Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

A. From Blood Request Submissions (Patients or Their Representatives)

When you submit an emergency blood request through our website, WhatsApp, Telegram, or helpline, we collect the necessary information to coordinate rapid donor assistance:

• Full name of the patient
• Age or date of birth
• Required blood group and component (Whole Blood, Platelets/SDP, Plasma, etc.)
• Contact number(s) of the attendant/representative
• Hospital name, ward, and city/district location
• Medical condition / diagnosis (e.g., Thalassemia, Dengue, surgical trauma)
• Number of units required and urgency level
• Optional medical prescription or requisition slip verification where requested

This information is collected exclusively to broadcast life-saving appeals to potential donors and facilitate direct coordination with patient attendants.

B. From Blood Donors

When you voluntarily register as a donor or respond to a request, we may collect:

• Full name and gender
• Phone number (verified via secure SMS OTP)
• Blood group and Rh factor
• City, state, pincode, and preferred donation radius
• Availability status (e.g., active, resting, temporarily ineligible)
• Date of last donation (used strictly to calculate 90-day medical eligibility for whole blood)
• Optional donor profile photo and milestone badges earned

Donor contact details are protected and are never publicly published in open web listings.

C. From Volunteers & Medical Partners

When you apply as a volunteer coordinator or medical partner, we collect:

• Full name, professional background, email, and contact phone number
• City/region of operation and coordination availability
• Assigned role permissions within our administrative portal

Used solely for role-based system access, emergency verification, and team coordination.

D. Automatically Collected Technical Data

When navigating our website, standard web server logs and security layers may capture:

• Browser user-agent, operating system, and device screen dimensions
• Referring webpage URL and visit timestamps
• Network protocol data used for bot prevention (via Google reCAPTCHA v3)

We do not track users across unrelated websites, nor do we build advertising or behavioral marketing profiles.

E. Protection of Children’s & Minors’ Data (DPDP Act, 2023)

In strict compliance with Section 9 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and national blood safety standards:

• Donor Minimum Age: Only individuals who are 18 years of age or older are legally permitted to register as voluntary blood donors. We do not knowingly register minors as donors.
• Pediatric Emergency Blood Requests: When an emergency blood appeal involves a minor (e.g. infants, children with Thalassemia, or pediatric oncology patients), the individual submitting the request explicitly warrants and affirms that they are the child's lawful parent or legal guardian authorized to share the necessary health details for life-saving donor matching.

2. How We Use Your Information

We process personal data strictly under lawful, purpose-specific grounds for humanitarian emergency response:

• Emergency Broadcasts: Broadcasting anonymized or authorized emergency appeals to verified donor groups (WhatsApp/Telegram/X).
• Donor Matching: Identifying and notifying geographically proximate, compatible donors when emergencies occur.
• Eligibility Safeguards: Calculating safe inter-donation intervals (e.g., 90-day cooldown) to protect donor health under DGHS guidelines.
• Assistive Categorization: Using automated query resolvers and medical taxonomy lookup to correctly parse diagnosis terms and expedite hospital department matching.
• Direct Coordination: Connecting a voluntary donor with a verified patient family upon confirmed donor acceptance.
• Platform Security: Verifying identity via phone OTP, enforcing rate limits, and defending against spam or hoax requests.

3. Sharing of Personal Information & Broadcast Channel Limitations

Because LifeSavers United is a community-driven emergency network, certain request details must be broadcast publicly to find a compatible donor before critical clinical windows close:

• Public Broadcast Data: Patient first name/initial, required blood group, hospital name & city, units needed, and attendant contact number may be published across our website, Telegram channels, and official social media handles.
• Donor Confidentiality: Donor contact details are never published publicly. Donor contact information is only transmitted to the patient's family once the donor voluntarily accepts a specific emergency request.
• Third-Party Social Forwarding & Deletion Limitations: While LifeSavers United promptly updates or marks requests as "Fulfilled" across our official feeds once notified, we cannot control, delete, or recall messages that have been forwarded, shared in external WhatsApp groups, quoted on X/Twitter, or archived by independent third parties and search engines.
• Zero Commercial Sale of Data: We will never sell, rent, lease, or monetize your personal or health data to pharmaceutical companies, insurance agencies, or commercial advertisers.
• Statutory Disclosures: We may disclose data if strictly mandated by court orders, registered law enforcement investigations, or bona fide medical emergencies where life protection overrides statutory secrecy.

4. Digital Donor Cards & Voluntary Sharing

Our platform offers registered donors the ability to generate digital donor recognition cards and milestone badges:

• Donor cards are created on the donor's device and rendered only at the donor's explicit request.
• If a donor chooses to download, display, or publicly share their digital donor card on social media platforms or messaging apps, they do so on their own voluntary initiative and assume full responsibility for any personal information (e.g. name, blood group, donation milestone) visible on the shared card.

5. Cookies, Browser Storage & Analytics Transparency

We believe in a clutter-free, privacy-respecting user experience. We adhere to the following principles:

• No Tracking Cookies: We do not use third-party tracking cookies, marketing cookies, or profiling cookies. Because we do not use tracking cookies, you will not be interrupted by annoying cookie consent popups during medical emergencies.
• Cookie-Free Analytics (Umami): We utilize Umami Analytics, an open, privacy-focused analytics service. Umami does not use cookies, does not collect personal identifiers, anonymizes IP addresses, and complies fully with GDPR and Indian DPDP norms.
• Essential Browser Storage (LocalStorage & SessionStorage): We store minimal functional state strictly on your local device:
  • lsu_donor_session: Remembers your authenticated donor portal session so you remain securely signed in.
  • announcement_seen: Remembers whether you dismissed urgent site notices so they do not obstruct repeated visits.
  • Firebase Auth Tokens: Temporary secure cryptographic tokens required by Google Firebase to authenticate phone verification requests.

You can clear your local browser storage at any time via your browser settings; doing so simply logs you out of the donor portal.

6. Data Retention and Erasure

We retain data only as long as necessary to fulfill emergency facilitation:

• Emergency Blood Requests: Maintained in active status during the emergency and archived within 6 months following resolution.
• Donor Profiles: Maintained while active to enable repeat life-saving alerts. A donor may request permanent profile deletion at any time.
• Log Files & Audit Traces: Security access logs are routinely purged after 90 days.

7. Your Rights Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act)

Under Indian data protection legislation, you are entitled to the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right to Access: You can request a summary of the personal data we hold about you and the processing activities undertaken.
• Right to Correction & Updating: You may edit inaccurate or incomplete contact, blood group, or location information at any time via the Donor Portal or by emailing us.
• Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten): You may request the permanent deletion of your donor profile and contact records from our active database.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: You may toggle your donor availability to "resting" or withdraw consent to receive broadcast alerts with immediate effect.
• Right of Grievance Redressal: You have the right to register a privacy grievance with our designated Grievance Officer (detailed in Section 10 below).

8. Assistive AI & Automated Systems

Our platform incorporates assistive algorithms and AI search resolvers (e.g. diagnosis suggestion autocomplete, Telegram bot parsing, and blood type compatibility matching). Please note:

• These tools serve purely as administrative aids to correct typographical errors and standardize hospital department routing.
• They do not make clinical, diagnostic, or medical decisions regarding blood suitability or recipient treatments.
• All blood compatibility verification and cross-matching remains the exclusive legal prerogative of certified hospital blood banks.

9. Third-Party Infrastructure Partners

To ensure 99.9% uptime for life-critical services, we partner with industry-standard, secure infrastructure providers:

• Google Firebase & Cloud Functions: Encrypted database storage, authentication, and serverless workflow management.
• Google reCAPTCHA v3: Automated bot and abuse defense protecting web emergency request forms.
• Telegram API & Meta WhatsApp: Secure broadcast channels used for voluntary donor emergency notifications.

All partners are vetted for enterprise-grade security and ISO/IEC 27001 data protection standards.

10. Grievance Officer & Redressal Mechanism

In accordance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, users may direct any privacy concerns, data erasure requests, or grievances to our designated Grievance Officer:

We acknowledge all legitimate data protection grievances within 48 hours and work toward complete resolution within 14 business days.

11. Policy Updates

We periodically review this policy to reflect platform updates and legal amendments. Any revisions will be published here with an updated "Last Updated" date. Continued participation in our donor network following updates signifies acceptance of the revised terms.

12. Contact Us

For any general queries regarding this policy or our life-saving operations:

LifeSavers United

Email: lifesaversunited.india@gmail.com

Website: https://lifesaversunited.org

Together, we build a trusted, transparent, and compassionate community connecting voluntary heroes with patients in need.