Privacy Policy

Vedic Jyotish — Ancient Wisdom, Modern Integrity

Last Updated: 17 May 2025 | Effective Date: 17 May 2025

1. Introduction

Welcome to Vedic Jyotish ("we", "our", or "us"), an open-source, AI-powered Vedic astrology analysis platform. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect your personal information when you use the Vedic Jyotish web application and Android application (collectively, the "Service").

By using the Service and clicking "I Understand — Agree & Proceed" on our consent screen, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and consent to its terms.

This policy complies with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA).

2. Information We Collect

We collect only the minimum data necessary to provide astrological calculations. We collect the following categories of information:

Birth Date & Time

The date and time of birth you enter into the form. This is used exclusively to calculate planetary positions using the Swiss Ephemeris library running on our server. We do not store this data in any database.

Birth City / Location

The city name or geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude) you enter. The city name text is sent to the Photon Geocoding API (see Section 4) to resolve coordinates. Coordinates are used solely for timezone and planetary calculations.

Computed Astrological Chart Data

Planetary positions, house placements, and Dasha timelines derived from your birth details. This computed data (not your raw birth date) is transmitted to Google Gemini AI to generate your report. See Section 4 for details.

Technical Data (Automatic)

Standard server logs may include your IP address and browser user agent. These are retained for a maximum of 7 days for security and debugging purposes only and are never linked to your astrological data.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information you provide for the following purposes:

To perform high-precision Vedic astrological calculations (Swiss Ephemeris).
To generate an AI-powered astrological interpretation report via Google Gemini.
To power the "Chat with Astrologer" conversational feature via Google Gemini.
To resolve your city name to geographic coordinates via the Photon Geocoding API.
To ensure the security and reliability of the Service.

We do NOT use your data for advertising, profiling, selling to third parties, or any purpose beyond providing the astrological service described above.

4. Third-Party Services & Data Sharing

We use the following third-party services to operate the Service. Each service receives only the minimum data necessary for its specific function. We do not sell your data to any third party.

Google Gemini API (Google LLC, USA)

Privacy Risk: Medium

Role: AI report generation and conversational astrology chat.

Data Received: Computed astrological chart data (planetary positions, houses, nakshatras, dashas). Your raw birth date, name, or email are NOT sent.

View Privacy Policy →

Photon Geocoding API (Komoot GmbH, Germany)

Privacy Risk: Low

Role: Resolving city name text to geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude).

Data Received: Only the city name string you type (e.g., 'Mumbai'). No birth date, time, or personal identifiers are ever transmitted.

View Privacy Policy →

Hugging Face Spaces (Hugging Face Inc., USA)

Privacy Risk: Low

Role: Hosting the backend API server (FastAPI).

Data Received: Processes all API requests. Standard server logs may include your IP address. Hugging Face does not have access to your processed astrological data beyond transient request handling.

View Privacy Policy →

Vercel (Vercel Inc., USA)

Privacy Risk: Low

Role: Hosting and delivering the frontend web application globally via serverless CDN.

Data Received: Standard CDN telemetry: IP address, browser type, and request headers for performance and security. No astrological data is processed by Vercel.

View Privacy Policy →

Important Note on Google Gemini Free Tier: The current version of this Service uses the Google Gemini API Free Tier (Google AI Studio). Under Google's current terms, data sent via the free tier may be used by Google to improve their AI models. Your chart data (which encodes your birth moment) is therefore subject to Google's data practices. We recommend reviewing Google's AI Studio Terms of Service. We plan to upgrade to the paid tier (which restricts Google from using your data for training) in a future release.

5. Data Retention & Storage

We do not operate a user database. We have no accounts, no login system, and no persistent storage of personal or astrological data. Specifically:

Your birth details exist only in your browser's memory for the duration of your active session.
When you close or refresh the browser tab, all session data is permanently deleted from your browser.
No birth data, chart data, or report content is written to any database or file on our servers.
Server access logs (IP address, timestamp) are retained for a maximum of 7 days for security purposes, then automatically deleted.

6. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Right to Access

Request a copy of the data we hold about you.

Right to Erasure

Request deletion of your data ('right to be forgotten').

Right to Withdraw Consent

Stop using the service at any time. No data is retained after your session ends.

Right to Data Portability

Receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.

Right to Object

Object to processing of your data for any purpose.

DPDPA Rights (India)

All rights under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 are honoured.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us via the GitHub Issues link listed in Section 9. Given that we retain no persistent database, most requests can be fulfilled by simply closing your browser session.

7. Children's Privacy

The Service is not directed to children under the age of 13 (or 16 in the European Union). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately and we will take steps to delete such information.

8. Security

We implement the following security measures to protect your data in transit:

All communications between your browser and our servers are encrypted using HTTPS/TLS.
The backend API enforces rate limiting (via SlowAPI) to prevent abuse.
Input validation is performed on all user-submitted data before processing.
No sensitive data is logged in production mode.

However, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security of data transmitted to our Service.

9. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your data rights, or have concerns about data handling, please contact:

Project: Vedic Jyotish

GitHub Issues & Contact: github.com/Dhruvil-8/VedicJyotish/issues

Please open a GitHub Issue labelled "Privacy" for any data-related enquiries. We aim to respond within 30 days.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the Service after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

11. Astrological Disclaimer

The astrological interpretations generated by this Service are produced by an AI system and are intended for educational and informational purposes only. They do not constitute professional astrological, psychological, medical, legal, financial, or life advice.

Vedic astrology is a traditional system of knowledge rooted in ancient Indian scripture. AI-generated interpretations are approximations and may not reflect the nuanced analysis of a qualified human Jyotishi. Do not make critical life decisions based solely on the output of this tool.