UrbanSettle Privacy Policy

Welcome to UrbanSettle (“UrbanSettle,” “we,” “our,” or “us”). UrbanSettle operates an integrated digital platform connecting urban migrants, students, and working professionals with verified residential properties (paying guest and room accommodations), daily homestyle meal (tiffin) providers, and commercial spaces.

This Privacy Policy applies to all individuals who interact with UrbanSettle, including:

• Tenants & Consumers: Individuals searching for, booking, reviewing, or subscribing to verified rooms, homes, or daily meal plans.
• Property Owners & Hosts: Individuals or entities listing and managing residential or commercial properties.
• Tiffin & Food Providers: Local culinary kitchens, mess centers, and home chefs offering daily or periodic meal subscriptions.
• Platform Visitors: Anyone browsing or accessing our public websites, applications, and support channels.

By accessing or using our platform, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to the practices described in this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service.

We only collect personal information that is necessary to deliver our services, safeguard our community, and comply with regulatory requirements. Information is gathered through direct submissions, automated platform interactions, and authorized verification processes.

UrbanSettle maintains role-based separation of data to uphold least privilege principles across user roles:

When a property or service is listed on UrbanSettle, we collect and store:

• Physical Addresses & Landmarks: Building name, street address, locality, city, pincode, and geographical coordinates.
• Listing Specifications: Room dimensions, furnishings, attached washrooms, backup power, Wi-Fi availability, security amenities (CCTV, biometric entry), and house policies.
• Visual Media: High-resolution photographs and virtual walk-through videos uploaded to demonstrate room conditions.
• Audit & Verification Records: Physical audit reports conducted by UrbanSettle ground officers verifying electricity, RO water purity, and hygiene standards.

To coordinate reservations and culinary fulfillment, we maintain transactional records of:

• Accommodation Bookings: Requested check-in dates, duration of stay, monthly rental commitments, security deposit terms, and booking status (Pending, Confirmed, Cancelled, Completed).
• Tiffin Meal Subscriptions: Selected meal frequency (lunch, dinner, or both), start/end dates, paused days, dietary customizations (e.g. less spicy, diabetic-friendly), and specific drop-off instructions.
• In-App Messages: Communication logs between tenants, hosts, and tiffin providers through the UrbanSettle communication desk, retained to protect community members against fraud and facilitate dispute resolution.

UrbanSettle prioritizes financial data security:

We only retain non-sensitive transactional identifiers:

• Payment gateway transaction reference IDs, timestamps, amounts, and currency (INR).
• Payment status (Success, Pending, Failed, Refunded).
• Bank account numbers / IFSC codes / UPI handles submitted by Hosts and Providers solely to disburse rental and meal earnings.

UrbanSettle provides hyper-local matching for accommodation and hot meal deliveries. To achieve this:

• Device Geolocation: When you utilize features such as “Find Near Me” or browse listings within a specific perimeter, we may request access to your device GPS location with your explicit browser/device permission.
• Manual Address Inputs: Locality searches (e.g. “Dharampeth, Nagpur” or “Koramangala, Bangalore”) entered directly into search filters.
• Delivery Addresses: Room or building delivery locations provided by tenants for daily tiffin drop-offs.

You can withdraw location permissions at any time via your browser or mobile device operating system settings.

UrbanSettle uses standard browser cookies and storage technologies to keep your account secure and provide a smooth, reliable experience:

We do not deploy third-party advertising tracking cookies or sell your browsing history to third-party ad networks.

We use collected information solely for legitimate operational and service delivery purposes:

• Service Delivery: Facilitating room searches, listing verification, booking requests, meal delivery schedules, and notifications.
• Platform Safety & Verification: Conducting physical property inspections, authenticating host and provider identities, and maintaining a trusted community.
• Smart Matchmaking: Powering personalized recommendations (e.g. matching tenant room budget and food tastes to nearby options), which tenants can disable at any time in their settings.
• Customer Support: Responding to help tickets, inquiries submitted through our contact desk, and resolving tenant-host disputes.
• Statutory Compliance: Complying with applicable legal reporting, tax accounting, and security obligations under Indian law.

UrbanSettle does not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third-party data brokers or marketing agencies.

Information is disclosed only under the following controlled circumstances:

• Between Verified Platform Users: When a tenant requests a room booking or tiffin subscription, relevant details (such as tenant name, move-in date, or delivery address) are shared with the host or provider to confirm the service. Tenants have granular controls to toggle phone number visibility to hosts.
• Essential Service Partners: Trusted infrastructure and delivery partners (cloud hosting, transactional email and SMS services, certified payment aggregators) operating under strict non-disclosure and data protection contracts.
• Legal Requirements: When mandated by valid legal process, judicial order, or regulatory request from law enforcement authorities in India.
• Corporate Reorganization: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or asset restructuring, where user data will continue to be governed by equivalent privacy protections.

We enforce comprehensive technical, administrative, and physical safeguards:

We retain personal data only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected:

• Active Accounts: Profile data, saved listings, and active bookings remain accessible while your account is in good standing.
• Transactional Records: Financial receipts and booking invoices are retained for a minimum of 7 years in compliance with statutory financial and tax regulations in India.
• Inactive Inquiries: Incomplete search drafts or temporary session caches are periodically cleared.

When retention periods expire or when an account is deleted, personal data is permanently deleted or irreversibly anonymized for aggregate statistical reporting.

UrbanSettle empowers all users with actionable privacy rights under applicable data protection regulations:

You have the absolute right to terminate your account and request complete erasure of your personal data:

In accordance with the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, the contact details of our Grievance Redressal Officer are provided below: