Privacy Policy

Mented — last updated 25 October 2026

Mented is a study app for UPSC aspirants. This page explains what we store, who can see it, and how to get it changed or deleted. It is written to be specific rather than vague: every item below corresponds to something the app actually records.

Your study data is stored in India. Our database and file storage are hosted in Mumbai. The services we use for crash reporting and app analytics may process that data outside India — see Third parties.

What we store

Your account

Email address, and whether it is verified.
Your name, and a profile photo if you signed in with Google.
A mobile number, only if you enter one.
Where and when you created your account: in the Android app, the web app or on getmented.com, and whether with email or Google.
A password, which we never see — our sign-in service stores it in hashed form.

Your profile

Target exam date, attempt year, attempt number, education level, optional subject, and where you are in your journey.
A display name (username) used instead of your real name wherever other users can see you.
Whether you have opted in to the public leaderboard — off unless you turn it on.

Your study activity

Timer sessions: which paper, topic and subtopic, when you started, and how long you studied.
Syllabus progress, and a history of when each subtopic's status changed — used to project whether you will finish before your exam.
Daily tasks and revision schedules.

Mentorship

Bookings, including the requirement you describe and any files you attach.
Session chat messages and attachments. These are kept after a session so you can re-read what was delivered.
Ratings and written reviews you leave.
Handover notes a mentor writes about a session with you. You can read these; so can mentors who have worked with you.
Your answers to Find your mentor (what you need help with, the kind of help, your languages and what matters most), and a history of each time you change them, so we can see how needs change.
Which mentors we showed you, in what order and how well each matched; and, when you book, how that mentor ranked at the time. This is how we check that recommendations work.
Your answer, after a session, to whether the mentor was the right fit.
Which way you went on the Mentors tab (find a mentor or become one) and, if you looked at becoming one, whether you have written UPSC Mains.
If you apply to be a mentor, in the app or at getmented.com/become-a-mentor: your application, your UPSC record (how many times you wrote Mains, how many interviews you attended, and your rank and year if selected), your mobile (WhatsApp) number, and any credential documents you upload. Your number and documents are seen only by the Mented team, never by students. We email you our decision at your account's email address, and the Mented team may also contact you by WhatsApp or phone about your application or your mentoring.
If you mentor: figures we work out from your sessions to rank you for students — a quality score from your ratings, a reliability band (new, high, medium or low), a band for how many sessions you have held, and your next open slots. Students see the bands and slots, never how many sessions you missed or cancelled.

Calls in mentor sessions

You and your mentor can talk during a session. Calls are audio, with video only if you turn your camera on. They are carried live through servers hosted in India and are never recorded or stored — not the audio, not the video.
The app asks for your microphone and camera when you first join a call. Your camera stays off until you turn it on.
What we keep: that a call took place in the session, who started it, when, and how many minutes each person was in it. We use this to run the service and to fix problems with calls.
While you are in a call, we note which session it is, so that someone in another session can be told you are busy. This is removed when you leave the call.

Social features

Study circles you join, and the summary figures you share with them (today's and this week's study time, and your streak).
A leaderboard entry — only if you opt in.
Referral records, so an invite can be credited.
The date you last studied, and the subtopic, so a comeback reminder can pick up where you left off.

Your device

A push notification token, so reminders can reach your phone. Removed when you sign out.
If you use Mented in a browser at getmented.com/app: the browser keeps you signed in until you sign out, and remembers a few app settings (for example, a study timer you left running). Your study data itself is not saved in the browser; it loads fresh each visit. On a shared computer, sign out when you finish. If “Help improve Mented” is on, the web app also sets analytics cookies to measure usage (see below); if it is off, it sets none.

Usage and crash data

If you leave “Help improve Mented” switched on, we collect:

App usage: which screens are opened and which features are used, plus a device identifier, device model, operating system and approximate location derived from your IP address.
Crash reports: the error, where in the app it happened, and your device model and OS version.

This never includes your name, email, notes, chat messages or study content. Coarse groupings are attached — your journey stage, whether you have set an exam date, and an attempt band such as “2–3” rather than an exact number — so we can tell whether a feature works for beginners as well as repeat aspirants.

You can switch this off at any time in Profile → Help improve Mented. It takes effect immediately.

Two product signals

Separately, and regardless of the analytics switch, we record two things tied to your account so we can improve the service:

When you look for a mentor nobody offers yet — in your language, for your optional, or with interview experience — so we know which mentors to recruit.
When you discard a timer session rather than saving it.

Both are deleted automatically after 90 days.

Who can see your data

Who	What they can see
Any approved mentor	Your name only.
A mentor you booked	Your session chat and any files you attach. Your study progress only if you choose to share it when booking — and only from the booking until 15 minutes after the session ends, after which the copy is deleted.
A mentor who has worked with you	Handover notes written about your sessions. Access ends if their mentor approval is withdrawn.
Students, if you are an approved mentor	Your mentor profile: name, bio, subjects, optional, languages, the help you give, your UPSC record once checked, your rating, the bands described above and your open slots.
Other signed-in users	Your leaderboard entry — username, photo and study time — only if you opted in.
Members of your study circles	Your display name and the summary figures described above. Never your underlying session history.
Mented administrators	Account details and activity counts, for support. Every such lookup is logged with who performed it.

Nobody else can read your study sessions, syllabus progress, tasks, revisions or notes. Access is enforced by database security rules, not only by the app.

Why we store it

To run the app — your progress has to be saved somewhere, and it follows your account so it works across devices.
To provide mentorship — a booking cannot work without a record of it.
To send what you asked for — revision reminders and session notifications.
To remind you if you have been away — after 3, 7, 14 and 30 days without studying, at most one a day and none after 30 days. Turn them off in Profile → Comeback reminders, or in your phone's notification settings for Mented.
To fix and improve the app — usage and crash data.

Third parties

We use service providers to run Mented: for sign-in, the database, file storage, push notifications, hosting, email, session calls, analytics and crash reporting. They process data only to provide those services to us. Your study data is held in Mumbai, and session calls are carried through servers hosted in India and never recorded or stored. Analytics and crash data may be processed outside India.

We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with advertisers.

How long we keep it

While your account exists: profile, study sessions, syllabus progress and history, tasks, revisions, bookings, chat messages, reviews, handover notes, your mentor-matching answers and their history, your answer on the Mentors tab, and the record that a call took place in a session.
Never: the audio and video of a call. Calls are not recorded.
7 days after a session ends: files attached to that session — whether you attached them when booking or sent them in the chat — are deleted. The messages themselves stay; a file that has gone is shown as no longer available. Download anything you want to keep, such as an evaluated answer sheet, within that week.
15 days: notifications in the app.
15 minutes after a session: progress you shared with a mentor is deleted automatically.
90 days: the two product signals above.
180 days: the record of which mentors you were shown.
1 year: our internal record of administrative actions, such as approving a mentor or answering a support request. This is the one record that is not removed when an account is deleted, because a log you can erase by deleting your account would not be a record of anything.
Until you sign out: your push notification token.

Your rights

Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, you can ask us to:

tell you what personal data we hold about you;
correct anything inaccurate or incomplete;
delete your account and the data associated with it;
withdraw consent for usage and crash data — which you can also do yourself, at any time, in Profile.

Much of this you can do in the app directly: edit your profile, turn off the leaderboard, turn off analytics, and stop sharing progress with a mentor.

You can delete your account yourself, in Profile → Delete my account. It asks you to confirm your password and to type DELETE, and then removes your account and your data immediately. There is no waiting period and it cannot be undone. If you cannot sign in, write to us and we will do it for you — both routes, and the full list of what goes and what stays, are on Delete your account.

Two things survive that deletion, with your name and the link to your account removed so that you appear only as a deleted account:

sessions you booked and their chat, so the mentor keeps a record of work they actually did;
reviews you left, so a mentor's rating stays accurate.

We keep these because they are the mentor's records as much as yours. Everything that identifies you in them is removed.

For anything else, or if you would rather we did it for you, write to us using the contact below and we will respond within 30 days.

Children

Mented is intended for candidates preparing for the UPSC Civil Services Examination, who must be at least 21 years old to sit it. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will remove it.

Security

Data is transmitted over encrypted connections and stored on servers hosted in India. Access is restricted by per-user security rules, so one account cannot read another's data. Administrative access is limited to named accounts and every privileged action is logged. No system is perfectly secure, and we will tell affected users promptly if a breach occurs.

Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect or who can see it, we will update this page and change the date at the top. Material changes will be announced in the app.

Contact

For any question about this policy, or to exercise the rights above, including a grievance:

getmented@gmail.com
Mented