Privacy Policy

Halkhata is operated by Nexvora Technologies, Kolkata, West Bengal, India (“we”, “us”). This policy covers the Halkhata website, the shop pages we host for shopkeepers, and the owner and administrator applications.

Who the people here are

Two different groups, with different information:

• Shopkeepers — the people who use Halkhata to run a shop.
• Customers — the people who scan a shop’s QR code and place an order with that shop.

For a customer’s order details the shop is the one deciding what is collected and why; we hold and process it on that shop’s behalf. If you are a customer and want an order changed or removed, the fastest route is to ask the shop, and you can also ask us.

What we collect

From a shopkeeper, when the shop is set up and used:

• Shop name, shop type, address, opening hours and the area it serves.
• The owner’s name and mobile number, and a delivery helper’s number if one is given.
• A UPI ID, if the shop chooses to accept UPI payments at its counter.
• The item list — names, prices, units, stock counts and any photographs uploaded.
• A six-digit sign-in PIN, stored only as a one-way hash. We cannot read it back.
• Sales rung up at the counter, and the credit book (khata) entries the shopkeeper writes.

From a customer, when an order is placed:

• Name, mobile number and the locality (para) they are in.
• A delivery address, only when the order is for delivery.
• What was ordered, and what it came to.

If either of you turns on notifications, the browser gives us a subscription for that one device — a URL and two encryption keys. They can only be used to send a notification to that device and nothing else.

Voice. Adding items by speaking uses your own browser’s speech recognition. What you say is handled by your browser and its operating system; we receive only the text it produces, and we do not store the audio.

What we do not do

• We do not sell or rent anyone’s information.
• We do not run advertising networks, ad pixels or third-party behavioural trackers on these pages.
• We do not take a commission on orders, so we have no reason to profile buyers.
• We never see or store a card number, a UPI PIN or a bank credential. A UPI payment happens in the customer’s own payment app, between them and the shop.
• One shop can never see another shop’s customers, orders or credit book.

Why we are allowed to hold it

Because it is needed to do the thing you asked for — showing a shop’s items, delivering an order to the right address, telling a customer their order is ready, and keeping a shopkeeper’s own accounts. Notifications are sent only to a device that has agreed to them, and that agreement can be withdrawn in the app or in the browser’s own settings.

Who else touches it

Only the services that have to, and only so the product can run: our hosting and database providers, and the browser vendor’s push service when a notification is sent. We do not pass information to anyone else except where the law requires it.

How long it is kept

Orders and counter sales are kept for one subscription year per shop and are then deleted automatically. Before they go, they are summarised into figures that carry no customer name, number or address, so a shop keeps its long-run reporting without us keeping the people in it.

A shop’s item list, credit book and settings are kept while the shop is with us. If a shop is deleted, everything belonging to it goes with it, including its customers and their orders.

Getting your data, or getting rid of it

A shopkeeper can export the credit book as a spreadsheet or a PDF from inside the app at any time, without asking us. Beyond that, you can ask us to give you a copy of what we hold about you, correct it, or delete it. Write to us at the number below and we will act on it as quickly as we can.

Deleting a shop’s data cannot be undone, and it removes the shop’s own records of who owes it money. We will say so before doing it.

Keeping it safe

Traffic is encrypted in transit. Sign-in PINs and passwords are stored as one-way hashes. Sessions are held in signed, HTTP-only cookies. Access to the operator console is limited to Nexvora Technologies staff who need it. No system is perfect, and we will tell affected people promptly if something goes wrong.

Children

Halkhata is a tool for running a shop and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top of this page changes with it. Material changes will be told to shopkeepers in the app.

Contact

Nexvora Technologies, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Call or message 9804243159. There is more on the contact page.