Google API Data Usage

This page explains exactly how SarthiLink accesses and uses data from your Google Account through the Google APIs. It applies only to Mentors who choose to connect their Google Calendar. Students are never asked to connect a Google Account for calendar access, and connecting Google Calendar is entirely optional for mentors.

SarthiLink's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

When a mentor connects Google Calendar, they are shown Google's own consent screen and must explicitly approve access. We request the minimum scopes needed to provide scheduling:

• Basic account identity (openid, email): we read your Google email address only to record and display which Google account you connected, so you can recognise and disconnect it later.
• Calendar events (calendar.events): permission to create, update, and delete calendar events on your calendar. We deliberately do not request the broader read-all-calendars scope.

We use the Calendar API strictly to manage the events that correspond to your SarthiLink bookings:

• Create a calendar event when a student's booking with you is confirmed after payment.
• Update that event when the session is rescheduled.
• Delete that event when the session is cancelled.
• Generate a Google Meet link automatically as part of creating the event (via Google Calendar conference data).

SarthiLink does NOT:

• Read, index, or store your existing or unrelated calendar events.
• Sell, rent, or trade any Google user data.
• Use Google Calendar data for advertising or marketing.
• Use Google Calendar data to train, or improve, any generalised artificial intelligence or machine-learning models.
• Transfer Google user data to third parties except as needed to provide the scheduling feature, to comply with applicable law, or as part of a merger or acquisition with prior notice.

The sole purpose of this access is to provide the scheduling functionality of SarthiLink: putting each confirmed session on the mentor's calendar, attaching a Google Meet video link, inviting the student and mentor, and keeping that event in sync when a session is rescheduled or cancelled. The Meet link and a reference to the calendar event are stored against the booking in our database so both participants can join the session. We do not use this data for any other purpose.

Our use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. In plain terms: Google data is used only to provide and improve the scheduling feature you connected it for, is never sold, is never used for advertising, and is never used to train generalised AI models.

The token that lets us act on your calendar (your OAuth refresh token) is encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM before it is stored, and is never exposed to your browser or to students. Access to the underlying records is restricted to server-side processes only. See our Privacy Policy for more on how we secure data.

You stay in control. You can disconnect Google Calendar at any time from your Mentor Settings in SarthiLink, which removes our stored tokens and stops all further calendar access. You can also revoke SarthiLink's access directly from your Google Account at myaccount.google.com/permissions. After you disconnect, new bookings will simply no longer create calendar events until you reconnect.

Questions about how we use Google data: support@sarthilink.com.