Privacy, Terms and Refunds

Last updated: 11 November 2026

Privacy policy

Hope (“we”) is run by Hope by ANDS NETWORK, Nashik, Maharashtra, India. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why, and your rights under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

What we collect

Data	Why
Email and password (stored as a secure hash)	To create your account and let you sign in
Name, exam slot, exam city, exam date, target percentile (optional)	To personalise your countdown, plan and exam-day timings
Study progress: answers marked, time per question, daily logs, notes, mock scores, error notebook	To run the board and your dashboards
Payment status, order IDs and the UPI transaction reference (UTR) you submit	To match your payment and unlock access. We never see or store your UPI PIN, card number or bank login. If you pay through Razorpay, your payment details go directly to Razorpay
When you use the AI planner: the question you type plus a short progress summary (days left, units done, accuracy, hours, weak topic names). Never your name, email or notes	To write your study suggestions. This is sent to our AI provider, Groq, only to produce the reply
Free-trial start time	To end your one 24-hour trial on time
Link visits: the page you open, the partner code or campaign tags in the link you used, the name of the website you came from, and the date. A count only, with no IP address, no cookie and nothing that identifies you	To see which links and communities bring students, and to credit partners
Waitlist email (if you join)	To tell you when new features launch

Who can see it

Your progress is private to your account.
Admins can see a summary (name, city, slot, days done, accuracy, mock scores) only if you turn on “Share my progress” in your profile. You can turn it off at any time and the summary is deleted.
We do not sell your data or use it for advertising.

Where it is stored

Data is stored with Supabase (database and login) in Singapore; the website is hosted on Vercel, which also counts page visits without cookies and without identifying you; the home and features pages can load Google Tag Manager, which we use to run Google Analytics, only if you allow it; payments are handled by Razorpay; AI planner replies are generated by Groq. These providers process data only to run the service.

Cookies and local storage

The study board does not use advertising or tracking cookies. Your browser stores your login session and a copy of your progress locally so the app works quickly and offline, and it can keep a few small settings on your device (which notifications you have seen, whether you turned on alerts).

Our public home page and features page ask whether we may use Google Analytics, which runs through Google Tag Manager. Only if you press Allow does it load: Google Analytics then sets cookies on your device and receives visit information such as the pages you view, how long you stay, your approximate location and your device and browser type. If you press No thanks, or your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, nothing from Google is loaded. It is not used on the study board or on the page where you can join the waitlist, and nothing you enter in your account (your name, answers, notes or payments) is passed to it. You can also block it with your browser’s tracking or cookie settings, or with Google’s opt-out add-on (tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout); the site works without it. Vercel’s page-visit counter, used on the public pages and the board, does not use cookies. Change my analytics choice

Your rights

Access: download all your data any time from Profile → Download my data.
Correction: edit your profile any time.
Erasure: delete your account from Profile → Delete my account. This removes your account and all study data. Payment records may be kept by Razorpay as required by Indian tax law.
Withdraw consent: untick “Share my progress” or delete your account.
Grievances: contact our Grievance Officer below. We reply within 7 days.

Retention

We keep your data while your account is active. Accounts inactive for 12 months may be deleted after an email notice.

Children

Hope is meant for CAT candidates, who are graduates or final-year students. If you are under 18, use Hope only with a parent or guardian’s consent.

Terms of use

Access. Paying the one-time fee gives one person lifetime access to Hope, for as long as Hope is offered. There is no subscription and no renewal. Accounts are personal; do not share your login.
Free trial. Each account can start one free 24-hour trial that opens Unit 1, the dashboard and the AI planner. It ends by itself. Nothing is charged and no payment details are asked for. After it ends you can pay once to continue.
AI planner. Study suggestions are generated by an AI model. They can contain mistakes, are not professional advice and do not guarantee any result. Daily question limits apply.
Content. Practice questions, notes and solutions are original material written for Hope. You may use them for your own preparation. Copying, reselling or redistributing them, including by screenshots or recordings, is not allowed.
No guarantee of results. Hope is a study aid. Percentile figures are estimates from published analyses and change every year. We do not guarantee any score, percentile or admission.
Not affiliated. Hope is independent and is not affiliated with the IIMs or the CAT conducting body. Exam details are taken from public sources; always confirm them on the official website and your admit card.
Acceptable use. Do not attempt to break, scrape or overload the service. We may suspend accounts that do.
Changes. We may improve or change features. We will tell you about material changes to these terms by email.
Liability. To the extent permitted by law, our total liability is limited to the amount you paid.
Law. These terms are governed by the laws of India; courts in Nashik have jurisdiction.

Referral programme

Every student with lifetime access gets a personal referral link in their Profile.
A friend who signs up or pays through the link gets the discount shown in the app (currently ₹20). The student who shared it earns the reward shown in the app (currently ₹40) for each friend who pays.
Rewards are paid by UPI to the UPI ID the student saves in their Profile, once a week, after the friend’s refund window has ended. If the friend’s payment is refunded, no reward is due.
Your own link does not work on your own account. Rewards are not paid for fake, duplicate or self-made accounts, or for links posted as spam. We may pause a code that breaks these rules.
Earned rewards that are due are always paid. We may change the discount and reward for new codes; codes already created keep their amounts.

Refund policy

You can request a full refund within 3 days of payment if you have completed fewer than 2 study units.
Duplicate or failed-but-charged payments are always refunded in full.
Refunds go back to the original payment method within 5–7 working days after approval.
To request a refund, email hope.help@andsnetwork.com with your registered email and your Razorpay payment ID or UPI UTR.
A UTR that does not match any payment we received is not approved; you can submit the correct one.

Delivery and cancellation

Hope is a digital service. Nothing is shipped.
Access is delivered online at https://hopeforcat.vercel.app/app. Payments through Razorpay unlock instantly. Direct UPI payments unlock as soon as we match your UTR, usually within 4 hours between 9am and 10pm IST. If it takes longer, email us with your UTR.
Price: ₹199 for the first 100 students, then ₹299 one-time, inclusive of applicable taxes. No subscription and no auto-renewal.
Cancellation: you can stop using Hope any time; refunds follow the refund policy above.

Contact and Grievance Officer

Hope by ANDS NETWORK
Email: hope.help@andsnetwork.com
Phone: +91 7350868084
Address: Nashik
Support hours: Mon–Sat, 10am–7pm IST

Created by Niket Patil @aiwithniketFounder, ANDS NETWORKCo-founder: Aditya Parerao