Personal documents: WhatsApp & drives vs Plinth resident vault
Residents often store rent agreements and ID copies in WhatsApp groups, personal Google Drive folders, or email — none of which were built for housing-society privacy or flat handover rules.
Comparison
| WhatsApp / personal drive | Plinth My vault | |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy from committee | Poor — easy to forward to wrong chat | Personal tab is uploader-only |
| Flat co-owner sharing | Ad-hoc forwards | Flat residents visibility built in |
| Committee verification | Secretary saves to personal phone | Flat + committee visibility option |
| Sell flat / unclaim | Old files linger in group history | Flat files purge; personal stays |
| Same app as voting & notices | Separate apps | One society tenant |
| Download links | Permanent share links | 120-second signed URLs |
| Storage limits | Informal | Tier quotas (Starter vs Community) |
MyGate and gate apps
MyGate offers personal and flat document categories inside its Documents module. Plinth matches that split with My vault while keeping governance-first voting, audit trails, and a committee Document Vault on the same roster — useful when the committee chose Plinth for elections and notices, not only gate access.
When WhatsApp is still fine
One-off sharing with a neighbour ("here is my courier OTP photo") does not need vault storage. Use My vault for records you may need months later: tenancy, tax, insurance, move-in/out.