Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Vichara QDA ("we", "our", "us") respects your privacy. This policy explains what information we collect when you use Vichara QDA, how we use it, and the choices you have. Vichara QDA is developed by Dr G Hari Prakash.

2. Information we collect

• Account information: name, email address, password (stored only as a salted cryptographic hash, never in plain text), institution, designation, discipline, country and account type, as provided at registration.
• Google sign-in: if you choose "Continue with Google", we receive your name, email address and Google account identifier from Google. We do not receive your Google password.
• Research data you choose to store in the cloud: if you explicitly save a project to the cloud, its documents, codes, segments and memos are stored on our server. If you do not use this feature, your research data stays only in your browser and we never receive it.
• Basic technical logs: our hosting provider records standard web server logs (such as IP address and request timestamps) for security and abuse prevention. We do not use third-party advertising or analytics trackers.

3. How we use information

• To create and secure your account, and let you sign in.
• To provide the features you use, including saving and syncing cloud projects and sharing them with collaborators you invite.
• To send account-related email: welcome messages, email verification, password reset, and notifications when a project is created or shared with you.
• To maintain security, prevent abuse, and enforce reasonable rate limits on our service.

4. Where your data lives

By default, your documents, codes and memos are stored only in your web browser (IndexedDB) and are never sent to our server. If you choose to save a project to the cloud, that project's data is stored on our hosting provider's infrastructure so it is backed up and can be shared with collaborators you invite. This choice is always yours, made project by project. When you run an analysis, the values needed for that calculation are processed in server memory and discarded immediately; they are not written to disk.

5. Data sharing

We do not sell your personal information or research data. We share information only with the service providers that help us run Vichara QDA, specifically:

• Hosting (Railway) — runs our application and stores cloud-saved projects and account data.
• Email delivery (Brevo) — sends account and notification emails on our behalf.
• Google — only if you choose to sign in with Google, to authenticate you.

These providers process data only to deliver the service to you and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.

6. Security

Passwords are hashed with scrypt and never stored in plain text. Sessions use signed, HTTP-only cookies. State-changing requests are protected against cross-site request forgery. Collaborator access to cloud projects is controlled by owner, editor and viewer roles that you assign.

7. Cookies

We use a small number of essential cookies required for you to stay signed in (a session cookie) and, where applicable, a separate administrator session cookie. We do not use advertising or third-party tracking cookies.

8. Your rights

You can export or delete any project stored in your browser at any time from within the app. To delete your account, any project you have saved to the cloud, or to request a copy of the information we hold about you, contact us at the email below and we will act on it promptly.

9. Children's privacy

Vichara QDA is intended for researchers, students and professionals and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Vichara QDA evolves. We will update the "last updated" date above when we do, and material changes will be communicated by email or an in-app notice where appropriate.

11. Contact us

Questions about this policy or your data can be sent to info@vicharaqda.in.