering. For that we collect the advertiser’s name, company, email address, the ad itself (headline, text, image, link) and where it should run, and we email a private link for checking the campaign’s status and stats, and tell you when your ad is approved or declined. Anyone with that link can see the campaign, so keep it private. If you add a picture, we check it for malware and with an automated image review (Anthropic), keep it privately — not on a public address — until our team decides on your ad, then publish it only if the ad is approved. A picture that isn’t used in a campaign is deleted after 24 hours, one from a campaign that was never paid for after 3 days, and one from a rejected ad right away. To limit abuse we keep a one-way scrambled version of the visitor’s address, not the address itself, for the last day’s uploads.
Verification. To post in some categories you verify your identity, and you can also verify the businesses you add. Those checks are run by our identity verification partner, Didit, which checks a photo ID and a selfie (and, for a business, company registry records) under its own privacy notice. We store only the result (verified or not, and when), not the documents or images. The one-time fee is processed by Stripe like any other payment.
Business and non-profit verification. To verify a business or confirm it as a non-profit, you can upload one document, for example the IRS EIN confirmation letter (CP 575) or Form 147C, or your country’s official business or charity registration certificate. Only members who have verified their own identity can do this. The document is stored privately and is never shown publicly or used for advertising. Only you and our billing and administration staff can open it, and every time staff open it we record that in an audit log. We do not send it to automated (AI) review. We delete the file 30 days after we decide your request, immediately if you withdraw the request, and when you delete the business or your account. We keep only the request’s details (who reviewed it, when, the decision, the reason, and the method). Any EIN or registration number you type is seen only by our staff, who may check it against public registers. A business check shares the one-time verification fee; a non-profit check is free. If you choose our online business check instead, it is run by Didit as described above.
Verification holds. If we receive a question about who runs or owns a business or non-profit, our staff may put its verification on hold while we look into it. We keep the reason, any reference such as a support ticket number, who placed the hold and when, and what happened when it ended, for as long as the business exists. We delete them if you delete your account. Only our staff see them; we tell you that a hold is in place and when, but not why, and your data download shows that a hold stood and since when, not the staff notes.
Immigration Desk. If you track an immigration case, we keep what you enter: the form type, category, service center, country of chargeability, priority month, the steps you log and any USCIS receipt numbers. Receipt numbers are stored encrypted and shown to you masked unless you ask to reveal one to copy it. Other people see cases only anonymized — never your name or receipt number, priority dates by month only — and statistics appear only when enough cases share a group that no one can be singled out. You can record the status you read on the USCIS website yourself; it stays private with your case and is included in your data download, and DesiFam does not contact USCIS when you do this. If you leave weekly reminders on, we remind you to check your case; you can turn them off on the Immigration Desk’s alerts page. Once automatic status checks are switched on, the receipt numbers you ask us to check are sent to USCIS’s official Case Status API.
Gigs and event halls. A gig or home-help request shows what you wrote and your area; a hall’s profile shows what its owner entered. When you send an enquiry to an event hall, the hall’s owner sees your name, the contact details you give and your note, and nobody else does. A hall’s address, opening hours and contact details are public.
RSVPs. When you RSVP to an event, the organizer sees your name, your answer and the number of guests you give, and can download the list as a file or print it. We send reminders to people who RSVP. RSVPs send nothing new to outside services.
Private event invitations. When a member invites you to a private event, they give us your name and email address. We use them only to send you that invitation, its updates, reminders and changes — never for marketing — and we don’t tell the member whether your address belongs to an account. If you have an account and have verified that email address, the invitation also appears in your account. The organizer sees whether the invitation was sent, whether you opened it, and your answer (going / maybe / not going, guests, children, diet and your note). Every invitation email has links to stop invitations from that person or from everyone on DesiFam; we then keep only a coded (hashed) form of your address so we can honour your choice. We screen invitation messages for safety with our AI provider (Anthropic). A past event stays in the organizer’s account, with its guest list (names and answers), its board and its tasks, and the members invited to it can still open it, until the organizer deletes the event. We remove email addresses, notes and messages from invitations 180 days after the event; invitation links stop working 30 days after it; saved invitation contacts not used for 24 months are deleted; reports about invitations are kept for 3 years after they are decided.
Event boards. Private events can have a guests’ board. Messages and photos posted there are shown only to the host, the people who answered Going or Maybe (and, for invitations sent by email or link, to those guests on their invitation page), and to our moderators when needed. Photos on a board are kept in private storage and are never given a public web address. Text you post is checked against our rules for links and banned words; if we switch on automatic review, text and photos may be screened by our content-safety provider (Anthropic). Reports of a board message go to our moderators; a message reported by several guests is hidden until they decide. Board messages and photos are deleted when you delete them, when the host deletes the event, or when you delete your account.
Volunteer tasks. If an event has volunteer tasks, the organizer, the community’s moderators for community events, and other signed-in people who can see the event see your name (on a private event, your first name and last initial), the tasks you signed up for, your status and any note you add. Guests who open an invitation link without an account see the tasks and how many helpers are still needed, never names. We use your sign-ups to send you reminders and updates about those tasks (in the app only — never by email or text). Task notes are checked by our automated content rules. Your sign-ups are included in your data download and are removed when you delete your account.
Event flyers. If you make an AI flyer, the words you type (headline, names, date, place and notes) are checked by our automated review (Anthropic), then sent to our image provider (Ideogram) to draw the picture. Neither keeps it for training. A flyer for a private invitation is stored privately and shown only to you, the people you invite and our safety staff; it is deleted when you remove it, delete the event or delete your account. Flyers for public and community events are shown like other event photos.
Private invitation covers and fees. A cover photo on a private invitation is stored privately and shown only to you, the people you invite (including anyone with your invitation link) and our moderators; it has no public web address. It’s deleted when you replace or remove it, delete the event, or delete your account. Invitation fees are processed by Stripe; we never send your invitation’s title or the guest of honour’s name to Stripe.
Restaurant orders. When you order from a restaurant on DesiFam, the restaurant sees your name, phone number, delivery address (if you choose delivery) and what you ordered. The restaurant’s manager gets a text message with a private link to accept or decline the order. Card payments are taken by Stripe, and the restaurant’s share is paid out through Stripe Connect. Menu text and dish photos the restaurant adds are checked by Anthropic as described below.
Home kitchens. A home cook who takes pre-orders publishes dated menus and sets pickup, a weekly drop or their own delivery. When you place a pre-order, the cook sees your name, phone number, what you ordered and, for a drop or delivery, your address; a cook’s pickup address is revealed to you only after your order is confirmed. Each dish carries the cook’s allergen declaration, which we keep with your order as it was when you ordered. The cook is the seller; DesiFam takes the order and, for card payments, a fee. To take orders, cooks upload food-safety documents (a permit, a food handler’s certificate or a kitchen lease). These are kept private, are seen only by the cook and our reviewers, and are deleted when the cook removes them or deletes their account.
Handles. If you set a handle, it is a pseudonym that is not shown next to your name anywhere on DesiFam. It appears only as the name of posts, replies and forum messages you choose to publish under your handle, in @mentions of you by other members, and, if you choose that setting, on your Immigration Desk comments instead of your name. Other members cannot find you by your handle, and your name, photo and profile are not shown on items posted under your handle. Moderators of a community can see who wrote an item in that community, and DesiFam’s moderators and administrators can look up any handle, to enforce our rules. Another member who sees an item posted under your handle can block that author without learning who you are.
Mentions. If you mention another member with @handle in a community post or reply, we store which member you mentioned and notify them (bell and, if they allow it, push); members can switch mention notices off in Notification settings. When you post under your handle, other members do not see your name, photo or account on that post; only DesiFam’s moderators and your community’s leaders can see who wrote it.
Birthday (optional). If you add your birthday, we store only the month and day — never the year, so your age is not recorded. Your birthday is hidden by default. It is shown only in the local or regional communities where you turn on “Show my birthday here”, and only to that community’s members; you can turn it off or remove it at any time. If you leave a community, it stops showing there. Birthday wishes posted to you are kept with the community and hidden whenever your birthday is hidden there. We send you a notice (bell and, if you allow it, push) when members wish you a happy birthday. Deleting your account deletes your birthday, your settings and the wishes on your birthday boards. Your birthday and where you show it are included in “Download your data”.
Immigration Desk comments. When you comment on a Visa Bulletin or on the Immigration Desk’s statistics pages, we store your comment, when you wrote and edited it, and any reports other members make about it, and we show your first name and last initial beside it. Comments are checked by automated rules and by our moderators, never by an AI service. If three different members report a comment we hide it and pause your commenting until a moderator reviews it, and we keep a record of that decision; if you delete your account, your comments and the reports you made are deleted.
Device and usage data. IP address, browser/device type, and the small set of cookies listed in our Cookie Policy — the ones that keep you signed in, plus your country, header area and time zone. On a first visit we use your IP address to guess your country and a nearby city as a starting point, which you can change at any time. If you turn on push notifications, we store the subscription your browser or phone gives us for that purpose and delete it when you turn them off. If a page crashes, we receive an error report (the page, your browser type, the error) on our own error-monitoring server. If the DesiFam app crashes, it sends a crash report — the error and your device type, never your name, email or messages — to DesiFam’s own error-tracking server so we can fix it. When you fill out a form that requires it, we also verify you’re not a bot via Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks the interaction, not your identity.
How we use it
- To run the marketplace: show you listings, events and communities near the area you’ve set, and let you post your own.
- To connect members: deliver the messages you send, and let a seller, host, employer, organizer or match see enough about you to respond.
- To take payments and pay out what’s owed: process purchases through Stripe, issue tickets and receipts, pay event organizers after their event, and collect and remit sales tax or VAT on ticket sales where the law requires it.
- To run invite rewards: when a friend you invited verifies their ID or buys a listing package, promotion or AI-credit pack, you both get a reward code. Before a reward is given we check for signs that the two accounts belong to one person — the same phone, email, card, device or sign-up address.
- To keep the community safe: screen new listings, check community posts against our automatic rules (new accounts, links, contact details, banned words, posting too fast), review reports, and act on our Community Guidelines.
- To send you account and activity emails — replies, matches, expiring listings, event reminders, and occasional tips and reminders (for example, a checkout you didn’t finish or a listing that hasn’t had replies yet). Which tip we send depends on what you’ve done on DesiFam — whether you’ve set a home area, posted something, or visited lately. You can turn tips and reminders off in your notification settings or with the link in any of those emails. If you’ve agreed to marketing email, we also send the weekly events newsletter and an occasional “what’s new near you”.
- To respond when you contact support.
- To keep the site working: find and fix errors, and prevent fraud, abuse or violations of our Terms.
- To meet legal obligations, including tax and accounting rules for the payments we process.
Location data
Your “home area” (a city plus a radius) drives almost everything you see. It’s stored against your account on our servers, in your browser’s local storage for instant reuse, and in a cookie so the first page of a visit can render it straight away. On a first visit, before you’ve chosen anything, we guess a country and city from your IP address. When a feature offers a “distance from an address” search, that address is sent to a geocoding service (LocationIQ or Geocodio) to resolve it to map coordinates and is not stored beyond the session unless you save it. We never publish your exact street address to other members — listings and profiles show a city, not a pinpoint, unless you explicitly typed a street address into a listing yourself (for example a rental’s pickup location or an event’s venue).
The street address of a home for sale, a garage sale or a Desi place is sent to LocationIQ to put it on the map. If you hide a home’s or garage sale’s address, other people see only an approximate area until you choose to share it — a home’s address with a specific member, a garage sale’s when you reveal it; DesiFam never reveals it automatically. A Desi place’s address, opening hours and contact details are public.
Your rights and choices
- Review and correct your profile information any time from your account page.
- Turn email, SMS or push alerts on or off — including tips and reminders, and marketing email. Every marketing email and every tips email has a one-click unsubscribe link.
- Delete individual listings, posts, saved cards or saved locations yourself, or delete your whole account from Account settings — see Delete your account.
- Download a copy of the personal information we hold about you at any time from Account settings → Download your data (a ZIP file, usually ready within minutes), or ask us (see Contact us).
- Report content or another member that concerns you — see our Community Guidelines for how reports are handled.
How long we keep it
We keep account and content data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account you have 30 days to change your mind; after that we delete your profile, photos and everything you’ve published, including the AI images in your library and their prompts, and de-identify what has to stay so it shows as “Deleted member” instead of your name — messages you sent remain in the recipient’s inbox, and reviews you left remain so businesses’ ratings stay accurate. Copies in our database backups are deleted within 30 days as older backups are rotated out.
Some records are kept for a set time and then deleted: one-time sign-in codes for 30 days; the record of notices we sent you, and your sign-in history, for 1 year; support tickets, safety reports (including reports about listings that have since been deleted) and our staff’s audit records for 3 years after they’re closed. Records of orders, payments, refunds, payouts and tax collected — and our staff’s actions on them — are kept for as long as accounting and tax rules require (typically up to 7 years). When you delete your account, the record of notices we sent you keeps only what was sent and when — your email address, phone number and the message text are removed — and it’s deleted on the same 1-year schedule. The one exception is a short note that we have already sent you a “no replies yet” tip about a listing or a “what’s new near you” email, which stays as long as your account does so that we never send the same tip twice. Messages we sent to an address you no longer use are deleted within a year. We may keep a record longer when we need it for an open fraud or safety investigation, a dispute, or a legal obligation.
Desi places you add stay on DesiFam after you delete your account, because a place belongs to the community, not to the member who added it; reviews you left follow the rule for reviews above, but their photos are deleted, and any place you had claimed goes back to unclaimed.
Class enrolments — including a child’s first name and age group — and attendance are kept until you delete your account. Messages you send a teacher follow the rules for messages.
Security
Passwords are never stored in plain text. Traffic between your device and DesiFam is encrypted in transit. Access to member data inside DesiFam is limited to what a support or moderation task actually needs. No system is perfectly secure, so if you ever notice something that looks like unauthorized access to your account, change your password and contact us right away.
Children
DesiFam accounts are for adults 18 and older — registration requires a date of birth and blocks anyone younger, and children never get an account or messages of their own. A parent or guardian can enrol a child in a class: we then keep only the child’s first name and age group, show them only to that class’s teacher and to you, never put them in notifications, and keep them until the parent deletes their DesiFam account, when they’re deleted with it. If you believe a minor has an account, contact us and we’ll investigate and remove it.
Changes to this policy
We’ll update the date at the top of this page whenever this policy changes, and post a notice on the site for any change we consider material. Continuing to use DesiFam after a change means you accept the updated policy.
Contact us
Questions about this policy or your data? Reach us through our Contact page — pick “General question” and mention privacy in your message.