Privacy Policy

Last updated: 19 July 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how [REGISTERED ENTITY NAME]("Vaam Ki Aawaz", "we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, stores, discloses, and otherwise processes information in connection with vaamkiaawaz.in, its pages, features, and related communications (collectively, the "Website").

We operate a digital news and public-interest journalism platform. This Policy applies to readers, commenters, newsletter subscribers, persons who contact or submit material to us, and authorised contributors, administrators, and other account holders. It does not govern the independent practices of third-party websites or services that may be linked to or embedded within the Website.

For the purposes of applicable data-protection law, including the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and rules brought into force under it, [REGISTERED ENTITY NAME] is the person responsible for determining the purposes and means of processing personal data through the Website, except where a third-party provider processes information for its own independently determined purposes.

1. Information We Collect

The nature of the information we collect depends upon how you interact with the Website.

1.1 Information provided directly by you

• Newsletter subscription information. If you submit the newsletter subscription form, we collect your name, email address, telephone number, one-time-password verification information, and the date and time associated with your subscription record. Newsletter delivery is not presently active. Information submitted through the subscription form may nevertheless be retained to administer your subscription request and enable the service when it is introduced. We do not guarantee any particular commencement date, delivery frequency, or uninterrupted availability of the newsletter.
• Comments. When you comment on an article, we collect the name, email address, and comment text you submit, together with the relevant article and submission time. Your name, comment, and submission date may be displayed publicly. Your email address is stored for administration, security, and abuse-prevention purposes but is not included in the public comment display.
• Communications, complaints, and requests. If you contact us by email or another available channel, we may collect your name, contact information, the contents and metadata of your communication, supporting documents, and any other information you choose to provide.
• Editorial submissions. If you submit an article, report, image, document, correction, tip, or other material, we may process the submitted material, your identity and contact information, authorship details, source and attribution information, and any correspondence concerning review, publication, correction, removal, or legal rights in that material.
• Contributor and administrative account information. For authorised accounts created by us, we process information such as the account holder's email address, cryptographically hashed password, role, account status, permissions, author name, pen name, profile image, contributor identifier, articles or files uploaded, and account creation and modification timestamps.

1.2 Information collected automatically

• Technical and usage information. We and our service providers may process internet protocol address, browser type, device type, operating system, referring and exit pages, pages viewed, approximate time and date of access, interactions, and similar technical or usage information.
• Security and rate-limiting information. The Website processes internet protocol addresses and request information to detect misuse, limit repeated requests, and protect authentication, comments, reactions, newsletter, and other endpoints. Certain rate-limiting information is maintained temporarily in server memory. Hosting, proxy, and infrastructure providers may maintain separate access or security logs under their own operational practices.
• Article readership. We record aggregate article-view and interaction counts to operate readership and reporting features.
• Reactions.If you use an article's like or dislike feature, the Website generates a random pseudonymous visitor identifier in your browser and stores that identifier, the relevant article, your selected reaction, and a timestamp. The identifier is intended to distinguish browser installations and is not, by itself, intended to identify you by name.

1.3 Information we do not intentionally collect

The Website does not presently operate a payment, donation, checkout, or subscription-billing facility, and we do not intentionally collect payment-card or bank-account information through the Website. We do not request precise device geolocation, biometric information, or government-issued identity numbers through ordinary reader features. You should not include sensitive or unnecessary personal information in comments, submissions, or correspondence.

2. Cookies, Local Storage, and Similar Technologies

The Website and third-party services use cookies, browser storage, and similar technologies to provide functionality, remember settings, measure use, maintain security, and support services integrated with the Website. These technologies may include:

• Authentication cookie. An authorised contributor or administrator who signs in receives an auth_token cookie. It is configured as an HttpOnly cookie, uses SameSite=Lax, and ordinarily expires after approximately 24 hours.
• Google Translate cookie and session storage. Google Translate may use the googtrans cookie. The Website also uses session storage to remember translation scope and language state during a browsing session.
• Local storage.The Website may store a pseudonymous reaction identifier, theme preference, article-click state, and category-display preferences in the browser. For authorised contributors, an unpublished article draft and related form content may be stored locally in that contributor's browser. Browser storage ordinarily remains until it is cleared by the user, overwritten by the Website, or removed by the browser.
• Google technologies.Google Analytics, the Google AdSense integration, Google Translate, and other Google-hosted resources may use cookies, tags, pixels, or comparable technologies in accordance with Google's policies and the applicable service configuration.

You may block or delete cookies and browser storage through your browser or device settings. Doing so may impair translation, authentication, reactions, preferences, and other Website functions. At present, the Website does not provide a separate in-page cookie-preference centre.

3. Purposes for Which We Process Information

We may process information for the following purposes:

• to operate, maintain, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the Website;
• to publish and administer articles, author profiles, comments, reactions, events, categories, and resources;
• to create and administer authorised contributor and administrative accounts and enforce roles and permissions;
• to receive, verify, record, and administer newsletter subscription requests and, when the service becomes active, send requested communications;
• to communicate with you regarding inquiries, submissions, complaints, correction requests, privacy requests, or legal notices;
• to measure readership, understand Website performance, and produce aggregate analytics and internal reports;
• to prevent spam, fraud, unauthorised access, security incidents, and abuse of Website features;
• to establish, exercise, or defend legal rights, preserve relevant records, and comply with applicable law and binding legal process; and
• for another specific purpose disclosed to you when the information is collected, where permitted by law.

4. Grounds for Processing and Consent

Where applicable law requires consent, we seek to process personal data on the basis of your consent as expressed through an affirmative action, such as voluntarily submitting a form, requesting a newsletter subscription, posting a comment, contacting us, or otherwise requesting a specified service. In other circumstances, we may process information where necessary for a lawful purpose, to provide a service you have requested, to perform editorial and administrative functions, to protect the Website and its users, to comply with law, or as otherwise permitted under applicable law.

You may withdraw consent for future processing by contacting us as described below. Withdrawal does not affect processing already undertaken before withdrawal and does not require deletion where continued retention is required or permitted by law, including for legal claims, compliance records, fraud prevention, or legitimate editorial and archival purposes.

5. Publicly Available Information

Information that you choose to publish or submit for publication may be accessible to an unrestricted audience and may be copied, indexed, quoted, archived, or redistributed by search engines, social networks, other websites, or members of the public beyond our control. This includes comment names and text, author or pen names, author profile images, bylines, and published editorial submissions. Removal from our Website cannot guarantee removal of copies held by independent third parties, search-engine caches, archives, or persons who previously accessed the material.

6. Third-Party Services and Disclosures

We do not sell personal data. We may disclose or make information available to service providers and third parties to the limited extent reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy. These parties may include:

• Hosting, database, network, and technical providers that host or support the Website, store information, deliver content, provide security, or maintain infrastructure.
• Google Analytics, which is presently integrated to measure Website traffic and usage. Google may receive technical and usage information, including online identifiers and information about pages and interactions, subject to the applicable Google Analytics configuration and Google's terms and policies.
• Google AdSense.The Website presently loads a Google AdSense integration, but the AdSense account is pending Google's approval and advertisements are not currently being served. The integration may nevertheless cause requests to be made to Google and may permit Google to process technical information under its policies. If approval is granted and advertising is activated, we presently intend to use non-personalised advertising. Non-personalised advertising may still use cookies or similar technologies for matters such as frequency capping, aggregated reporting, fraud prevention, security, and contextual advertisement delivery. We will update this Policy if our advertising practices materially change.
• Google Translate, which provides automated translation and may process page content, language selections, and technical information when the service loads or is used.
• Google-hosted fonts and resources, which may receive technical request information when resources are retrieved.
• Email service providers, including Gmail/SMTP, which process recipient email addresses and message contents to deliver one-time passwords and, if activated, newsletter or administrative communications.
• Make.com or a configured automation provider. When a new article is published, public article metadata—such as the title, excerpt, public URL, author name, and category—may be transmitted to a configured automation webhook for publishing or notification workflows.
• Embedded-content providers. Articles may contain content from YouTube or Vimeo. Loading or interacting with such content may allow the relevant provider to receive your internet protocol address, device or browser information, page URL, and interaction data under its own policies.
• Social and external services. If you choose to use a sharing link or visit an external social-media profile, your browser communicates directly with that service. The relevant provider may receive the shared page URL and other information under its own policies.
• Professional advisers and authorities. We may disclose information to legal counsel, auditors, insurers, investigators, courts, regulators, law-enforcement bodies, or government authorities where reasonably necessary to obtain advice, protect rights or safety, investigate wrongdoing, comply with law, or respond to valid and binding legal process.
• Organisational transactions. If the Website or its operating organisation is reorganised, merged, transferred, or succeeded by another operator, relevant records may be disclosed or transferred subject to applicable law and appropriate safeguards.

Information about Google's use of data from sites that use its services is available at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. Google advertising controls are available at adssettings.google.com.

7. International Processing

Some third-party providers may process or store information on systems located outside India. Where information is transferred or made accessible across borders, we intend to do so subject to applicable Indian law, including any restrictions notified by the Government of India. Third-party providers remain responsible for their independent processing practices under their respective terms and applicable law.

8. Data Retention

We retain personal data while the relevant relationship continues—for example, while a person remains a subscriber, commenter, contributor, administrator, correspondent, or requester—and for a reasonable period thereafter, or until a valid deletion request is received, whichever occurs earlier. We may retain information for a longer period where reasonably necessary or required for compliance with law, an ongoing or reasonably anticipated dispute, the establishment or defence of legal claims, security and fraud prevention, enforcement of our rights, regulatory cooperation, or another purpose permitted by law.

Retention periods may differ according to the nature, sensitivity, context, and purpose of the information. One-time-password records and technical security information may be retained beyond their functional expiry for a reasonable administrative, security, or evidentiary period. Browser storage remains on your device until removed by you, by the Website, or by the browser. Third-party providers may apply their own retention schedules.

Published articles may remain part of our editorial and historical record after an author, contributor, or account holder ceases their relationship with us. Articles removed from public view may be retained internally in a hidden or restricted form for editorial accountability, audit, record-preservation, dispute resolution, and legal-defence purposes. This does not authorise us to retain unrelated personal data indefinitely where retention is no longer lawful or necessary.

9. Your Requests and Choices

Subject to applicable law and any lawful exceptions, you may request information about personal data we process concerning you, correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data, withdrawal of consent, cessation of newsletter communications, or deletion of personal data that is no longer required for a lawful purpose.

To unsubscribe from the newsletter or make a privacy or deletion request, email vaamkiaawaz@gmail.com. We will act upon a genuine and sufficiently verified request within 30 days of receiving the information reasonably required to process it. We may ask you to verify control of the relevant email address or provide other proportionate information to prevent unauthorised access, alteration, or deletion.

A request may be restricted or refused to the extent permitted or required by law, including where we cannot reasonably verify the requester, the request concerns another person's rights, the information must be preserved for legal or security purposes, or the request would require deletion of a lawful editorial or public record. Where appropriate and legally required, we will explain the basis for such a decision.

10. Children's Privacy

The Website is a general-audience news platform and is not directed or designed specifically for children. Reading publicly available articles does not require an account or an age declaration. We do not ask newsletter subscribers or commenters to state their age and therefore do not independently verify their age through those features.

Contributor and administrative accounts are restricted to persons who are at least 18 years old. If we become aware that a child's personal data has been provided through a reader-facing feature in circumstances requiring parental consent or other special treatment under applicable law, we may restrict the relevant feature, seek appropriate authorisation, or delete the data, as legally appropriate. A parent or lawful guardian who believes that a child has provided personal data may contact us at vaamkiaawaz@gmail.com. We may require reasonable verification of the requester's identity and authority in order to protect the child and the data concerned.

11. Information Security

We use reasonable administrative and technical measures appropriate to the nature of the Website and the information processed. Existing controls include cryptographic password hashing, time-limited authentication and one-time-password mechanisms, role and permission checks, input validation, content sanitisation, file-type and size validation, rate limiting, and security-related browser headers.

No internet transmission, information system, or storage method is completely secure. We therefore cannot warrant absolute security or guarantee that information will never be accessed, disclosed, altered, lost, or destroyed without authorisation. If a personal-data breach occurs, we will assess and address it and provide notifications where required by applicable law.

12. Automated Translation and Decision-Making

Google Translate provides automated translations for convenience. Translation may involve automated processing of page content and may contain errors. We do not use the Website's ordinary reader features to make solely automated decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects concerning readers. Aggregate analytics and automated security or rate-limiting controls may nevertheless affect the availability of particular requests or features.

13. External Links and Third-Party Content

The Website may contain links to external websites, embedded media, and material supplied by third parties. We do not control and are not responsible for the privacy, security, availability, or data practices of those independent parties. You should review the applicable third-party privacy notice before providing information or using the relevant service.

14. Legal Requests and Preservation

We may preserve, use, or disclose information where we reasonably believe this is necessary to comply with applicable law, a valid court order, or other binding legal process; respond to lawful requests by competent authorities; investigate suspected illegality or misuse; protect the rights, safety, or property of the Website, our personnel, users, sources, or the public; or establish, exercise, or defend legal claims. Nothing in this Policy requires voluntary disclosure in response to a request that is not legally valid or binding.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may amend this Policy to reflect changes in law, regulatory guidance, technology, service providers, Website functionality, or our processing practices. The revised Policy will be posted on this page with an updated revision date. Where required by law, we will provide additional notice or obtain consent before materially different processing begins. You should review this page periodically.

16. Governing Law

This Policy is governed by the applicable laws of India. Subject to any mandatory statutory forum, regulatory authority, or jurisdiction that cannot lawfully be excluded, disputes concerning this Policy or our processing practices shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the competent courts at Kolkata, West Bengal.