Privacy Policy
Last updated: August 18, 2026
This policy describes what Carrel actually collects, in plain English. We do not run ads, we do not sell data, and we are not building a data business. Where we collect something that might surprise you, such as the audio of a voice discussion, it is named here explicitly rather than buried.
1. Who we are
Carrel is operated by GoAlgo, based in India. For any privacy question, or to exercise any right described below, write to support@carrel.app. We are the data fiduciary for the purposes of India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
2. What we collect, and why
Everything Carrel stores falls into one of the categories below. There is nothing else.
| What | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Your name | To address you in the app and to show group members who you are. |
| Your phone number | It is how you sign in. We send a one-time code to it; we do not use it for marketing. |
| Your year of birth | To confirm you are 16 or older. We store the year only, never a full date of birth, so we cannot derive your birthday. |
| Your groups, friends, and blocks (social graph) | Carrel lets you study with other people. We store who is in which group, who your friends are, and who you have blocked, because the feature cannot work otherwise. |
| Your messages in group discussions | So the thread is there when you come back, and so other members can read it. Group messages are visible to that group. |
| Voice discussion audio and transcripts (only if you start one) | Voice sessions are optional and never begin without your explicit consent to recording. Audio is streamed live to Google to power the conversation. We store the resulting transcript, not the raw audio. |
| Your learning activity | Topics you studied, stages you completed, quiz answers and scores, so your progress persists and quizzes can revisit what you missed. |
| Basic technical logs | Timestamps, error traces, and request records, kept to keep the service running and to investigate abuse or outages. |
3. What we do not collect
We do not collect your email address, your postal address, your precise location, your contact list, your photo library, your calendar, or any advertising identifier. We do not run third-party analytics SDKs or marketing pixels, and we do not track you across other apps or websites.
4. Voice discussions, stated precisely
This is the most sensitive thing Carrel does, so it gets its own section.
- Voice is opt-in per session. Nothing is captured until you consent to recording for that specific session.
- While a session is live, your audio is streamed to Google’s Gemini Live service so it can respond. It is processed to run the conversation.
- We retain the transcript of the session so you can revisit what was discussed. We do not retain the raw audio recording.
- Sessions are time-limited and metered. You can end one at any moment, and you can delete the transcript by deleting your account.
- Carrel does not use your voice to identify you, and never will.
5. Who your data is shared with
We share the minimum necessary with a small number of processors, and with nobody else. We do not sell personal data, and we do not disclose it for advertising.
- Other Carrel users: your name and your messages are visible to members of groups you join. That is the point of the feature, and it is worth knowing before you post.
- Google (Gemini): receives topic prompts, and, during a voice session, your audio. It generates the learning content and the spoken responses.
- MessageCentral: receives your phone number in order to deliver your one-time sign-in code.
- Neon: hosts the database our data sits in.
- Langfuse: receives AI request traces so we can debug and improve prompt quality.
- Unsplash and Wikimedia: receive the topic title only, to look up an illustrative image. They receive nothing about you.
We may also disclose information where we are legally required to, or where it is necessary to investigate a credible safety threat.
6. Moderation and safety data
Carrel lets you report a message or a user. When you do, we store the report, the reported content, and the outcome, so the decision is auditable and repeat behaviour is visible. Content that has been reported may be retained after deletion for as long as the safety investigation requires.
7. How long we keep it
We keep your personal data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account we remove your personal data and learning content from active systems, ask our AI processors to erase associated records, and purge backups on their normal rotation. We retain only what the law requires us to, such as payment records for tax purposes, and anonymised aggregates that cannot identify you.
8. Your rights
Under India’s DPDP Act, and as a matter of how we would want to be treated, you can:
- Get a copy of your data. The app has a data export in Settings, and it produces a machine-readable file of everything we hold.
- Delete your account. Available in the app under Settings, and also described on our account deletion page. It is immediate and it is not reversible.
- Correct what is wrong. Write to us and we will fix it.
- Withdraw consent for anything you previously agreed to, including voice recording.
- Complain. You may raise a grievance with us at support@carrel.app, and escalate to the Data Protection Board of India if we do not resolve it.
9. Security
Data is encrypted in transit. Access to production data is limited to the people who operate the service. Sign-in uses a one-time code rather than a password, so there is no password of yours for us to lose. No system is perfect, and we will tell you promptly if a breach affects you.
10. Age 16 and over
Carrel is not for children. You must be at least 16 years old to create an account, and we ask for your year of birth at sign-up to enforce it. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone below that age. If you believe someone underage has an account, write to support@carrel.app and we will remove it. See our children’s safety page for more.
11. International transfers
Our processors, including Google and our database host, operate servers outside India. Where your data is processed abroad, it is under contractual terms requiring protection equivalent to what this policy promises.
12. Changes to this policy
If we change what we collect, we will update this page and change the date at the top. Material changes will also be notified in the app. We will not quietly broaden collection and leave this page behind.
← Back to Carrel