Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

We collect minimal information necessary to provide our service:

• Newsletter subscribers: email address (provided voluntarily when you subscribe).
• Contact form submissions: name, email, subject, and message content.
• Analytics: standard anonymized analytics data via Google Analytics — pages visited, referrer source, approximate location (country/city level), device type, and time on page. IP addresses are anonymized.
• Server logs: standard HTTP request logs (IP, user-agent, URL, timestamp), retained for 30 days for security and operational purposes.

We do not collect financial information, government identifiers, biometrics, or sensitive personal information.

2. How We Use Your Data

• To deliver the StartupFox Brief newsletter to subscribers who have opted in.
• To respond to contact form inquiries.
• To understand aggregated traffic patterns and improve content (via Google Analytics).
• To detect and prevent abuse, spam, and security threats.

3. What We Don't Do

• We do not sell your email address or personal information to any third party.
• We do not share your data with advertisers for targeting or profiling.
• We do not use your data to train AI models or sell to AI training providers.
• We do not track you across other websites.

4. Cookies & Local Storage

We keep this minimal:

• Essential cookies for basic site functionality (e.g., remembering your dismissal of the newsletter popup).
• First-party analytics cookie (sf_vid) — a random identifier we set ourselves to count unique readers and measure reading time on our own server. It contains no personal information and is never shared with or sold to anyone.
• Local storage — used to remember that you have already seen a sponsored welcome message that day, so we don't show it to you again.

We do not use third-party advertising cookies, behavioural ad targeting, social-media tracking pixels, or cross-site tracking technologies. Sponsored banners on StartupFox are sold directly and shown to everyone equally — they do not profile you.

5. Data Retention

• Newsletter subscriber emails: retained until you unsubscribe.
• Contact form submissions: retained for 24 months for context on ongoing correspondence, then deleted.
• Server logs: 30 days.
• First-party analytics events: 90 days, then automatically deleted.
• Advertiser booking details: retained for the duration of the campaign plus 24 months for invoicing and tax records.

6. Your Rights

Under applicable laws (DPDP Act 2023 in India, GDPR in the EU), you have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct any inaccurate information.
• Delete your personal information (subject to legal retention obligations).
• Withdraw consent for newsletter subscription at any time via the unsubscribe link in any newsletter, or by contacting us directly.
• Object to processing for specific purposes.
• Lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority.

To exercise any of these rights, email editorial@startupfox.in. We process all requests within 30 days.

7. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services that may process limited reader data:

• Google Fonts — for typography. Loaded from fonts.googleapis.com. Their privacy policy.
• Hostinger — our infrastructure provider. Their privacy policy.
• Razorpay — payment processing for advertisers who book a campaign. Razorpay receives the payment details you enter on their checkout page; we never see or store your card, UPI, or banking credentials. Their privacy policy.
• YouTube / Vimeo — some articles embed video clips. The player loads only when present on the page; YouTube embeds use the privacy-enhanced (no-cookie) mode. YouTube policy · Vimeo policy.

8. Advertising & Sponsored Content

StartupFox carries directly-sold sponsored banners in clearly marked positions. Our approach:

• Paid banners appear only in fixed, demarcated advertising positions that are visually distinct from editorial content, and never inside the text of an article.
• Advertisers never influence our reporting, and sponsored placement does not buy coverage.
• Banners are shown to all readers equally — there is no behavioural targeting, profiling, or tracking of readers for advertising purposes.
• Clicks on a sponsored banner pass through our server to count the click, then continue to the advertiser's site. We record only the count, nothing about you.
• Aggregate, anonymous figures (total impressions and clicks) are shared with the relevant advertiser for their own campaign.

9. Advertiser Data & Payments

If you book an ad campaign via our self-serve advertising page, we collect the details you submit: contact email, campaign name, banner image URL, destination URL, and chosen duration. We use these solely to review, run, invoice, and report on your campaign. Payments are processed by Razorpay; we receive a confirmation of payment but never your payment credentials. Campaigns are subject to editorial review — we may decline creatives that are misleading, inappropriate, or that imitate editorial content, in which case any amount paid is refunded in full.

10. Children's Privacy

StartupFox is not directed at users under 18 and we do not knowingly collect information from children. If we discover we have collected information from someone under 18, we will delete it.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy occasionally to reflect changes in our practices or applicable law. We will update the "Last updated" date at the top. Material changes will be communicated to newsletter subscribers via email.

12. Contact

For any privacy-related queries or to exercise your rights under this policy, contact us at editorial@startupfox.in or via our contact page.