Privacy Policy

Project Chintan is an independent news and analysis website. This policy explains what information we collect when you use ProjectChintan.com, why we use it, when it may be shared with service providers or connected platforms, how long we keep it, and the choices available to you.

This policy applies to the Project Chintan website and Project Chintan-operated administrative tools. Third-party websites, social networks and services that we link to or connect with have their own privacy practices.

1. Information you provide to us

Depending on how you use Project Chintan, you may provide:

• Account information, such as your email address, display name and information required to create or sign in to an account.
• Newsletter information, primarily the email address you submit to subscribe to The Chintan Brief.
• Comments or other submissions you choose to send through account-enabled features.
• Messages and correspondence you send to our newsroom, corrections, privacy, advertising or other Project Chintan email addresses.

2. Information collected when you visit the site

Project Chintan operates first-party reader analytics so we can understand readership, traffic sources and site performance. For ordinary public-page visits, our systems may record:

• the page or article path you visit;
• a randomly generated session identifier;
• your IP address and approximate country, region and city derived from network or infrastructure headers;
• browser user-agent information and derived browser, operating-system and device type;
• screen dimensions, browser language and time zone;
• referring page or website; and
• campaign parameters such as UTM source, medium, campaign, term and content when present in the URL.

We use this information to count visits and sessions, understand which stories and pages are being read, distinguish obvious automated traffic from human traffic, improve the site and diagnose operational issues. Authenticated staff browsing is excluded from our first-party reader analytics where the current site can identify it.

3. Cookies and browser storage

Project Chintan and third-party services used on the site may use cookies, local storage, session storage or similar browser technologies. Our current site stores a cookie-notice acknowledgement in local storage and uses a random session identifier in session storage for first-party visit analytics. Authentication features may also require browser storage or cookies to maintain a signed-in session.

You can block or delete cookies and site storage using your browser controls. Blocking essential storage may affect sign-in or other site functionality.

4. Google Analytics and advertising

Project Chintan uses Google Analytics to measure website traffic and usage. Google Analytics may receive information directly from your browser and may use cookies or similar technologies in accordance with Google's own policies and settings.

When advertising is enabled, Project Chintan may display advertising through Google AdSense. Advertising services may process device, browser, network, cookie or advertising-related information to deliver, limit, secure and measure advertisements, subject to their own policies and applicable consent requirements.

You can learn more about Google's privacy practices at Google's Privacy Policy.

5. How we use information

We may use information described in this policy to:

• operate, secure and maintain Project Chintan;
• create and manage user accounts and authenticated sessions;
• deliver and manage newsletter subscriptions;
• measure readership, traffic, engagement and technical performance;
• respond to tips, corrections, feedback, privacy requests and other communications;
• prevent abuse, investigate errors and protect the integrity of our services;
• operate authorized social publishing connections for Project Chintan; and
• comply with legal obligations and enforce our policies where applicable.

6. Service providers and sharing

We may disclose or make information available to service providers that help us operate the site, including database, authentication, hosting, analytics, advertising and security providers, only as reasonably necessary for those services. Our current technology stack includes Supabase for database/authentication functions and Google services for analytics and, when enabled, advertising.

We may also disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect rights or security, investigate abuse, or respond to lawful requests. If Project Chintan is reorganized, transferred or acquired, relevant information may be included in that transaction subject to applicable law.

7. Social media integrations: Meta/Instagram and LinkedIn

Project Chintan may use official platform APIs to allow an authorized Project Chintan administrator to connect and publish to Project Chintan-managed social accounts or Pages. This is an administrative publishing feature, not a reader social-login feature.

If an authorized administrator connects Meta/Facebook/Instagram or LinkedIn, Project Chintan may receive and store the data needed to maintain that connection, such as access or refresh tokens, granted scopes, token expiry information, Page/account or organization identifiers and names, Instagram professional-account identifiers, LinkedIn organization URNs, and connection status or selection metadata.

We use this information only to authenticate the authorized connection, identify the Project Chintan account or Page that the administrator is permitted to manage, publish approved Project Chintan content, refresh credentials where the platform supports it, and maintain operational/audit records. Project Chintan's integration does not ask for or store the administrator's Meta, Instagram or LinkedIn password; authentication takes place on the platform's authorization flow.

Social-platform OAuth tokens stored by the Project Chintan Social Studio are encrypted before database storage. Meta, Instagram and LinkedIn separately process information under their own terms and privacy policies.

8. Data deletion and revoking social access

If you have authorized a Project Chintan social integration and want Project Chintan-held connection data deleted, you can disconnect the platform from Project Chintan's Social Connections administration page or email privacy@projectchintan.com with the subject "Social Data Deletion". Disconnecting removes the stored Project Chintan OAuth credentials for that platform and resets the connection in our system.

You can also revoke Project Chintan's access from the relevant Meta/Facebook/Instagram or LinkedIn account settings. Revoking access at the platform may invalidate the platform token, while a separate request to Project Chintan can be used to request deletion of Project Chintan-held data that is eligible for deletion. The social platform may retain information independently under its own policies.

For other Project Chintan personal-data deletion requests, including an account or newsletter email address, contact privacy@projectchintan.com. We may need to verify the request before acting on it and may retain limited information where required for security, legal or record-keeping purposes.

9. Data retention

Retention depends on the type of information and why it is needed. Account and subscription data may be retained while the account or subscription is active; correspondence may be retained as needed to address the matter; analytics and security data may be retained for operational, statistical and abuse-prevention purposes. We may retain information longer where reasonably necessary for legal obligations, disputes, security or enforcement.

Social OAuth credentials are intended to remain only while the relevant Project Chintan platform connection is maintained and are deleted from Project Chintan's credential store when that connection is disconnected through the Social Studio workflow.

10. Security

We use administrative and technical safeguards intended to protect Project Chintan systems and information. Access to internal administration tools is restricted to authorized users. Sensitive social OAuth credentials used by Social Studio are encrypted before database storage. No internet service or storage method can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

11. International processing

Project Chintan and its technology or platform providers may process information in countries other than the country from which you access the site. Where applicable, we will handle such processing in accordance with applicable data-protection requirements.

12. Your choices and rights

Depending on where you live and the law that applies, you may have rights or choices concerning access, correction, deletion, information about processing, withdrawal of consent where processing is based on consent, or complaints to an appropriate authority. This policy does not limit rights available to you under applicable law.

You may request access, correction or deletion of personal information held by Project Chintan by emailing privacy@projectchintan.com. You can also ask us to remove your email address from the newsletter subscriber list. Browser cookies and site storage can be managed through your browser settings.

13. Children

Project Chintan is a general-audience news service and is not designed to knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal information to us inappropriately, contact privacy@projectchintan.com so we can review the request.

14. External links

Articles and other pages may link to external publishers, source documents, social networks, advertisers or other third-party websites. Their privacy practices are controlled by those third parties, not by Project Chintan.

15. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Project Chintan's services, technology or legal obligations change. We will publish the revised policy on this page and update the date shown at the top. Material changes may also be highlighted through the site where appropriate.

16. Contact

Privacy questions, access requests and deletion requests can be sent to privacy@projectchintan.com.