1. Introduction
Companions Technologies Private Limited (“Companions”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) operates www.companions.in and the Companions mobile applications made available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store (together, the “Platform”), through which we help families explore elder care and special child care options and connect with caregivers listed in our directory.
This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect through the Platform, how and why we use it, who we share it with, and the choices and rights available to you. It applies to Families, Care Recipients' guardians, and Caregivers who interact with the Platform, and is designed to align with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 (together, the “DPDP Act”), as they come into force, as well as the Information Technology Act, 2000 and applicable rules.
Under the DPDP Act, Companions acts as the “Data Fiduciary” for personal data collected through the Platform, and you (or, where you are acting on behalf of a Care Recipient, you as their guardian) are the “Data Principal”.
2. Scope of This Policy
This Policy covers personal data collected through:
the website at www.companions.in, including enquiry and requirement forms;
the Companions mobile applications on iOS and Android, where and when they are live;
WhatsApp-based conversations conducted through our WATI-powered chat number;
phone calls and in-person consultations connected to a Platform enquiry; and
the Caregiver directory and onboarding process.
It does not cover the practices of independent third-party websites or services that may be linked from the Platform, which are governed by their own privacy policies.
3. Personal Data We Collect
3.1 Information You Provide — Families
When you submit a care requirement or contact us through the Platform, we may collect:
your name, phone number, and email address;
your city/location and the type of care you are enquiring about (Elder Care or Special Child Care);
your relationship to the Care Recipient (for example, son, daughter, guardian);
the age of the Care Recipient, submitted for the purpose of matching you with an appropriate caregiver or service; and
any message or additional context you choose to share with us through a form or chat.
We do not collect medical, health, or condition-related details about the Care Recipient through the website or app forms. Where such details are needed to assess a requirement, they are collected later, offline, through a phone call or in-person consultation with our care team, as described in Section 3.3 below.
If you proceed with a caregiving engagement, more detailed information — including the Care Recipient's specific care and nursing needs, your address, your assigned Care Manager, shift and charge details, and billing information — is captured in the Client Service Agreement you sign with us at that stage, whether executed in person or digitally. That signed agreement is retained by us as an official service record, in addition to, and consistent with, this Policy.
3.2 Information You Provide — Caregivers
When you register on the Platform's caregiver directory and complete our Caregiver/Nurse Application Form during onboarding, we may collect:
your full legal name, date of birth, age, gender, marital status, and languages known;
your contact details, including mobile number, alternate number, permanent address, current location, and, where relevant, an emergency or guardian/parent contact number;
a government-issued identifier used to verify your identity — typically your Aadhaar number, PAN, or another form of ID you choose to provide — and a recent photograph;
your professional certifications, qualifications, and work experience, including past employer/agency, role, duration, and the general categories of care or conditions you have experience handling;
your shift availability and preferences; and
the name and contact number of up to three professional references you provide.
Aadhaar and other government ID. Where you choose to provide your Aadhaar number as one form of identity verification, we collect it on a voluntary basis — you may instead provide a PAN or other government-issued ID. We store any Aadhaar number securely, restrict access to personnel who need it for verification purposes, and do not use or share it beyond identity verification and legally permitted purposes, consistent with the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016.
References. Where you provide references, we use their name and contact number solely to conduct reference checks as part of your onboarding, and do not use that information for any other purpose.
3.3 Sensitive Personal Data Collected Offline
Where a Family's requirement involves specific health, medical, or condition-related information about a Care Recipient (for example, mobility needs, diagnoses, or medication schedules), this is collected offline — through a phone call, in-person consultation, or as part of the Client Service Agreement described in Section 3.1 — rather than through the website or app forms. Once collected, this information may be recorded in our internal customer relationship management (CRM) systems for the purpose of matching and delivering care, and is subject to the same protections, access controls, and retention principles described in this Policy. We treat this category of information as sensitive and limit access to it to personnel who need it to assess or deliver your requirement.
3.4 Information Collected Automatically
When you visit the website or use the app, certain information may be collected automatically through cookies and similar technologies, including:
device and browser information, IP address, and general location (city-level);
pages visited, referral source, and interactions with the Platform; and
advertising identifiers and engagement data collected via the Meta Pixel and Google Analytics/Google Ads, used to measure and improve our marketing campaigns.
See Section 6 (Cookies and Advertising Technologies) for more detail and your choices regarding this data.
3.5 Communications
If you message us on WhatsApp (via our WATI-powered number) or by phone, we collect your phone number and the content of that conversation to respond to your enquiry, provide updates, and maintain a record of our interaction with you.
4. How We Use Your Data
We use personal data collected through the Platform to:
respond to enquiries and assess care requirements submitted by Families;
evaluate, verify, and manage Caregiver directory profiles;
match Families with suitable Caregivers or services;
communicate with you about your enquiry, application, or an ongoing engagement, including via call, email, or WhatsApp;
maintain internal records in our CRM systems for service continuity and quality;
improve the Platform, our Services, and our marketing, including through aggregated or de-identified analysis;
run and measure advertising campaigns on platforms such as Meta and Google; and
comply with applicable legal, regulatory, or grievance-redressal obligations.
We do not use health or condition-related information collected about a Care Recipient for advertising or marketing purposes.
5. Legal Basis and Consent
We collect and process personal data on the basis of your consent, given at the point of submitting a form, starting a chat, or otherwise voluntarily providing information to us, and, where applicable, for the legitimate purposes of responding to a request you have initiated or performing a contract with you. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time by contacting us at the details in Section 12, though this may affect our ability to continue providing the relevant Service to you, and will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.
If you proceed with a caregiving engagement, you additionally provide explicit written consent to our collection, use, and processing of personal and medical information for service delivery and business purposes when you sign the Client Service Agreement (for Families) or the Caregiver/Nurse Application Form (for Caregivers). That consent operates alongside, and is consistent with, this Policy.
6. Cookies and Advertising Technologies
The website uses cookies and similar technologies, including the Meta Pixel and Google Analytics/Google Ads tags, to understand how visitors use the Platform and to measure and optimise our advertising campaigns. These tools may set cookies or use advertising identifiers on your device and may share limited interaction data with Meta and Google in accordance with their own privacy policies.
You can control cookies through your browser settings, and can opt out of personalised advertising directly through Meta's and Google's respective ad-settings pages. Disabling cookies may affect certain features of the Platform.
7. How We Share Your Data
We do not sell your personal data. We share personal data only in the following circumstances:
With Caregivers or Families, as relevant, to facilitate a genuine matching or engagement process (for example, sharing a Family's general requirement with a shortlisted Caregiver, or a Caregiver's profile with an interested Family).
With service providers who process data on our behalf, including WATI (WhatsApp Business messaging), our CRM provider, Google Sheets/Supabase (used for internal data management), and hosting/infrastructure providers — each bound by contract or platform terms to handle data securely and only for the purposes we specify.
With Meta and Google, limited to interaction and advertising-identifier data generated through the Meta Pixel and Google Analytics/Ads, for the purpose of campaign measurement and optimisation.
Where required to comply with applicable law, regulation, legal process, or a valid request from a government or regulatory authority.
In connection with a merger, acquisition, restructuring, or sale of assets, subject to appropriate confidentiality protections.
Some of the service providers referred to above (including Meta, Google, and certain cloud infrastructure providers) may process data on servers located outside India. Where this occurs, we take reasonable steps to ensure such providers maintain appropriate safeguards for your data.
8. Data Storage and Security
We store personal data using a combination of cloud-based tools (including our CRM, Google Sheets, and Supabase) and take reasonable technical and organisational measures — such as access controls and restricting sensitive information to personnel who need it — to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, or alteration. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we are committed to promptly investigating and addressing any suspected data breach in line with applicable law.
9. Data Retention
We retain personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Policy — including responding to your enquiry, delivering or managing a Service engagement, and maintaining business records — or for as long as required under applicable law, whichever is longer. Where a Family's or Caregiver's enquiry does not proceed to an engagement, we may retain basic contact and enquiry details for a reasonable period to allow us to follow up or re-engage, unless you ask us to delete it sooner.
10. Children's Data and Special Child Care Enquiries
The Platform is intended for use by adults (parents, guardians, and family members) on behalf of themselves or a Care Recipient, and is not directed at children. We deal directly with parents and legal guardians for all Special Child Care enquiries, and we do not knowingly collect personal data directly from children through the Platform.
For Special Child Care requirement matching, we collect only the age of the child from the parent or guardian, and no other personal details of the child, through the website or app forms. Any further information required to support a match is collected offline, directly from the parent or guardian, in the same manner described in Section 3.3.
If we become aware that personal data has been submitted directly by, or about, a child in a manner inconsistent with this Section, we will take reasonable steps to delete it, and parents or guardians may contact us at any time to request such deletion.
11. Your Rights as a Data Principal
Subject to applicable law, you have the right to:
access the personal data we hold about you and understand how it is being processed;
request correction or updating of inaccurate or incomplete personal data;
request erasure of your personal data, where it is no longer necessary for the purpose it was collected, subject to our legal and record-keeping obligations;
withdraw consent to processing that is based on consent, as described in Section 5;
nominate another individual to exercise these rights on your behalf in the event of your death or incapacity; and
raise a grievance regarding the handling of your personal data, as described in Section 12.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in Section 12. We may need to verify your identity before actioning your request, and will respond within a reasonable time and in accordance with applicable timelines under the DPDP Act.
12. Grievance Officer and Contact
If you have questions, concerns, or complaints about this Privacy Policy or our handling of your personal data, or wish to exercise any of the rights described in Section 11, please contact our Grievance Officer:
Grievance Officer: Doshi V
Email: operations@companions.in
Phone: +91 90940 30308 (Direct) / +91-91500-95220 (Main Line)
Address: Old No. S-44, New No. 1, 35th Cross Street, Besant Nagar, Chennai – 600090, Tamil Nadu, India
We will acknowledge and aim to resolve grievances within a reasonable period, and in any case within the timelines prescribed under applicable law.
13. Additional Disclosures for Mobile Applications
If you use a Companions application distributed via the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, this Policy applies to your use of that application, in addition to any privacy “nutrition label” (Apple App Privacy details) or Data Safety section (Google Play) published on the relevant app store listing, which summarise our data practices in the format required by that store.
The table below reflects how the categories of data described in this Policy are likely to map to Apple's and Google's standard privacy disclosure categories, to assist with completing those store listings. This mapping is provided for reference and should be confirmed against the current Apple and Google guidelines at the time of app submission, as their category definitions may change.

 

14. Current Third-Party Tools
As of the Effective Date, the following third-party tools are used to support the Platform and may process personal data on our behalf, as described in Section 7:
WATI — WhatsApp Business messaging and chat support
An in-house CRM — for managing enquiries, caregiver profiles, and service records
Google Sheets and Supabase — for internal data management and application workflows
Meta Pixel — for advertising measurement on Meta platforms (Facebook/Instagram)
Google Analytics and Google Ads — for website analytics and advertising measurement
No payment gateway is currently integrated with the Platform. If one is introduced in the future, this Policy will be updated to describe the relevant provider and the payment data it processes.
15. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, the tools we use, or applicable law. Where changes are material, we will take reasonable steps to notify you, such as posting a notice on the Platform or updating the “Last Updated” date above. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically.
16. Contact Us
For any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact:
Companions Technologies Private Limited
Old No. S-44, New No. 1, 35th Cross Street, Besant Nagar, Chennai – 600090, Tamil Nadu, India
Email: operations@companions.in
Phone: +91-91500-95220