Privacy policy

This policy explains what personal data footballkerala.com collects, why, how long we keep it and what you can ask us to do with it.

Who runs this site

footballkerala.com is run by Mohanraj Kolathapilly, an individual based in India. For anything about your data, write to privacy@footballkerala.com or use the contact page. The same address handles grievances.

Reading the site

You can read everything without an account. We don't set our own cookies for readers. If you switch between the dark and light look, that choice is saved in your own browser (local storage) and is never sent to us.

Our hosting provider keeps standard web server logs (IP address, the page requested, browser type and time) to keep the site running and secure.

Comments

When you comment we collect your name, email address, the comment and your IP address.

• Why: to show your name and comment under the story, to moderate comments, and to deal with spam and abuse. Your email address is never shown.
• How long: approved comments stay for as long as the story is published. We remove the IP address after 90 days. Rejected comments and spam are deleted after 90 days.
• Age: comments are open only to people aged 18 or over.

Comments follow our comment policy.

Contact form

When you write to us we collect your name, email address, message and IP address, so we can reply and prevent misuse. We remove the IP address after 90 days and delete messages after 12 months, unless we need one longer to deal with a legal request.

Advertising: Google AdSense

We show ads from Google AdSense to pay for the site.

• Google and its partners, as third-party vendors, use cookies to show ads.
• Google's advertising cookies let it and its partners show ads based on your visits to this site and other sites on the internet.
• You can turn off personalised advertising in Google's Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some other vendors' personalised ads at www.aboutads.info.
• How Google uses data from sites like ours: policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Visitor statistics: Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand which pages people read, how they find us and what devices they use. It uses cookies and gives us statistics, not the identity of individual visitors. Google Analytics data is kept for 14 months. You can block it with Google's opt-out browser add-on.

Visitors from Europe, the UK and Switzerland

If you visit from the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland, Google shows you a consent message first. Advertising and analytics cookies are used only if you agree. You can change your choice at any time through the "Privacy choices" link at the bottom of every page.

Embedded posts

Some stories include posts or videos from services such as Instagram or YouTube. These load from that service, which may set its own cookies and collect data under its own privacy policy.

Writing for us

If you sign up as a contributor we collect your name, email address, a short note about yourself and a password. The password is stored only in scrambled (hashed) form.

• Email code: we send a 6-digit code to confirm the address belongs to you. We store only a scrambled copy of the code; it stops working after 10 minutes and is deleted after a day. Sign-ups that aren't confirmed within 7 days are deleted.
• Approval: an admin reviews confirmed sign-ups. If we decline one, we delete it.
• Emails about your work: once approved, we email you when your account is ready and when your articles or changes are approved or returned. Editors get emails when articles are waiting. These come from our own mail server.
• On the site: your name appears as the byline on your articles.
• Signing in: this sets one cookie that ends when you close the browser. We keep sign-in records, including IP addresses, for 30 days for security.
• Leaving: you can ask us to close your account at any time. We'll agree with you what happens to articles you've already published.

Your rights

Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 you can ask us to:

• tell you what personal data we hold about you
• correct or complete it
• delete it, for example a comment you posted
• withdraw consent you gave, which stops future use
• nominate someone to exercise these rights for you

Write to privacy@footballkerala.com. We may ask you to confirm the request comes from you, and we aim to reply within 30 days. If you're not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

Children

The site is for a general audience. We don't knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has sent us personal data, write to us and we'll delete it.

Where data is stored

Our database is on our hosting provider's servers. Google processes advertising and analytics data on its own servers, which may be outside India.

Security

We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords and limited access for the site team. No system is perfectly secure, but we'll tell affected people and the authorities about a breach as the law requires.

Changes to this policy

When we change how we handle data we update this page and the date at the top.