GoNerds — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 15 July 2026 Effective date: 15 July 2026

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1. The short version

GoNerds is a learning platform (app and website) for learners of many ages. Today it focuses on young children (ages 3–7), with sections for K‑12 students and competitive‑exam aspirants planned. The protections that apply depend on the learner's age — and we apply the strongest protections to children and other minors.

• The account holder must be an adult (18+). They may be an adult learner using GoNerds for themselves, or a parent, guardian, or teacher who creates profiles for minors and supervises their use. Minors do not create their own accounts.
• We collect the minimum we need: the account holder's sign‑in details, the learner profiles they create, learning progress, and basic device/usage information.
• For children and all users under 18, we show only non‑personalised, age‑appropriate ads and never build advertising or behavioural profiles of them. We do not sell anyone's personal information.
• We use no third‑party analytics, tracking pixels, or social‑media trackers in the app.
• You can access, correct, or delete your information at any time — see Section 12.

This summary is for convenience only; the full policy below governs.

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2. Who we are

GoNerds ("GoNerds", "we", "us", "our") is operated by GoNerds Technologies, a company incorporated in India with its registered office at Koramangala, Bengaluru.

For the purposes of data‑protection law, GoNerds is the Data Fiduciary (India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the "DPDP Act") and the data controller (EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation, the "GDPR") of the personal data described in this policy.

How to reach us about privacy:

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3. Who and what this policy covers

This policy applies to the GoNerds mobile app and the gonerds.in website (together, the "Service"). The Service is a multi‑audience learning platform, so it covers several kinds of people:

• Account holders — adults (18+) who register and manage the account. An account holder is either an adult learner using the Service for themselves, or a parent, guardian, or teacher (a "Supervising Adult") who creates and oversees learner profiles for others.
• Learners — the people who use the learning content. A learner may be an adult, or a minor (anyone under 18). Where a learner is a minor, they use the Service through a profile created and supervised by an account holder.
• Children — we use "Child"/"Children" to mean a learner who is a minor (under 18); young children (around ages 3–7) receive the most protective treatment. India's DPDP Act treats everyone under 18 as a child, so the protections in Section 6 apply to all minor learners.

It does not cover third‑party services that have their own privacy policies (for example, Google when you choose "Sign in with Google").

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4. The information we collect

4.1 Information a Grown‑up gives us

• Account details: email address, password (stored only in hashed form), first name, and (optionally) last name.
• "Sign in with Google": if you choose this, Google provides us a sign‑in token containing your name, email address, and Google account identifier. We do not receive your Google password.
• Learner profiles: for each learner (including yourself), a profile name or nickname, a chosen avatar, an age band, and the learning track (for example, Kids, K‑12 student, or aspirant). For minors, please use a nickname rather than a full real name where you can.
• Feedback and support: ratings, free‑text comments, and the messages you send us.

4.2 Information collected automatically

• Device and technical data: device model, operating system and version, app version, language, and similar settings.
• Log and diagnostic data: IP address, error/crash logs, and timestamps, used to keep the Service secure and working.
• Approximate location: a coarse, city/country‑level estimate inferred from your IP address (for security and to serve region‑appropriate content). We do not collect precise GPS location.
• In‑app activity: which learning modules are used and learning progress, so the Service can save a Child's place and adapt difficulty.

4.3 Advertising data

We may show ads to keep GoNerds free. Because the Service is directed to children, ads are served on a contextual, non‑personalised basis only. Our advertising partner(s) may process limited, non‑identifying technical signals (such as a coarse content category, language, or a per‑request token used for frequency capping and fraud prevention). They do not receive information that identifies a Child and are contractually prohibited from building advertising profiles of, or behaviourally targeting, Children.

4.4 What we do not do

• We do not collect precise/GPS location, your contacts, photos, microphone, or camera content. (The app's read‑aloud feature uses your device's text‑to‑speech to speak text; it does not record audio.)
• We do not currently collect payment or financial information.
• We do not use third‑party analytics, advertising trackers, social‑media pixels, or "fingerprinting," and we do not use Firebase.
• We do not knowingly collect more personal data from a Child than is necessary to provide the Service.

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5. How and why we use information

We do not use a Child's personal data for behavioural advertising, profiling, or any form of automated decision‑making that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

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6. Children's and minors' privacy

Protecting children and other minors is central to this policy. This section applies in addition to everything else here and prevails in case of any conflict. Under India's DPDP Act, every user under the age of 18 is a "child," so these protections apply to all minor learners — with the most protective treatment for young children (around ages 3–7).

• Adults hold the account. Only a person aged 18 or older may register. By creating a profile for a minor, the account holder confirms they are that minor's parent or legal guardian, or are otherwise authorised to consent to and supervise their use. Where a school or teacher uses GoNerds, they confirm they have the school's authorisation and, where required, parental consent.
• Consent. By creating a Child profile and using the Service, the Grown‑up provides verifiable consent for us to process that Child's personal data as described here. We rely on this consent as the parental consent required by the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"), Article 8 GDPR, and Section 9 of the DPDP Act.
• Data minimisation. We collect only what a Child needs to learn and play — a profile nickname, avatar, age band, and progress. We ask Grown‑ups not to enter sensitive details into free‑text fields.
• No tracking or profiling of children. Consistent with DPDP Act §9, GDPR, and COPPA, we do not track Children across services, do not build behavioural or advertising profiles of Children, and serve only contextual, non‑personalised ads.
• No public exposure. A Child's profile information is not made public and is not shared with other users.
• Parental rights. A Grown‑up may at any time review the personal data we hold about their Child, correct it, delete it, and refuse to permit further collection or use of it. To do so, contact privacy@gonerds.in (deleting the Child profile in‑app also removes its data). Exercising the right to delete or to stop further collection may mean we can no longer provide some or all of the Service to that Child.
• Questions/complaints about a Child's data can be sent to privacy@gonerds.in or our Grievance Officer (Section 2).

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7. Advertising

The Service includes content directed to children, so we hold advertising to a strict, child‑safe standard:

• For children and all users under 18, ads are contextual and non‑personalised — chosen from the general content/context of the screen, never from a profile of the user. We and our ad partners do not use persistent advertising identifiers to build profiles of, or to behaviourally target, minors, and our ad partners operate in their child‑directed / "families" compliance mode for this traffic.
• We do not permit interest‑based/behavioural advertising, remarketing, or the sale or sharing of personal information for cross‑context behavioural advertising in any part of the Service that a minor may use, and we do not profile minors for advertising.
• For verified adult learners (18+), we may in future show interest‑based ads only where permitted by law and with any consent required, and you will be able to manage your choices. We will never base such ads on a minor's data.

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8. How we share information

We do not sell personal information, and we never sell or "share" (as defined under U.S. state privacy laws) a Child's personal information. We disclose information only as follows:

• Service providers (processors) who help us run the Service under contract and on our instructions — for example:
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) — cloud hosting, in the Asia‑Pacific (Mumbai) region;
  • Google — "Sign in with Google" authentication (only if a Grown‑up uses it);
  • our advertising partner(s) — non‑personalised ad serving as described above.
• Legal and safety — where we reasonably believe disclosure is required by law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request, or is necessary to protect the rights, safety, or property of users, the public, or GoNerds.
• Business transfers — if GoNerds is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, information may transfer as part of that transaction; we will require the recipient to honour this policy and will notify you of any change of controller.
• With your direction or consent — when a Grown‑up asks us to share information or otherwise consents.

We require all processors to provide appropriate confidentiality and security protections and to process personal data only as instructed.

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9. International data transfers

We host and process data primarily in India (AWS Mumbai). If you use the Service from outside India, your information will be transferred to and processed in India and potentially other countries where we or our processors operate.

Where personal data of individuals in the EU/UK is transferred to a country without an adequacy decision, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK Addendum), available on request at privacy@gonerds.in. We do not transfer personal data to any country or entity that the Indian government has restricted under the DPDP Act.

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10. How long we keep information

We keep personal data only as long as needed for the purposes in this policy, then delete or anonymise it. In summary:

• Account and child‑profile data: for the life of the account, and deleted within a reasonable period after you delete the account/profile.
• Logs and diagnostics: short retention windows for security and debugging.
• Feedback: retained in aggregated/de‑identified form where possible.

Full details, including specific timeframes, are in our Data Retention Policy.

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11. How we protect information

We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the data, including encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS), hashing of passwords, access controls, and least‑privilege practices. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If we become aware of a personal‑data breach that affects you, we will notify you and the relevant authorities (including the Data Protection Board of India and applicable supervisory authorities) as required by law and without undue delay.

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12. Your rights and choices

Subject to verification of identity and to legal limits, you have the following rights. To exercise any of them, email privacy@gonerds.in (or our Grievance Officer). We will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law.

Everyone (and parents on behalf of a Child):

• Access a copy of the personal data we hold;
• Correct inaccurate or incomplete data;
• Delete personal data;
• Withdraw consent at any time (this does not affect processing already carried out).

India (DPDP Act): the rights of access, correction and erasure, the right to grievance redressal (contact our Grievance Officer first; you may then complain to the Data Protection Board of India), and the right to nominate another person to exercise your rights in the event of death or incapacity.

EU/UK (GDPR): in addition to the above — restriction of processing, data portability, and the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests. You may lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority (in the UK, the ICO).

United States (COPPA & state laws such as the CCPA/CPRA): parents have the COPPA rights described in Section 6. Where state law applies, you have the right to know, delete, and correct personal information, and to opt out of "sale"/"sharing" — note that we do not sell or share personal information. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any right.

We will not charge you for exercising your rights except where the law allows (e.g., manifestly unfounded or excessive requests).

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13. Cookies, local storage, and similar technologies

• Mobile app: we store sign‑in tokens and your settings/progress on your device using secure on‑device storage. We do not use third‑party advertising or analytics SDKs that track you across apps.
• Website (gonerds.in): we use a small number of strictly necessary cookies/local storage for core functionality (such as keeping you signed in). We do not use advertising or cross‑site tracking cookies on the website.

For more detail, see our Cookie Policy.

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14. Third‑party links and services

The Service may link to third‑party websites or services (for example, an app store, or Google sign‑in). We are not responsible for their privacy practices. Please review their policies before providing them information.

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15. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make a material change, we will update the "Last updated" date and, where appropriate or required, notify Grown‑ups by email or in‑app notice. For changes that materially affect a Child's data, we will, where required, obtain fresh parental consent. Your continued use of the Service after an update means you accept the revised policy.

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16. Contact us

• Privacy: privacy@gonerds.in
• Grievance Officer (India): GoNerds, grievance@gonerds.in, Koramangala, Bengaluru
• Support: support@gonerds.in
• Operator: GoNerds Technologies, Koramangala, Bengaluru

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Data Protection Board of India or your local data‑protection authority.