Privacy Policy

1Introduction & Scope

VizhiTN ("we", "us", or "our") is an independent, community-driven civic information and public dialogue platform accessible via vizhitn.in. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, process, and protect your information when you register, browse, or contribute to VizhiTN. We are a non-governmental initiative. By using our platform, you acknowledge and agree to the practices described in this policy. For any inquiries regarding your data, contact us at support@vizhitn.in.

2Information We Collect

• 1Account Information: When you register (typically using Google Sign-In), we collect your name, email address, and profile photo. This helps us verify real users, prevent automated spam, and build a trusted community.
• 2Location Choices (Non-GPS): To filter local issues, emergency alerts, and district chats, you select your district and neighborhood. We do NOT track your device's precise live GPS location in the background.
• 3User-Generated Content: We store the text, photos, locations, scam alerts, comments, and messages you publish in our reports, directories, and live district chat rooms.
• 4Technical & Log Data: When you browse VizhiTN, our servers automatically log standard information, including your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URL, pages viewed, and access timestamps.
• 5Cookies & Session Tokens: We use browser cookies and local storage to keep you securely signed in, remember your language setting (English/Tamil), and load your regional configuration.

3How We Use Your Information

• 1To provide, maintain, and optimize our localized civic search, directory, and discussion features.
• 2To verify the legitimacy of community-reported civic issues and local scam alerts, helping filter out spam and false reports.
• 3To display relevant regional news and chat boards matching your selected district and area.
• 4To display advertisements served by Google AdSense to cover server hosting, database, and API costs.
• 5To monitor platform activity, resolve technical errors, and secure user databases against malicious hacking.
• 6To compile anonymous, aggregated statistics regarding search queries, portal visits, and scheme guides to improve user experience.

4Google AdSense & Advertising

We partner with Google AdSense to display non-intrusive advertisements on VizhiTN. Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our site. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our users based on their visit to VizhiTN and/or other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of personalized advertising at any time by visiting Google's Ads Settings. We do not control Google's ad selection algorithms or third-party cookies.

5Google Analytics & Site Traffic

To understand user flows and optimize usability, we use Google Analytics. Google Analytics collects anonymous browser information, screen resolutions, session durations, and pages viewed. IP address anonymization is enabled by default on VizhiTN, meaning your complete IP address is never stored or processed by Google. You can disable this analytics tracking in your browser settings or install the Google Analytics Opt-out browser extension.

6Secure Data Storage (Supabase)

Our user databases and authentication services are hosted securely using Supabase, an industry-standard open-source backend-as-a-service provider. Supabase employs strong encryption protocols for data in transit (SSL/TLS) and data at rest. By creating an account, you acknowledge that your profile identifiers and submitted civic content are securely written to and maintained on Supabase’s servers.

7Data Retention & Account Deletion

We retain your personal data (name, email, profile picture) for as long as your VizhiTN account is active. If you choose to delete your account, your personal identifying records are permanently purged from our databases. To maintain the historical continuity of community boards, any civic reports, photo evidence, and public discussion comments you posted will remain visible but will be permanently anonymized and labeled as "Deleted User" to protect your privacy.

8Your Rights & Data Portability

• 1Right to Access: You can request a digital file of all personal data we hold about you.
• 2Right to Correction: You can request that we update or rectify any inaccurate personal details.
• 3Right to Deletion: You can request the permanent deletion of your account and personal identifiers by emailing us.
• 4To exercise any of these rights, please email us directly at support@vizhitn.in, specifying your registered email address.

9Children's Privacy

VizhiTN does not target or knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years of age. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child under 13 has registered an account or provided personal details without consent, please notify us immediately at support@vizhitn.in so we can verify and delete the information.

10Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may revise this Privacy Policy periodically to adapt to changing legal requirements or platform updates. The "Last Updated" date at the top of this page will reflect the latest revision. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we safeguard citizen data.