Privacy Policy

Krishi Shop Khata is a shop management app for fertilizer, seed and pesticide dealers (krishi kendras), published by Tapas Dutta, for Android and Windows. This policy explains what information the app handles and how. In short: the offline app is free and local-first — your shop's data stays on your own device and, only if you choose, in your own Google Drive. Only if your shop takes the paid online plan (staff login and sync) is your khata also kept on our server, so that your shop's phones and computers can share it.

Who we are

The app is provided by Tapas Dutta (“we”, “us”). For any privacy question or request, contact tapasdutta@outlook.com.

Offline: no account, no signup

The offline app needs no account. You start using it straight away, and the data you enter stays on your device unless you turn on Google Drive backup or the online plan.

What data the app handles

You enter this information about your shop:

• Farmers — name, and optionally father’s name, phone number, village, main crop, land holding, guarantor’s name and phone, notes and photo.
• Sales and bills — products sold, quantities, rates, batch numbers, payments received and udhaar (credit) owed.
• Udhaar and payments — amounts owed, payments collected, old dues carried over from your paper diary, and reminders you set.
• Stock — products, prices, batches, expiry dates and stock movements.
• Purchases and companies — suppliers’ names, contact person, phone, address, GSTIN, invoices and payments.
• Cashbook, licences and PoS-machine reconciliation entries you record.
• Shop profile — shop name, owner name, phone, address, logo, GST number and licence numbers.

In the offline app all of this is stored in a database and photo folder on your device, and we do not receive it.

Online plan: staff login and sync (optional, paid)

A shop owner can take the khata online so that staff work on their own phones (and on a Windows computer) in one shared khata. When the online plan is used:

• Accounts — the owner and each staff member sign in with Google. We receive their Google account ID, name and email address. The owner adds staff by their Gmail address; staff join by signing in with it.
• The shop’s khata — everything listed above except photos — is stored on our server and synced to every phone and computer of the shop. Photos stay on the device that took them.
• Roles — the owner decides what each staff member may do (for example, counter staff cannot delete entries or see purchase prices). The server enforces these rules. Each staff device keeps a copy of the shop’s data it is allowed to see.
• Activity — the server records which member added, changed or deleted which entry, when, and from which device, so the owner can see it. It does not copy the entry’s contents for this.
• Devices — each device gets a random sync ID and a short code used in bill numbers. Sign-in tokens are kept on the device, encrypted, and on the server only in hashed form.
• Subscription — the online plan is bought through Google Play. We receive the purchase token and the subscription’s state and expiry from Google to turn sync on for the shop. Payment is handled by Google Play; we never receive card, UPI or bank details.

We use this data only to run the online plan for your shop. Only members of your shop (as allowed by their role) and you can see your shop’s khata; our staff access the server only to keep the service running or when you ask for help.

Google Drive backup (optional)

If you turn on backup, Krishi Shop Khata copies its data (and, if you choose, photos) to a private folder in your own Google Drive (the app-specific “appDataFolder”), which is accessible only to the app on your Google account. Google Sign-In is used for this backup and to restore it on a new phone. Tapas Dutta does not have access to your Google Drive or its contents. Staff devices of an online shop do not back up to Drive. You can remove this data at any time — see the Data Deletion page.

App usage statistics and crash reports

To learn which features are used and to fix problems, Krishi Shop Khata uses two Google services: Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics. They receive only anonymous, technical information — never farmer or company names, phone numbers, villages, amounts, bill numbers, stock details, notes or photos:

• Usage events — for example that a sale, payment or purchase was saved, a bill was shared or a setting was changed, with general details such as the payment mode (cash, UPI…), the product category or the number of lines on a bill. Never what was sold or to whom.
• Screens opened in the app, and general settings such as the app language, whether backup or the app lock is on, what the shop sells (fertilizer, seed…) and rough counts (for example “10–24 farmers”).
• Crash reports — device model, Android version, app version and where in the app the error happened.
• A random app-instance ID created by Firebase (not your name, phone number, email or advertising ID), your approximate region (country / city, worked out from the connection; Google Analytics does not store your IP address) and Google Play purchase events.

Krishi Shop Khata does not collect the Android advertising ID, has no ads, and turns off ad personalisation in Google Analytics. This information is not linked to your khata or your online account. It is sent only from the app installed through Google Play — not from test or development copies. Google processes it for us as a service provider under the Firebase privacy terms.

Device permissions

• Contacts — only if you choose “Add from contacts”, to show your contacts on the phone so you can tick the farmers or companies to add (their name and mobile number are saved in the app). Your contact list is read on the device only and is never uploaded as a list. Picking a single contact into a form uses Android’s own picker and needs no permission.
• Photos — only to attach a farmer’s photo or your shop logo, using Android’s photo picker, when you choose to.
• Notifications — to show the udhaar recovery, low-stock / expiry and daily summary reminders you turn on.
• Run in background / battery — so reminders and (online plan) sync work on time; nothing extra is collected.
• Biometrics — only if you turn on the fingerprint app-lock; your fingerprint never leaves Android.
• Internet — for Google Drive backup / restore, Google Play purchases, anonymous usage statistics and crash reports, and (online plan only) sign-in and sync with our server.

WhatsApp & SMS reminders and bills

When you send an udhaar reminder, a bill or a staff invitation, Krishi Shop Khata opens your own WhatsApp, SMS or share app with the message or file ready — you press send. The app does not send messages on your behalf.

Price

The offline app is free, with every feature and no limits. The online plan (staff login and sync, including the Windows app) starts with a 14-day free trial — one per owner, no card needed — and is then a paid Google Play subscription, monthly or yearly. If the trial or plan ends, sync stops and every device keeps its data and keeps working offline.

Sharing & selling

We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with third parties for advertising. The app contains no ads. Your khata leaves your device only when you choose to — when you back up to your own Google Drive, share a bill or report through another app you pick, or take your shop online (then it goes to our server and the devices of your shop’s members). Google processes the anonymous statistics, crash reports and Play purchases on our behalf. We may disclose data if the law requires it.

Security

On the device your data is protected by the device’s own security and an optional PIN and fingerprint app-lock. For the online plan, all traffic uses HTTPS; access to a shop is limited to its members and their roles; sign-in tokens are encrypted on the device and stored hashed on the server; the server database is backed up daily.

Children

Krishi Shop Khata is a business tool intended for shop owners and their staff and is not directed at children.

Retention & deletion

Data on your device stays until you delete it — in the app, by uninstalling, or by revoking Drive access. Online plan: your account stays until you delete it in the app; a shop’s khata stays on our server while the shop exists and is deleted when the owner deletes their online account. The activity log is kept for about 13 months. Server backups are kept for 14 days, so deleted data disappears from them within that time. Anonymous usage statistics are kept by Google Analytics for up to 14 months and crash reports by Crashlytics for 90 days. So that each owner gets the free trial only once, we keep two one-way fingerprints (SHA-256 hashes) of the Google account ID and Gmail address that started a trial, even after the account is deleted; they cannot be turned back into the email and are used for nothing else. See the Data Deletion page for step-by-step instructions.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top reflects the latest version.

Contact

Questions or requests: Tapas Dutta — tapasdutta@outlook.com.