This Privacy Policy explains how Vertica Media Private Limited("Vertica," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects your personal information when you use the Vertica mobile application and related services (collectively, the "Service"). Vertica is a vertical-format video platform built for independent creators and viewers.
By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to the practices described in this Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.
Contact: support@vertica.media · B-7, Lane Number 7, Hari Marg, Jai Ambey Colony, Civil Lines, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302006, India
Who We Are
Vertica is operated by Vertica Media Private Limited, a company registered in India with its principal place of business at B-7, Lane Number 7, Hari Marg, Jai Ambey Colony, Civil Lines, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302006, India. For the purposes of applicable data protection laws — including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), and India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) — we act as the data controller / data fiduciary for personal information processed through the Service.
Information We Collect
We collect only what we need to operate the Service. The categories below describe everything we currently collect or plan to collect.
2.1 Information You Provide
- Account information: your email address. We do not require a password if you sign in via a third-party provider (see below).
- Profile information (optional): display name, profile photo, bio, and any other details you choose to add to your creator profile.
- Content you upload: videos, audio, captions, thumbnails, descriptions, hashtags, and any metadata you submit. Creators retain ownership of their content; we process it to provide the Service (see Section 4).
- Communications: messages you send us through support channels, feedback forms, or in-app reports.
2.2 Information Collected Automatically
- Behavioural and usage data: we use product analytics tools (such as Microsoft Clarity or equivalent) to record session data including taps, scrolls, screen views, watch time, dwell time, video completion rates, navigation paths, and heatmaps. This helps us understand how the Service is used and improve it.
- Device and technical data: device model, operating system and version, app version, language, time zone, IP address (which may approximate general location, e.g. city/country), crash logs, and performance diagnostics.
- Log data: timestamps, requests made to our servers, error reports, and similar technical records.
2.3 Information from Third Parties
- Social sign-in: if you sign in using Google or Apple, we receive your verified email address and a unique identifier from that provider. We do not access your contacts, posts, or other data from those accounts unless you explicitly grant such permission.
2.4 Permissions We Request on Your Device
- Photo library / Gallery (full access): required so creators can select and upload videos and images. We access only the files you choose to upload. We do not scan or read your gallery in the background.
- Camera and Microphone (optional): only if you choose to record content directly within the app.
- Push notifications (optional): to send you updates about followed creators, replies, and important account notices. We will ask for your permission before sending push notifications. You can disable these in your device settings at any time.
How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for the following purposes:
- Provide the Service: authenticate you, host and stream your content, deliver the in-app feed, and enable core features.
- Process and transcode content: when you upload a video, we automatically transcode it into multiple resolutions, bitrates, and adaptive streaming formats so it can play smoothly on different devices and network conditions.
- Improve and develop the Service: analyse aggregated usage and behavioural data to fix bugs, optimise performance, refine UX, and build new features.
- Content analysis (planned): we plan to introduce automated multimodal analysis of creator-uploaded content — including visual analysis (frames, scenes), audio analysis (speech, music), and metadata analysis — to power features such as content classification, search, recommendations, accessibility (e.g. auto-captions), and trust-and-safety enforcement. This feature is not active in the current version of the app. We will update this Policy and, where required, obtain your consent before activating any such feature in a way that materially changes how your data is used.
- Safety and integrity: detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, copyright infringement, spam, harassment, and violations of our Terms of Service.
- Communicate with you: respond to support requests, send service-related emails (e.g. security alerts, policy updates), and — only with your consent — send marketing or promotional messages.
- Comply with law: meet our legal, regulatory, tax, and law-enforcement obligations.
Legal Basis for Processing (EEA / UK Users)
If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we rely on the following legal bases under the GDPR:
- Performance of a contract: to provide the Service you have signed up for.
- Legitimate interests: to secure, improve, and develop the Service, prevent abuse, and understand how our Service is used. We balance these interests against your rights.
- Consent: for optional permissions (camera, microphone, push notifications, marketing communications) and for any future processing that legally requires consent.
- Legal obligation: where processing is required to comply with applicable law.
International Data Transfers
Vertica operates globally. Your information may be stored and processed in countries outside your country of residence, including the United States and India. Where required, we use lawful transfer mechanisms such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and equivalent safeguards under the UK and Indian frameworks.
Data Retention
We keep your personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes described in this Policy or as required by law.
- Account data: retained while your account is active. If you delete your account, we delete or anonymise your account data within 30 days, subject to legal exceptions.
- Uploaded content: retained until you delete it or your account. Cached or backup copies may persist for up to 30 days after deletion.
- Behavioural and analytics data: typically retained for up to 24 months in identifiable form, then aggregated or deleted.
- Crash and log data: typically retained for up to 90 days.
- Legal/compliance records: retained for the period required by applicable law.
Your Rights
Depending on where you live, you have rights over your personal information. These may include:
- Access: request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Correction: ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
- Deletion: ask us to delete your personal data, subject to legal exceptions.
- Restriction or objection: ask us to restrict or stop certain processing, including processing based on legitimate interests.
- Data portability: receive your data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
- Withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, withdraw it at any time.
- Lodge a complaint: with your local data protection authority. EEA/UK users may complain to their national supervisory authority. Indian users may approach the Data Protection Board of India once constituted.
To exercise any of these rights, email us at privacy@vertica.media. We will respond within the timeframes required by applicable law (typically 30 days).
Notice to California Residents
Under the CCPA/CPRA, California residents have the right to know what personal information is collected, the right to delete personal information, the right to correct inaccurate personal information, the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, and the right to non-discrimination for exercising these rights.
We do not sell your personal information. We do not knowingly share personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising. To exercise your CCPA rights, contact us at privacy@vertica.media.
Children's Privacy
Vertica is not directed to children under 13 (or under 16 in the EEA/UK, or the equivalent minimum age in your jurisdiction). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children below this age. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, please contact privacy@vertica.media and we will take steps to delete it.
Data Security
We use industry-standard technical and organisational measures to protect your information — including encryption in transit (TLS), encryption at rest for stored content, access controls, secure cloud infrastructure, and regular security reviews. However, no system is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security and you use the Service at your own risk.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you in the app, by email, or by other reasonable means before the changes take effect. The "Last Updated" date at the top reflects the most recent version. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.
Grievance Officer
In accordance with the Information Technology Act 2000 and the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the name and contact details of the Grievance Officer are:
Nikhil Gyanchandani
Email: grievance@vertica.media
Complaints will be acknowledged within 24 hours and resolved within 30 days.
Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, contact support@vertica.media. To exercise your data rights, email privacy@vertica.media.
Vertica Media Private Limited
Address: B-7, Lane Number 7, Hari Marg, Jai Ambey Colony, Civil Lines, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302006, India
See also our Terms of Service and contact page.