Privacy Policy

2Information We Collect

We collect only the necessary information required to facilitate hackathon registrations, team collaboration, evaluation, and certification:

• Personal & Contact Details: Full name, email address, mobile phone number, city, and state.
• Academic Profile: College / University name, branch of study, year of graduation, roll number or student ID.
• Hackathon Submissions: Project title, description, GitHub repository links, demo video URLs, pitch decks, and team member rosters.
• Transaction & Billing Data: For paid challenge tracks, order IDs, payment transaction IDs, and timestamps generated by our payment partner Razorpay. (Note: Students Hackathon does not store credit card numbers, CVVs, or bank PINs).
• Technical & Log Data: IP address, browser type, device information, and session timestamps for cybersecurity and DDoS prevention.

3How We Use Your Information

Your data is processed strictly for legitimate operational purposes:

• To register and verify participants for individual and team hackathons.
• To send essential transactional notifications (OTP verifications, payment receipts, schedule updates, shortlist status).
• To issue verifiable, tamper-proof digital certificates of participation and achievement with QR verification.
• To facilitate mentorship sessions and project evaluation by certified jury members.
• To connect top finalists with hiring companies and internship recruiters with the student's explicit consent.

4WhatsApp Business & SMS Communication Policy

We integrate with the WhatsApp Business API and authorized telecom SMS gateways to provide students with timely and reliable updates:

• Consent & Opt-In: By entering your phone number during account creation or hackathon registration, you opt in to receive transactional messages regarding your registration, team alerts, and hackathon schedules.
• No Spam / No Third-Party Resale: We will never sell, rent, or trade your phone number to third-party marketing agencies.
• Opt-Out Mechanism: You can unsubscribe from non-critical WhatsApp messages at any time by replying “STOP” on WhatsApp or emailing us at info@studentshackathon.com.

5Payment Processing & Financial Security

All online payment transactions on Students Hackathon are handled securely by Razorpay Software Private Limited.

• Razorpay is certified with PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) Level 1 compliance.
• All payment transactions are encrypted using end-to-end 256-bit SSL encryption.
• We only receive confirmation tokens (Order ID, Payment ID, Status) to activate registrations.

6Data Sharing & Disclosure

We do not sell personal data. We only share information in the following limited scenarios:

• Authorized Service Providers: Trusted cloud infrastructure (AWS/Vercel), transactional email providers, and payment gateways operating under strict non-disclosure obligations.
• Event Judges & Mentors: Access to submitted project links, repositories, and team profiles for evaluation purposes.
• Legal Compliance: When required by Indian law, law enforcement requests, or to protect the safety and rights of participants and the platform.

7Your Data Rights & Retention

Under the DPDP Act 2023, you have the right to:

• Access and review personal information associated with your student account.
• Request correction of inaccurate or outdated profile details.
• Request deletion of your account and associated personal data (subject to legal and tax retention obligations for monetary prize disbursements).

8Grievance Officer & Redressal Mechanism

In accordance with the Information Technology Act 2000 and rules made thereunder, the contact details of the Grievance Officer are provided below: