Effective Date: September 22, 2026 | Last Updated: September 22, 2026
iSoftNix ("Company", "we", "our", or "us") operates the Updates: Agri News & Market mobile application ("App") and the Krrishi agricultural information platform (collectively, the "Services"). We are committed to safeguarding your privacy and upholding the highest standards of data security in compliance with Google Play Developer Policies and applicable data protection regulations.
By downloading, accessing, or using the App, you signify your agreement to the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the practices described in this Policy, please do not use the Services.
1. Information We Collect
We collect information to provide, personalize, and improve our agricultural news feeds, live mandi prices, and AI advisory services.
1.1. Information You Provide Directly
- Account Information: Your Full Name, Email Address, Phone Number, and securely hashed password when registering.
- User-Generated Content: News articles, crop photos, market listings, and inquiries you upload to the platform.
- AI Assistant Queries: Text and transcribed voice messages you submit while interacting with our "Appa" Agricultural AI Voice & Chat Assistant.
1.2. Information We Collect Automatically
- Device Information: Hardware model, OS version, mobile network info, and non-resettable hardware fingerprints strictly used to prevent duplicate accounts and secure administrative publishing rights.
- Usage Data: Read articles, time spent per category, language preferences (Marathi, Hindi, English), and interaction logs to personalize your content feed.
- Push Notification Tokens: Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) tokens to deliver urgent news alerts, commodity price updates, and weather advisories.
1.3. Device Permissions & Explicit Purpose
- Location (ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION): Used strictly in the foreground to calculate distance to nearby APMC mandis, show hyper-local crop weather forecasts, and deliver regional agricultural news. We do not track background location.
- Camera (CAMERA): Used when you explicitly choose to capture crop photos, produce listings, or profile avatars.
- Microphone (RECORD_AUDIO): Used when you tap the microphone to ask questions to "Appa" Voice Assistant or record video audio for news reporting. Voice queries are transcribed ephemerally and never recorded in the background.
- Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS): Used to deliver breaking agricultural news, mandi alerts, and system notices.
1.4. Children's Privacy
Our Services are directed towards adult farmers, traders, and agronomists and are not directed to individuals under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we discover that personal data from a child under 13 has been collected, it is immediately deleted.
2. Third-Party AI Infrastructure & Voice Synthesis (Sarvam AI & Native Fallback)
The App features an AI agricultural assistant named "Appa" and an audio news reader to read articles aloud:
- Groq, Inc. (AI Inference): Processes conversational text queries using high-performance large language models (Meta Llama series). Only the query text and active conversation context are sent. No PII (name, phone, email, device ID, location) is transmitted to Groq.
- Dual-Engine Voice Synthesis Pipeline:
- Primary Neural Engine (Sarvam AI): News summaries and AI responses are synthesized using Sarvam AI (Bulbul:v3 model) to provide studio-grade, natural Indic voice playback (Marathi and Hindi).
- Resilient On-Device Native Fallback (Flutter TTS): If internet connectivity is weak, offline, or cloud synthesis is temporarily unavailable, the app automatically switches to your smartphone's built-in, native on-device Text-to-Speech engine (Google TTS on Android / Apple Speech on iOS). During fallback, synthesis takes place 100% locally on your device with no data transmitted over the network.
- Data Protection: Neither Groq nor Sarvam AI uses your private queries or audio to train public models, and data is processed ephemerally in compliance with enterprise security agreements.
3. How We Use and Share Your Information
We never sell or rent your personal data. We share data only with essential cloud infrastructure providers under strict non-disclosure obligations:
- Cloudinary, Inc.: Secure cloud media storage and CDN delivery for news photos, produce photos, and profile images.
- Google Firebase (Google LLC): Real-time analytics, crash reporting, and push notification delivery.
- Government Open Data (Agmarknet / Data.gov.in): Mandi commodity price indices are cross-referenced with public market committee APIs.
- Legal Compliance: We may disclose information if required to comply with court orders, statutory law, or legitimate requests by law enforcement agencies.
4. Data Security & Encryption
- In Transit: 100% of network requests between the App and our backend servers are encrypted using TLS/HTTPS.
- At Rest: Passwords are cryptographically salted and hashed using bcrypt. Local authentication tokens (JWTs) are stored in hardware-backed Android Keystore / iOS Keychain.
5. Data Retention & Permanent Account Deletion
We retain your data only for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you with Services.
Permanent Account & Data Deletion (Google Play Mandate):
You have the right to permanently delete your account and all associated personal data at any time:
Upon deletion, your profile, authentication tokens, FCM device registrations, and chat history are permanently erased from our active databases within 24-48 hours.
6. Google Play Policy Declarations
6.1. News Editorial & Correction Policy
The App delivers verified agricultural news, government schemes, and market updates. Articles display verified author bylines and timestamps. If you spot any factual error or wish to submit a correction request, email our editorial desk at isoftnix1@gmail.com. Corrections are investigated and updated promptly.
6.2. Generative AI Safety & Content Reporting
AI-generated advice from "Appa" is intended for general agricultural guidance. While automated content filters are active, AI models can occasionally produce unexpected answers. Users can report offensive or inaccurate AI answers directly via the in-app reporting button or by emailing isoftnix1@gmail.com for swift review within 24 hours.
7. Contact Us & Grievance Redressal
For any questions, privacy concerns, or data rights requests, please reach out to our team:
iSoftNix Technologies
Email: isoftnix1@gmail.com
Website: https://krrishi.co.in
Helpdesk: https://krrishi.co.in/app-support.html
Account Deletion: https://krrishi.co.in/delete-account.html