Your data never goes to an AI model.
We use AI to build our platforms. We do not use it on your data. SAMAR and every Lavaka platform analyse your data themselves, inside a private container. Nothing you upload is ever sent to a large language model (LLM) or to any outside AI service. Your data is precious, and it stays with you.
In short
- Your analysis runs in a private Cloud Run container in Google Cloud's Mumbai region, India. Nothing you analyse is stored: everything is deleted within 60 minutes after your session ends.
- Your data is never sent to any LLM or outside AI service.
- We keep your research data longer only if you choose to share it to help us improve, and you can withdraw that at any time.
- We do not sell or rent personal data. There is no advertising and no analytics tracking.
- Only your account details, credits and payment records are kept, in a secure database that is also in Mumbai, India, with a backup copy in Delhi, India.
- You can see, correct or delete your data. Write to support@lavaka.net.
01Who we are
Lavaka is run by LAVAKA LLP, a limited liability partnership registered in India. We build platforms for science and engineering research, starting with SAMAR (Statistical Analysis Machine for Agricultural Research). Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (“DPDP Act”), we are the data fiduciary for the personal data described here.
02What we collect
We collect only what we need to run your account, your credits and your analysis.
| What | Examples | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Account details | Name, email, organisation (optional), and how you log in: email and password, Google, your institution's single sign-on, or an institutional access code | To create your account and let you log in |
| Google sign-in | Name, email and profile picture that Google shares when you choose “Continue with Google” | To log you in without a new password |
| Institutional access | Your institute, the access code you used, and the link between your account and the institute | To give you the platforms your institute has licensed |
| Credits and payments | Credit balance, credit history, free-credit requests, payment amount, date, status and the payment gateway's reference number | To add, use and account for your credits |
| Usage | Which platform you used, when it started and stopped, and the minutes used | To charge the right number of credits |
| Research data | Datasets you upload for analysis, such as field trial observations, and the results | To run the analysis you asked for. See section 03 |
| Messages | Emails you send to support@lavaka.net | To answer you |
| Bug reports | Only if you choose Send bug report after a failed run: error messages, timings and platform version, plus any screenshots you attach. Never your research data | To find faults and handle refund requests |
| Technical logs | IP address, browser type and time of request, recorded by our cloud provider | To keep the service secure and working |
Your password is handled by our sign-in provider and stored only in protected (hashed) form. We never see it. Card, UPI and bank details go directly to a licensed payment gateway. We never receive or store them.
03Your research data
When you run an analysis, your data is processed inside a private Cloud Run container in Google Cloud's Mumbai region (asia-south1), India. We do not store your research data. The container belongs to your session alone, so other users cannot reach your data.
Today, all containers run in the Mumbai region, including for users outside India. If an institute outside India wants access, we will host its containers in the Google Cloud data centre nearest to it and give its users access to those containers, as the data protection rules of its country require. The same rules apply there: never stored, never sent to an AI model, and deleted within 60 minutes after the session ends.
- Everything analysed stays only while your session is open. Your uploaded files, working files and results are deleted within 60 minutes after the session ends. Download your results before you close it.
- No AI model ever reads your data. Our platforms do the analysis themselves. We do not send your data to any LLM or outside AI service, for any reason.
- Our team does not open your research data, unless you ask us to help with a problem and share it with us yourself.
Billing records (credits used, minutes and payments) are not research data. We keep them as section 08 describes.
04Help us to improve (only if you opt in)
By default, your research data is deleted within 60 minutes after your session ends and never used for anything else. You can choose to share a dataset with us to help improve our platforms. We will ask you clearly, and you have to tick the box yourself. If you agree:
- we keep a copy of the data you chose to share, stored in India, only to test and improve Lavaka's own platforms;
- we still never send it to any LLM or outside AI service, and never sell or publish it;
- you can withdraw at any time by writing to support@lavaka.net, and we then delete the copy we kept.
Saying no changes nothing about your account, your credits or your results.
05How we use information
- To create and secure your account and log you in.
- To run the analyses you ask for and show you the results.
- To add, use and record credits, including free credits and payments.
- To give institutional users access to their institute's platforms.
- To reply to your messages and send essential account emails, such as email verification, password reset and receipts.
- To keep the service secure, prevent misuse and meet our legal duties.
We process your personal data with your consent, which you give when you create an account and use our platforms, and for the other lawful uses the DPDP Act allows. We do not send marketing emails unless you ask for them.
07Where your data is
- Research data is never stored. It is processed only inside a Cloud Run container in Google Cloud's Mumbai region (asia-south1), India, then deleted within 60 minutes after the session ends. For institutes outside India, we can host containers in the data centre nearest to them (see section 03).
- Account details, credits and payment records are kept in a secure database in Google Cloud's Mumbai region, India, for all users. If you live outside India, these details are handled in India.
- A redundant data centre, also in India. Within Mumbai, Google keeps our database copied across separate data centres. As a second location, we use Google Cloud's Delhi region (asia-south2): backup copies of account, credit and payment records are kept there, and if Mumbai is ever unavailable, analyses run in Delhi containers under the same rules: never stored, never sent to an AI model, and deleted within 60 minutes after the session ends.
- Research data is never backed up, in Mumbai, Delhi or anywhere else.
Some providers, such as Google sign-in and our email provider, may handle limited account details, like your name and email, outside India under their own safeguards and as Indian law permits.
08How long we keep it
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Research data and results | While your session is open, then deleted within 60 minutes after it ends |
| Data you opted to share | Until you withdraw, then deleted |
| Account details | While your account is open. Deleted when you delete your account, except what the law requires us to keep |
| Backup copies (Delhi) | Up to 30 days, then replaced by newer backups. Data you delete leaves the backups within those 30 days |
| Credit and payment records | As long as Indian tax and accounting laws require |
| Support emails | As long as needed to help you |
| Bug reports and screenshots | Until your refund request is settled |
| Technical logs | A limited period, for security |
10Security
- Everything between your browser and Lavaka is encrypted (HTTPS).
- Each analysis runs in its own container, and your data is deleted within 60 minutes after your session ends.
- Account, credit and payment records are backed up to a second data centre in India, so they survive even a full outage in Mumbai.
- Only the server can change credit balances, and only people who need it can reach our systems.
- If a breach affects your personal data, we will tell you and the Data Protection Board of India as the law requires.
11Your rights
Under the DPDP Act you can:
- see a summary of the personal data we hold about you and how we use it;
- correct, complete or update it;
- delete it, including your whole account;
- withdraw consent, for example to stop sharing a dataset (withdrawing does not affect what was done before);
- nominate a person to use these rights for you if you die or cannot act;
- raise a grievance with us and, if you are not satisfied, complain to the Data Protection Board of India.
Write to support@lavaka.net from the email on your account. We aim to reply within 30 days.
12Age
Lavaka accounts are for people aged 18 and above. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone younger. If you believe a person under 18 has made an account, tell us and we will delete it.
13Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. For important changes, we will tell you by email or on the site before they apply.
14Contact and grievances
For questions, requests or complaints about your data, write to the Grievance Officer, LAVAKA LLP, at support@lavaka.net.