Last Updated / Effective Date: August 21, 2026
Kathasaar Media (“Kathasaar”, “we”, “our”, or “us”) respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, disclose, and protect information when you use the Kathasaar website at https://kathasaar.com, the mobile application “Kathasaar – Hindi Stories” (package name: com.kathasaar.app), and related services, features, communications, and administrative systems (collectively, the “Services”).
This policy applies to both the website and mobile app. Some features or data practices may differ by platform, login method, device, or app version. By using the Services, you acknowledge this Privacy Policy. Where applicable law requires consent, we will request it separately.
1. Information We Collect
1.1 Account and Profile Information
When you create, access, or update a Kathasaar account, we may collect:
- Name, display name, username, email address, birth year or age-related information, and password credentials in securely processed form.
- Profile photograph or avatar, biography, author information, referral code, account preferences, and other information you choose to provide.
- Account role, registration date, login method, account status, security status, and whether password-based account features are available.
Passwords are used for authentication and are not displayed publicly. Please do not share your password or authentication tokens with anyone.
1.2 Google Sign-In Information
If you choose “Continue with Google”, we may receive your Google account identifier, name, email address, profile image, and authentication token or authorization information needed to sign you in and link or create your Kathasaar account. We request only the basic openid, email, and profile scopes. We do not use Google Sign-In data for advertising, credit decisions, or unrelated purposes.
Kathasaar’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
1.3 Reading, Library, and Interaction Activity
We collect information about how you use reading and community features, such as:
- Stories and chapters opened, reading progress, current chapter, scroll or resume position, reading duration, completion status, reading streaks, and reading history.
- Whether reading activity occurred through the app or website. Older activity for which a reliable source was not previously available may be classified as earlier or web reading activity.
- Favorites, library entries, follows and unfollows, follower/following relationships, comments, replies, story sharing activity, searches, selected filters, sorting choices, and content opened from recommendations.
- Language selection, mature-content preference, mature-content confirmations, image-reveal choices, and other settings.
- Screen views and feature interactions, including Home, Search, Library, Profile, story cards, social links, update checks, referrals, points, premium unlocks, and writing tools.
1.4 Stories and Other User-Generated Content
If you write, upload, submit, publish, comment on, or report content, we may collect and store:
- Story titles, introductions, genres, posters or cover images, series status, premium status, chapters, drafts, review submissions, publication status, and revision information.
- Comments, replies, profile content, images, author information, and other material you voluntarily submit.
- Content reports, report reasons, supporting details, moderation decisions, and related account or content identifiers.
Drafts and pending content are not intended for general public display, but may be accessible to authorized Kathasaar administrators, reviewers, moderators, and service providers where necessary to operate, secure, review, or support the Services.
1.5 Kathasaar Points, Premium Stories, and Referrals
We maintain records needed to operate Kathasaar Points and related features, including:
- Points earned, spent, adjusted, reversed, or remaining, together with the activity, date, story, or transaction associated with the entry.
- Eligible app reading time, streaks, eligible shares, story views, referrals, and premium-story unlocks used to calculate points.
- Premium stories unlocked, unlock cost, remaining balance, and author rewards generated by eligible unique unlocks.
- Your referral code, a referral code you apply, the referring and referred accounts, referral date, status, and points awarded.
Kathasaar Points are platform-based virtual points, are not payment-card information, and do not represent cash or a bank balance. The Kathasaar Store may display previews or future reward opportunities; additional terms or disclosures may apply before a redemption feature is made available.
1.6 Notifications and Device Tokens
If you allow notifications, we collect and process a push-notification token, device platform, associated account where applicable, token status, and information necessary to send and manage notifications. Notifications may relate to newly published stories, new followers, comments or replies, account activity, announcements, updates, safety, or other Kathasaar features.
Notification permission is optional and can be changed through your device settings. Signing out may unregister the token from the current account. Delivery is provided using Firebase Cloud Messaging and applicable Google Play services.
1.7 Technical, Device, Log, and Security Information
We and our service providers may automatically process:
- IP address and approximate location inferred from IP address, such as country, region, or city. We do not request precise GPS location.
- Device-generated or app-generated identifiers, including a randomly generated Kathasaar device identifier and per-launch session identifier.
- Device and browser type, operating system, platform, app version, language, user agent, network information, timestamps, referring page, requested URL, and server access logs.
- Authentication tokens, login/session records, failed authentication attempts, last login or activity, and information used to detect abuse, unauthorized access, malware, spam, or policy violations.
- Crash, error, performance, delivery, and diagnostic information where generated by the operating system, application, hosting environment, Google Play, Firebase, or our service providers.
1.8 Cookies, Local Storage, and App Preferences
The website may use cookies and similar technologies. The app may use secure local storage, device preferences, WebView storage, and similar mechanisms to store authentication information, a generated device identifier, language, mature-content preference, cached content, refresh information, and other settings needed for functionality and security.
1.9 Information We Do Not Intentionally Collect
Kathasaar does not intentionally request or collect precise GPS location, contacts, SMS or call logs, microphone recordings, health information, government identifiers, or payment-card details through the current Services. Selecting a poster or profile image uses the device’s file-selection functionality and does not require Kathasaar to continuously access your media library.
2. How We Use Information
We use information for the following purposes:
- Create, authenticate, secure, maintain, and support accounts and sessions.
- Provide story discovery, reading, writing, series, premium, library, search, profile, follow, comment, notification, referral, points, and moderation features.
- Save and synchronize progress, app and web reading time, favorites, completed stories, preferences, drafts, and account activity.
- Calculate Kathasaar Points, maintain transaction history, process premium unlocks, credit eligible author rewards, prevent duplicate or ineligible rewards, and audit points activity.
- Provide and improve recommendations, rankings, Home sections, Search filters, reading continuity, accessibility, interface design, performance, and reliability.
- Send requested or operational communications, push notifications, security notices, service announcements, and support responses.
- Review stories and chapters before publication, moderate user-generated content, investigate reports, and enforce our Terms, content rules, and safety controls.
- Detect, investigate, prevent, and respond to fraud, abuse, spam, malware, unauthorized access, technical failures, and legal or policy violations.
- Comply with applicable law, lawful requests, Google Play requirements, and protect the rights, safety, and integrity of users, Kathasaar, and others.
3. Mature-Theme Content and Age Controls
Some stories may be labelled Mature Theme (18+) because they contain mature, sensitive, intense, or adult-oriented themes. Mature-theme controls are intended to provide guidance and visibility choices, but no technical control can guarantee that every item is categorized perfectly.
- The “Show Mature Content (18+)” preference may be disabled by default where applicable.
- Enabling mature content or opening certain content may require an 18+ confirmation.
- Mature images may be blurred and require a separate “Show Image” action.
- Mature stories may be hidden from recommendations or other discovery areas when the preference is disabled.
- We may store your mature-content preference and related confirmation events to apply your settings and demonstrate operation of safety controls.
Mature-theme content is intended only for adults aged 18 or older. Do not enable or access it if you are under 18.
4. When We Disclose Information
We do not sell or rent personal information. We do not use Google Sign-In information for advertising. We may disclose information in the following limited circumstances:
- Public and community features: published stories, author names, avatars, biographies, comments, replies, follower relationships, and other public profile or content information may be visible to users and website visitors.
- Service providers: hosting, content delivery, database, cloud messaging, authentication, email, security, cache, analytics, diagnostics, and technical-support providers may process information on our behalf as needed to provide their services.
- Google services: Google Sign-In, Firebase Cloud Messaging, Google Play services, Play Console, and Android platform services may process relevant account, token, device, diagnostic, or app information under their own terms and privacy policies.
- Legal and safety reasons: we may preserve or disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law or lawful process, enforce agreements, investigate wrongdoing, protect rights or safety, or secure the Services.
- Business changes: information may be transferred as part of a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, sale of assets, or similar transaction, subject to applicable law and appropriate safeguards.
- With your direction or consent: we may disclose information when you ask us to do so, such as when using the system share sheet or opening an external service.
Links to Facebook, Instagram, Google Play, or other external services do not send your Kathasaar account data merely because they are displayed. When you choose to open or interact with an external service, that service’s privacy practices apply.
5. Legal Grounds Where Applicable
Depending on your location and applicable law, we process information to perform our agreement with you and provide requested Services; based on your consent; for legitimate interests such as security, moderation, fraud prevention, support, analytics, and service improvement; and to comply with legal obligations. Where processing depends on consent, you may withdraw consent, but this does not affect processing already performed and may limit related features.
6. Data Retention
We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide and secure the Services, maintain your account, preserve reading and points records, moderate content, resolve disputes, comply with law, and enforce agreements. Retention depends on the nature of the information and why it is processed.
- Account and profile information is generally retained while the account remains active.
- Published content and related community interactions may remain available until removed, anonymized, or otherwise handled under our Terms and applicable law.
- Drafts, reading activity, points, referrals, premium unlocks, notifications, and moderation records are retained as needed to operate those features, maintain integrity, prevent abuse, or comply with obligations.
- Push tokens may be retained until logout, account deletion, token replacement, invalidation, or removal through operational cleanup.
- Security, access, error, and diagnostic logs may be retained for a reasonable period for security, troubleshooting, audit, and legal purposes.
- Deleted information may remain temporarily in restricted backups, caches, fraud-prevention records, or legal archives until their normal deletion cycle expires.
7. Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect information, including HTTPS encryption in transit, access controls, token-based authentication, restricted administrative access, input and upload controls, security monitoring, and backups where appropriate. Authentication information may be stored locally using device-appropriate storage. No website, application, transmission, or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure.
You are responsible for protecting your password, device, email account, and active sessions. Notify us promptly if you believe your account or information has been compromised.
8. Your Choices and Rights
Depending on the feature and applicable law, you may:
- Access and update profile information and preferences.
- Manage stories, drafts, chapters, comments, favorites, follows, language, and mature-content settings where controls are available.
- Disable push notifications in Android or device settings.
- Manage browser cookies and clear local app or browser storage, understanding that this may sign you out or reset preferences.
- Request access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, withdrawal of consent, or a copy of certain information where applicable law provides those rights.
- Complain to an applicable privacy or data-protection authority.
We may need to verify your identity before completing a request. Rights may be subject to legal exceptions, the rights of other users, and records we must retain for security, fraud prevention, moderation, transactions, disputes, or legal compliance.
9. Account and Data Deletion
Direct in-app account-deletion requests are available in Kathasaar mobile app version 1.6.0 and later under Settings > Account actions > Delete account. If you use an earlier app version or cannot access the app, you may submit a deletion request through https://kathasaar.com/account-deletion/ or email hello@kathasaar.com.
When an in-app deletion request is confirmed, the account is deactivated and its public profile, stories, and comments are shown as “Unnamed User” without the profile photo or public personal details. Published stories are not deleted. Changes in cached views may take up to three days to appear. We retain the account in a restricted recovery state for 90 days. A successful login during those 90 days automatically cancels deletion and restores the original profile attribution. After the recovery period, the personal account is permanently deleted and retained stories and comments remain attributed to “Unnamed User.” Points, drafts, reading history, device tokens, and other account-linked operational data may be deleted or anonymized, subject to lawful retention, fraud prevention, security, dispute resolution, and restricted backup cycles.
10. Children and Teen Users
Kathasaar is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If the law where you live requires parental or guardian consent for a minor to use online services or for personal data processing, you may use Kathasaar only with that valid consent. Users under 18 should use the Services with parent or guardian awareness and supervision.
Mature-theme content and the “Show Mature Content (18+)” setting are strictly intended for users aged 18 or older. If we learn that information was collected from a child contrary to applicable requirements, we may delete or restrict the account and associated information. A parent or guardian may contact us at hello@kathasaar.com.
11. International Processing
Kathasaar and its service providers may process or store information in India and other countries where infrastructure or service providers operate. Those countries may have different data-protection laws. Where required, we use appropriate measures for such processing or transfers.
12. External Services and Links
The Services may contain links to third-party websites, social networks, app stores, or services. Kathasaar is not responsible for their content, security, or privacy practices. Review the privacy policy of any external service before providing information to it.
13. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in the Services, technology, law, or our practices. We will post the revised policy with an updated effective date and may provide additional notice in the app, on the website, or through other appropriate channels when changes are material. Where legally required, we will request consent before using information for a materially different purpose.
14. Contact and Grievance Requests
For privacy questions, security concerns, complaints, account deletion, or data-rights requests, contact Kathasaar Media:
Please describe your request and identify the account email or username involved. Do not send your password, authentication token, government identification, or other unnecessary sensitive information by email. We will respond and address verified requests in accordance with applicable law.
By using Kathasaar, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.
