Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 25, 2026

Carrel is an invite-only product currently in a trial period. We collect the minimum information required to let you sign in and use the service — essentially your name and phone number. We do not run ads, we do not sell data, and we are not building a data business. This page exists to make that promise concrete and binding.

1. Who we are

Carrel is operated by chetandhandal.com (“we”, “our” or “us”), based in India. For any privacy question, write to us at support@carrel.app.

2. The only personal data we collect

Carrel deliberately collects as little personal information as possible. The only personal data we hold is:

• Your name — used to address you inside the app.
• Your mobile phone number — used to sign you in via a one-time password (OTP) delivered by SMS.

That is it. We do not collect your address, email, date of birth, location, contact list, device identifiers for advertising, or any social-graph information. We do not run third-party analytics or marketing pixels on the site.

3. Other information generated while you use Carrel

Beyond the personal data above, the service necessarily handles:

• Learning content you create — the subjects, topics, notes and quiz history you generate inside Carrel. This stays tied to your account and is treated as yours.
• Minimal technical logs — short-lived server logs (timestamps, request paths, errors) used only to keep the service running and to investigate abuse or outages.
• Payment metadata — for paid access, our PCI-compliant payment partner processes your card or UPI transaction. We see only that a payment succeeded; we never receive or store card numbers.

4. How we use this information

• To sign you in and keep your sessions secure.
• To store and serve the learning content you create.
• To enforce fair-use limits and prevent abuse.
• To send rare, service-critical messages (security, downtime).

We do not use your personal data for advertising, profiling, scoring or any kind of behavioural targeting.

5. What we will never do

• We will never sell your personal data to anyone.
• We will never serve third-party advertising inside Carrel.
• We will never use your private learning content to train AI models — ours or anyone else's.
• We will never track you across the open web.
• We will never share your name or phone number with marketers.

6. Third-party services

Carrel relies on a small set of vendors to function. Each receives only what is strictly required:

• MessageCentral — receives your phone number to deliver the SMS OTP.
• Google Gemini — receives the topic prompts needed to generate learning content. It does not receive your name or phone number.
• Wikipedia (and optionally Unsplash) — used for public image lookups based on the topic title only.
• Payment partner — handles transactions for paid access in line with PCI-DSS.

7. Data retention & deletion

We retain your name, phone number and learning content for as long as your account is active. You may request full deletion at any time by writing to support@carrel.app; we will erase your personal data and learning content within 30 days, except where retention is required by law (for example, payment records for tax purposes).

8. Where your data lives

Carrel's servers and database are hosted with reputable cloud providers. Depending on the provider's region, data may be processed or stored outside your country of residence (including in the United States, the European Union, or India). Any such transfer is protected by standard contractual safeguards offered by the provider.

9. Security

We use industry-standard measures — encrypted transport (HTTPS), signed session tokens, hashed credentials, and least-privilege access controls. No system is ever absolutely secure, but we work to safeguard the small amount of information we hold.

10. Children’s privacy

Carrel is not directed at children under 13 (or the equivalent age of digital consent in your jurisdiction, including under the U.S. COPPA, the EU GDPR, and India's DPDP Act). We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under that age. If you believe a child has provided us information, please contact us and we will delete it.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete the personal information we hold about you, and to object to or restrict certain processing. This includes rights granted under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, the EU/UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), and similar laws. To exercise any of these rights, email support@carrel.app. We will respond within a reasonable time, and at no cost to you.

12. Trial period & possible discontinuation

Carrel is currently in a trial period. We may pause, change or permanently discontinue the service at any time. If we discontinue Carrel, we will, where reasonably possible, give you advance notice and an opportunity to export your learning content. After shutdown, your personal data and learning content will be deleted from active systems within a reasonable period, subject to backup retention windows and legal obligations.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated through the app or via the contact details on your account.

14. Contact

Questions about this policy? Reach us at support@carrel.app. We read every email.