Privacy Policy for hiteshji.com

Effective Date: September 13, 2025
Last Updated: September 13, 2025

1. Introduction & Who We Are

Welcome to hiteshji.com (“we,” “us,” “our,” or “the Website”). Your privacy is critically important to us. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, protect, and handle your personal information when you visit and interact with our website.

Our website address is: https://hiteshji.com
Our Data Controller is: Hitesh Kumar Singh
Contact Email for Privacy Concerns: info@hiteshji.com

This policy is designed to be transparent and to comply with global privacy standards, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

2. Privacy at a Glance: The Short Version

We believe in clarity. Here’s a quick summary of our privacy practices:

We Collect What’s Necessary: We collect information you voluntarily provide (like your name and email when you comment or contact us) and data collected automatically by our website (like your IP address and browser type for analytics and security).
Why We Collect It: To operate our website, improve your experience, respond to your inquiries, and ensure our site is secure.
We Don’t Sell Your Data: We do not sell your personal data to third-party marketers. We only share data with trusted service providers who help us run our website (like our web host and analytics provider), and only when legally required.
Your Rights Matter: You have rights over your data, including the right to access, correct, delete, or object to its use. We make it easy for you to exercise these rights.

3. What Information We Collect and Why

We collect information in two ways: information you give us directly and information collected automatically.

a) Information You Provide to Us Voluntarily

Comments: When you leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, your IP address, and browser user agent string to help with spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Contact Forms: When you contact us through a contact form, we collect your name, email address, and any other information you provide in your message so we can respond to your inquiry. We retain contact form submissions for a certain period for customer service purposes but do not use the information submitted for marketing purposes unless we explicitly ask for and receive your consent.

Mailing List / Newsletter Subscriptions: If you subscribe to our newsletter, we collect your email address to send you updates. We will only send you marketing communications with your explicit consent. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in every email.

b) Information We Collect Automatically

Cookies and Tracking Technologies: Like most websites, we use cookies to enhance your experience. Cookies are small data files stored on your browser. We use them to remember your preferences, understand how you use our site, and for security. For a detailed breakdown, see our “Cookies” section below.

Analytics: We use analytics services like Google Analytics to understand our website traffic and user behavior. This information, such as your IP address, browser type, pages visited, and time spent on the site, is aggregated and anonymized wherever possible. It helps us improve our content and user experience.

Server Logs: Our web server automatically logs basic information about each visit, including your IP address, request date and time, and browser type. This is standard practice for monitoring website security and performance.

Embedded Content from Other Websites: Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g., videos from YouTube, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if you visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content.

4. How We Use Your Information (Our Lawful Basis)

Under GDPR, we must have a valid legal reason to use your data. We use your information for the following purposes based on these legal grounds:

To Run Our Website (Legitimate Interest): Managing comments, preventing spam, and ensuring the security of our website.
To Respond to You (Legitimate Interest/Contract): Replying to your messages from our contact form.
For Analytics and Improvement (Legitimate Interest): Analyzing website traffic to improve our services and content.
For Marketing (Consent): Sending you our newsletter or other marketing materials, but only after you have given us clear consent to do so.
To Comply with the Law (Legal Obligation): We may be required to process your data to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

5. Cookies and Your Choices

We use cookies for various functions. You will be asked for consent to use non-essential cookies via our cookie consent banner when you first visit our site.

Strictly Necessary Cookies: These are essential for you to browse the website and use its features. They are usually set in response to actions made by you, such as logging in or filling in forms.
Performance & Analytics Cookies: These cookies collect information about how you use our website, like which pages you visited and which links you clicked on. This information is aggregated and helps us improve our website.
Functional Cookies: These cookies allow our website to remember choices you’ve made in the past, like your preferred language or your user name and password so you can automatically log in.

Managing Cookies: You can control and manage cookies in your browser settings. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site.

6. Who We Share Your Data With

We respect your privacy. We do not sell your personal data. We may share your information with the following categories of third parties:

Service Providers: Companies that provide services to us, such as web hosting (Hostinger) and analytics providers (Google Analytics). These companies are contractually obligated to protect your data.
Legal & Law Enforcement: We may disclose your information if required by law, subpoena, or other legal process.
Business Transfers: If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, your personal information may be transferred.

7. International Data Transfers

Our website is accessible globally. If you are visiting from outside India, your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in our servers’ location. We take steps to ensure your data receives an adequate level of protection by using legal mechanisms like Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) for transfers of data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

8. Your Data Rights: You Are in Control

You have specific rights concerning your personal data. We are committed to upholding these rights for all our visitors, regardless of their location.

The Right to Access: You have the right to request copies of your personal data.
The Right to Rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or complete information you believe is incomplete.
The Right to Erasure (The “Right to be Forgotten”): You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
The Right to Restrict Processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
The Right to Object to Processing: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
The Right to Data Portability: You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
The Right to Withdraw Consent: Where we rely on your consent to process data, you can withdraw that consent at any time.

How to Exercise Your Rights: To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at info@hiteshji.com. We will respond to your request within one month.

Special Notice for California Residents (CCPA/CPRA)

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights, including:

The Right to Know: You can request to know what personal information we have collected, used, and disclosed about you.
The Right to Delete: You have the right to request the deletion of your personal information.
The Right to Opt-Out of Sale/Sharing: We do not sell personal information. We also do not “share” your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.
The Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights.

9. Data Security and Retention

Security: We take the security of your data seriously. We use technical and administrative security measures, such as SSL encryption, to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, alteration, or disclosure. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Retention: We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. For example, we keep comment data indefinitely so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically.

10. Children’s Privacy

Our website is not intended for children under the age of 13 (or 16 in certain jurisdictions). We do not knowingly collect personal identifiable information from children. If you believe we have collected information from a child, please contact us immediately, and we will take steps to delete it.

11. Links to Other Websites

Our website may contain links to other websites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the “Last Updated” date at the top. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.

13. How to Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your rights, please do not hesitate to contact us.

By Email: info@hiteshji.com