Field Inspection · Vellore

1. Who We Are #who-we-are

Effective date: 10 September 2026

Field Inspection · Vellore ("the App", "we", "us", "our") is a private government application used by authorised officers of the District Administration of Vellore, Government of Tamil Nadu. It digitises the field inspection and audit workflow for government facilities across the district — including ration shops and fair price outlets, e-Sevai centres, schools, health centres, anganwadi centres, veterinary and animal husbandry units, welfare hostels and homes, and rural development works.

The App is built and maintained on behalf of the District Administration by Farmwise AI Private Limited, Chennai, which acts as the technology implementation partner and data processor.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information the App collects, why it is collected, how it is used, who it is shared with, and the rights you have over it. By using the App you confirm that you have read and understood this policy.

2. Who Uses This App #who-uses

This is an internal government tool. Its users are authorised personnel only:

• Field Officers — officers who conduct on-site inspections and submit survey responses for the sites allocated to them
• Department Surveyors — officers scoped to entire departments who select a site and conduct an inspection on demand
• Heads of Department (HOD) — acknowledge issues raised at sites in their department with a resolution deadline, and later close them with photographic proof and an Action Taken Report
• Administrators — manage entities, departments, sites, questionnaires, schedules and assignments
• Super Administrators — administrative oversight across the district

3. Information We Collect #collect

We collect only what the App needs in order to function as an official inspection record system.

3.1 Information provided when your account is created

Your account is created by an administrator, not by you. It holds:

3.2 Information generated while you use the App

3.3 Information collected automatically when you sign in

Each time you sign in, the App records the following about the device you signed in from:

This device identifier is generated by the App. It is not an advertising identifier, and it is not used for advertising, profiling or tracking you across other apps or websites.

4. What We Do Not Collect #not-collect

We want to be specific about this, because it is as important as what we do collect. The App does not:

• collect or store your IP address, or the browser or device user-agent string
• use an advertising identifier. There is no advertising in the App of any kind
• include any third-party analytics, crash-reporting, marketing or telemetry software — there is no Google Analytics, Firebase, Crashlytics, Sentry, Facebook SDK or equivalent anywhere in the App or its servers
• access your contacts, call logs, SMS messages, calendar or microphone
• read your existing photo library. The App captures new photographs with the camera for inspection evidence; it does not browse or upload photos you already have
• track your location in the background, or at any time other than when you are recording a site's location during an inspection. There is no capability anywhere in the system to store a history of where you have been
• collect biometric data, financial or bank information, caste, religion, or health records about you
• sell, rent or trade your information to anyone, for any purpose

5. Permissions the App Requests #permissions

The Android app requests exactly four permissions, and no others:

On iOS the App additionally asks for camera access, to capture geotagged photographs as evidence for the surveys and issues you record. Photographs stay on your device until you submit the survey.

You may decline or later withdraw any permission through your device settings. Declining location or camera access will prevent the specific inspection steps that depend on it, but does not otherwise restrict the App.

6. How We Use Your Information #use

1. To authenticate you when you sign in, and to keep your session valid
2. To show you the sites, tasks and issues you are responsible for
3. To accept and store the surveys, photographs and issues you submit
4. To route a raised issue to the correct Head of Department, and to notify the officers involved as it moves through acknowledgement and completion
5. To place inspected sites on the district map and produce aggregate statistics for the District Administration
6. To maintain the audit trail required by government oversight policy
7. To diagnose technical problems reported from the field

Your information is not used for marketing, advertising, profiling, automated decision-making about you, or any purpose unrelated to the official inspection workflow.

7. Who Can See Your Information #who-sees

Access is role-based and enforced on the server for every request:

• Your own profile and sign-in history — visible to you and to administrators
• Surveys you submit — visible to you, the Head of the relevant Department, and administrators
• Issues you raise — visible to you, the Head of the Department the site belongs to, and administrators
• Aggregate statistics and map views — visible to administrators; these show counts and locations of sites, not the personal details of officers

8. Sharing and Service Providers #sharing

We do not sell, rent, trade or share your personal information with any third party for any commercial purpose. Information is disclosed only in these limited circumstances:

• To authorised government officers, as part of the inspection workflow described above
• To Amazon Web Services, which hosts the App's servers, database and file storage in its Mumbai region, acting as our infrastructure provider under a data-processing arrangement
• To the SMS delivery chain that carries your One-Time Password: our SMS gateway, the registered telemarketer platform operated under the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's DLT framework (sender identifier FARMAI), and your own mobile network operator. Only your mobile number and the OTP message text pass through this chain
• To Farmwise AI Private Limited, our technology implementation partner, whose engineers may access production systems for maintenance and support under confidentiality obligations
• When legally required by a court order, statutory notice or other valid legal process issued by a competent authority in India

9. Where Your Information Is Stored #storage

All application data — your account, survey responses, issues and uploaded files — is stored on servers located in India, in the Amazon Web Services Mumbai region (ap-south-1).

Photographs and Action Taken Report documents are held in a private storage bucket in that same region and delivered through a global content delivery network. This means a copy of a photograph may be cached temporarily at a delivery location outside India in order to serve it quickly; the authoritative copy always remains in Mumbai.

10. Data Stored on Your Device #device

To work in areas with poor connectivity, the App stores the following on your phone:

Your password is never stored on the device. Uninstalling the App removes everything listed above from your phone. It does not delete records you have already submitted to the server, and it does not close your account.

11. How Long We Keep Your Information #retention

12. How We Protect Your Information #security

• All communication between the App and our servers is encrypted using TLS 1.2 or higher
• Photographs and documents are held in a private storage bucket with server-side encryption; the bucket itself is not publicly listable
• Passwords and One-Time Passwords are stored only as one-way bcrypt hashes — they cannot be reversed, and no member of staff can read them
• One-Time Passwords are six digits, generated using a cryptographically secure random source, valid for 10 minutes, limited to three verification attempts, and rate-limited to prevent repeated requests
• Role-based access control is enforced on the server for every single request; the App cannot grant itself access it has not been given
• Your session is checked against your account on every request — if an administrator deactivates your account, access stops immediately rather than at the end of the session
• Database credentials and signing keys are held in a managed secrets service, never in the App or in source code

No system can be completely secure. In the event of a personal data breach affecting your information, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as required by the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

13. Your Rights #rights

You have the following rights over your personal information:

• Right to know — what information we hold about you and how it is used
• Right to correction — ask us to correct inaccurate details such as your name, mobile number or email address
• Right to withdraw consent — withdraw a device permission at any time through your device settings, or request that your account be closed
• Right to grievance redressal — raise a concern about how your information is handled, and escalate it if you are not satisfied
• Right to nominate — nominate another person to exercise these rights on your behalf in the event of death or incapacity

To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details in section 17. We will respond within 30 days.

14. Account Deletion #deletion

You may request closure of your account at any time. Because the App has no public sign-up, requests are made by email and verified before they are actioned.

The full procedure — how to request it, what happens, and precisely what is closed versus what is retained — is set out on a dedicated page:

15. Children's Privacy #children

The App is not intended for anyone under the age of 18. All users are serving government officers and staff. We do not knowingly hold an account for a minor. If you believe a minor has gained access to the App, contact us and we will close the account immediately.

16. Changes to This Policy #changes

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make a material change we will:

• update the effective date shown at the top of this page
• notify active users with an in-app notice on next sign-in
• for significant changes, ask for renewed consent before continued use

Continued use of the App after the effective date of an updated policy constitutes acceptance of the change.

17. Contact Us #contact

For any question, concern, grievance or request about this policy or your information, contact our Grievance Officer:

Grievances submitted in writing are acknowledged within 2 business days and resolved within 30 days. You may also raise a matter with the District Administration of Vellore through your reporting officer.