Privacy Policy

1.1 Information you give us

• Account details: your mobile number, the name you choose to show, and your password. Your password is stored only in a scrambled (hashed) form, so no one at HorseMart can see it.
• Profile details (optional): your profile photo, district and preferred language.
• Listing details: information about a horse you sell, such as breed, gender, age, height, colour, health and training details, price, district and town, description, and the photos and videos you upload.
• Vet certificate (optional): if you upload one, it is kept in private storage.
• Reports: if you report a listing, the reason you choose and any details you write.
• Saved horses: the listings you save to look at later.

1.2 Information collected automatically

• Usage activity: when horse pages are viewed, when the Call or WhatsApp buttons are tapped, when listings are saved, and which search filters are used. This is recorded with a random code for your device, the type of device (mobile or desktop) and the language you use. If you are logged in, it is also linked to your account.
• Technical information: like any website, our hosting providers automatically receive information such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you open. This is needed to deliver the website and keep it secure.
• Security records: attempts to recover an account with a recovery code, including the mobile number entered and whether the attempt succeeded, so that we can stop misuse.

1.3 Information from Google

If you choose to link your Google account, Google shares your name, email address and profile picture with us. We use this only to let you log in with Google. We never receive your Google password, and we have no access to your Gmail, contacts or any other Google data.

• To create and manage your account and let you log in.
• To publish your listings and show them to buyers.
• To let interested buyers contact you by phone call or WhatsApp.
• To help you get back into your account (with a recovery code, Google login, or a password reset by our team).
• To keep the marketplace safe: to review reported listings, remove fake, misleading or illegal listings, prevent fraud and spam, and enforce our Terms of Use.
• To understand how the website is used, for example which pages are popular, so that we can improve it.
• To contact you about your account, your listings or a complaint you have made.
• To comply with the law and respond to lawful requests from authorities.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

• Everyone: your listings (photos, videos, horse details, district, town and price), your display name, your profile photo, the date you joined, and a note if you changed your name in the last 30 days.
• Only logged-in users: your mobile number, shown on your live listings so that buyers can call or WhatsApp you. It is no longer shown once the listing is marked as sold or is removed.
• No one else: your password, recovery code, vet certificate (buyers only see that a certificate was uploaded), the reports you make, your saved horses and your usage activity.

Anything you write in a listing or show in its photos and videos is public. Please do not include personal details there that you do not want others to see.

We share personal data only in the following cases:

• Service providers: companies that run parts of the website for us: Supabase (database, login and file storage), Netlify (website hosting) and Google (only if you use Google login). We may also use Cloudflare to store photos and videos. They handle the data only to provide their services to us, under their own security and privacy commitments.
• Buyers and sellers: as described in section 3. Calls and WhatsApp chats between buyers and sellers happen outside our website, and the phone company's or WhatsApp's own terms and privacy policy apply to them.
• Legal reasons: when required by law, a court order, or a lawful request from a government agency or the police, or when needed to protect the rights, safety or property of our users, the public or HorseMart.
• Change of ownership: if HorseMart is merged with, sold to or transferred to another organisation, your data may move to the new owner, who must continue to protect it as this policy describes.

We do not use advertising cookies or third-party tracking. The website stores only these small items on your device:

• A language cookie that remembers whether you chose English or Tamil.
• Login details that keep you signed in.
• A random device code, used for the usage activity described in section 1.2.
• A short note that a horse page was already counted as viewed during your visit, so it is not counted twice.

You can clear these at any time in your browser settings. If you do, you will be logged out and the website will return to English.

Our service providers keep data on secure servers that may be located outside India. Where data is transferred outside India, we do so in line with Indian law, and we use only providers that protect data with industry-standard security.

• Account details: for as long as your account is open.
• Listings: until you delete them. When you delete a listing, its photos, videos and vet certificate are deleted too. Listings marked as sold stay in your account until you delete them.
• Listings removed by our team: may be kept for a limited time as a record, for safety and legal reasons.
• Usage activity: kept to understand how the website is used. When an account is deleted, its activity is no longer linked to it.
• Reports, moderation and security records: kept only as long as needed for safety, fraud prevention and legal purposes.

You can delete your account yourself at any time from My profile. Your account, listings, photos, videos and personal details are then deleted straight away. We keep only a short record of the deletion: its date and your mobile number in a masked form (for example, +91 98XXXXXX10) together with a scrambled (hashed) copy that helps us prevent repeated misuse. If you ask us to delete your account instead, we will do so within 30 days. In both cases, we keep only information that we must retain by law or to resolve a dispute.

• Every page is served over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection.
• Passwords and recovery codes are stored only in scrambled (hashed) form.
• Database rules allow each user to change only their own data, and vet certificates are kept in private storage.
• Limits on recovery attempts and on new listings per day help prevent misuse.
• Only a small number of authorised team members can use the admin tools, and their actions are recorded.

No website can be completely secure. Keep your password and recovery code to yourself. HorseMart will never ask for them by phone, SMS or WhatsApp. If a data breach affects you, we will inform you and the authorities as the law requires.

Under Indian law, including the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, you have the right to:

• Access: ask for a summary of the personal data we hold about you and how we use it.
• Correction: update your name, photo, district and listings yourself on your profile and listing pages, or ask us to correct anything else.
• Deletion: delete your listings, or your whole account, yourself at any time from My profile, or ask us to do it for you.
• Withdraw consent: stop using the website and delete your account at any time. This does not affect anything done before you withdrew consent.
• Complain: raise a grievance with our Grievance Officer (see section 13).
• Nominate: name another person to use these rights on your behalf in the event of your death or incapacity.

To use any of these rights, contact us from the mobile number linked to your account, or include that number in your email, so that we can confirm the request is really from you.

HorseMart is only for people aged 18 and above. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has created an account, please contact us and we will delete it.

The website links to services run by others, such as WhatsApp, your phone's calling app and Google. We are not responsible for how they handle your data. Please read their privacy policies.

We may update this policy when the website or the law changes. We will change the “Last updated” date at the top, and we will show a notice on the website for important changes. If you keep using the website after a change, you accept the updated policy.

For any question, request or complaint about your personal data, please contact our Grievance Officer:

• Name: [Grievance Officer's full name]
• Email: [contact email address]
• Address: [City], Tamil Nadu, India

We will acknowledge your complaint within 24 hours and aim to resolve it within 15 days of receiving it. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

This policy is provided in English and Tamil. If the two versions differ in meaning, the English version will apply.