Privacy Policy
How Housome handles your data
Housome is built around a simple rule: things you mark private stay private, and things you mark household are visible only to the household you've chosen to share them with. This page explains, in plain language, what we collect to make that possible, who we work with to run the service, where your data lives, and how you can access, export, or delete it.
Before you submit this for Google Play review: have this reviewed by a lawyer familiar with India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP) 2023 and Google Play's Data Safety requirements. Everything below is written to accurately describe how the product is actually built (see the engineering log this was drawn from), but a legal review is still the responsible last step before this governs real users' data at scale.
On this page
1. Who we are
Housome is developed by the Housome team (AI Sarthi Labs). This policy covers the Housome mobile app and the housome.app website. For any privacy question, write to saathi@aisaarthilabs.com.
2. Information we collect
We collect only what the app needs to work. Nothing here is used for advertising, and we don't run any ad or tracking SDKs.
| Category | What it includes | Why we collect it |
|---|---|---|
| Phone number | The number you sign in with | Identity & sign-in, via one-time SMS code (OTP) |
| Profile details | Name, and household name/members you set up | So people in your household can recognise each other |
| Household content | Tasks, "Things" (item locations), calendar events, home-essentials entries, contacts you save, money/expense entries, documents and photos you add | This is the actual memory Housome keeps for your household — the whole point of the app |
| Companion messages | What you type or say to the Housome companion, in chat or group chat | To understand what you're asking and turn it into the right task, reminder, or record |
| Voice input | Speech you give the voice assistant | Converted to text on your device; we don't keep raw audio recordings — only the resulting text is used, the same as if you'd typed it |
| Photos & documents | Images or files you attach (receipts, warranty documents, ID copies, etc.) | Stored so the household can find them again — see §5 for exactly where |
| Contacts (optional) | Access to your phone contacts, only if you grant it | To make it easier to invite people to your household — we don't upload your address book unless you use this feature, and we don't use it for anything else |
| Push notification token | A device identifier used to deliver reminders | So a task or bill reminder can reach you even when the app is closed |
| Basic technical data | App version, device type, crash/error logs | To keep the app stable and fix bugs |
3. How we use it
- To run the core features of the app — tasks, things, calendar, money, home locker, and the companion.
- To send you reminders and notifications you've asked for (or that are clearly implied by something you tracked, like a bill due date).
- To keep the service secure — detecting abuse, debugging errors, preventing fraud.
- To improve the product based on aggregate, non-identifying usage patterns.
We do not sell your data. We do not use your household content to serve you ads, and we don't run third-party advertising or tracking SDKs in the app.
4. The private/household model
Every piece of content you create in Housome is tagged one of two ways:
- Private (only you): visible only to you. Never shown to other household members, never used to answer their questions to the companion, never included in household-level summaries.
- Household: visible to the members of that household you've chosen to share it with.
Financial records default to private until you explicitly choose to share them. Sensitive values you store in the Home Locker (like wifi passwords or gate codes) are encrypted, masked on screen by default, and left out of notification previews — even when they're shared with the household. The companion respects this model in every answer it gives: a personal question only draws on your private data plus what's shared with the household; a household-level question draws only on what's shared, never on anyone's private records.
5. Who we share it with
We use a small number of service providers to run Housome. None of them are permitted to use your data for their own purposes — they process it only to provide their service to us.
| Provider | What they handle | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Firebase (Google) | Delivers the SMS one-time-passcode used to sign in | Sees your phone number to send the code; does not have access to your household content |
| Google Drive (optional) | Stores documents/photos, only if you choose to connect your own Google Drive | Uses Google's limited drive.file permission scope — Housome can only see files it created itself in a private "Housome" folder in your Drive, never your existing Drive files. You can disconnect at any time from within the app. |
| Cloud file storage (Cloudflare) | Stores photos/attachments for members who haven't connected Google Drive | Accessed only via short-lived, expiring links generated by our servers |
| Our AI companion provider | Processes the text of what you say or type to the companion, to understand it and generate a response | Receives only the message text needed to answer that request — not your full account history |
| Database & hosting (Neon, Render) | Stores and serves all app data | Infrastructure providers only — they don't access your data except as needed to keep the servers running |
| Push notification delivery (Expo / Google Firebase Cloud Messaging) | Delivers reminder notifications to your device | Sees a device token and notification text, not your household records |
We may also share information if required by law, to protect the rights and safety of our users, or in connection with a future merger, acquisition, or sale of assets — in which case we'd tell you before your data is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
6. Where your data is stored
Housome's database and servers currently run in Singapore (the closest available region to India from our infrastructure providers at this stage). If you're in India, this means your data is transferred outside the country to be stored and processed. We've reviewed this against India's DPDP Act 2023 cross-border transfer rules — Singapore is not on the restricted list, so this is compliant with current rules. We intend to move to an India-based region as it becomes available from our providers, and will update this policy when we do.
7. Security
- Sensitive values (like passwords and codes you store in the Home Locker) are encrypted at rest.
- Access to your data is governed by the private/household permission model described above, enforced on our servers — not just hidden in the app's interface.
- Connections between the app and our servers are encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS).
- Google Drive access tokens, where used, are stored encrypted and only used to sync the permissions you've explicitly set.
No system is perfectly secure, but we design every feature around the assumption that household data is sensitive and treat it accordingly.
8. How long we keep it
We keep your data for as long as your account is active, so the app can keep working the way it's meant to. If you ask us to delete your account (see Account & Data Deletion), we remove your personal data and private content, and any household content you contributed is handled as described on that page. Some information may be retained for a limited period after deletion where we're required to for legal, security, or fraud-prevention reasons.
9. Your rights & choices
- Access: everything you've stored in Housome is visible to you in the app at any time.
- Correction: you can edit or remove almost anything you've entered directly in the app.
- Export: you can request a copy of your data by emailing saathi@aisaarthilabs.com.
- Deletion: see the dedicated Account & Data Deletion page for how to request deletion of your account and data, with or without the app installed.
- Permissions: camera, microphone, contacts, and notification permissions can all be reviewed and revoked at any time from your device's Android settings.
10. Children's privacy
Housome is not directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. Family/child-specific accounts and permissions are not currently part of the product. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we'll remove it.
11. Changes to this policy
Housome is still in closed testing, and this policy will be updated as the product changes — for example, as account deletion becomes self-service in-app, or if our infrastructure providers or data region change. We'll update the "last updated" date above whenever we do, and for material changes, we'll let active users know in-app.
12. Contact us
Questions, requests, or concerns about this policy or your data: saathi@aisaarthilabs.com