Payil QR – Privacy Policy

📖 Overview

Payil QR is published by Karky Tamil Academy (Karky Research Foundation), Chennai, India. The app lets teachers and parents/guardians scan QR codes printed in official Payil textbooks to open the digital learning content for that lesson, across our Tamil and Computing book series (K–12).

This policy explains exactly what we collect, why we collect it, and what we do not do. We have kept it plain, because your privacy — and your child's — matters more than legal padding.

✅ At a Glance

We collect a small amount of account information from the adult who registers, and we use it for one purpose only: to sign you in and give you access to the educational content that belongs to your Payil books.

🚫 What We Do Not Do

• We do not use any third-party advertising networks. The app contains no advertisements of any kind.
• We do not use any third-party analytics services. There is no Firebase Analytics, Google Analytics, or any comparable analytics or behavioural-measurement SDK in the app.
• We do not use advertising identifiers (IDFA / AAID) and we do not fingerprint your device.
• We do not track users across other apps or websites, and we do not build advertising or behavioural profiles.
• We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for advertising, marketing, analytics or profiling.
• We do not collect location data, photos or media from your library, contacts, microphone audio, or health data.
• We do not collect payment or financial information in the app.

👤 Who Creates Accounts

Accounts in Payil QR are created and managed only by adults — a parent or guardian, or a teacher at a partner school.

Children do not create accounts and do not register themselves. Where a child uses the app, they do so on a device belonging to a registered parent, guardian or teacher, and the account remains under that adult's control. Registration information is provided by the adult, about the adult.

Access to digital content also requires a School Code issued by Karky Tamil Academy to the school.

📋 Information We Collect

Provided by the adult during registration

• Parent/Guardian or Teacher name (user name)
• Email address
• Phone number
• Role — Teacher or Parent/Guardian
• School Code — issued by Karky Tamil Academy

Authentication information

• Sign-in credentials or tokens from Google Sign-In or Sign in with Apple, where you choose to use them. We never receive or store your Google or Apple password.

Learning progress

• A record of which lessons and content items have been opened under your account, so the app can maintain your place and your learning experience. This is used to deliver the service to you. It is not used for analytics, measurement, profiling or advertising, and it is not shared with anyone.

Technical information handled for delivery and security

• Your IP address is necessarily processed by our servers in order to deliver content and to protect the service against abuse. It is not used to build analytics, profiles or advertising audiences, and is not retained for those purposes.

📷 Camera Permission

Payil QR requests access to your device camera for one purpose only: to scan the QR codes printed in official Payil educational books.

The camera view is used to read a QR code in real time. No photograph or video is ever captured, saved, stored, uploaded, transmitted or shared. Nothing from the camera leaves your device. Nothing from the camera reaches our servers.

You may decline camera access, and you may withdraw it at any time in your device settings. The app will simply be unable to scan QR codes until you re-enable it.

🎯 How We Use Your Information

We use the information above solely to:

• Create and manage your account
• Authenticate you when you sign in
• Verify your school's access using the School Code
• Provide access to the authorised educational content linked to Payil textbook QR codes
• Maintain your learning progress and educational experience within the app
• Contact you about your own account, or about an essential service or safety matter

We do not use your information for any other purpose. We do not use it for advertising, for marketing communications you have not asked for, for analytics, or for profiling.

🔗 Service Providers We Rely On

We do not share your information with third parties for their own purposes. We do use a small number of service providers who process data strictly on our instructions, only to run the service:

• Google Firebase Authentication and secure storage — used to authenticate accounts and to hold account data securely on our behalf. Firebase acts as our infrastructure provider and data processor. We do not use Firebase Analytics or any other analytics product. (Firebase privacy information)
• Google Sign-In — used only if you choose to sign in with a Google account (Google Privacy Policy)
• Sign in with Apple — used only if you choose to sign in with an Apple ID (Apple Privacy Policy)

These providers are not permitted to use your information for their own advertising, marketing or profiling purposes.

We may also disclose information where we are legally required to do so, or to protect the rights and safety of users — and we will limit any such disclosure to what is strictly necessary.

🧒 Children's Privacy

Payil QR supports learning from Payil books in K–12 classrooms and at home. It is designed so that we do not collect personal information from children.

• Registration is completed entirely by a parent, guardian or teacher. Children do not register and do not create accounts.
• The information we hold is the registering adult's own contact information.
• The app contains no advertising, no third-party analytics, and no mechanism that tracks children across other apps or websites.
• There are no social features, no user-to-user messaging, no public profiles and no user-generated content sharing in the app.

If you believe a child has provided us personal information directly, please write to raj@karky.in and we will delete it promptly.

🔒 Data Storage & Security

Account information is stored securely on our servers, hosted on Google Firebase infrastructure in data centres that meet recognised industry security standards. Data is encrypted in transit using HTTPS/TLS, and access is restricted to authorised Karky Tamil Academy personnel who need it to support your account.

We retain your account information for as long as your account is active, or as long as needed to provide the service. You may request deletion at any time.

⚖️ Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Correct information that is inaccurate
• Delete your account and the information associated with it
• Withdraw consent for any non-essential processing
• Data portability — receive a copy of your information

To exercise any of these rights, email raj@karky.in. We respond within 30 days.

🗑️ Account & Data Deletion

You can delete your account and all associated personal information by:

• Using the Delete Account option in the app settings, or
• Emailing raj@karky.in with the subject "Delete My Account"

Deletion is completed within 30 days and removes your name, email address, phone number, role, School Code association, authentication record and learning progress. Where we are obliged to keep a minimal record for legal or security reasons, we keep only what the law requires.

🔄 Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make a significant change — in particular any change to what we collect or why — we will notify you in the app or by email, and update the date at the top of this page. We will not use previously collected information for a materially different purpose without your consent.

✉️ Contact Us

Karky Tamil Academy (Karky Research Foundation)
102 6th Cross Street, Trustpuram, Kodambakkam,
Chennai 600024, Tamil Nadu, India

Privacy enquiries and data requests: raj@karky.in