Privacy Policy

Effective Date: June 14, 2026

1. Data Collection & Scope

At PATF India, we respect the privacy of our distinguished educators. We collect personal profile information (name, designation, school details, and social URLs) and verification credentials strictly for the purpose of validating memberships and displaying a national catalog of awardee teachers.

2. Privacy Controls & Visibility Settings

To give you full control over your personal data, the PATF portal implements explicit Privacy Toggles within your user dashboard and the registration form. You have the right and choice to:

• Hide Public Email: Prevents your email address from being shown on the public directory page.
• Hide Public Phone: Restricts your phone number from appearing publicly.
• Hide Social Profiles: Hides LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Play Store developer links from your public page.

Even if hidden from public view, this information is securely stored in our backend databases to allow administrators to reach out for official forum announcements.

3. Privacy-First Analytics Logs

We operate a privacy-first, cookie-based visitor tracking system.

• We do not log, track, or save visitor IP addresses.
• We do not trace your location or browser signatures.
• Page view counts are aggregated daily to a separate analytics database file (`database/analytics.sqlite`) using temporary local session cookies to identify repeat daily views on the same browser.

4. Data Security & Sharing

Your uploaded verification documents (such as Government ID cards or award certificates) are kept in secured directories and are only accessible by verified forum administrative coordinators. We do not sell, rent, or trade membership lists to third parties for commercial interests.