CareStride — Privacy Policy

version: "2.0.0" effectiveDate: "[DATE TO BE SET AT LAUNCH]" lastUpdated: "2026-05-23"

Operator: MICRO PIXEL PRIVATE LIMITED
Brand: CareStride
Corporate Identification: CIN U33111TN1987PTC015203 · GSTIN 33AAACM4619C1Z0 · PAN AAACM4619C
Registered Office: C19A Industrial Estate, Guindy, Chennai 600032, Tamil Nadu, India
Document Version: 2.0.0
Effective Date: [DATE TO BE SET AT LAUNCH]
Last Updated: 2026-05-23

📌 Privacy at a Glance (60 seconds)

What we collect: Identity, contact, booking location, verification scans, payment metadata, care reports, platform communications.

What we don't collect: Off-platform conversations or device health data you don't share.

Who we share with: Verification vendors, Razorpay, messaging providers — only what each needs. Never sold.

Your rights (DPDP 2023): Access, correct, delete (with legal limits), withdraw consent.

Annex A: Annual DPDP notice with detailed summaries. Grievance Officer: 30 days.

Data Fiduciary: Micro Pixel Private Limited (CIN U33111TN1987PTC015203), registered office C19A, Industrial Estate, Guindy, Chennai - 600032; Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600032; India. CareStride is a brand owned and operated by Micro Pixel Private Limited.

Pre-counsel draft. This document will be refined by legal counsel before launch in compliance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023.

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy describes how Micro Pixel Private Limited ("we", "us", "Micro Pixel", "CareStride") collects, uses, shares, stores, and protects personal data of users of the CareStride platform (the "Platform"). We are the Data Fiduciary under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 ("DPDP Act").

By using the Platform, you consent to processing as described in this Policy. Your rights as a Data Principal are set out in Section 7.

2. Personal data we collect

2.1 From Clients

• Name, mobile number, email, residential address.
• Care Recipient details (name, relationship, medical context you volunteer).
• Booking details, care preferences, and Treating Doctor care instructions you upload (Section 12 of the Client Terms).
• Payment metadata (transaction reference; we do not store full card numbers).
• Device and usage data (IP address, device model, OS, app version, crash logs).

2.2 From Professionals

• Name, mobile number, email, residential address.
• Aadhaar number, PAN, photographs for biometric match, professional council registration details, bank account details, criminal record disclosures (where lawfully collected).
• Availability, service area, pricing, specialisations.
• Booking history, reviews received, CareScore data, cancellation history.

2.3 From all Users

• Communications sent through the Platform (chat, masked call metadata).
• AI-generated metadata derived from your activity (match scores, review sentiment tags).
• Safety incident reports you file.
• Acknowledgment events (the consent text you saw, version, timestamp, IP, user-agent).

3. Lawful bases for processing

We process personal data on the basis of (a) your consent, (b) the performance of our contract with you (the Terms), (c) our legal obligations (tax, intermediary rules, grievance redressal, DPDP Act), and (d) legitimate interests narrowly construed — for example, fraud prevention and platform security.

4. Purposes of processing

• Operating the Platform: account creation, Booking facilitation, payment processing, customer support.
• NurseShield verification: through IDfy and similar providers under contractual data-protection terms.
• Safety: identity verification, masked communications, visit codes, SOS alerts, safety incident investigation.
• Matching: SmartMatch AI uses booking preferences, Care Recipient requirements, Professional specialisations, and review data to rank results.
• Quality: analysing reviews and care reports to improve the Platform.
• Legal and regulatory: tax invoicing, grievance redressal, responses to lawful orders.
• Communications: transactional notifications, OTPs, booking confirmations, safety alerts via MSG91, Gupshup, Exotel.

5. AI processing

Certain features process your data using artificial intelligence (the "AI Features" listed in Section 2 of the Terms). AI outputs are informational aids and do not replace professional medical judgement.

We log metadata about AI calls — the action, input hash, output, cost, timestamp, and the User associated with the call — to enable audit, debugging, and abuse detection. AI inputs and outputs may be retained for the retention periods in Section 8.

The AI models we currently use are provided by Anthropic PBC (Claude) under contractual terms that restrict secondary use of your data. Where we change AI providers, we update this Policy.

6. Sharing of personal data

We do not sell personal data. We share only as follows:

6.1 With Professionals you book (for Clients)

Limited to your display name, Care Recipient's pseudonym, Booking details, and Treating Doctor instructions if you uploaded them, for the duration of the active Booking. Your phone number, email, and precise address are not shared. Address is shared only at the moment of visit check-in via the visit code.

6.2 With Clients who book you (for Professionals)

Limited to your display name, credentials summary, reviews, CareScore, specialisations. Your phone, email, and home address are not shared.

6.3 With service providers

• Razorpay (payments and payouts) under its own terms.
• IDfy (credential verification) under purpose-limited contract.
• Exotel (masked voice), Gupshup (WhatsApp), MSG91 (SMS) for message delivery.
• Anthropic (AI features) under contractual restrictions.
• Cloud hosting (AWS or equivalent, Mumbai region) under standard data-processing terms.
• Sentry for error telemetry (IP addresses and error context only).

6.4 With law enforcement or regulators

When required by a lawful order of a court or authorised authority.

6.5 With professional advisers

Lawyers, accountants, auditors, under confidentiality.

6.6 On business transfer

Merger, acquisition, or sale of all or part of the CareStride business, subject to equivalent data-protection obligations.

7. Your rights as a Data Principal

Under the DPDP Act you have the right to:

• Obtain a summary of personal data we hold about you and the processing we perform.
• Request correction, completion, updating, or erasure of personal data (subject to statutory retention overrides).
• Withdraw consent (noting that withdrawal may impair or end your use of the Platform).
• Nominate a person to exercise your rights in the event of your death or incapacity.
• Lodge a grievance with the Grievance Officer (Section 10).
• Approach the Data Protection Board of India for further redressal if unsatisfied.

To exercise rights, write to [email protected]. We respond within 30 days or such shorter period as the DPDP Act prescribes.

8. Retention

We retain personal data as long as reasonably necessary, including the following statutory retention periods:

• Tax and accounting: 8 years (CGST Act 2017 / Income Tax Act 1961).
• Grievance and consumer complaint records: 3 years.
• Safety incident records: 7 years.
• Booking records: 5 years.
• Masked call metadata: 2 years.
• Acknowledgment records (consent text, version, timestamp): 7 years or the duration of the underlying booking records, whichever is longer.
• Marketing preferences: until consent is withdrawn.
• Inactive accounts (no activity for 36 months): we may de-identify or delete, subject to statutory overrides.

9. Security

We employ reasonable and appropriate security practices commensurate with the sensitivity of the data:

• TLS encryption in transit.
• Encryption at rest for identity documents and uploaded Treating Doctor instructions.
• Role-based access controls and audit logging.
• Periodic security reviews.
• Incident response procedures aligned with the DPDP Act notification requirements.

No system is entirely secure. In the event of a notifiable personal data breach, we will notify the Data Protection Board and affected users within the time prescribed by law.

10. Grievance Officer

Name: Authorized Signatory Email: [email protected] Postal address: C19A, Industrial Estate, Guindy, Chennai - 600032

Acknowledgment within 24 hours, resolution within 15 days.

11. Children's data

The Platform is not intended for use by persons below 18 as account holders. However, a Care Recipient may be a minor (paediatric care). Where the Care Recipient is a minor:

• The Client must have lawful authority (parent, guardian, legal representative) and expressly affirms this at Booking;
• We process the minor's data only for the operational purposes of the Booking;
• We do not process minors' data for targeted advertising or tracking;
• We apply the additional safeguards required by Section 9 of the DPDP Act.

12. Changes to this Policy

Material changes will be notified at least 15 days in advance by email and in-app. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. Material changes requiring fresh consent under the DPDP Act will trigger an affirmative re-consent prompt.

Annex A — Annual DPDP Notice

Annex A.1 What We Collect

Operating context: Operator: MICRO PIXEL PRIVATE LIMITED
Brand: CareStride
Corporate Identification: CIN U33111TN1987PTC015203 · GSTIN 33AAACM4619C1Z0 · PAN AAACM4619C
Registered Office: C19A Industrial Estate, Guindy, Chennai 600032, Tamil Nadu, India
Document Version: 2.0.0
Effective Date: [DATE TO BE SET AT LAUNCH]
Last Updated: 2026-05-23

CareStride collects only the personal data needed to run the marketplace and keep users safe. Grouped in plain language:

• Identity and contact: your name, verified mobile number, and optional email so we can create your account, sign you in with OTP, and reach you about bookings and safety.
• Location for care: city or locality you choose, and service address you provide so professionals can reach the visit. Precise GPS is used only when you use SOS or safety features you turn on.
• Payments: Razorpay processes card or UPI data. CareStride stores tokenised references and transaction metadata — we do not store your full card number on our servers.
• Health-related preferences (non-diagnosis): care preferences, visit notes you choose to share, and documents such as instructions from your own treating doctor that you upload. CareStride does not create a clinical record or diagnosis.
• Usage and reliability: in-app actions, device/app version, masked support identifiers, and error telemetry (via Sentry) so we can fix bugs and improve stability.

We do not ask you to list every database column; if something is not needed for the purposes below, we aim not to collect it.

Annex A.2 Why We Process

We use personal data only for legitimate purposes tied to the marketplace:

1. Service delivery — to show profiles, match requests, create and manage bookings, send confirmations, enable in-app and masked calls, and let you manage family care recipients you add.
2. Safety and trust — to verify identities (e.g. ID checks), investigate incidents, operate SOS and escalation paths, and detect fraud or policy breaches.
3. Legal and regulatory obligations — to meet GST and tax rules, respond to lawful requests, operate grievance redressal timelines, and retain records where the law requires minimum retention.
4. Platform improvement (non-identifying where possible) — to run aggregate analytics, monitor AI-assisted features for quality and safety, and improve product performance without using your data for unrelated marketing unless you separately opt in.

Micro Pixel Private Limited (CIN U33111TN1987PTC015203), registered office C19A, Industrial Estate, Guindy, Chennai - 600032; Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600032; India. CareStride is a brand owned and operated by Micro Pixel Private Limited.

Annex A.3 How Long We Keep Data

We follow tiered retention so data is not kept longer than needed:

• While your account is active — profile, bookings, messages, and related operational data are kept so you can use the service and so disputes can be resolved fairly.
• Financial and tax records — invoices, payouts, and related identifiers are kept for at least seven years where Indian tax law requires statutory books and supporting evidence.
• After you delete your account — some identifiers and logs may be kept for a legal investigation minimum (e.g. serious safety or fraud cases) as described in our full Privacy Policy and deletion flow; this is narrower than keeping a full active profile.

For the authoritative schedule and categories, read the Privacy Policy (retention section) in the app or on the website.

Annex A.4 Who We Share With

We share personal data with processors who help us run the platform, only on our instructions and for the purposes below:

| Processor | One-line purpose | | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Razorpay | Taking and settling payments; fraud checks they provide as part of payment processing. | | IDfy | Identity and document verification for trust and safety. | | MSG91 | Delivering SMS (including OTP where SMS is used). | | Exotel | Masked voice calls between clients and professionals during bookings. | | Gupshup | WhatsApp service messages you have agreed to receive. | | Anthropic | Where AI features are enabled, processing prompts and content you submit under our instructions (see Privacy Policy for safeguards). | | Sentry | Error and performance monitoring (technical context, not marketing). | | Hosting / cloud | Storing and serving the application and encrypted backups. |

The live data-sharing registry (JSON) lists integrated vendors, locations, and purposes in more detail — use the in-app link from the privacy hub.

Annex A.5 Your Rights

Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, you have rights including:

• Access — understand what personal data we hold about you; use data export in the app when available.
• Correction & completion — update inaccurate profile fields; add missing context where the product allows.
• Erasure — request deletion of your account and associated personal data subject to legal exceptions; use the account deletion / erasure flow.
• Grievance — raise concerns about processing through our grievance officer and timelines in the Grievance Redressal section.

The buttons in this notice (web/mobile) link you directly to: export, deletion request, grievance submission, and consent preferences so you do not have to hunt through menus.

This summary does not replace the full Privacy Policy or statutory text; it is here so you see the essentials once a year or after a material policy change.

Annex A.6 Your Consents

CareStride records seven optional or channel-specific consent types (beyond signup and booking-specific acknowledgments). They are listed here at a high level; the app shows whether each is currently held or withdrawn in the table appended after this section when you open the notice.

1. Marketing opt-in — promotional email/SMS/WhatsApp where you opted in.
2. WhatsApp service channel — transactional WhatsApp where enabled.
3. Email service channel — account, booking, payment, and security email.
4. Voice / masked calling — Exotel-backed calls during bookings.
5. SMS service channel — OTP and essential SMS (OTP path may remain locked for login).
6. Retention policy acknowledgment — confirms you have seen retention rules (withdrawal routes through erasure / legal process, not a simple toggle).
7. Third-party processors acknowledgment — confirms you have seen the processor list; withdrawal triggers an operational review flow.

Use Manage consents in account settings to change what is withdrawable. Withdrawals you make from this annual notice are logged the same way as withdrawals from settings.

Annex A.7 Grievance Pathway

CareStride operates a grievance redressal channel with a designated officer, category-based timelines (general, consumer, data-principal, and fast-track profiles), and escalation where unresolved.

Use Submit a grievance in the app for privacy, billing, safety, or service issues. Keep descriptions factual; we acknowledge within the SLA window for your category. The full Grievance Redressal page holds contact details, hours, and SLA tables.

Acceptance and Authorized Signatory

This document is published by MICRO PIXEL PRIVATE LIMITED on its official Platform (carestride.health and the CareStride mobile application). By using the Platform you acknowledge that you have read and agreed to these terms. This electronic contract is binding under the Information Technology Act, 2000.

For and on behalf of MICRO PIXEL PRIVATE LIMITED

Authorized Signatory
Document timestamp: as recorded in metadata above.

Contact for Questions

• Email: [email protected]
• Postal: MICRO PIXEL PRIVATE LIMITED, C19A Industrial Estate, Guindy, Chennai 600032

Grievance Officer (per DPDP Act 2023)

• Designation: Grievance Officer
• Email: [email protected]
• Response Time: Within 30 calendar days