Privacy

Two different promises get confused with each other: being unidentifiable to other users, and being unknown to the platform. Only the first is true here.

What we hold

What	Why	How long
Your email address, and a phone number only where you give one	Your email if you create an account or ask for updates, so we can sign you in or tell you an update is ready. Phone sign-in is switched off; a phone number is held only if you choose to give one, for example when registering for a session.	Until you delete the account, or with the question it was given for.
Web access logs, with your IP address masked	Keeping the site working and stopping abuse. The last part of the IP address is removed before it is written (masked to /24), and search text is never logged.	14 days, then deleted.
Page counts on public pages — no cookie	To see which explanations people find and whether a clinic’s QR poster is scanned. Sent only from public pages (home, Understand, topics, answers, guides, reels, sessions, channels, Find care, Learn, Trust) — never from asking, My Space, consultation cards, sign-in, account or caregiver pages, the desks or private answers — and not at all if your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track. We keep the page, its topic, a device class, the name of the site that sent you (not the address), utm and QR/share labels, and a code that counts distinct visitors on one day: it mixes part of your IP address and a coarse browser label with a key that is deleted at the end of that day, so it cannot be linked to any other day. Never your IP address, browser identifier, search words or account.	Individual page views: 48 hours at most. Daily totals with no person attached: 13 months.
Application request logs	Rate limiting and finding faults. They carry no account id, and the IP address is off by default.	7 days, then deleted.
The original text of a question you submit, and anything you add to it	A moderator reads it, and it is kept separate from any public version so the public page never carries detail you did not approve.	Deleted 30 days after you withdraw the question. Otherwise deleted 12 months after you sent it, whether or not it was answered. After that we keep only counts that identify nobody: the topic, the language, the dates, and whether it was answered.
The email address you give for updates about a question	Only to send the neutral “Your AskHer update is ready” message. Every one carries a link that stops them, with no code needed.	Deleted with the question’s text, on the same schedule.
Your newsletter subscription, if you sign up	Your email address, the lists you chose, and when and to which wording you agreed and confirmed. Sign-up is double opt-in: one email asks you to confirm and nothing else is sent until you do. If the address is also your verified AskHer account address, the newsletter and the account’s “occasional news” choice stay the same — changing one changes the other.	While you are subscribed. After you unsubscribe we keep only the address and the date, as a “do not send” marker so it can never be added back; ask us and it is deleted. It is deleted with your account.
Newsletter link clicks — and opens only where an issue says so	Links in a newsletter pass through our own address so we can count clicks per link. Opens are not counted unless an editor turns that on for one issue, and that issue then says so at the bottom. Reports show totals only and never a figure below 10. Newsletters are the same for everyone, never mention you or a question you asked, and their subject lines never name a health topic.	90 days after the issue is sent; after that only totals per issue are kept.
Consultation cards, saved items and course progress	They are yours. They are never listed publicly and are not used to rank or recommend anything to anyone else.	Until you delete them.
Accountability records: who changed what, and staff reads of private requests	So that every moderation, editorial and support action can be checked afterwards. They record the account or staff member involved, not the text of your question.	Kept. No deletion period has been set yet; we will publish one here when it is.
Encrypted backups of everything above	To recover the service after a failure. They are never restored into the live service for any other reason.	Up to 12 months: nightly copies for 30 days, weekly for 13 weeks, monthly for 12 months. Something you delete stays in these backups until they roll off.

Where your data is

AskHer’s servers are in Germany (Hetzner, Falkenstein). Your data — including private questions, account data and backups — is stored and processed outside India. One server runs the website, the databases, search, our own mail server and the backups. Germany is subject to the EU General Data Protection Regulation.

We do not use outside analytics, advertising, session-replay, font or SMS services (our page count runs on our own server), and no payment provider is connected because nothing is sold. Email we send you is delivered by your own email provider, which is an outside company.

Who can see your question

Moderators, clinical editors and the doctor assigned to your question read its text to do their jobs. They do not see your name. Staff reads of private requests are logged with a stated reason. A support operator can act as an account for at most 15 minutes, only after giving a written reason, and cannot reach question text that way.

The server’s administration console is not limited by these controls. Every sign-in to it is recorded and reported to our security mailbox. We do not claim that technical controls stop a server administrator; we say plainly that this access exists and that its use is recorded.

Publication is a separate decision

1. You write your question in your own words.
2. We flag details that could identify you, for you to remove.
3. A moderator reads it.
4. You see the exact wording that would become public and approve it — or refuse, and keep the answer private.
5. A clinician writes an educational answer.
6. If you asked for a notification, it says only that an AskHer update is ready.

Asking a question and publishing it are separate permissions. Neither implies the other.

Your rights

AskHer is owned and operated by Shely, which is responsible for your data (the data fiduciary under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023). You can:

Ask what we hold about you, and have it corrected.
Export your account data, or ask for it to be deleted (see “Your controls”).
Withdraw a consent as easily as you gave it. That does not undo what was lawfully done before.
Nominate someone to act on your behalf if you die or become unable to.
Complain to our grievance officer at [email protected]. We acknowledge within 24 hours and resolve within 15 days; if you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

AskHer is for adults aged 18 and over.

What we never do

Advertising pixels, outside analytics scripts or session replay on any page. Our own page count sets no cookie and runs only on public pages.
Fonts or other files loaded from outside services — ours are served from our own server.
Automatic sharing of a question with any clinic or organisation.
Public access to your saved folders or the circles you have joined.
Uploading medical documents or scans — there is no record vault in this release.
Your locality shown beside a sensitive question.
Precise location sent to analytics or advertising systems.
Selling your data, or access to people who searched for a sensitive topic.

Limits we cannot get around

Deleting a published page removes it from AskHer. It cannot remove copies other people made.
Email always involves an outside provider — yours. AskHer offers no SMS or WhatsApp messages, and you can choose no email at all.
Deleted data stays in encrypted backups for up to 12 months until those backups roll off.
Anything you download stays readable on a shared device until you delete it.

We do not describe AskHer as anonymous. If you hold an account we can associate it with the email you gave us, the devices you signed in from (as coarse labels such as “Chrome on Android”) and the accountability records of what you did. What we can promise is that other users cannot connect you to your questions.

Shared devices

If someone else uses this phone or computer, sign out when you finish and clear anything you downloaded. AskHer cannot tell who is holding the device.

Your controls

Trust overview

Withdraw a question that has not been answered. Its public page, if it has one, comes down at once.
Ask for a question to be deleted with its reference and recovery code — delete a question.
Stop update emails from the link in any of them.
Unsubscribe from the newsletter from the link in any issue. One press stops every list; opening the link changes nothing until you press it.
Take back a question you approved for publication: by withdrawing it before it is answered, or with a deletion request afterwards. If your page was the only one carrying an answer, the answer comes down with it.
Clear your location on Find care.
Turn off every notification.
Export your account data, or ask for your account to be deleted. The export does not include questions, which are held against their recovery code rather than your account. Deleting the account does not delete questions you sent, posts you wrote in circles, appeals or claims you made, the accountability records, or the backups described on this page.