Privacy Policy & Student Data Protection

2. Local Browser Storage

Features such as "My Saved Scholarships," theme preference (dark/light mode), and the "Document Readiness Checklist" utilize your browser's private localStorage. Key points:

• This data is stored only on your device and is never transmitted to our servers or any third party.
• We do not synchronize this data across devices or sessions.
• You can clear this data at any time by clearing your browser's site data or cache.
• Clearing browser data will reset your saved scholarships, checklists, and theme preference.

3. Analytics & Server Logs

Like most websites, our hosting infrastructure may automatically collect basic server access logs that include:

• IP address (may be anonymized depending on hosting configuration)
• Browser type and version
• Pages visited and time spent
• Referring URL (how you arrived at our site)
• Device type and operating system

This data is used exclusively for understanding aggregate traffic patterns, improving site performance, and debugging technical issues. It is never used to personally identify individual students or build user profiles for advertising purposes.

4. Cookies & Web Technologies

Cookies are small text files placed on your device by your web browser. ScholarshipsPortal.in uses cookies for the following purposes:

• Essential & Performance Cookies: Used by our hosting and CDN infrastructure for security (e.g., DDoS protection), load balancing, and fast content delivery.
• Advertising Cookies: Third-party advertising partners, including Google, use cookies to serve relevant ads and measure ad impressions as outlined in Section 5 below.
• No Invasive Tracking: We do not sell your personal data or deploy cross-site tracking scripts designed to deanonymize students.
• Managing Cookies: You can choose to accept, reject, or delete cookies via your browser settings. Note that disabling certain cookies may affect website performance.

5. Google Ads & Third-Party Advertising Policy

To maintain ScholarshipsPortal.in as a free educational resource for students across India, we may display advertisements served by third-party advertising partners, including Google AdSense. In compliance with Google's policies for publisher sites:

• Use of Cookies: Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website or other websites on the Internet.
• Personalized Advertising: Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our visitors based on their visits to ScholarshipsPortal.in and/or other sites across the web.
• Opting Out of Personalized Ads: Users may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings.
• Third-Party Vendor Opt-Out: Alternatively, users can opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance's consumer choice tool at optout.aboutads.info or the Network Advertising Initiative at optout.networkadvertising.org.
• How Google Uses Information: For comprehensive details on how Google handles and processes data when you interact with sites using its ad services, please read Google's partner policy: How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.

6. Non-Commercial Data Policy

We do not sell, rent, lease, trade, or otherwise share student profiles, browsing data, contact information, or any user data with:

• Private coaching institutes or tuition centers
• Educational loan providers or financial service companies
• Advertising agencies or telemarketers
• Data brokers or analytics resellers
• Any third party for commercial purposes

7. Contact Form Data

If you voluntarily submit information through our Contact & Corrections page (such as your name, email, or message), that information is used solely for the purpose of responding to your query, processing your correction report, or improving the accuracy of our content. It is not shared with third parties.

8. Third-Party Links

Our Website contains links to external websites such as scholarships.gov.in, state government portals, and charitable foundation websites. When you click on these links and leave our Website, your interaction with those sites is governed by their respective privacy policies and terms of service. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any external site you visit.

9. Children's Privacy

ScholarshipsPortal.in is intended for use by students, parents, and educators. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided personal information to us, please contact us immediately and we will take steps to remove such information.

10. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect the Website and any data associated with it, including HTTPS encryption for all connections. However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, or legal requirements. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Effective date." We encourage users to periodically review this page for the latest privacy information.

12. Your Rights

As a user, you have the right to:

• Browse all scholarship information without creating an account or providing personal data.
• Clear all locally stored data (saved scholarships, preferences) at any time through your browser settings.
• Request deletion of any data you have voluntarily submitted through our contact form.
• Opt out of any future communications if you have previously contacted us.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy, please reach out through our Contact & Corrections page.