गोपनीयता नीति

This policy applies to all visitors to lokkatha.xyz — including anonymous visitors who do not have an account, registered account holders, and paying members. Anonymous visitors may interact with the archive without providing any personal data; however, standard server logs and anonymous analytics (PostHog) apply to all visitors regardless of account status. Personal data is collected only when you voluntarily create an account, take out a subscription, post a comment, submit a contribution request, fill in the Feedback form, subscribe to the Newsletter, or make a voluntary donation.

Account registration. You can create an account with an email address and password, or by signing in with Google. For email accounts, we store your email address and a hashed password — the plain-text password is never stored. For Google sign-in, we receive your name and email address from Google; no password is stored on our side. In both cases this data is used to authenticate you, display your profile in the account section, and associate your subscription, comment history, and activity with your account.

Account details & profile. Your account section may display your display name, avatar, membership status, subscription details (plan, renewal date, billing history), and basic activity metrics. This information is visible only to you when logged in and is not publicly displayed unless a specific feature explicitly states otherwise.

Comments. When you post a comment on an archive entry we store the comment text, a timestamp, and a reference to your account. Comments are associated with your display name. We retain the right to moderate and remove comments. Comment records may be retained after account deletion for audit, moderation history, and legal purposes, with your display name anonymised on request.

Subscription & membership. When you subscribe to a paid membership plan we collect your email address, subscription plan details, billing period, Razorpay order ID, Razorpay payment ID, payment status, and payment verification signature. This data is used to activate and manage your membership, process renewals, send billing receipts, and handle refund requests. LokKatha does not store your card number, UPI credentials, bank credentials, CVV, OTP, or other sensitive payment instrument details — these are handled by Razorpay.

Contribution requests. When you submit a request via the Contribution Gate, we collect your name, email address, and the content of your submission (description, source, location, and entity details). Your email is used to process and respond to your submission, allow you to check its status, and enforce a cooldown period between submissions from the same address.

Feedback submissions. When you send feedback, we collect your rating, category, message, optional name and email address, and page context when available. This is used to identify bugs, improve the archive experience, and follow up only if you choose to provide contact details.

Newsletter subscriptions. When you subscribe via the Newsletter form, we collect your name and email address. These are used solely to send the LokKatha newsletter (archive updates, entity alerts, and curator notes). You may unsubscribe at any time via the link included in every issue, after which your details are removed from the mailing list.

Donations. When you make a voluntary donation, we collect your name, email address, donation amount, currency, selected archive goal where applicable, Razorpay order ID, Razorpay payment ID, payment status, and payment signature used for verification. Your name and email are used to create the payment order, record the donation, and send a receipt after payment confirmation.

Donation and subscription payments are processed by Razorpay. LokKatha does not receive or store your card number, UPI credentials, bank account credentials, CVV, OTP, or other sensitive payment instrument details entered in Razorpay checkout. Razorpay may process payment and fraud-prevention data under its own policies.

View counts. We record anonymous page view counts to understand which entries are read. No personally identifiable information is attached to view counts — they are simple numeric tallies per page.

Analytics (PostHog). We use PostHog to understand how people use the archive — which pages are visited, where errors occur, and how features like subscriptions are used.

For anonymous visitors, no personal data is linked to analytics. All form inputs are masked in session recordings.

For logged-in account holders, PostHog links your email address, display name, and subscription tier to your analytics profile so we can understand how members use the archive. We track account activity events including signing in or up, updating your profile, managing your subscription, generating audio narrations (which entry, language, and section), and successful subscription payments (plan, billing cycle, and amount). This helps us improve the experience for members.

This data is processed by PostHog Inc. (United States). You can read their privacy policy at posthog.com/privacy.

Cookies & local storage. LokKatha uses cookies and browser local storage for two purposes: (1) to keep you logged in — a secure session cookie is set by Supabase when you sign in and is cleared when you sign out; (2) for analytics — PostHog stores a randomly generated anonymous identifier in local storage to track sessions across page views. No advertising cookies are used.

Server logs. Our VPS infrastructure automatically logs standard request metadata — IP addresses, request paths, timestamps, and browser user-agent strings — as part of normal server operation. These logs are used solely for security monitoring and debugging, are not shared, and are rotated periodically.

• No advertising networks, retargeting pixels, or ad-tracking of any kind.
• No social media tracking integrations (no Facebook Pixel, Google Ads, etc.).
• No analytics linked to personally identifiable information for regular visitors (see Section 02 for analytics details).
• No card numbers, UPI credentials, bank account credentials, CVV, OTP, or similar sensitive payment details.
• No plain-text passwords — passwords are hashed before storage.

Account data, comment records, subscription records, contribution submissions, feedback records, newsletter records, and donation records are stored in a private database on a self-hosted VPS server.

Third-party processor — Google (OAuth). If you sign in with Google, your authentication is handled by Google. We receive only your name and email address from Google to create or match your account. Google's own privacy policy governs the data Google collects during the sign-in process.

Third-party processor — Razorpay. Razorpay processes subscription and donation payments on our behalf. Data sent to Razorpay may include the payment amount, currency, account email, order details, and payment verification identifiers.

Third-party processor — PostHog. Anonymous behavioural analytics data (described in Section 02) is processed by PostHog Inc., a US-based company. PostHog acts as a data processor on our behalf. The data transmitted to PostHog contains no name or email address for anonymous visitors; for logged-in account holders, identity is linked as described in Section 02. PostHog is SOC 2 Type II certified and maintains its own data processing agreements.

We apply reasonable technical measures to protect stored data, but no system is unconditionally secure. By using LokKatha you accept this inherent limitation.

Account data. Retained for the lifetime of your account. If you request account deletion, your profile data (display name, avatar, email) will be removed. Comment records and transaction records may be retained with your display name anonymised where required for moderation history, accounting, or legal purposes.

Subscription records. Retained for accounting, billing dispute resolution, fraud prevention, and legal compliance. We may retain minimal transaction records even after account deletion where required by applicable law.

Contribution & feedback records. Retained while under review or active in the archive. Contact data associated with declined submissions may be purged at the creator's discretion.

Newsletter subscriber data. Retained for as long as you remain subscribed. Unsubscribing removes your details from the mailing list promptly.

Donation records. Retained for accounting, payment verification, fraud prevention, and dispute handling.

You may request deletion of any personal data we hold at any time by contacting us (see Section 07). We will confirm deletion within a reasonable period.

Depending on where you are located, you may have rights under the GDPR (European Union) or India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) including:

• The right to access personal data we hold about you.
• The right to correct inaccurate data.
• The right to request deletion of your data.
• The right to withdraw consent for processing (where consent is the basis).

To exercise any of these rights, contact us directly. We will respond within 30 days.

For any privacy-related questions, data requests, or deletion requests:

This policy may be updated as the archive evolves. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent revision. Continued use of LokKatha after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.