1. Introduction
Welcome to Thiruthalam™ — A Divine Temples Journey ("Thiruthalam™", "App", "we", "us", or "our").
Thiruthalam™ is a digital temple discovery, pilgrimage, and heritage preservation platform developed and operated by Virthalam Foundation, a Section 8 non-profit company registered in India.
Our mission is to help people discover, document, and preserve India's rich temple heritage through technology and community participation.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, protect, and disclose information when you use the Thiruthalam™ mobile application, website, and related services.
By using Thiruthalam™, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.
2. About Virthalam Foundation
Virthalam Foundation is a Section 8 non-profit company established with a social-impact and community-focused mission.
Thiruthalam™ is developed as part of our efforts to digitally document and preserve temple heritage and make information about temples, festivals, traditions, and sacred places more accessible.
For privacy-related questions, you can contact us using the details provided in the Contact Us section of this Privacy Policy.
3. Information We Collect
Depending on how you use Thiruthalam™, we may collect the following categories of information.
3.1 Account Information
If you create an account, we may collect:
- Name
- Email address
- Mobile phone number
- Profile photograph, if voluntarily provided
- Login credentials or authentication information
- Account preferences
- Language preferences
You may be able to use certain features without creating an account.
3.2 Location Information
With your permission, Thiruthalam™ may access your device location to provide location-based features such as:
- Finding temples near you
- Showing temples on a map
- Providing directions or navigation
- Improving temple discovery
- Creating pilgrimage routes
- Providing location-based recommendations
We request location permission only when required for these features.
You can disable location access through your device settings. However, some location-based features may not function properly without it.
3.3 Temple Contributions and User-Submitted Content
Thiruthalam™ allows users and volunteers to contribute temple-related information.
This may include:
- Temple names
- Temple descriptions
- Temple history
- Temple timings
- Festival information
- Deity information
- Temple traditions
- Temple photographs
- Videos, where supported
- Documents or references
- Location information
- Community information
- Corrections and updates
Information submitted for public temple documentation may be displayed publicly within Thiruthalam™ or related Thiruthalam™ services.
Please do not submit personal, confidential, copyrighted, or sensitive information unless you have the right and authorization to do so.
4. Photos, Camera and Media Access
If you choose to upload temple photographs or other media, Thiruthalam™ may request access to:
- Camera
- Photos
- Media files
- Device storage
These permissions are used to allow you to capture or select content for temple documentation and community contributions.
We do not access your personal photographs or media beyond what you choose to provide through the App, subject to the permissions granted by your device and operating system.
5. AI Features
Thiruthalam™ may provide AI-powered features, including an AI Temple Assistant, temple recommendations, search assistance, journey planning, and other intelligent services.
When you use AI features, information you provide may be processed to generate a response.
Depending on the feature, this may include:
- Questions submitted to the AI assistant
- Temple preferences
- Search queries
- Location information, where permitted
- Rasi or Nakshatra information voluntarily provided by you
- Trip or journey preferences
- Other information necessary to provide the requested AI service
Please do not provide passwords, financial information, government identification numbers, or other highly sensitive personal information to the AI assistant.
AI-generated information may not always be accurate. Users should independently verify important temple, religious, travel, timing, or event information.
6. Rasi and Nakshatra Information
Thiruthalam™ may provide features allowing users to discover temples based on traditional Rasi (Zodiac) and Nakshatra (Birth Star) classifications.
Providing such information is voluntary.
If you choose to provide your Rasi or Nakshatra information, it may be used to provide personalized temple discovery and recommendations.
We do not require users to provide this information to use the general temple discovery features.
7. Usage and Technical Information
When you use Thiruthalam™, certain technical information may be collected automatically by the App, our service providers, or operating systems.
This may include:
- Device type
- Operating system
- App version
- Device identifiers
- IP address
- Language and region
- Network information
- Crash information
- Performance information
- General usage information
- Feature interactions
This information may be used for security, troubleshooting, analytics, performance improvement, and service reliability.
8. How We Use Information
We may use information collected through Thiruthalam™ to:
- Provide and operate the App
- Create and manage user accounts
- Provide temple discovery services
- Show nearby temples
- Provide maps and location-based services
- Display temple information
- Provide festival and event information
- Personalize temple recommendations
- Provide AI-powered services
- Support pilgrimage planning
- Process community contributions
- Verify and improve temple information
- Preserve temple and cultural heritage digitally
- Communicate important service information
- Send notifications when permitted
- Improve App functionality
- Analyze technical performance
- Detect and prevent misuse
- Protect users and our services
- Comply with applicable laws and legal obligations
9. Publicly Visible Information
Certain information that you voluntarily contribute to Thiruthalam™ may be made publicly available.
For example, if you submit:
- A temple photograph
- Temple information
- A temple review or contribution
- Festival documentation
- Historical information
- Community content
such content may appear on temple pages, search results, the Thiruthalam™ website, or other related public services.
Please consider carefully what information you submit.
Do not include personal information about yourself or other individuals in public contributions unless you have a legitimate reason and appropriate permission.
10. Communications and Notifications
If you provide your email address or mobile number, we may use it to communicate with you regarding:
- Account-related matters
- Security alerts
- Important service updates
- App updates
- Temple events
- Festival information
- Volunteer activities
- Community initiatives
Marketing or promotional communications will be provided in accordance with applicable law and your communication preferences.
You can generally control push notification permissions through your device settings.
11. Cookies and Similar Technologies
Our website and online services may use cookies, local storage, pixels, analytics technologies, or similar technologies.
These technologies may be used to:
- Keep services functioning
- Remember preferences
- Understand website usage
- Improve performance
- Detect security issues
- Measure service effectiveness
You may control cookies through your browser settings where applicable.
12. Third-Party Services
To operate and improve Thiruthalam™, we may use third-party service providers.
These services may include providers for:
- Cloud hosting
- Database infrastructure
- Authentication
- Maps and location services
- Push notifications
- Analytics
- Crash reporting
- AI processing
- Email or SMS delivery
- Security
- Payment processing, if payment features are introduced
Third-party providers may process information according to their own privacy policies and applicable agreements.
We encourage users to review the privacy policies of third-party services where appropriate.
13. Payments
If Thiruthalam™ introduces paid services, subscriptions, donations, or other payment functionality, payment information may be processed by authorized payment service providers.
We do not intend to store complete payment card information on our own servers unless expressly stated otherwise.
Payment providers may collect and process payment information according to their respective privacy policies and applicable laws.
14. Data Sharing and Disclosure
We do not sell your personal information as a commercial data product.
We may share information in limited circumstances, including:
Service Providers
We may share information with trusted service providers who help us operate the App and provide services.
Legal Requirements
We may disclose information where required by applicable law, court order, government authority, or lawful request.
Security and Protection
We may disclose information when reasonably necessary to:
- Prevent fraud
- Investigate misuse
- Protect users
- Protect our systems
- Enforce our terms
- Protect legal rights
Public Contributions
Information that you intentionally submit as public temple or heritage content may be displayed publicly as described above.
15. Data Retention
We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including:
- Providing services
- Maintaining user accounts
- Maintaining community contributions
- Meeting legal requirements
- Resolving disputes
- Preventing fraud and abuse
- Maintaining security
- Preserving legitimate records
The retention period may vary depending on the type of information and the purpose for which it was collected.
16. Account Deletion
If you have created a Thiruthalam™ account, you may request deletion of your account and associated personal information, subject to applicable legal and operational requirements.
Account deletion requests may be submitted through the account settings, where available, or by contacting us using the details below.
Some information may need to be retained where required by law or where necessary for legitimate purposes such as security, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, or maintaining public heritage records.
Public temple contributions may not necessarily be deleted automatically when an account is deleted if they have become part of the community temple heritage database.
17. Data Security
We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect information against:
- Unauthorized access
- Unauthorized disclosure
- Loss
- Misuse
- Alteration
- Destruction
Security measures may include access controls, authentication, encryption where appropriate, secure infrastructure, monitoring, and regular security improvements.
However, no internet transmission or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
18. Children's Privacy
Thiruthalam™ is not intended to knowingly collect personal information from children without appropriate parental or guardian involvement where required by applicable law.
If you believe that a child has provided personal information to us improperly, please contact us.
If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child in circumstances where collection was not appropriate, we will take reasonable steps to address the situation.
19. User Responsibilities
When using Thiruthalam™, you agree not to knowingly submit:
- False or misleading information
- Private information belonging to another person
- Copyrighted content without authorization
- Defamatory content
- Harmful or illegal content
- Sensitive personal information unnecessarily
- Content that violates applicable laws
Users are responsible for ensuring that they have appropriate rights and permissions for content they upload.
20. Temple Information Accuracy
Thiruthalam™ is a community-powered platform.
Temple information may come from:
- Volunteers
- Community members
- Temple representatives
- Researchers
- Public sources
- Internal research
- User contributions
Although we aim to improve accuracy, we cannot guarantee that every temple detail, timing, festival date, tradition, address, or other information will always be complete, current, or error-free.
Users should verify important information directly with the relevant temple or authorized source before making travel or religious arrangements.
21. Religious and Cultural Information
Thiruthalam™ provides information about temples, traditions, festivals, beliefs, and cultural practices for informational, devotional, educational, and heritage purposes.
Information related to Rasi, Nakshatra, spiritual practices, traditional remedies, astrology, or religious beliefs should not be considered medical, financial, legal, or professional advice.
Thiruthalam™ does not guarantee any spiritual, religious, health, financial, or personal outcome from visiting a temple or following a traditional practice.
22. International Data Processing
Depending on the infrastructure and third-party services used by Thiruthalam™, your information may be processed or stored on servers located outside your state or country.
Where required, we will take reasonable steps to ensure appropriate safeguards are applied to personal information in accordance with applicable laws.
23. Your Privacy Rights
Subject to applicable law, you may have rights relating to your personal information, including:
- Right to access information
- Right to request correction
- Right to request deletion
- Right to withdraw consent where applicable
- Right to object to certain processing
- Right to request information about processing
- Right to raise a privacy complaint
To exercise applicable rights, please contact us using the contact information below.
We may need to verify your request before processing it.
24. Withdrawal of Permissions
You can manage certain permissions through your device settings.
Depending on your device, you may be able to disable:
- Location access
- Camera access
- Photos/media access
- Notifications
- Other application permissions
Disabling permissions may affect certain Thiruthalam™ features.
25. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect:
- Changes to our services
- New features
- Changes in technology
- Changes in legal requirements
- Changes in our data practices
When we make material changes, we may provide appropriate notice through the App, website, or other communication channels.
The updated Privacy Policy will include a revised "Last Updated" date.
26. Contact Us
If you have questions, concerns, requests, or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy or the way Thiruthalam™ handles information, please contact us.
Virthalam Foundation
Section 8 Non-Profit Company
App: Thiruthalam™ — A Divine Temples Journey
Website: https://thiruthalam.in/
Email: info@virthalam.org
Registered Office: No. 263 Buvancare Street, O.K. Palayam, Mudaliarpet, Pondicherry – 605004
Phone: +91 9488070302
27. Grievance / Privacy Complaints
For privacy-related concerns or complaints, please contact our designated privacy/grievance contact at:
Name: Vadivelan.S
Designation: Director
Email: info@virthalam.org
Phone: +91 9488070302
We will review and respond to privacy requests and complaints in accordance with applicable laws and our internal procedures.
28. Consent
By using Thiruthalam™, you acknowledge that you have read this Privacy Policy.
Where required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent before collecting or processing information for specific purposes.
You may withdraw consent where applicable by contacting us or changing the relevant settings, subject to legal and operational requirements.
Thiruthalam™ — A Divine Temples Journey
Discover. Document. Preserve.
Developed by:
Virthalam Foundation
Section 8 Non-Profit Company
Built with technology. Driven by seva. Dedicated to preserving India's temple heritage.