Privacy Policy

Version 3 October 202613 min read

This Privacy Policy explains how CareerHiKe ("we", "us") collects, uses, shares and protects your personal data when you use the CareerHiKe mobile application and related services (the "Service"). We act as the Data Fiduciary for the personal data you provide, and we handle it in line with India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the "DPDP Act") and applicable data-protection principles.

Data we collect

We collect only what we need to provide the Service:

Account data: your email address, the password you set (stored only as a salted hash by our authentication provider — we never see or store the password itself), the first name you give when you register and the last name if you choose to add one, and the profile details you add later (target role, optional profile photo and professional links).
Interview Planner data: the interviews you schedule — company, role, round, date and time, mode, location or meeting link, the interviewer and recruiter contact details you choose to enter, and the outcome you record afterwards (attended, missed, cancelled or rescheduled), together with any notes and reflections you write.
Content you provide: the resumes and job descriptions you upload, the answers you give during mock interviews, and the goals and preferences you enter for career planning.
Usage and learning data: which features you use, lessons and interviews you complete, scores, streaks and progress — used to power your dashboard and to improve the Service (see "Analytics").
Technical diagnostics: app version, device type/OS, and crash and error reports, so we can keep the app stable and secure. Crash reports from the app are processed by Google Firebase Crashlytics, and errors on our servers by Sentry, our error-monitoring provider. Crash reports carry your account ID, and server error reports carry your user ID, so that a fault you hit can be traced and fixed.
Promotional email records: whether you have given permission for promotional email, and the history of that choice — when you gave or withdrew it, where (the app’s setting, an unsubscribe link or a request to support), the Privacy Policy version in force, the wording of the setting you saw, and the app version and platform you used. We also record which promotional emails were sent to you and whether each was delivered, bounced or reported as spam.
Server and sign-in logs: when you use the app or this website, our servers receive your IP address and basic details of each request. Our authentication provider keeps its own sign-in logs.
Purchase and subscription records: your plan, its status and dates, and the purchase token Google Play gives us so that we can verify your subscription. Google Play processes the payment; we never see your card details.
Support and administrative records: the emails you exchange with support, and a record of any action we take on your account — for example granting credits, or suspending or restoring the account — which includes the email address it concerned and the reason.
If you delete your account: the reason you choose and any comment you write, kept with no link to you or your account.

What we do NOT collect

We do not collect your precise location or GPS data. We do not ask for your date of birth: when you create an account you confirm that you are 18 or older. We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

How we use your data

We use your data solely to operate and improve the Service:

To generate interview plans, score your answers and produce coaching feedback.
To show your progress, achievements and career-readiness insights.
To keep your data synchronised across your devices.
To understand aggregate, anonymised usage, retention and engagement so we can improve the product.
To detect, prevent and fix errors, abuse and security issues.
To send the service and account emails your account needs and, only where you have given separate permission, promotional emails — at most one every 72 hours (see "Emails we send").

Analytics

We use Google Firebase Analytics to understand how the app is used in aggregate — for example, which features are opened, learning events completed, and overall retention and engagement. Analytics are used to improve the Service and are not used to profile you for advertising. We do not track your location, and we do not collect your age automatically. Where analytics can be tied to your account, it is subject to the same protections and rights described here.

This website. On careerhikeai.com we use Google Analytics only if you allow it. A banner asks first, and nothing is loaded from Google unless you choose Allow. If you allow it, Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser (_ga, and _ga_ followed by an identifier, each lasting up to two years) and receives the pages you view, how you reached them and basic details of your browser and device, so that we can count visits. Its advertising features are switched off. You can change your choice at any time with Cookie settings at the foot of every page; choosing Decline removes those cookies. The website also keeps your light or dark display choice and your analytics choice in your browser; neither leaves your device.

AI processing

To generate analysis, interview plans, scores and coaching, the relevant text from your resume, job descriptions and interview answers is processed by AI service providers acting on our instructions. Only the content needed for the specific request is sent.

We name our providers so you know where your text goes. The written features — resume analysis, job-description analysis, resume-to-job matching, interview preparation, answer scoring, career planning and Resume Builder — are processed by OpenAI. The AI Career Coach is separate and uses Google, as described below. We may change provider for a feature where that improves the result; this page is updated when we do.

The AI Career Coach works differently from the features above. Each session is a live voice conversation about one report you already have — your resume analysis, a job-description analysis, a resume-to-job match report, or your career plan — so audio, not only text, is sent to our AI provider while a session is running. See Microphone and speech for exactly what is sent and what we keep.

Microphone and speech

Three features can use your microphone, and only while you are actively using them:

Mock interviews: your spoken answer is converted to text on your device and it is the TEXT that is sent for scoring. The audio recording is never uploaded and never stored by us.
Interview Companion: speech recognition runs on your device to detect which topic you are discussing. Nothing you say is uploaded or stored.
AI Career Coach: this is different, because each session is a live spoken conversation with an AI. While a session is running, your microphone audio is sent to Google, our AI provider for this feature, and Google transcribes the conversation so the coach can follow it. We also send a summary of the report the session is about — your resume analysis, a job-description analysis, a resume-to-job match report, or your career plan — and that summary can include excerpts drawn from the material it was built from, including any pay-related guidance in a career plan. We do not keep the audio and we do not keep a transcript; we keep a record that the session ran, how long it lasted and the Coach Credits it used. Under the paid terms we use, Google does not use this content to improve its products and acts as our data processor. Google's abuse-monitoring policy states that it retains prompts, contextual information and outputs for up to 55 days to detect misuse. Content flagged by its systems may be reviewed by authorised Google staff. We show you this before your first session, and the microphone does not open until you agree.
The microphone is never accessed in the background, and you can decline or revoke the permission at any time in your device settings — the rest of the app continues to work.

Camera and photos

If you choose to set a profile picture, we access your camera or photo library only at that moment and only for the image you pick. We do not browse, scan or upload anything else.

Notifications and your device

To deliver notifications and keep your account secure we store:

A push token for each device you have signed in on, so we can send the notifications you enabled. Deleting the app or your account removes it. Notification categories — including Tips & offers, which carries occasional product tips and offers — are on until you turn them off in Settings → Notifications or in your device settings.
A device identifier provided by the operating system, used to recognise the device your account is signed in on, to keep one active session per account, and to alert you if a new device signs in. It is not used for advertising or tracking across other apps.

Interview reminders

Reminders for a scheduled interview work differently from the notifications above, and the difference is in your favour:

They are scheduled ON YOUR DEVICE by the operating system — two hours, one hour, thirty minutes, ten minutes and five minutes before the interview, plus one at the scheduled time. Your interview times are not sent to a server to produce them, and they arrive with no internet connection.
We ask for notification permission when you schedule your first interview, because that is when it is first needed. If you decline, the rest of the Planner works exactly as before and only the reminders are absent; you can allow them later in Settings.
Recording an outcome — attended, missed or cancelled — stops that interview's remaining reminders. Rescheduling replaces them with a new sequence for the new time.

Emails we send

We send two different kinds of email, and they are governed differently.

Service and account emails. These are necessary to run your account and keep it secure — sign-in codes, confirmations when your password or email address changes, security alerts when a new device signs in, and subscription, payment, receipt, renewal and cancellation notices. We send these because you have a CareerHiKe account, for as long as that account exists. They are not marketing and they carry no unsubscribe link.
Promotional emails. Messages about CareerHiKe features, tips and offers, some of them sent automatically — never more than one every 72 hours. We send these only to people who have given us separate, specific permission to receive them, and never to an address on our do-not-email list (below). Accepting our Terms does not give that permission, and neither does creating an account. A promotional email may greet you by the first name on your account, or say “Hi there” if there is none. We may change or stop promotional email at any time.

You can withdraw permission for promotional emails at any time, in three ways: turn off Promotional emails in Settings → Notifications; use the unsubscribe link in any promotional email, which takes effect as soon as you open it; or email support@careerhikeai.com. Withdrawing it stops promotional email only — you will still receive the service and account emails described above, because they are part of operating your account rather than marketing.

Our do-not-email list. When an address unsubscribes, when email to it cannot be delivered, or when a promotional email to it is reported as spam, the address goes on a list that stops any further promotional email to it. The list holds only the address, the reason and the dates. We keep it indefinitely, including after you delete your account, because that is the only way to make sure the address is not emailed again — for example if a new account is created with it. Turning the app’s setting back on does not remove an address from the list; if you unsubscribed and later want promotional email again, turn the setting on and ask support.

Promotional emails carry no tracking pixels and no tracked links: we do not record whether you open them or which links you click. Our email provider tells us whether each email was delivered, bounced or reported as spam, and we record that.

We use the email address on your account for both kinds of message. We do not sell it, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing.

Email is delivered by Resend, our email delivery provider, acting as a processor on our instructions. To deliver a message, Resend receives your email address and the content of that message.

Backups

We keep encrypted backups so your data can be recovered after a failure. Each backup is kept for up to 56 days. When you delete your account we remove your data from active systems at once; copies inside existing backups remain until those backups expire, and are never used to restore a deleted account.

We process your personal data on the basis of the consent you give when you create an account and use the Service, and to perform the service you have asked for. You may withdraw your consent at any time by deleting your account (see "Your rights"); withdrawing consent does not affect processing already carried out.

Permission to receive promotional emails is separate from the consent described above. It is asked for on its own, it is not part of creating an account or accepting our Terms, and you can withdraw it at any time without deleting your account or losing access to the Service — see Emails we send.

Your rights

Under the DPDP Act you have the right to:

Access a summary of the personal data we process about you and how it is used — email us at support@careerhikeai.com from your registered address and we will send it to you.
Correct or update inaccurate or incomplete personal data (you can edit your profile in the app; the email address on your account cannot currently be changed in the app, so contact us if it needs correcting).
Erase your personal data by deleting your account, which permanently removes your profile, files and interview history. Deleting your account does not cancel a Google Play subscription — cancel it in Google Play.
Withdraw consent to processing at any time.
Nominate another individual to exercise your rights in the event of death or incapacity.
Raise a grievance and, if unresolved, escalate to the Data Protection Board of India.

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with service providers who process it on our behalf to run the Service (for example, cloud hosting, authentication, AI processing, analytics, crash reporting, error monitoring, email delivery and hosting this website), under contractual confidentiality and security obligations, and only as needed to deliver the Service to you. We may disclose data where required by law.

If you choose to share a resume or a certificate using your device’s share option, it is sent to the app you pick. That transfer is yours, not ours, and what happens to the file afterwards is governed by that app.

International transfers

Some of our service providers process personal data outside India — for example OpenAI; Google, for the AI Career Coach, Firebase and Google Analytics; Resend; Sentry; and Netlify, which hosts this website. They operate in the United States and other countries. Each receives only what it needs to provide its part of the Service.

Data retention

We keep your personal data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, we delete it from active systems at once. What remains afterwards, and for how long:

Copies inside database backups, until the backup expires — at most 56 days.
Server request logs, which include IP addresses, for 30 days.
Our do-not-email list — the address, the reason and the dates — indefinitely, as described in "Emails we send".
The record of any action we took on your account, with the email address it concerned and the reason, as an accountability record. Only the founder can see it.
Your answer to why you deleted your account, with no link to you.
Emails you exchanged with support, in our support mailbox.
For AI Career Coach sessions, the prompts and outputs Google keeps for up to 55 days under its abuse-monitoring policy.

Deleting a single resume deletes its file, the text extracted from it and its analysis at once. Match reports, interviews and tailored resumes already made from it remain until you delete your account.

Security

We protect your data with encryption in transit, access controls, and per-user isolation. CareerHiKe has no social, community or messaging features: your resumes, job descriptions, interview practice and results are visible only to you, and there is no surface on which one user can see another's data. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable safeguards seriously and review them regularly.

Children

You must be 18 or older to use CareerHiKe. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has provided us data, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the Service evolves. Material changes will be reflected here with a new version date, and where required we will seek your fresh consent.

Grievance officer & contact

For any privacy question, request or grievance, contact our Grievance Officer at support@careerhikeai.com. We will acknowledge and respond within the timelines required by applicable law.

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