Wahe World is a devotional companion for reading and practising Gurbani, operated by Wahe Incorporated — the data controller responsible for your information. We designed it so you can take part in everything — progress, streaks, leaderboards, groups — under a chosen handle, without revealing your real identity. This page explains what we collect, why, and the control you have.
The short version
- You can read and practise without an account. Sign in only to sync your progress across devices.
- Your real name and email are never shown to anyone. The only public part of your identity is the handle you choose.
- We do not sell your data or use it for advertising.
- You can export or permanently delete your account and all its data at any time.
What we collect
If you do not sign in
You can read and practise everything as a guest. We do not save your progress
(your resonance, streaks, completed practices) — not on our servers and not on your device — until you sign
in. Only lightweight display preferences (such as your romanization and audio-voice choices, and
your privacy choice) are kept in your browser via localStorage; they never leave
your device and we cannot see them.
If you create an account
- Authentication identity (private): when you sign in with Google or an email magic-link, we receive your email address to identify your account. With Google we also receive your name and profile picture. These are stored privately and are never displayed to other users.
- Public profile: the handle you choose (a pseudonym), an optional avatar, and display preferences. This is the only identity other users ever see.
- Progress & activity: your Resonance score — a rolling average of your daily practice minutes — together with your streaks, which banis you read, the practice and kirtan modes you complete, and, so that score can be computed honestly, the focused time you spend on each activity, how much of a bani you actually read (its coverage), and the calendar date of each session in your own timezone. This syncs across your devices and powers the standings and groups. Because it reflects religious practice, we treat it as sensitive and keep it tied only to your pseudonymous account, never to your real-world identity.
- Daily reflections: if you record how a day's word lived in you — the Daily Hukamnama, or the Nitya Vani in the Radha Vallabh tradition — a gentle lived / tried / drifted choice and an optional mood and private note — we store it against that day's date and the tradition it belongs to. Your note is private to you, never shown to other users. Like your other practice data it is kept tied only to your pseudonymous account, is included in your data export, and is deleted when you delete your account.
- Your jap count and your vow: if you use the Naam Jap mala, we store the daily count you fix for yourself (your sankhya), how many you have taken today, and how many days in a row you have kept it. This is private to you — it appears on no public page, in no standings, and in nothing you share. As with your other practice data it is kept tied only to your pseudonymous account, is included in your data export, and is deleted when you delete your account.
- Kirtan recordings you choose to publish: if you record a Sing-mode take and tap Publish, we store that audio file and show it publicly on the Sangat page under your handle, along with hearts and abuse reports from other users. Recording and publishing are both explicit choices — see “Your kirtan recordings” below.
- Reading favorites: if you heart a book in the Readings library we store which readings you favorited, so your hearts follow you across devices. Only aggregate counts are ever shown publicly — no one can see what you favorited. Included in your data export; deleted with your account.
- Display preferences you sync: if you rearrange the homepage tiles (the “Arrange” option), we store that layout with your account so your arrangement follows you across devices. It contains only which tile sits where — no practice or identity data. Included in your data export; deleted with your account. (As a guest, the same layout is kept only in your browser.)
How we use it
- To provide the reader and practice features and sync your progress across devices.
- To compute your Resonance score from your recent practice — and to let it gently fade (decay) when you rest, since the score is an average of recent daily practice.
- To run pseudonymous standings and groups (shown under handles only).
- To keep the service working, secure, and free of cheating (the focused-time measurement above is used only to discount runs completed implausibly fast).
Who processes your data
We use a small set of service providers, each only for the function listed:
- Supabase — our database and authentication. Stores your account, profile, and progress. Access is restricted per-user by row-level security.
- Google — only if you choose “Continue with Google,” to verify your identity at sign-in.
- Cloudflare — hosting and content delivery for the website.
- YouTube (Google) — the optional background music player embeds YouTube. If you play kirtan, YouTube may set its own cookies and collect data under Google’s Privacy Policy. The player does not load until you interact with it.
- PostHog (EU hosting) — privacy-respecting product analytics, run in two tiers. In both, there are no ads, no clicks, no session replays, no heatmaps; IP addresses are dropped before storage and URL query strings are stripped; servers are in the EU. See PostHog’s Privacy Policy.
How analytics works (two tiers)
- Tier 1 — anonymous, for everyone (no banner needed). We measure basic,
aggregate traffic — visit counts, which pages are viewed, rough referrer and country/device
— using PostHog’s cookieless mode. It stores nothing on your device
(no cookie, no
localStorageidentifier) and uses a privacy-preserving identifier that resets daily, so no visitor is tracked across days or recognised on return. Because it stores nothing on your device and never identifies you, we run it under our legitimate interest in knowing whether the site is reaching people. We honour “Do Not Track” and Global Privacy Control by not enabling the deeper tier below for you; the anonymous count still runs. - Tier 2 — deeper, only if you opt in. If you accept analytics (via the banner, the footer “Privacy choices” link, the optional box at sign-in, or your Your Journey page), PostHog keeps a pseudonymous identifier so we can understand journeys across sessions. This still never records your real identity — only your pseudonymous handle if you are signed in. You can withdraw at any time, which returns you to the anonymous Tier 1.
For signed-in users, your Tier 2 choice is saved to your account so it follows you across devices; it is included in your data export and removed when you delete your account.
Voice & microphone
The optional Voice riyaz singing exercises and the “Sing it” mode in Kirtan Hero use your device’s microphone — only if you choose them and your browser asks and you allow it. Your voice is analysed entirely on your device, in your browser, to estimate the musical pitch you are singing. For this pitch analysis, no audio is recorded, stored, or sent anywhere — not to us and not to any third party; nothing about your singing is kept after the moment it happens. The microphone is released the instant you tap “Mic off” or leave the page (your browser’s recording indicator turns off). You can revoke microphone permission at any time in your browser’s site settings.
There is one deliberate exception, and it only happens when you ask for it: recording a take, described next.
Your kirtan recordings (the Sangat)
In Kirtan Hero’s Sing mode you can switch on “Record my take”. While that is on, your voice is recorded on your device during the run, together with the game’s own instrumental accompaniment. After the run you can listen to the mixed take and decide:
- Discard — the recording is thrown away. It never left your device.
- Publish — the mixed recording is uploaded to our backend (Supabase, EU region) and appears publicly on the Sangat page under your chosen handle — never your real name or email. Anyone can listen; signed-in users can “heart” it.
You keep one published take per shabad — publishing a new one replaces the old, and the replaced audio file is overwritten. You can remove your published take at any time from the Sangat page, and deleting your account removes all of your recordings, hearts and reports along with everything else. Your recordings are included in your data export. A published take that another listener reports is hidden immediately pending review. If a child sings, a parent or guardian should be the one who decides to publish.
Cookies & local storage
We use your browser’s localStorage for progress, preferences, your signed-in
session, and to remember your privacy choice (a small wahe-consent entry).
Anonymous (Tier 1) analytics sets no cookies and no identifier on your device.
Only if you opt in to Tier 2 does PostHog store a pseudonymous identifier in
localStorage and may set a first-party cookie (ph_*) scoped to
wahe.world only — never shared across sites. We do not use advertising or
cross-site tracking cookies. Embedded YouTube may set cookies as described above. You can change
your choice at any time via the “Privacy choices” link in the footer.
Your rights & choices
- Access & export — download a copy of all your account data as a JSON file, yourself, from your Your Journey page (“Export my data”).
- Deletion — permanently delete your account from your Your Journey page (“Delete my account”); all associated data (profile, progress, completion log, resonance, standings, social, published kirtan recordings and their audio files) is removed immediately and cannot be recovered.
- Stay private — from your Your Journey settings, opt out of the public Journey Board while still tracking your own progress. Opting out is mutual: when you are hidden you do not appear in the standings and no public rank is kept for you — your resonance, tiers and streaks remain yours to see privately.
- Change your handle — you can rename your public pseudonym at any time from your Your Journey settings (limited to once every 30 days).
You can exercise the first two at any time while signed in. For anything else, email support@wahe.world.
Data retention
We keep your account data while your account exists. When you delete your account, its data is removed promptly from our active systems.
Children
Wahe World is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will remove it.
Security
Data is transmitted over encrypted connections and access is restricted per-user at the database level. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information.
Changes
We may update this policy as the service evolves. Material changes will be reflected by the “Last updated” date above.
Contact
Questions about your privacy? Email support@wahe.world.