Privacy Policy

1. Who we are, and which law applies

1.1. Double-Double is run by Parthasarathy Vaidya, a sole proprietor, at Mysore, Karnataka, India, India ("we", "us"). There is no company yet.

1.2. We decide why and how your personal data is used. Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 ("DPDP Act") we are the "Data Fiduciary". Under the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") we are the "controller".

1.3. Contact for privacy questions: grievance@doubledouble.co.in.

1.4. Indian law comes first. We are based in India, so this policy is written for Indian law first:

• Now: the Information Technology Act 2000, Section 43A, and the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules 2011 ("SPDI Rules"); and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, as amended in 2026 ("IT Rules").
• From about 13 May 2027: the DPDP Act and the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules 2025 ("DPDP Rules"). The DPDP Rules were notified on 13 November 2025, and most duties start 18 months later. We already follow them where we can, and this policy says so where it matters.

1.5. People outside India. If you live in the EU or the UK, the GDPR also applies. Section 14.3 lists your extra rights. Other countries' laws may apply too.

1.6. What this means today, under the SPDI Rules. We publish this policy. We name a Grievance Officer (section 19). We keep reasonable security practices, written down in our internal Security Policy; a summary is available on request. We do not ask for passwords, financial details, health or medical records, biometrics or sexual orientation, which the SPDI Rules call "sensitive personal data".

2. Scope

2.1. This policy covers the Double-Double website and app at doubledouble.co.in, our emails, push notifications, calendar feeds and the mail you send to our addresses.

2.2. It does not cover Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Google, Instagram or any other service you reach from Double-Double. Their own policies apply.

3. What we collect, and why

This section is our itemised notice. Each row names one kind of personal data and the purpose we use it for, as DPDP Rules, Rule 3 asks. The in-app privacy notice shows the same list in shorter words. In the Status column, "Built" means in use, "Planned" means not built yet, and "not switched on yet" means built but turned off for everyone.

Basis. The Basis column gives two answers: first under Indian law (DPDP Act), then under the GDPR.

• Under the DPDP Act: Consent (Section 6: you agreed, for that purpose), or a legitimate use under Section 7: 7(a) (you gave us the data yourself for that purpose and did not object), 7(d) (a law in India requires it), 7(e) (a court order or judgment requires it), 7(f) (a threat to someone's life or health).
• Under the GDPR: Contract (needed to give you the service you asked for), Consent, Legitimate interest (needed for safety, security or improving the service, balanced against your rights), Legal obligation.

3.0. Consent, and taking it back

• How you give it. At sign-up you tick that you are 18 or older and accept the Terms. On the privacy step you see this list, answer Yes or No to meeting people you do not know yet (nothing is chosen for you, and you cannot continue without an answer), and choose whether to get session reminders. Later choices (letting friends see when you are free, sharing your Instagram handle) are asked where you use them.
• What we record. Each choice, the version of the notice you saw, and the time. Our server writes the record and the notice version; you cannot change either. The record is append-only, so we can show what you agreed to and when.
• Choices we no longer ask. Until 11 November 2026 sign-up also offered "Help improve matching" and "Your own progress notes". Nothing in the service uses either answer, so we stopped asking. The old answers stay in your consent history. If a feature ever needs them, we will ask again where you use it, with a switch in Settings.
• How you take it back. In Settings, as easily as you gave it, at any time. We stop that use from then on. What we did before stays lawful. If you take back consent that a feature needs, that feature stops for you; the rest of the service keeps working.
• Leaving. In Settings → Your data you can also download everything we hold about you, or delete your account (sections 14 and 15).
• No consent managers. We do not use a registered Consent Manager (DPDP Act, Section 6(7)). You deal with us directly.

3.1. Account and sign-up

Ask to join. If you have no invite, you can enter an email address on the "Ask to join" page. We store that address, your optional note, the time and our answer. Our admins see them, and no other member does. Anyone can type any address, so you may get one email you did not ask for, such as the waiting-list email. You can ignore it and we will not write again unless you ask. To stop one person sending many asks, the server counts asks per network address for 10 minutes, using a salted, scrambled form of the address; the counter itself is held in memory only. Like every request, the visit appears in our web server log (section 8). We keep a request while it waits for an answer and while you are on the waiting list, so we can let you in later. Once we say yes, we keep it for 30 days and then delete it automatically.

3.2. Profile and preferences

3.3. Scheduling and matching

3.4. Sessions

3.5. Friends, societies, topics and invites

3.6. Chat

We do not store images or files. Images can appear in chat only as links, and we remove a link on a complaint. See section 9 for how chat works.

3.7. Notifications and calendars

3.8. Safety, security and legal

3.9. What we do not collect

• Audio or video from any session. We never record, transcribe or store it.
• Health information. We never ask about health conditions. Do not put health details in your profile, notes or chats.
• Government ID numbers, such as Aadhaar.
• Passwords. You sign in with an email link.
• Your contacts, location from your device, or the contents of your calendars.
• The words you type about your Cowork work. We keep only the work-area keyword.
• Images or files. We do not store any. Images can appear in chat only as links.
• Data from advertising networks or data brokers.

4. Who can see what

People are never listed, browsable or searchable in Double-Double.

On Zoom, Google Meet and Teams. Once you join a call, the platform may show other participants your account name, photo and possibly your email. Hosts on these platforms may be able to record; Double-Double never records. A one-to-one call may connect devices directly, which can reveal your network (IP) address to the other person. Double-Double itself never shows another member your email or network address; the app says the same.

Our staff. The founder, and any admin we appoint, can see account data needed to run the service and handle reports. Admins must sign in with a second factor. Admin and moderation actions are written to an append-only audit log.

5. Automated decisions

5.1. Matching is automatic. It decides who you are paired or grouped with and when, using the data in sections 3.3 and 3.4. It also decides when a Cowork group is fixed (24 hours before its window opens), whom to put on standby, and whom to offer a place to when a partner does not arrive.

5.2. Matching does not decide whether you can use the service. Warnings, suspensions and bans are decided by a person. A warning also changes your standing to restricted: you are then matched only one to one with trusted members. Everyone starts as new, and nobody is trusted yet, so for now a restricted account is not matched with people it does not know. People who get repeated thumbs down are placed only in groups. A session with a restricted person is labelled in our records so a moderator looks at a report about it first; nobody watches it live.

5.2a. Automatic deletion. A nightly job deletes accounts on fixed rules, with no person deciding each case: an account with no activity for 24 months (after a warning email), an account that was confirmed but never finished sign-up (at day 30, after a reminder), an address that was never confirmed (after 7 days), and an account its owner closed (after 7 days). Section 8 has the details.

5.3. When an ask ends without a partner, we tell you why (section 3.3). If you think matching is unfair to you, write to the Grievance Officer.

6. Who we share data with

6.1. We never sell personal data. We do not share it for advertising.

6.2. Service providers (processors). They handle data only on our instructions.

We use no error-reporting service and no analytics service.

6.3. Zoom, Google Meet and Teams as platforms. When you open a meeting, you deal with that platform directly. It collects data under its own privacy policy. We do not control what it collects, shows or records.

6.4. Other members. We show other members only what section 4 lists.

6.5. Law enforcement and courts. We share data when the law requires it, for example a valid court or government order, or to protect someone from serious harm. Requests go to legal@doubledouble.co.in. We record every order. We tell the person affected where the law allows.

6.6. If the service changes hands. If another organisation takes over Double-Double, your data may move to it. It must keep the promises in this policy. We will tell you first.

7. International transfers

7.1. We operate from India. Our server is in Amsterdam, in the European Union. So:

• if you live in India, your data is stored outside India, in the EU;
• if you live anywhere, we look after it from India, so it is reached from India;
• mail you send us is stored by Zoho in India;
• some providers in section 6 (push services) process data in other countries, including the United States.

7.2. Under Indian law. The DPDP Act (Section 16) allows transfers outside India except to countries the Government restricts. As of 11 November 2026 no country is restricted. We will follow any restriction.

7.3. For people in the EU and UK. Reaching EU-stored data from India, and storing mail in India, are transfers out of the EU and UK. We use safeguards approved under the GDPR, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK addendum, where a transfer needs them.

8. How long we keep data

These periods are proposals until our lawyer confirms them. A job runs every night and deletes what is past its period; rows marked "automatic" below are deleted that way. Where a row says "until", nothing is deleted on a timer.

Under Indian law. Three rules set minimum periods that are longer than some rows below:

• DPDP Rules, Rule 8(3): keep personal data, the traffic data that goes with it, and logs of processing for at least one year, for the purposes the Rules list (from about 13 May 2027).
• CERT-In Directions (28 April 2022): keep the logs of our systems for 180 days, and produce them on request. The Directions say the logs are kept "within the Indian jurisdiction"; our server is in the EU.
• IT Rules, Rule 3(1)(g) and (h): keep content we remove, and a person's registration details, for 180 days after removal or after the account ends.

The nightly job never deletes reports, strikes, moderation actions, ratings, blocks or the audit log. Where a row above says "no end date yet", we will set one with our lawyer and update this policy.

8.1. Inactive accounts. "Activity" means signing in or using the app while signed in. When an account has had no activity for nearly 24 months, we email you 14 days before we delete it (at least a week before, whatever happens), and the email says the date. If you sign in or use the app before then, the account stays. We delete it only if there has still been no activity, and only if the email was sent. Founder and admin accounts, and accounts that are paused or closed under our rules, are not deleted this way. We give this notice in the spirit of DPDP Rules, Rule 8, which asks for at least 48 hours' notice.

9. Chat

9.1. Not end-to-end encrypted. Chats run on our own chat server (ejabberd, using the XMPP standard). Messages travel over encrypted connections, but they are stored on our server in a form we can read.

9.2. Why. We keep chats readable so that a report can include the messages. This protects members from abuse.

9.3. When we look. We look at a chat only if someone reports it or the law requires us to. For a report, we copy the last 30 messages of that chat into the report. Only our moderators see the copy. For a group chat, the copy starts no earlier than when the reporter joined.

9.4. Archive. The chat server keeps an archive of every chat so that messages reach you on any device, including messages sent while you were away. Each person in a friend chat has their own copy of that chat. A group chat has one archive for the group. Messages leave the archive on the schedule in section 8 (90 days for group chats, 12 months for friend chats, counted from each message). The archive is in our nightly backups, which are kept 14 days.

9.5. Who can talk. Every chat needs each participant's consent. Our database decides who may talk. People you have not connected with cannot message you.

9.6. Group chat history. The app shows you only messages sent after you joined a group chat. A member who connects with their own XMPP software, outside our app, might be able to read earlier messages in that group.

9.6a. Images and files. Chat is text only. We do not store images or files. An image can appear only as a link someone pastes; we remove such a link on a complaint.

9.7. Blocks. When you block someone, your friend chat with them ends and you are never matched together again. In society and topic chats you both belong to, you stop seeing each other's messages. Nobody is removed from a group chat.

10. Cookies and similar storage

10.1. We use only cookies and storage that the service needs to work. We use no advertising, tracking or analytics cookies, and no third-party analytics such as Google Analytics.

10.2. We do not respond to "Do Not Track" signals, because we do not track you.

11. Notifications and sounds

11.1. In the app. Notices about your sessions, friends and safety appear in your Updates list. Session and safety notices always appear there.

11.2. Email. We send sign-in links when you ask for them. We send session and safety notices by email, and you can turn most of them off in Settings → Notifications; safety emails always go. Reminders go by email only if you choose it.

11.3. Push. If you allow it in your browser, we send push notifications, reminders first. Your browser's push service (Google, Mozilla, Apple or Microsoft) delivers them. We send only to those services. Names in a notification are short and never in its title.

11.4. Quiet hours. If you set quiet hours, we hold push and email until they end. A few notices that cannot wait, such as an offer to join a session that has just started, still go.

11.5. Sounds. Home can play a soft sound when a session card is waiting for you. The sound is made in your browser; nothing is recorded or sent. We store only whether sounds are on and how loud.

11.6. No marketing. We do not send marketing emails. If that changes, we will ask first.

12. Security

12.1. We protect data with:

• encrypted connections (HTTPS) everywhere, with free Let's Encrypt certificates;
• a firewall that lets in only secure shell, web and secure web traffic; the database and the chat server accept connections only through our web server, with access rules on every table;
• access rules in the database on every table, so each person reads only what they may;
• sign-in by email link only; password sign-in is refused;
• a second factor for admins, and an append-only audit log;
• automatic daily security updates;
• nightly backups; the database copy is checked readable each night. They are kept on the same server, not off-site, so losing the server would lose them too;
• encryption of stored access tokens for connected accounts (planned), with the key kept outside the database;
• the least access needed for each part of the system.

12.2. Our internal Security Policy sets out these practices, as SPDI Rule 8 asks. We send a summary on request.

12.3. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your data, we tell you without delay: what happened, what it means for you, what we are doing and what you can do. We tell the authorities as the law requires: CERT-In within 6 hours of noticing an incident it lists; under the DPDP Rules (Rule 7), the Data Protection Board without delay and in detail within 72 hours; under the GDPR, the authority within 72 hours.

13. Age

13.1. Double-Double is for people aged 18 or older only. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. Under the DPDP Act a person under 18 is a child; we do not offer the service to children, so we do not ask for a parent's consent.

13.2. If we learn that a user is under 18, we close the account and delete their data, except records we must keep for safety or by law.

13.3. Report a suspected minor with "Seems to be under 18", or write to the Grievance Officer.

14. Your rights

14.1. Everyone. Wherever you live, you can:

• see your data: most of it is in the app;
• correct it: your display name, username, time zone, focus areas and session choices are editable in Settings; to change your email address, write to us;
• get a copy of it: in Settings → Your data, tap Download my data. You get one file (JSON, a plain format other apps can read) with your profile, choices, consents, free times, asks, sessions, friends, spaces, notices and the chat messages you sent. Other people appear in it by display name only; it never shows who reported you, ratings others gave you or moderators' notes. You can download it 3 times a day; for anything it leaves out (it lists what), write to us;
• delete your account: in Settings → Your data, tap Delete my account, then Close my account. Section 15 says what happens;
• withdraw consent for any optional purpose in Settings, at any time. This does not affect what we did before;
• complain to our Grievance Officer.

14.2. Under Indian law.

• Under the DPDP Act (when its duties start). You have the right to a summary of your data, what we do with it, and whom we shared it with (Section 11); to correction, completion, updating and erasure (Section 12); to grievance redress (Section 13); and to nominate someone (Section 14).
• Nominee. You can name a person to use your rights if you die or become unable to act for yourself. Write to us from your account's email address with the person's name and email. We record it, and you can change it at any time.
• Grievance first, then the Board. Write to our Grievance Officer first; the DPDP Act asks you to use our grievance redress before going to the Data Protection Board of India (Section 13(3)). If we do not solve it, you can complain to the Board, which works online, at https://www.dpb.gov.in.
• Response time. We answer a rights request (a copy, correction, erasure, a nominee) within 30 days. A grievance (a complaint) is resolved within 7 days (section 19). The DPDP Rules set an outer limit of 90 days for rights requests (Rule 14(3)).
• Until then, under the SPDI Rules. You can review and correct the information you gave us (Rule 5(6)) and withdraw consent (Rule 5(7)). Our Grievance Officer resolves complaints within one month (Rule 5(9)), and within 7 days under the IT Rules (section 19).

14.3. In the EU and UK (GDPR). You also have the right to restrict processing, to object to processing based on legitimate interest, and to data portability. You can complain to your local data protection authority, or in the UK to the Information Commissioner's Office.

14.4. How to ask. Most rights you use yourself in Settings. For anything else, write to the Grievance Officer at grievance@doubledouble.co.in from the email address on your account. We may ask you to confirm it is you. We reply to a rights request within 30 days, and resolve a complaint within 7 days.

15. Deleting your account

In Settings → Your data, tap Delete my account…. The page shows what we delete, what we keep and the date; tap Close my account to go ahead.

15.0. Seven days to change your mind. Your account closes at once: you are signed out on every device, your booked sessions end, as do the society and topic sessions you host, and the others in them are told, nobody can see or match you (friends, members and chats included), and your chats stop. Nothing is deleted yet. We email you that the account is closed and the date it will be deleted, so that if someone else closed it, you can stop it. Sign in within 7 days and tap Keep my account, and everything comes back as it was, except sessions that ended (sessions you hosted stay cancelled). After 7 days, our nightly job deletes the account as below. If you cannot use Settings, write to us from your account's email address and we do it for you.

15.1. What we remove. First we copy your registration details (email address, username, display name, sign-up date, the Terms version you accepted, and the latest sign-in network address we hold) into a sealed record, kept 180 days as IT Rules 3(1)(h) asks and then deleted; only an admin with a second factor can open it, and each look-up is logged. Then we remove: your email address (replaced with a placeholder), display name, username, photo, country, gender, Instagram handle, languages and focus areas, the work-area keyword in your plan, free times and plans, friendships and friend links, friend join requests and time asks, society and topic memberships, RSVPs and poll answers, your meeting room, calendar feed, push subscriptions, notification, sound and quiet-hours choices and session preferences (back to their defaults), unsent notices and "working now" status. Your booked sessions end, and the others in them are told. Your sign-in stops for good.

15.2. Chat. Your chat account and your own copy of your chats are deleted. A message belongs to the person who sent it and to the people who received it, so we do not destroy other people's copies:

• Group chats (societies and topics): your messages stay for the other members, shown as "A member", with no name, username or email. Inside our systems they still carry the random account number that your remaining safety records use, so they are not fully anonymous.
• Friend chats: the chat closes for your friend, as when a friendship ends. The conversation stays in our chat archive, without your name, so a report about it can still be looked into.
• Both are deleted on the normal schedule in section 8, like every other message. To have particular messages removed sooner, write to the Grievance Officer and we will remove them.
• A copy of messages kept with a report about you stays with that report (15.3).

15.3. What we keep. We keep, linked to an account with no email address and no name:

• reports you made or that named you, and moderation actions, for the period in section 8;
• strikes, ratings, blocks and the install hash, so a banned person cannot simply rejoin and blocked people stay apart;
• your consent history, as proof;
• session history, past asks, arrival signals and rescue records, which also belong to the other people in those sessions;
• notices already sent to you;
• the audit log, including a record that the account was deleted;
• the sealed registration record (15.1), for 180 days;
• records we must keep by law (section 8).

We tell you what we keep, and why, before we delete: on the Your data page, and in the emails we send before an automatic deletion.

15.4. Backups. Deleted data stays in our nightly backups until they are replaced, normally 14 days later. If we ever restore a backup, we delete again every account that was deleted after that backup was made.

16. Legal orders

16.1. We keep a record of every order from a court or government authority, what it asked for, and what we did. We check the legal orders inbox at least daily.

16.2. Under the IT Rules we act on a court or government order to remove content within 3 hours, and give information to an authorised agency within 72 hours of a lawful order. The IT Rules also ask us to keep removed content for 180 days, and to keep data an order names. When we remove content, we first keep a sealed copy for 180 days. When an order names a person, or we remove something they wrote, we put a legal hold on their account: until we lift it, the account is not deleted (not even if its owner closes it, or it is inactive), and the chat messages they sent are kept in a sealed copy before the normal schedule would delete them. Only an admin with a second factor can open these copies, and every step is logged.

16.3. We answer an order only after checking that it is genuine, through the official channel it came from. We send only what the order names, and we send it ourselves; the app never sends anyone's data on its own.

17. Planned features

Before any of these is turned on, we will update this policy and, where needed, ask for your consent:

• Sign in with Google.
• Cloudflare Turnstile bot checks.
• Connecting a Zoom or Google account to create meetings.
• Google Calendar, write-only.
• Session chat with matched partners.
• Sharing Instagram handles.
• Your own progress notes (goals, results, focus ratings).
• Private societies (circles).
• Off-site backups.
• Payments, phone verification, women-only rooms (later, if at all).
• A paid AI service that reads what you type for Cowork times to choose a work area. This would be a new processor and would need your notice first.

18. Changes to this policy

18.1. We may change this policy. If a change is important, we tell you first, in the app and by email (a notice from us that you cannot turn off). Where we need your consent again, we ask before your next session.

18.2. Each version has a number and date. Your consents record which version you saw.

18.3. At least once a year (each January) we remind you of this policy, our Terms and our rules, in the app and by email, as the IT Rules ask (Rule 3(1)(c)).

18.4. This policy is in English. On request, we will provide it, our Terms and our community rules in any language in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India. Write to support@doubledouble.co.in and name the language. If a translation and the English version differ, the English version applies where the law allows.

19. Contact and grievances

• Grievance Officer: Parthasarathy Vaidya, Grievance Officer, Mysore, Karnataka, India, grievance@doubledouble.co.in
• Web form: doubledouble.co.in/grievance
• Support: support@doubledouble.co.in
• Legal orders: legal@doubledouble.co.in
• Post: Parthasarathy Vaidya, Mysore, Karnataka, India

Mail to these addresses is received and stored by Zoho Mail (section 6.2).

19.1. How fast we act on a grievance (IT Rules as amended in 2026):

• We acknowledge every grievance within 24 hours.
• We resolve it within 7 days.
• A complaint asking us to remove other content that breaks the Terms' community rules: we act on it within 36 hours.
• A complaint about content showing a person's private areas, nudity or sexual acts without their consent, or impersonating them in such content: we remove or disable it within 2 hours.

19.2. If you are not satisfied with our Grievance Officer's decision, you can appeal to the Grievance Appellate Committee set up under the IT Rules, within 30 days, at https://gac.gov.in. For data protection complaints, you can go to the Data Protection Board of India once its duties start (section 14.2).