Skip to content

Legal

Privacy policy

What we collect, who sees it, and how long we keep it — written for the one thing that matters most here, which is your prescription.

Last updated

Who this is about

The Local Pharmacy is an online service that lets you order medicines from licensed pharmacies near you. The Local Pharmacy operates the platform and is the data fiduciary for the information described here.

Our registered office address is published on the contact page.

The pharmacy that dispenses your order is a separate licensed business. It receives the information it needs to fill and deliver your order, and is responsible for that information under its own obligations as a pharmacy.

What we collect

Only what an order needs. We do not ask for anything we have no use for, and there is no profile built from your browsing to sell to anyone.

  • Your mobile number, which is how you sign in. There is no password.
  • Your name, if you give one, and the name and number of anyone else you ask us to deliver to.
  • Delivery addresses, and the map pin you set for each one. The pin is what the delivery fee is measured from and how we find the nearest pharmacy holding your medicines.
  • Your approximate location, when you allow your browser to share it, so the catalog can show what is actually deliverable to you.
  • Prescriptions you upload, and what a pharmacist records against them.
  • Your orders: the medicines, the quantities, the price, the pharmacy, and the delivery.
  • Payment status from our payment processor. We do not see or store your card number or UPI credentials.
  • Basic technical information every website receives — the request, the browser, the approximate region — used to keep the service working and secure.

Prescriptions, specifically

A prescription is health information about you, and it is treated differently from everything else on this list.

  • It is shown to the registered pharmacist at the licensed pharmacy reviewing or dispensing your order, and to nobody else.
  • It is not shown to other pharmacies, not used for marketing, not used to target advertising, and not sold or shared with any data broker.
  • Our own staff access it only where a specific support request or a safety investigation requires it, and that access is logged.
  • It is stored in private storage and served over short-lived signed links, so a copied URL stops working.

A pharmacist can refuse a prescription, and will tell you why. An approval is spent once it is dispensed — a repeat needs a fresh prescription.

Why we use it

  • To find a pharmacy in range that can fill your whole order, and to price the delivery from your pin.
  • To let a pharmacist review your prescription and dispense against it.
  • To take payment, issue an invoice, and settle with the pharmacy.
  • To tell you what is happening with your order, and to let a rider reach you.
  • To answer you when you contact support, and to investigate a complaint.
  • To meet obligations that apply to dispensing medicines, and to respond to a lawful demand from a regulator or a court.
  • To detect and prevent fraud and misuse.

We do not use your prescriptions, your orders or your health information to advertise to you.

Who else sees it

  • The dispensing pharmacy — your order, your prescription where one is required, and the delivery address.
  • The delivery rider — your name, address, pin and a contact number, for the delivery only.
  • Our payment processor — the amount and the order reference. They handle your payment credentials; we do not receive them.
  • Service providers that run our infrastructure, such as hosting and messaging, under contract and only as needed to provide the service.
  • A regulator, a court or a law-enforcement authority, where we are legally required to produce information.

That is the complete list. We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for anyone else’s marketing.

How long we keep it

Order and dispensing records are kept for as long as the law requires a pharmacy and a seller of medicines to keep them, and for as long as a tax or accounting obligation runs. That period is set by regulation, not by us.

Everything else is kept only while your account is open. Close your account and we delete or anonymise what we are not required to retain.

Your rights over your data

Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 you can:

  • Ask what personal data we hold about you and how it has been shared.
  • Ask us to correct anything inaccurate, or complete anything incomplete.
  • Ask us to erase data we no longer have a legal reason to keep.
  • Nominate someone to exercise these rights if you are unable to.
  • Withdraw a consent you gave — for example, location access — at any time. Some parts of the service stop working without it, and we will say which.
  • Complain to us first, and to the Data Protection Board of India if we do not resolve it.

Write to privacy@thelocalpharmacy.in and we will respond within the period the law allows.

How it is protected

Traffic is encrypted in transit. Prescriptions and other documents sit in private storage behind signed, expiring links rather than on a public URL. Access by our staff is limited to the people whose work needs it and is recorded.

No system is perfect. If a breach affects your personal data we will notify you and the Data Protection Board as the law requires.

Children

This service is for adults. You must be 18 or over to hold an account. Medicines for a child should be ordered by their parent or guardian, on that adult’s account, against a prescription written for the child.

Changes to this policy

When this policy changes materially we will say so in the app before the change takes effect. The date at the top of this page is always the date of the current version.

Contacting us about your data

For anything about your personal data, write to privacy@thelocalpharmacy.in.

If you are not satisfied with the answer, escalate to our Grievance Officer at grievance@thelocalpharmacy.in.