banaList ("the Service") is a voice-first grocery list assistant that works
entirely inside WhatsApp — no separate app to install. You speak or type in Hindi,
English, or Hinglish, and banaList keeps your grocery list, remembers your usual
brands and quantities, and sends your list to family or your local kirana store
when you're ready. Your privacy is the default — we collect only what is necessary
to make the Service work, and nothing more.
1. What we collect — and what we never collect
What we store on our servers
Your WhatsApp phone number. Stored encrypted at rest. A one-way
(irreversible) hash of your number is also kept and used as the only identifier
on message logs and rate-limit records. Your number is
never logged in plain text, shared, or used for marketing.
Your WhatsApp display name. The name shown in your WhatsApp profile,
stored so the Service can address you by name in replies.
Your grocery list. The items, quantities, units, and brands you
add, remove, or update via WhatsApp messages.
Preference memory. Per item, we remember signals like your
preferred brand, usual quantity, and how often you buy it — for example,
"this household usually buys Amul butter, 2L milk every 3 days" — so banaList
can auto-fill these when you don't specify them.
Interaction metadata. For every message: which intent it mapped
to, processing time, whether a reply was sent, and any error code. Kept
long-term in structured, anonymised form to track and improve accuracy.
Message text, briefly. The exact text of what you typed or said
(voice is transcribed to text first) and the exact reply we sent are kept
verbatim for up to 30 days so we can review and fix cases where
banaList misunderstood you. After 30 days this text is permanently and
automatically deleted — only the anonymised structured record above survives.
Vocabulary gaps. Words or brand names banaList doesn't yet
recognise (e.g. a brand not in our catalogue), logged without the surrounding
message, to improve our item catalogue.
What we never collect
Voice recordings. If you send a voice note, it is transcribed in
real time and the audio file is immediately discarded. No recording is stored
anywhere.
Your phone contacts. We have no access to your contact list.
Location data. We do not request or store your location.
2. Why we collect it
List & memory — so your grocery list and preferences persist
between conversations and don't need to be re-entered every time.
Accuracy improvement — the short-lived raw message text and the
long-term structured metrics help us detect and fix cases where banaList
misunderstood you.
Catalogue improvement — vocabulary gaps help us add new items and
brands to banaList over time.
We do not sell your data. We do not share it with advertisers. We do not build profiles for ad targeting.
3. How long we keep it
Raw message and reply text is retained for up to 30 days and then
automatically and permanently deleted. Structured, anonymised interaction metrics
are retained long-term to track and improve accuracy. Grocery list items and
preference memory are retained as long as your account is active. When you request
deletion (see §5), all server-side data is deleted with no backup copy.
4. Where it is stored
Server infrastructure: Vercel (Mumbai — bom1 region) +
Neon Postgres (Singapore — ap-southeast-1 region).
Data does not leave these regions. Both providers hold SOC 2 certifications.
Messages are delivered via the WhatsApp Business Platform (Meta), subject
to Meta's Privacy Policy.
5. Deleting your data
You have the right to delete all data we hold about you at any time.
Via email: Contact us at
pranay.agr05@gmail.com from the
WhatsApp number registered with banaList (or with that number included in your
message). We will delete your list items, preference memory, and any remaining
message logs within 30 days.
After deletion, the server-side record is gone permanently with no backup copy. If
you message banaList again afterwards, a new record is created as if you were a
first-time user.
6. Children's privacy
The Service is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect any
information from children.
7. Changes to this policy
If we make material changes, we will update the effective date above and notify you
via WhatsApp before the changes take effect.