In short
- Your account: we collect only what we need to run your FieldSocio account, and you can delete it in the app at any time.
- Your participants' data: you (the researcher or your institution) decide what is collected. We store and process it only on your behalf and only to provide FieldSocio.
- Where: research data is stored in India (Mumbai). It leaves India only if you switch on AI analysis by Google Gemini for a project and the participant agrees.
- Your rights: access, correction, erasure, withdrawal of consent, nomination and grievance redressal. Write to ask@fieldsocio.app. We reply within 90 days at most.
1. Who we are
FieldSocio is provided by Green Concept Ecoscapes Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India ("FieldSocio", "we", "us"). This notice explains how we process personal data under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the "DPDP Act") and the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025. It covers the FieldSocio Android app, the web dashboard and this website.
2. Our two roles
- For your account data, we are the Data Fiduciary. We decide why and how it is processed, as described in sections 3–4.
- For research data about your participants, you are the Data Fiduciary and we are your Data Processor. You decide what to collect and why. We process it only to provide FieldSocio to you and never for our own purposes: we do not sell it, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models. Participants wishing to exercise their rights should contact the researcher who collected their data. If they write to us, we will pass the request to that researcher and help them respond.
3. Personal data we process about you (account holders)
| Data | Why we need it |
|---|---|
| Name, email address, role (researcher, enumerator or admin) | To create and secure your account, sign you in and contact you about the service |
| Password | To sign you in. It is handled by Google Firebase Authentication; we never see it. |
| Record of the privacy notice version you accepted and when | To show that notice was given and consent obtained |
| Crash reports: error details, device model, operating system, app version, your account ID (only if you opt in) | To find and fix bugs. Off unless you switch it on at sign-up or in Settings. |
| Usage analytics (only if you opt in): which app screens are opened and which features are used, for example that a project was created or an interview recorded, with its approximate length and language; app version, device model, operating system, approximate country or region, and a random app-instance ID set by Google Analytics. Never research or participant data, names, email addresses, text you type, project names or your account ID. | To see which features are used and where the app needs work. Off unless you switch it on at sign-up or in Settings › Usage analytics. |
| Subscription records (only if you buy a paid plan): your plan, purchase, renewal and expiry dates, the app store's transaction ID and your account ID. Payment itself is handled by Google Play or the App Store; we never see your card or bank details. | To give you the features of the plan you paid for and to handle renewals, cancellations and refunds |
| Messages you send us | To answer support and data protection requests |
If a researcher adds you to a team project, your name, email address and role are visible to the project owner and the other members of that project, and the records you collect for it show that you collected them.
When a researcher invites an email address to a team project, we send that address one email with the invitation (who invited it and the project name). If you join the waitlist on this website, we keep the email address you give us only to tell you when FieldSocio is available; write to us to be removed.
We do not use advertising SDKs, advertising IDs or cross-app tracking, and we do not sell personal data. The only analytics is the opt-in usage analytics above.
4. Research data we process for researchers
Depending on what the researcher collects, this can include:
- Participant names or code names, and details such as age or gender
- Interview, focus group and consent audio recordings
- Transcripts and translations, survey answers, field notes and photos
- GPS location of interviews, observations and PRA exercises
- Consent records: method, the scopes the participant agreed to, the notice language and version, and for minors the parent or guardian who consented
- AI-generated summaries, codes, entities and tone analysis (only where AI analysis is switched on)
The app gives researchers a built-in participant notice (in English and Hindi, and readable aloud in any other language), lets participants choose separately whether to allow audio recording, transcription and AI analysis, records guardian consent for participants under 18, and lets consent be withdrawn at any time. Our systems check the participant's recorded consent before transcription or AI analysis, and stop processing when consent is withdrawn.
Team projects. A researcher who owns a project can add colleagues who have FieldSocio accounts, as supervisors (see and manage all project data), enumerators (collect data and see only what they collected) or viewers (read only). Data that members collect is stored in the owner's project, and the owner stays responsible for it as the Data Fiduciary. When a member is removed or leaves, they lose access, and the project's data is deleted from their device the next time it connects. What they collected stays with the project.
5. Who processes data for us
| Service | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Google Firebase / Google Cloud (Authentication, Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions) | Accounts, storage and synchronisation of research data, processing pipeline | India (Mumbai, asia-south1) |
| Bhashini (National Language Translation Mission, Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India) | Speech-to-text and translation of recordings, when the participant has agreed to transcription | India |
| Google Gemini | AI analysis of transcripts. Only for projects where the researcher has switched AI analysis on, and only for participants who agreed to it. | Outside India |
| Mapbox | Map tiles for the PRA maps (Social Map, Transect Walk). It receives the map area on screen and your device's IP address, no research data. Usage telemetry is switched off. | Outside India |
| Sentry | Crash reports, only if you opt in | Outside India (USA) |
| Google Analytics for Firebase | Usage analytics, only if you opt in. No advertising ID, no ad personalisation, no user ID. | Outside India (Google, USA) |
| RevenueCat | Keeps track of paid subscriptions bought through Google Play or the App Store. It receives your account ID and the store's purchase details, no research data. | Outside India (USA) |
| Vercel | Hosting of the web dashboard | Global edge network |
Each of these processes data only to provide its service to us, under contractual security obligations. We do not share personal data with anyone else except where required by law.
6. Processing outside India
Research data is stored in India. It is processed outside India only by Google Gemini, and only when both the researcher and the participant have chosen AI analysis. Opt-in crash reports are processed by Sentry and opt-in usage analytics by Google Analytics for Firebase outside India, subscription records of paid plans by RevenueCat outside India, and Mapbox serves map tiles from outside India (it receives only the map area on screen and your IP address). We will follow any restrictions the Government of India notifies under section 16 of the DPDP Act.
7. How long we keep data
- Account and research data: for as long as your account is active, or until you or the researcher delete it.
- Usage analytics (if you opt in): Google Analytics keeps event-level data for 2 months and then deletes it; only aggregated, non-identifying reports remain. Switching usage analytics off stops collection and deletes the app-instance ID and the analytics data still on your device.
- Subscription records: for as long as your account is active, and afterwards only as long as tax and accounting law requires.
- Deleted items: when a participant, interview, consent record or other item is deleted, it is removed from the cloud together with its recordings, transcripts, translations and AI output.
- Deleted accounts: all account and research data is deleted from our live systems and from this device. As required by rule 8(3) of the DPDP Rules, 2025, we keep a minimal record (account ID, email address, dates of account creation and deletion) and logs of processing for one year, and then erase them.
8. How we protect data
- Encryption in transit (TLS) and at rest (Google Cloud encryption)
- Access controls that limit each account to its own data, enforced on our servers
- On the device, data is kept in the app's private storage and excluded from Android cloud backups
- Logging and monitoring of access to detect and investigate unauthorised access
- Signing out wipes research data from the device, which matters when field devices are shared
If a personal data breach occurs, we will inform affected users without delay and report it to the Data Protection Board of India as the DPDP Rules require. Where the breach affects research data, we will also inform the researchers concerned so they can meet their own obligations.
9. Your rights and how to use them
| Right | How |
|---|---|
| Withdraw consent | Switch off crash reports or usage analytics in Settings › Privacy & Data, or delete your account. This is as easy as giving consent. |
| Access a summary of your data and who it was shared with | App: Settings › Privacy & Data › Get a copy of my data, or email us |
| Correct, complete or update your data | App: Settings › Privacy & Data › Correct my data, or email us |
| Erase your data | App: Settings › Account › Delete Account, or see Delete Account |
| Nominate someone to act for you on death or incapacity | App: Settings › Privacy & Data › Nominate a person, or email us |
| Grievance redressal | Email ask@fieldsocio.app |
To protect your data, we may ask you to write from the email address registered with your account. Participants should contact the researcher who collected their data. We will help where we can.
10. Grievances and complaints
Grievance contact: ask@fieldsocio.app, Green Concept Ecoscapes Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. This contact can answer any question about how we process your personal data.
We acknowledge grievances promptly and resolve them within 90 days at most. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India through the means it publishes.
11. Children
FieldSocio accounts are for adults (18 or older). Research participants may include children only where the researcher obtains verifiable consent from a parent or lawful guardian. The app records who consented and how they were verified. We do not track children, monitor their behaviour or target advertising at them.
12. Changes to this notice
If we change this notice, we will update the version and date above and ask you to review it in the app before you continue.
The substantive obligations of the DPDP Act, 2023 and the DPDP Rules, 2025 apply from May 2027. We follow them now. Until then, the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the rules under it also apply.