Software

ADDA.io introduces industry-first DPDP Act compliant consent manager for housing societies

For years, Resident Welfare Associations have collected significant amounts of personal data from residents (name, phone number, email, apartment details, visitor details and vehicle information) in order to manage community operations.

However, many community platforms processing this data did not maintain a clear separation between official community communication and promotional use of the same data. Residents were required to use these platforms for essential society updates, yet had little control over whether they wanted to receive promotional messages through the same channel.

With the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act now in force, Management Committees are formally recognised as Data Fiduciaries, as they collect resident data and determine the purpose for which it is used. In this role, committees are legally responsible for ensuring that personal data is used only for the purpose for which it was collected, unless residents explicitly consent to additional use.

To help housing societies align quickly with this new framework, ADDA.io has introduced an industry-first Consent Manager within its platform, enabling communities to clearly separate official communication from optional promotional communication while giving residents control over their consent preferences.

This is the first structured Consent Manager framework designed specifically for housing society software, establishing a clear standard for how resident consent should be handled in community apps. The feature is now available across the ADDA App and ADDA ERP used by thousands of apartment communities.

Krishanu Mukherjee, AVP-Growth of ADDA.io said, "Apartment Management Committees already have many battles to fight. With ADDA.io’s Consent Manager, which is deeply embedded into the platform architecture, they get peace of mind on DPDP compliance and have one less battle to worry about. Since the penalty for non-compliance under the DPDP Act can go up to ₹250 crore, we wanted to ensure that communities using ADDA are ready and compliant as early as possible."

The launch comes at a time when concerns around personal data protection are growing globally. With the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, deepfakes and digital identity misuse, the protection of personal data has become a governance priority for organisations that collect and manage user information.

In India, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act establishes a clear principle: personal data must be used only for the purpose for which it was originally collected, and any use beyond that requires explicit consent.

In housing societies, resident data is typically collected for community operations and official communication. This includes safety alerts, visitor approvals, maintenance billing, community announcements and other governance related updates.

Challenges arise when community platforms used for these essential functions also introduce promotional messages or advertising through the same channel. In such situations, residents must be able to clearly choose whether they want to receive those communications.

ADDA’s Consent Manager addresses this by creating a structured separation between essential community communication and optional promotional communication. Residents can choose whether they want to receive optional offers or marketing messages and can withdraw that consent at any time through the app.

As India’s digital ecosystem continues to evolve, platforms that place responsible data management at their core—embedding principles such as purpose limitation and user consent into their architecture—are expected to play a central role in the governance of modern residential communities.