Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy applies to all services offered by MapMyTimes (operated by MAPMYTIMES LLP, Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, India), including our website mapmytimes.com, mobile applications, newsletters, and related digital properties (collectively, the "Services").

We take your privacy seriously. This policy describes the personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices and rights you have.

2. What Personal Data We Collect

Depending on how you interact with the Services, we may collect the following categories of personal data:

• Account & registration information: When you create a MapMyTimes account — name, email address, phone number (optional), username, password hash, and profile details you choose to provide.
• Comments & contributions: Comments you post on articles, text of letters to the editor, submissions via Contact, and any other content you submit.
• Newsletter & communications: Email address and subscription preferences when you sign up for newsletters, alerts, or marketing communications.
• Cookies & device / usage analytics: Standard web server log data (IP address, browser type, referring URL, exit pages, timestamp), and anonymised or pseudonymised usage data via cookies and analytics SDKs (e.g., pages read, scroll depth, session duration, device type, approximate geographic region).
• Contact & support: Any information you voluntarily share when writing to us via forms, email, or phone.
• Payment data (if applicable): Where paid subscriptions or paid products are offered, payment processing is handled by a PCI-DSS compliant payment processor — MapMyTimes does not store full card numbers on our own servers.

3. How We Use Your Data

Personal data is used only for the following legitimate purposes:

• Service delivery: To operate the Services, authenticate you as a user, display your personalised reading experience, publish and moderate your comments, and deliver newsletters you have subscribed to.
• Personalisation: To surface stories, recommendations, and features we think will interest you (you can opt out of personalisation where technically feasible via your account settings).
• Communications: To respond to your support inquiries, send important service announcements (security, policy changes, outage notices), and — only where you have given explicit opt-in consent — marketing / promotional emails.
• Analytics & improvement: To understand aggregate reader behaviour, improve story selection, site performance, and product features. Analytics data is used at the aggregate level wherever possible and individual users are not identified in reports.
• Legal & security: To comply with applicable law, respond to lawful requests from public authorities, protect the security and integrity of our systems and users, and enforce our Terms & Conditions.

4. Cookie Policy Summary

We use cookies and similar local-storage technologies for the following purposes:

• Strictly necessary cookies: Required for core site functionality (e.g., login sessions, security tokens). Cannot be turned off for the site to work.
• Preference cookies: Remember your settings (theme, region, font size, last-read position).
• Analytics cookies: Measure aggregate usage to improve the product. You can opt out via your browser settings or our (forthcoming) Cookie Preference banner.
• Third-party cookies (embedded content): YouTube videos, social media embeds, and embedded widgets may set their own cookies — these are governed by the third party's own privacy policies, not this one.

You can disable or restrict cookies at any time via your browser's cookie settings. Doing so may affect certain features of the Services (login, saved articles, preference persistence).

5. Third-Party Services Used

The following categories of third parties may process personal data on our behalf under written data-processing agreements with appropriate safeguards:

• Hosting & Infrastructure: Our hosting provider(s) located in India and/or global cloud regions, who process data solely on our instructions to keep the Services online.
• [Analytics Provider]: Web and mobile analytics service used to measure aggregate reader usage and performance.
• Email / Newsletter provider: Transactional and newsletter email delivery service.
• Social platforms: Content embedded from YouTube, Instagram, Facebook/X, and similar platforms is loaded directly from their servers and subject to their privacy policies — we recommend reviewing those policies for information about their data practices.
• CDN and image delivery providers: Content Delivery Networks accelerate image and asset delivery for readers worldwide.

6. Data Retention & Security

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by applicable law:

• Account data is retained for the lifetime of your account plus a reasonable wind-down period (typically 12 months) after deletion request.
• Newsletter email addresses are retained until the subscriber unsubscribes or the address is found to be invalid.
• Comments and contributed content are retained indefinitely unless a user requests deletion (see Section 7) — note that published comments may have been shared, indexed, or cached by third parties beyond our control.
• Web server / analytics logs are retained for a maximum of 18 months, after which they are aggregated, pseudonymised, or securely deleted.

Security: We employ reasonable industry-standard administrative, technical, and physical safeguards — including encrypted connections (TLS), hashed / salted credentials, role-based access, and regular vulnerability scans — to protect personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. No internet service can guarantee absolute security, however.

7. Your Rights & How to Exercise Them

Under applicable Indian law (the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and other laws as may be in force) and other applicable regulations, you have the right to:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: Ask us to update or correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• Deletion / Erasure: Request that we delete your personal data (subject to our legal retention obligations for records, accounting, tax, and enforcement).
• Withdrawal of Consent: Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw consent at any time (e.g., unsubscribe from newsletters, delete your account).
• Grievance: Raise a grievance about any aspect of our handling of your personal data and receive a reasoned response.

To exercise any of these rights, please write to our Grievance Officer at admin@mapmytimes.com with the subject line "Privacy / DPDP Request: [Your Name]". Please include sufficient information to allow us to identify your account — typically your registered email address and any relevant URLs or timestamps.

We will acknowledge receipt within 72 working hours and provide a substantive response within 30 calendar days of receipt of a complete request.

8. Children's Privacy

The Services are not directed at children under the age of 18 ("Minors"). We do not knowingly solicit or knowingly collect personal information from Minors.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal data without your consent, please contact us at the address in Section 10 and we will take reasonable steps to delete that information promptly.

9. Policy Updates

We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, products, or legal obligations.

Material changes will be notified via a prominent notice on the website for at least 30 days before they take effect, and the 'Last updated' date at the top of this page will be revised. Please review this page periodically.

10. Contact for Privacy Queries

For all privacy, data, and DPDP-related queries, please contact:

• Grievance Officer / Data Privacy — MapMyTimes
• Email: admin@mapmytimes.com (subject: "Privacy Query")
• Phone: +91 98939 89395
• Address: MAPMYTIMES LLP, Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, India