Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains what personal data Whizink collects, why, how it's used and shared, and the choices you have about it. It applies to whizink.in and the Whizink app (the "Service"). It's written to be read alongside our Terms & Conditions.

Account information

Email address, username, display name, password (stored as a salted hash — we never store or can see your actual password), and date of birth (used only to confirm you're 13–19; never shown publicly).

Profile information you add

Bio, general location, avatar and banner images, skills (with an optional proficiency level), achievements, education, and experience — all optional, and each has its own visibility setting in Settings. If you turn on "open to collaborate" for Team Finder, the short pitch you write is shown alongside it.

Content

Posts, comments, likes, bookmarks, follows, blocks, skill endorsements you give or receive, and the organizations, projects, events, and opportunities you create, join, or track. For opportunities specifically, this includes any application status (e.g. "interested," "submitted") and reminder preference you set for yourself — visible only to you, never to other users or the opportunity's submitter. A request to join a project or organization (and any message you attach to it) is visible to that project's or organization's managers.

Reports and moderation records

If you file or are the subject of a report, we keep a record of the report, the content it concerned, and the action taken, so our moderation team can review consistently and so repeat issues can be identified.

Technical and security information

For staff accounts (moderators and above), we log the IP address and browser/device (user agent) of each sign-in, purely for account-security auditing. We don't log this for regular member accounts. Our hosting and database providers separately retain standard server request logs for a limited time, as is normal for any web service, for abuse prevention and reliability.

Usage analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand aggregate traffic to the Service — things like how many people visit, which pages are popular, and what device or browser they used. Google Analytics assigns your browser a random identifier and records which pages you view; it doesn't receive your name, email, or any content from inside the app. Google processes this data under its own privacy terms, available at policies.google.com/privacy.

• To create and operate your account and profile.
• To show you content from people and organizations you follow, and to power search, discovery, and notifications.
• To detect, investigate, and act on violations of our Community Guidelines or Terms.
• To send you account-related email (password resets, security alerts) via our email delivery provider.
• To maintain the security and integrity of the Service.
• To understand aggregate traffic and usage patterns via Google Analytics, so we know what's working and what to fix.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not run targeted or behavioral advertising. Whizink currently carries no advertising, and Google Analytics is the only third-party analytics tool we use.

Whizink is restricted to ages 13–19 and isn't intended for children under 13; we don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 13, and we remove accounts we discover belong to someone under 13.

Most Whizink users are minors under the data protection law of their own country (for example, under 18 under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, or under 16 under the GDPR in some EU countries). We take a deliberately narrow approach to data collection because of this: we don't profile users for advertising, we don't sell data, and profile fields that could reveal a user's exact location, school, or contact details are either not collected at all or kept private and optional.

If you're a parent or guardian and want to review, correct, or delete your teen's data, or withdraw consent for them to use the Service, contact us at the address in Section 11 and we'll act on it directly — you don't need your teen's cooperation to make that request.

We share personal data only in these situations:

• Other users, for the parts of your profile and content you've chosen to make visible to them, per your privacy settings.
• Service providers who process data on our behalf under contract — our database host, file/image storage provider, transactional email provider, application hosting provider, and Google Analytics for aggregate traffic measurement. They're only permitted to use your data to provide their service to us.
• Law enforcement or other parties, only where we're legally required to, or to protect the safety of a user or the public.

We do not sell personal information to anyone.

Whizink is operated from India, and some of our service providers (database, storage, hosting, email delivery) may process or store data outside your home country, including in the United States. Where that happens, we rely on those providers' own security and compliance commitments and take reasonable steps to keep your data protected in transit and at rest.

We keep your account data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we remove your profile and content from public view; some records (like moderation history tied to reports, or data we're legally required to retain) may be kept for a limited time afterward strictly for legal, security, or abuse-prevention purposes, then deleted.

You can, at any time:

• Access, edit, or export your profile information from Settings.
• Control who can see your profile, location, and other fields via Settings → Privacy.
• Delete individual posts, comments, or your entire account.
• Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you, or ask us to correct or delete it, by emailing us (Section 11).

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws like India's DPDP Act, the EU/UK GDPR, or the California Consumer Privacy Act — including the right to know what data we hold, request deletion, and (for California residents 13–16) opt in before any sale or sharing of personal information, which, as noted above, we don't do. We'll honor valid requests under whichever law applies to you.

Passwords are hashed, never stored in plain text. Access to user data within Whizink is limited to what our moderation staff need to do their job, logged, and layered by role (a Moderator can't do what only the Owner can). No method of storing or transmitting data is 100% secure, but we take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information.

Whizink sets one essential cookie to keep you signed in. Google Analytics separately sets its own cookies to distinguish visitors and measure traffic, as described in Section 2. We don't use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. If that changes, this policy will be updated first.

In accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the Grievance Officer for Whizink is:

Sudhish
Email: sudhishreddy123@gmail.com

We acknowledge complaints within 24 hours and aim to resolve them within 15 days, as required. This is also the address for any question about this Privacy Policy or a data request under Section 8.

We'll update the "Last updated" date above when this policy changes, and for material changes we'll make a reasonable effort to notify you directly before they take effect.