Privacy policy

1. When you browse

• We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, and we never sell your information or share it for advertising.
• Visit statistics: our own analytics tool (Umami, hosted by us) counts visits without cookies. It records the page, the site that linked to it, the browser and device type, and the country. Your IP address is not stored, and the figures are only looked at in total. If your browser sends “Do Not Track”, the visit is not counted.
• Error reports: when a page fails, a technical report (the error and the page it happened on) goes to our own error tracker. It is set up to leave out cookies, request headers, form contents, and account details.
• Server logs: our web server records the IP address, time, page requested, and browser of each request, for security and troubleshooting. These logs are kept for about two weeks. To stop repeated form submissions, the API also looks at your IP address briefly in memory; it does not store it.

2. Suggesting a correction

When you suggest an edit to a temple page, we keep what you wrote and, if you give it, your email address. We use the email only if our editors have a question about your suggestion. The report is kept with the temple's editorial history.

3. Contributing temples and photos

• To add a temple or photos you sign in with your Google account, through Google's Firebase Authentication. We receive your name, email address, and a Google account identifier. We never see your password.
• We keep your name, email address, account identifier, when you last signed in, what you send us, and your agreement to the photo terms (with the date and version of the terms).
• Photos stay private until an editor reviews them. Photos we publish show your name as the credit. The camera's location (GPS) and other hidden details are removed from every published photo. We keep the original file privately as a record of your contribution; it is never published.
• Photos an editor does not accept are deleted when the contribution is reviewed.
• Temple details you send become part of the directory once approved, and our editors may correct or expand them.
• You must be 18 or older to sign in and contribute.

4. Tamil typing

In fields with Tamil typing switched on (the அ button), the English letters you type in that field are sent to Google Input Tools to get Tamil suggestions, and Google's privacy policy applies to them. Switch it off with the அ button or Ctrl+G and nothing is sent; text in other fields is never sent.

5. Map and nearby temples

• The map is drawn from OpenStreetMap. Your browser loads the map images from OpenStreetMap's servers, which see your IP address and the area you are viewing; OpenStreetMap's privacy policy applies.
• If you choose “Temples near me”, your browser asks for your permission first. Your location is rounded to about 1 km and sent to our API once to find the closest temples. It is not linked to an account or kept anywhere except our ordinary server logs (about two weeks).

6. The mobile app

The app needs no account and contains no analytics or advertising code. It stores your language and server choice only on your device. Corrections sent from the app are handled as described above. Opening directions or a phone number hands you over to your maps or phone app.

7. Who can see your information

• Our editors and administrators, who are invited individually and must sign in, see contributions, correction reports, and contributor names and email addresses so they can review them.
• Google provides sign-in and Tamil typing suggestions, as described above.
• Temple content is machine translated between English, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam on our own servers, with AI4Bharat's open-source IndicTrans2 models. The text is not sent to any outside translation service, and only temple text is translated, never your account details or contact information.
• The website, app data, and photos are stored on servers we manage, and backups are copied to separate storage.
• We disclose information to authorities only when the law requires it.

8. How long we keep it

• Contributor accounts and their contributions: until you ask us to delete them.
• Correction reports: as part of the temple's editorial history.
• Backups: 14 days, after which they are deleted.
• Server logs: about two weeks.

9. Your rights

You can ask us for a summary of the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, withdraw your consent (for example, to have a photo you contributed removed), and nominate someone to exercise these rights for you. Write to us at the address below from the email address you signed in with; we aim to reply within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

10. Children

Anyone can read the site and use the app. Signing in to contribute is only for people aged 18 or older. If we learn that a child has signed in, we delete the account and its contributions.

11. Security

All traffic uses encrypted connections (HTTPS). Unpublished contributions are kept in private storage, and only invited, signed-in staff can reach the editorial tools. No system is perfectly secure, but we take care to protect what you share.

12. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy we update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will also say so on the site.

13. Contact

Questions, requests, and complaints (grievance officer): admin@aadhibhagavan.org