Privacy policy

Who handles your data

Clapnumber is operated by Clapnumber, Hyderabad. Under the DPDP Act we are the Data Fiduciary for the personal data described here. You can reach us at hello@clapnumber.com.

What we collect

• Account details you give us: your name, email address, and a password hash. If you sign in with Google or Facebook we receive your name, email address and profile picture from them — never your password.
• What you do here: claps, ratings, poll votes, watchlist entries, follows, comments and reviews. These are tied to your account because that is the only way to show them back to you.
• Technical data: IP address, browser and device type, referring page and the pages you view. This reaches us through our own server logs and through Google Analytics.
• Nothing else. We do not buy data about you, we do not run advertising profiles, and we do not track you across other websites.

Why we collect it

• To give you an account and keep you signed in.
• To record and show your claps, votes, watchlist and comments.
• To count votes once per person per day, which is the only thing that keeps a poll meaningful.
• To understand which pages are read, so we know what to write more of.
• To keep the site secure and to investigate abuse.

Cookies and analytics

We use one strictly necessary cookie to keep you signed in and to protect forms against cross-site request forgery. That one has no alternative — the site cannot work without it.

We also use Google Analytics 4 to count page views and see which sections are read. This is not strictly necessary, so it stays switched off until you accept it, and you can change your mind at any time from the banner or by clearing this site’s data. Google acts as our processor and may store this data outside India.

Who we share it with

• Google — analytics, and sign-in if you choose it.
• Meta — sign-in only, if you choose it.
• Amazon Web Services — hosting and file storage.
• We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers.
• We will disclose data if a law, a court or a lawful government request requires it, and we will tell you unless we are forbidden from doing so.

How long we keep it

Your account data stays until you delete your account, after which we erase it within 30 days except where a law requires us to keep a record — for example, the 180-day retention the intermediary rules require for content we have taken down.

Analytics data is retained by Google for 14 months.

Your rights

Under the DPDP Act you can ask us to do all of the following, free of charge, and we will respond within 30 days.

• See the personal data we hold about you and who we have shared it with.
• Correct anything inaccurate, or complete anything incomplete.
• Erase your data where we no longer need it for the purpose you gave it for.
• Withdraw a consent you previously gave — including analytics — as easily as you gave it.
• Nominate someone to exercise these rights for you if you die or become incapacitated.
• Complain to us first at grievance@clapnumber.com, and to the Data Protection Board of India if we do not resolve it.

Children

Clapnumber is not intended for children under 18. The DPDP Act requires verifiable parental consent before processing a child’s data, and we are not set up to obtain it, so we ask that under-18s do not create an account. If you believe a child has given us data, write to us and we will delete it.

Security

Passwords are stored hashed, never in readable form. Traffic is encrypted in transit. Access to production data is limited to the people who operate the site. No system is perfectly secure, and if a breach affects you we will notify you and the Data Protection Board as the Act requires.

Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect or why, we will update this page and change the effective date above. Where the change is significant we will tell you before it takes effect.