Privacy policy

Who runs SawaalBox

SawaalBox is run by Shriram Agrawal, Bengaluru, Karnataka, who decides how the site uses your data and is its grievance officer: the person to contact about your data, including complaints, at hello@sawaalbox.in.

If you don't sign in

• Marks and lists. When you use Mark done, Needs review or Save to list, the question and your choice are saved in your browser's storage on this device. They are not sent anywhere.
• Theme. If you pick Light or Dark, that choice is saved the same way.
• Searches. When you search, the text you typed and any filters you chose (subject, years, difficulty) are sent to our search service. It writes each search to its log: the search text, the filters and the network (IP) address the request came from. Render, our host, keeps these logs, with the time of each, for a limited period. A search is never linked to an account. Your search also appears in the page's web address, so your browser keeps it in its history like any page you visit.
• Visiting pages. Like every website, the servers that deliver SawaalBox receive your IP address and basic details of your browser with each request.

To remove what is saved in your browser, clear this site's data in your browser's settings. Marks and lists kept only in your browser are lost if you do.

If you sign in with Google

Signing in is optional. When you choose Sign in, Google asks whether to share your basic profile with SawaalBox. If you agree, we receive and keep the basic profile Google shares:

• your name, email address and the link to your Google profile picture;
• an ID for your Google account, so the same Google account always opens the same SawaalBox account.

Your marks and revision lists are then saved to your account as well as in your browser:

• for each mark, the question, whether it is Done or Needs review, and when you marked it;
• for each list, its name and its questions, each with the date it was saved.

Your browser keeps your sign-in session, which includes your name and email address, so you stay signed in until you sign out. Signing out does not remove your marks and lists from this browser: on a shared computer, clear this site's data in your browser's settings after you sign out.

If you sign in from a page that shows a search, that page's web address, search included, is passed through the sign-in step so you come back to it. Supabase, which runs sign-in for us, may also record technical details of each sign-in and each sync, such as the time, your IP address and your browser.

Why we use it

• Your marks and lists: to show them to you on every device where you sign in.
• Your email address and Google account ID: to know which account is yours, and to check that a request about your data comes from you.
• Your name: its first letter appears on the account button. We don't show your picture.
• Search text: to find the questions you asked for. Logs: to find and fix problems.
• Emails you send us: to answer you and act on what you ask.

We rely on your consent, which you give when you sign in, and you can withdraw it at any time (see your rights). We don't use your data for advertising, and we don't build a profile of you.

Where it is kept, and who handles it

• Supabase runs sign-in and the database that holds accounts, marks and lists, and stores them in Mumbai, India.
• Render runs the website and the search service, on servers in the United States.
• Cloudflare carries the connections between your browser and the website, the search service and Supabase.
• Google runs the sign-in step itself. What Google does with your data is covered by Google's privacy policy.
• Zoho Mail (Zoho Corporation) hosts our email address, hello@sawaalbox.in, so it handles the emails you send us.

So your account, marks and lists are stored in India, while search logs and records of page visits are kept by Render, outside India. Connections to the site, the search service and Supabase use HTTPS. In the database, access rules let each signed-in account read and change only its own marks and lists. If a breach affects your data, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

How long we keep it

• Your account, marks and lists: for as long as your account exists. When you ask us to delete your account, we delete it together with your marks, your lists and Supabase's record of your sign-ins.
• What is saved in your browser: until you remove it, or clear this site's data.
• Emails you send us: in our mailbox, until you ask us to delete them or we no longer need them.
• Records of requests kept by the services that run the site (by Render for page visits and searches, and by Supabase for each sign-in and sync, with your IP address): for the limited time those services keep them. They expire on the services' own schedule.

Your rights

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

• ask what personal data we hold about you, what we do with it, and who handles it for us;
• ask us to correct, complete or update it;
• ask us to delete it: we delete your account, marks and lists, and the sign-in records we can remove (logs kept by the services that run the site expire on their own schedule);
• withdraw your consent at any time, after which we delete your account;
• nominate someone to use these rights for you if you die or become unable to;
• complain to us about how we handle your data.

To do any of these, email hello@sawaalbox.in from the email address you sign in with, so we can tell the request is yours. We reply within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our reply, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

Children

Accounts are for people aged 18 or over. If you are younger, you can still read and search everything without an account. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use the data in your account, we will say so on the site before it takes effect. Questions about this policy go to hello@sawaalbox.in; see also the contact page.