JioMeet users, here’s all the data Reliance Jio will collect from you for accessing its “free” video call service

JioMeet is Jio’s answer to Zoom and clearly it also has every ingredient in the book to become India’s go-to choice (in the days to come).

JioMeet, Reliance Jio’s made in India Zoom rival is officially out of beta which means everyone can start using the brand new video conferencing service in town now. Like Zoom, JioMeet also lets you video call with up to 100 people straight off the bat, though there are virtually no time limits here which gives Jio’s homegrown video calling tool an edge. There’s no doubt that JioMeet is Jio’s answer to Zoom and clearly it also has every ingredient in the book to become India’s go-to choice (in the days to come). But since we’re talking about comparisons with Zoom, JioMeet will also have to prove that it is better at handling privacy and security of users. Something that Zoom hasn’t been very good at.

While Jio is yet to talk about how private and secure JioMeet calls will be (whether they will be end-to-end encrypted, for instance), it has chalked out a pretty comprehensive privacy policy (which you can find in the app’s “about” section), letting users know all the different kinds of data they’ll need to share (with consent) in order to use the service. Basically you’ll end up sharing both personal (name, age, gender, contact information, products and services you are interested in or require more information about) as well as non-personal (unique system or hardware identifiers, system or application software, and peripherals) data with Reliance Jio to use JioMeet.

JioMeet will also have access to the location of your device, SD card contents, phone statistics and identity, file systems, contacts, conferencing logs and history.

Jio notes that it is open to sharing your personal data with third-parties (to provide display advertising and promotional services) as well as external organizations or individuals in three cases, “(a)meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request; (b)detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; (c)protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of our customers or the public, as required or permitted by law.”

All the data that Jio will collect on you will be retained “only for a limited duration” though retention period will be longer in case it is required or permitted by law. “Once the purpose is achieved, all personal information is deleted in a safe and secure mode,” Jio notes.

In case if someone decides to record a JioMeet call, the recording will be stored on Jio servers for a period of 7 days. Now Jio doesn’t explicitly mention where these servers are located, but since a huge chunk of the company’s marketing seems to be revolving around the “made in India” aspect, it is expected that user data will be stored within the country (and not outside of it). We will update this piece once we have more information.