Privacy notice

This notice explains how SMEMINDS LLP, Surat, Gujarat, India, which operates Saarthi Launchpad, processes your personal data as a Data Fiduciary under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the “DPDP Act”) and the DPDP Rules, 2025.

What we collect, and why

• Account details: name, email, password (stored only as a hash), mobile number, college, stream, year, and whether you are 18 or older. To create and secure your account, place you in a cohort, issue your invoice and certificate, and contact you about your course.
• Learning records: lessons completed and film positions, quiz answers, project submissions, grades, reviewer notes, logged hours and certificates. To run your course, grade your work, and let anyone you share it with verify your certificate.
• Coaching records: your messages to Saarthi, the AI coach, and for voice mock interviews, your recorded answers (turned into text) and the transcript. To coach you and give feedback.
• Payment records: order, amount, GST state, invoice number and payment reference. To take payment, issue GST invoices, process refunds and keep tax records. Card and UPI details go to Razorpay and never reach us.
• Referral code, if you used an ambassador’s, club’s or college’s code. To apply its discount and pay the commission it triggered.
• Parent or guardian details, for students under 18: their name, email and their consent decision. To get and record the consent the DPDP Act requires.
• Security data: sign-in times, IP address and device type. To keep accounts safe and investigate misuse.

We process all of this on your consent, given when you sign up, except where the DPDP Act lets us process without it (for example to meet tax law). We do not sell your data, and we do not use it to advertise other companies’ products to you.

Consent, and taking it back

Every consent box starts unticked. You can withdraw consent at any time, as easily as you gave it, by writing to ecommerce@smeminds.com from your account’s email. We then stop processing and erase your data, except what the law makes us keep (such as invoices). Withdrawing does not undo what was lawfully done before, and without your data we cannot keep running your course; the refund policy still applies to anything you paid for.

Students under 18

If you tell us you are under 18, we ask a parent or guardian for verifiable consent by email before you can enrol or pay; they confirm who they are and that they are an adult. Until then we keep only your account details and theirs. We do not track, profile or show targeted advertising to anyone under 18, and their portfolio starts private.

Who processes your data for us

These processors work for us under contract, only on our instructions:

• Microsoft Azure (India): hosting, database, file storage and the lesson films.
• Azure OpenAI Service (Microsoft): the AI models behind Saarthi’s coaching and draft grading. Prompts and replies are not used to train the models.
• Azure AI Speech (Microsoft, India): turns your mock-interview answers into text. If it is unavailable, Sarvam AI (India) does it, and only if both fail, Deepgram in the United States, used only to transcribe.
• Azure Communication Services (Microsoft): sends account and consent emails.
• Razorpay (India): takes payments and sends refunds.

Data sent to Deepgram, and any AI processing Microsoft performs outside India, is a transfer outside India, which the DPDP Act allows unless the Government restricts that country.

Other people who see your data:

• Your mentor and reviewers, to grade and coach you. If you enrolled through your institution, its faculty coordinator sees your progress, hours and grades.
• Anyone who opens your portfolio or certificate link. A portfolio shows your name, headline, college and stream, completed courses, graded projects and certificates. You can make it private at any time.
• Authorities, where the law requires us to share.

Cookies

We use only cookies the site needs: lp_session keeps you signed in (30 days), lp_ref remembers a referral code from a shared link (30 days), and theme remembers light or dark mode (1 year). Google sign-in sets two short-lived cookies while you sign in. No advertising or analytics cookies.

How long we keep it

• Account details and learning records: while your account is open.
• Coaching messages and interview transcripts: up to 12 months after your access ends.
• Mock-interview audio: not stored; it is deleted once it has been turned into text.
• Security logs: one year, as the DPDP Rules require.
• Invoices and payment records: as long as GST and tax law require (generally eight years).
• A parent’s consent record: as long as the student’s account is open, and then as long as we may need to show the consent was given.

When you close your account we erase the rest, except a certificate’s verification record, which we keep so a certificate you shared does not turn into a false claim; you can ask us to mark it withdrawn.

Your rights under the DPDP Act

• To get a summary of the personal data we hold about you and how we process it.
• To have it corrected, completed, updated or erased.
• To nominate someone to exercise your rights if you die or become incapacitated.
• To have your grievance addressed, and then to complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

To use any of these, write to Maheshwariba Yadav, our Grievance Officer and the contact person for data protection, at ecommerce@smeminds.com. We acknowledge within 48 hours and respond within 30 days, well inside the 90 days the DPDP Rules allow.

Security and breaches

Data is encrypted in transit, stored in India, and access is limited to people who need it. Passwords and session tokens are stored only as hashes. If a breach affects you, we will tell you without delay and report it to the Data Protection Board as the DPDP Rules require.

Who we are, and how to complain

Saarthi Launchpad is operated by SMEMINDS LLP, a limited liability partnership registered in India, registered office A2/306, Sundaram Status, Opp. Swapna Shrushti, Bhestan, Bhestan Police Station, Surat - 395023, Gujarat, India. GSTIN 24AFZFS5711A1ZX.

For help with your account, a course or a refund, write to support@smeminds.com. If you are not satisfied, or your complaint is about your personal data, write to our Grievance Officer, Maheshwariba Yadav, at ecommerce@smeminds.com. We acknowledge every complaint within 48 hours with a reference number and a copy of the complaint as we recorded it, and resolve it within 30 days of receiving it.

You can also contact the National Consumer Helpline (1915, or consumerhelpline.gov.in), and nothing here limits your right to approach a consumer commission where you live. For a complaint about your personal data you may go to the Data Protection Board of India once you have used our grievance process.