How we handle your ID

What we ask for

• Photo ID (to post without waiting, run polls, post jobs): a photo or PDF of a voter ID (EPIC) or a driving licence, up to 4 MB, plus the last four characters of its number. The file must really be a JPG, PNG, WebP or PDF; anything else is refused before it is stored.
• Sarpanch / ward member: the election certificate or a panchayat letter, same limits.
• Returning diaspora / notable person: a document is optional; most of these are confirmed by residents vouching or by public sources.
• We store the type of document, the masked reference (only the last four characters, shown as XXXX1234), the dates, and the decision. The number itself and the image are not kept after review.

Who can see it

• The file is written to private storage (not a public web address). Nothing on the site links to it.
• Only staff with the moderator or admin role can open it, through one access-checked route; every view is written to the audit log with the moderator's account.
• A village's verified sarpanch can decide resident and diaspora claims, which carry no documents; sarpanchs never see ID files.
• No automated system reads the image (there is no OCR or face matching); a person looks and decides.

How long we keep it

• Claims are due a decision within 48 hours of submission.
• The image is kept only until the decision (approve or reject). It is deleted in the same step that records the decision.
• If nobody decides within 30 days, a nightly job deletes the image anyway, closes the request and tells you to resubmit.
• The request record (type, masked reference, dates, decision; no image) stays while your account exists, because it is what your verified status rests on. It is erased 30 days after you delete your account, with everything else.

How it is deleted

• At decision time the moderator's approve/reject action deletes the object from storage and blanks its reference in the database.
• The nightly retention job also sweeps any image that should already be gone (a decided request, or a deleted account) in case a step failed.
• When you delete your account, open requests are closed and their images deleted immediately, not after the 30-day grace period.
• Deletion is on the storage layer the site runs on (S3 in production, local disk in development). Backups of the database never contain the images, only the masked reference.

How to ask for deletion

• Before a decision: write to the Grievance Officer, Miss B. Akhila (grievance@voiceofvillage.com) with the mobile number on your account; the request is closed and the file deleted. Acknowledged within 24h · resolved within 15 days.
• After a decision: there is no file left to delete. To remove the record too, delete your account from Dashboard → Settings → Privacy; the record goes with it after 30 days.
• You can download everything we hold about you from the same settings page (the export lists your verification records without the images).
• Grievances are handled under the grievance process: acknowledged within 24 hours, resolved within 15 days.

What we never do

• We never ask for, accept knowingly, or store an Aadhaar number or card. If one is uploaded by mistake, tell the Grievance Officer and it is deleted at once.
• We never share ID files with advertisers, other members, panchayats or any third party, and never use them for anything but the verification you asked for.
• We never show your ID type or masked reference to other members; your public profile shows only the badge (verified member, resident, sarpanch).