DPGNotes Comprehensive Privacy Policy

1. Legal Preamble & Scope of Data Governance

This Comprehensive Privacy Policy ("Privacy Policy") governs the processing, collection, storage, and dissemination of personal data across DPGNotes (accessible via https://dpgnotes.web.app), engineered and maintained by Akshat Network Hub. This charter is formulated in strict compliance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act, India), the Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 43A), the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation EU 2016/679 - GDPR), and the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the CPRA (CCPA/CPRA).

DPGNotes is committed to preserving digital sovereignty, transparency, and data minimization. We guarantee that student lecture notes, exam papers, and educational resources remain accessible with minimal personal telemetry, and we explicitly pledge that student personal data is never sold, leased, or rented to commercial brokers.

2. Categories of Information We Collect

DPGNotes gathers information strictly necessary to facilitate authorized educational resource delivery, community verification, and platform security:

• Contributor Account Data: When students register or authenticate via federated Google OAuth, we collect full name, verified institutional email address, Google unique user ID (UID), and profile avatar URI.
• Academic Contribution Metadata: Academic course, semester, subject name, subject code, institutional department, and contributor biographical summaries associated with uploaded study papers.
• Guest Session Telemetry: Anonymized, rotating guest session identifiers, transient screen-time metrics (logged in 15-second intervals to compute resource difficulty), and search query terms.
• Technical Diagnostic Logs: Browser client user-agent strings, approximate geographic area at country/state level derived from IP headers, operating system version, and system error diagnostics for debugging.

3. Legal Bases for Data Processing

In accordance with Section 6 of the DPDP Act 2023 and Article 6 of the GDPR, DPGNotes processes personal data strictly under established legal justifications:

1. Explicit Consent: Provided voluntarily by users upon signing up, uploading resources, or subscribing to academic notifications.
2. Legitimate Academic Interest: Maintaining system integrity, preventing malicious script injections, and computing contributor leaderboard rankings.
3. Statutory Compliance: Preserving intermediary security audit records mandated by the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

4. Advertising Transparency & Google AdSense Compliance

To sustain free educational access and server infrastructure, DPGNotes participates in the Google AdSense and publisher advertising program. We strictly comply with Google Publisher Policies:

• Third-party vendors, including Google, utilize cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) to serve relevant advertisements based on visits to DPGNotes or other educational sites.
• Users may opt out of personalized ad targeting at any time via Google Ads Settings or through the Network Advertising Initiative portal.
• We enforce strict category filtering: all gambling, adult content, deceptive homework essay-writing mills, and unauthorized software downloads are blocked.
• Native sponsored announcements in document viewers are strictly restricted and never rendered on pages divisible by 3 to prevent ad clustering.

5. Cryptographic Storage & Database Architecture

All database records are maintained within enterprise-grade encrypted cloud infrastructure featuring multi-region redundancy. All external communication is enforced through TLS 1.3 cryptographic tunnels. At-rest storage is safeguarded by AES-256 bit hardware-level encryption. Role-based access control (RBAC) ensures only authorized administrators can access operational audit trails.

6. User Rights & Data Principal Sovereignty

DPGNotes empowers users with comprehensive data rights:

• Right to Access & Summary: Request an electronic copy of all personal records, contribution history, and profile data held by the platform.
• Right to Correction: Edit or update inaccurate academic details, course designations, or biographical data via your Contributor Dashboard.
• Right to Erasure (Right to Be Forgotten): Permanently delete your account and all associated documents using the self-service Danger Zone tool or by emailing our Grievance Officer.
• Right to Grievance Redressal: Submit inquiries or complaints regarding privacy compliance with mandatory resolution within 30 calendar days.

7. Protection of Minors & Children's Privacy

DPGNotes is designed for higher education and university students. In compliance with Section 9 of the DPDP Act 2023 and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we do not knowingly solicit or collect identifiable information from minors under the age of 13 without verifiable parental or school authorization.

8. Data Protection Officer & Grievance Redressal Mechanism

In adherence to the DPDP Act 2023 and Rule 3(2) of the IT Rules 2021, DPGNotes has appointed an official Data Protection Officer and Grievance Officer:

Related Compliance Policies