Privacy Policy — Vedanta Study

vedanta.study (the “Site”) is owned and operated by Sekharendu Gupta (“we”, “us”, “our”). This policy explains how we handle personal information when you read the Site, write to us, or use the member sādhanā tracker at vedanta.study/app/.

The short version. We collect only what the Site needs to work and to improve. We do not sell personal data, and we never will. We do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. Your journal is private to your account. You can ask us to delete everything, and we will.

1. Information we collect

a. Member account information

When you register at vedanta.study/app/ we collect your name, username, email address and a password. The password is stored only as a one-way cryptographic hash — we cannot read it, and neither can anyone who obtains the database.

b. Sādhanā and practice data

The tracker stores what you enter into it: daily journal entries and reflections, discipline check-ins, guṇa proportions, Vedanta scorecard ratings, qualities-of-the-seeker assessments, karma-yoga notes, periodic reviews, Dharma Quest progress, streaks and achievements, together with the dates on which entries were made.

We recognise that this is intimate material. It is treated as sensitive personal information throughout.

c. Enquiry and contact information

If you use the contact form or the class-enquiry form, we collect the name, mobile number, email address and message you provide, along with how you heard about us. These forms are submitted through Google Forms, and the responses are stored in a Google account controlled by us.

d. Technical information

We do not run our own analytics or tracking scripts at the time of writing. Our hosting provider (Namecheap, via cPanel shared hosting) may generate standard server logs — typically IP address, browser type, page requested and timestamp — as part of operating the server. We do not request, analyse or retain these logs ourselves, and they are subject to the hosting provider’s own policies.

e. What we do not collect

We do not collect payment or card details (the Site takes no payments), government identifiers, precise location, contact lists, or biometric data.

2. Why we collect it

To provide the Service — to create and secure your account, keep you signed in, save your entries and show you your own charts, streaks and history.
To develop and improve the application — to understand, in aggregate, which features are used, where the tracker is confusing, and what to build next. This is the “analysis” the Site is built for, and it is done on anonymous, aggregated patterns, not on named individuals.
To respond to you — to answer enquiries, suggestions and support requests.
To keep the Site safe — to investigate misuse, abuse or a suspected security incident.
To meet legal obligations — where the law requires it.

3. Who can see your journal entries

This deserves a direct answer rather than a legal formula.

As the site administrator, Sekharendu Gupta has technical access to the database, as the operator of any such application necessarily does. In normal course we do not read individual entries. Our interest is in aggregate patterns, not in anyone’s private practice.

An individual entry may be viewed only where it is genuinely necessary:

to investigate a fault you have reported (for example, an entry that will not save or displays incorrectly);
to restore or repair data after a technical failure;
to investigate a suspected security breach or misuse of the Service;
where we are required to do so by law or valid legal process.

No one else has access. Your entries are not shown to other members, are not published, and are not shared with any third party for their own purposes.

4. We do not sell your data

We do not sell, rent, trade or licence personal information to anyone, for any purpose. We do not run advertising on the Site, and we do not share personal information with advertisers, brokers or marketing networks. This is not a temporary position; it is the basis on which the Site is built.

5. Third-party services

The Site relies on a small number of external services. Some receive your IP address simply because your browser connects to them to load a file.

Namecheap — web and database hosting.
Google Fonts — the typefaces used across the Site are loaded from Google’s servers.
Cloudflare cdnjs — the Font Awesome icon set is loaded from this content delivery network.
Chart.js — the charting library used on some pages and in the tracker is loaded from a public CDN.
Google Forms — receives and stores contact and class-enquiry submissions.
YouTube and Instagram — we link to our channels there. Following those links takes you to those platforms, where their policies apply.

Analytics: we do not currently use Google Analytics or any comparable tool. We anticipate adding analytics in future to understand how the Site is used in aggregate. When we do, we will update this policy and note the change on this page, and the tool will be configured to measure usage patterns rather than to profile individuals. Journal content will never be sent to an analytics provider.

6. Cookies

The Site uses a session cookie when you sign in to the member area. It exists only to keep you logged in as you move between pages, and it is cleared when you sign out or when the session expires. We may also store a small preference flag in your browser (for example, to remember that you dismissed the announcement bar).

We do not use advertising cookies, cross-site trackers or third-party profiling cookies. If analytics cookies are introduced in future, this section will be updated and appropriate notice given. You can block or clear cookies in your browser settings, though the member area will not be able to keep you signed in without the session cookie.

7. Children and young people

The reading material on the Site is suitable for study by anyone. Member accounts, however, are open only to those aged thirteen (13) or above. A person between thirteen and seventeen may hold an account only with the verifiable consent of a parent or legal guardian, given by writing to info.vedanta.study@gmail.com.

A parent or guardian may at any time ask to review, correct or delete a minor’s account and its contents by writing to the same address. If we learn that an account has been created by a child under thirteen, or by a minor without parental consent, we will delete it and its data.

8. Security

We take reasonable and appropriate measures to protect your information: passwords are stored as bcrypt hashes, sessions are protected against cross-site request forgery, database queries use prepared statements, and access to the hosting control panel is restricted and password-protected. The Site is served over HTTPS.

No method of transmission or storage over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please use a strong, unique password and do not share your login. If we become aware of a breach affecting your personal information, we will inform you and the relevant authority as required by law.

9. How long we keep it

Account and sādhanā data — retained for as long as your account remains active, so that your history and streaks stay intact.
On a deletion request — your account and its associated entries are deleted within thirty (30) days.
Enquiry form submissions — retained only as long as needed to respond and to maintain a record of correspondence.
Aggregated, anonymised statistics — may be retained after deletion, as they no longer identify you.

10. Your rights

You may, at any time, ask us to:

access the personal information we hold about you, and obtain a copy of your entries;
correct anything that is inaccurate or out of date;
delete your account and its data;
withdraw consent to our processing — noting that this will generally mean closing your account, as the tracker cannot function without storing what you write in it;
raise a grievance about how your information has been handled.

Write to info.vedanta.study@gmail.com from the email address registered to your account. We will respond within thirty (30) days. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request, so that no one else can obtain or delete your journal.

This policy is written to align with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and applicable Indian information-technology rules. If you are outside India, we handle your information on the same basis.

11. Grievance contact

Sekharendu Gupta
Operator, vedanta.study
Email: info.vedanta.study@gmail.com
Jurisdiction: Pune, Maharashtra, India

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the Site develops — for example, when analytics or paid offerings are introduced. The revised version will appear on this page with a new “last updated” date and takes effect on posting. Where a change materially affects how your information is used, we will make reasonable effort to notify members by email or by a notice on the Site.

13. Questions and suggestions

For any question about this policy, or any suggestion for the Site, please write to info.vedanta.study@gmail.com.