Samachar Mitra is a community news service for discovering local stories, engaging with news, submitting stories for review, and participating as an approved reporter. This policy applies to the Samachar Mitra app, this website, and the backend services that support them.
The service is operated by Nimesh Kumar Rathore, Founder and Owner. Privacy questions and requests can be sent to samacharmitra01@gmail.com.
1. Information we collect
Account and profile information
- Your full name and phone number when you register.
- An email address if you choose to add one.
- Your password when you register, sign in, change it, or verify an account-deletion request. Passwords are stored as one-way hashes rather than as readable text.
- An optional profile image.
- The version and time of the Terms and Privacy Policy you accepted.
Account-deletion form information
The Delete Account page collects the phone number and current password you enter and forwards them to the authentication service only to verify and complete that request. This website does not save those credentials in its own database, and its responses are marked not to be cached.
Reporter application information
If you apply to become a reporter, we collect the information you submit:
- Name, phone number, and email address.
- Address, city, district, state, and pincode.
- Your reason for applying and relevant experience.
- An identity-proof document, if provided.
- The status and review history of your application.
News, media, and community activity
- Stories, summaries, images, videos, categories, tags, and story locations that you submit.
- Comments, likes, saved stories, and sharing activity.
- Story views and impressions, event identifiers, platform type, and the first and most recent time an authenticated reader viewed a story or reporter.
- Reports of content or users and user-block relationships.
Device, session, and security information
- Device platform and notification permission status. If you allow notifications, Expo generates a push token on the device; the current app does not send that token to the Samachar Mitra backend.
- Notification read status.
- IP address and user-agent information used for sign-in security, rate limiting, session management, and recording legal consent.
- Session creation, use, expiry, and revocation timestamps.
The app may request access to your media library when you choose an image or video for a profile, reporter application, or story. It uses only the files you select for that action. The app may also request notification permission. It is configured not to request camera, microphone, or precise or approximate device-location permission. Reporter applicants and story contributors may still enter a location manually.
Information stored on your device
The app stores a refresh credential in secure device storage. It also stores a notification inbox, public API data cached for up to 24 hours, and any news drafts you choose to save. A saved draft may include copies of selected media. This information helps restore your session, inbox, and unfinished work. Your device platform controls whether locally stored information is removed or restored when you uninstall or reinstall the app.
2. How we use information
- Create your account, authenticate you, and secure active sessions.
- Display and update your profile.
- Provide news discovery, saved stories, comments, and other engagement.
- Review reporter applications and protect private identity documents.
- Review, publish, reject, edit, or remove submitted stories.
- Measure story and reporter performance and maintain accurate counters.
- Send and display news notifications when enabled.
- Prevent abuse, enforce access controls, and investigate operational failures.
3. What other people can see
Published stories and their media are public. Comments display the commenter's name and optional avatar. An approved reporter's public profile can display their name, email address, avatar, and reporter join date. Other reporter application details and identity proof are restricted to authorised administrators.
4. Storage and service providers
Samachar Mitra uses the following providers for operating the service:
- MongoDB for account, content, engagement, and operational records.
- Amazon Web Services, including API Gateway, Lambda, S3, SQS, and CloudWatch, for API hosting, media storage, background delivery, and operational logs.
- Expo's push notification service to deliver device notifications.
- Vercel to host this public website and its account-deletion form.
Information is shared with these providers only as needed to operate the relevant service. The current app and website do not contain advertising SDKs, advertising cookies, or code that sells personal information.
5. When information is disclosed
We may disclose information:
- To the service providers listed above so they can operate the service.
- When you intentionally publish a story, comment, or public profile field.
- To comply with applicable law, legal process, or a lawful government request.
- To investigate fraud, abuse, security incidents, or threats to users.
- As part of a reorganisation or transfer of the service, subject to appropriate confidentiality and notice where required.
6. Data security
Passwords are hashed with Argon2id. Access credentials are short-lived, and refresh credentials are random values stored only as hashes. Reporter identity documents are kept in private storage and accessed through short-lived, administrator-authorised links. Media uploads and downloads use time-limited signed URLs, and backend access is role-restricted.
No online service can guarantee absolute security. Keep your password private and contact the service owner if you believe your account has been misused.
7. Retention
- Account and profile data is kept while the account is active.
- Refresh-session records are configured to expire after 30 days.
- Raw analytics event records are configured to expire after 180 days.
- Operational push-delivery records are configured to expire after 30 days.
- Uploaded files separately marked for deletion are configured for automated storage purge after 7 days. A media record remains to record that purge.
Other records are kept only while reasonably needed to provide the service, maintain an accurate public news archive, resolve disputes, prevent abuse, enforce these terms, or meet legal obligations. Copies may remain in restricted backups until those backups are rotated. When retention is no longer necessary, information is deleted or de-identified.
8. Account deletion
You can submit an account deletion request through the public Delete Account page. You must verify the account using its phone number and current password. This prevents someone from deleting an account using only a phone number or email address.
When the request is accepted, the profile is marked as deleted, all active sessions are ended, and future sign-in attempts are rejected. This disables the account but does not immediately erase its profile or every associated record.
Associated records may include submitted or published stories, comments, engagement, reporter applications, notification records, uploaded media, security and abuse-prevention records, and copies in backup rotation. These records are retained only while reasonably needed to operate the service, preserve the public news archive and published discussions, prevent abuse, resolve disputes, or comply with law. You may email us to request removal of specific content or personal information, or to ask what information remains. We will assess the request under applicable law and may need to verify your identity.
9. Your choices and rights
- You can view and edit your name, optional email, and avatar in Profile.
- You can remove saved stories and likes and delete your own comments.
- You can deny or revoke notification and media-library access in device settings.
- You can request account deletion to end access and prevent future sign-in.
Depending on applicable law, you may also ask for access, correction, completion, erasure, or information about how your personal data is handled. We may need to verify your identity before completing a request. Send a request to samacharmitra01@gmail.com.
10. Children's privacy
Samachar Mitra does not knowingly ask a child to create an account without the consent required by applicable law. If you believe a child's personal information was submitted without the necessary permission, contact us so we can review and remove it where appropriate.
11. Changes to this policy
When this policy changes, its version and last-updated date will be revised. Registration records the policy version accepted at that time.
12. Contact
Nimesh Kumar Rathore
Founder and Owner, Samachar Mitra
Email: samacharmitra01@gmail.com