Overview

At RateMyProf India, we take your privacy seriously. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal data in compliance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 (DPDP Act) and other Indian laws.

Information We Collect

Account Information

Email address (required for account creation)
Full name
University/college affiliation
Student verification status

Review Data

Professor reviews and ratings (overall, clarity, helpfulness)
College reviews and ratings (food, internet, clubs, opportunities, facilities, teaching, overall)
Course information and year of study
Review text and comments
Anonymous display preferences
Review votes (helpful/not helpful)
Review flags and moderation reports
Voting history on reviews

Technical Data

IP addresses
Browser type and version
Device information
Usage analytics

How We Use Your Data

Display reviews to help students make informed decisions about professors and colleges
Moderate content for quality and appropriateness
Track voting patterns to surface helpful reviews
Process flags and reports to maintain community standards
Prevent spam, abuse, and fake reviews
Improve platform functionality and user experience
Send important notifications about your account and reviews
Analytics to understand usage patterns (anonymized)
Enforce rate limits to prevent abuse

Anonymity and Privacy

Review Anonymity

All college reviews are anonymous by default - Your name will never be publicly displayed
Professor reviews can be posted anonymously or with your name (your choice)
We maintain a private mapping between reviews and authors for moderation purposes only
Only administrators can see review authorship, and only for moderation/security purposes
Your identity is protected from other users, professors, and colleges

Voting Privacy

Your votes (helpful/not helpful) on reviews are stored privately
Other users cannot see who voted on a review
Only aggregated vote counts are displayed publicly
You can change or remove your vote at any time
Voting data is used to rank and surface quality reviews

Flagging and Moderation

When you flag a review, your identity as the reporter is kept confidential
Flagging data is only visible to administrators
We track flagging patterns to identify abuse of the flagging system
Moderation decisions and notes are kept in secure logs

Data Sharing

We DO NOT sell your data. We only share data with:

Supabase - Database hosting provider (encrypted storage)
Railway/Vercel - Application hosting providers
Sentry - Error monitoring (anonymized error logs only)

What we NEVER share:

Your email or personal contact information with third parties
Review authorship information (kept private except for moderation)
Voting patterns or individual vote data
Any data with professors, colleges, or institutions
Marketing or advertising companies

Admin Access and Moderation

To maintain quality and safety, authorized administrators have access to:

Review authorship information (to prevent spam and enforce guidelines)
Voting patterns (to detect vote manipulation)
Flagging reports and reporter information (to process moderation requests)
User account details (to enforce terms of service)
IP addresses and technical logs (to prevent abuse and security threats)

Administrator Confidentiality: All administrators are bound by confidentiality agreements and are prohibited from sharing user information outside of moderation purposes.

Your Rights (DPDP Act 2023)

Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, you have the following rights:

Right to access: Request a copy of all your data we hold
Right to correction: Correct inaccurate or incomplete data
Right to erasure: Request deletion of your account and personal data
Right to data portability: Receive your data in a portable format
Right to grievance redressal: File complaints about data handling
Right to appeal: Contest moderation decisions affecting your reviews
Right to withdraw consent: Opt out of optional data processing
Right to nominate: Designate someone to exercise your rights in case of death or incapacity

Special Notes on Data Deletion:

When you delete your account, your personal information is removed within 30 days
Reviews you posted will remain visible (anonymously) to preserve the platform's integrity
Your votes and flags will be retained (anonymized) for platform quality
We cannot delete reviews if they are subject to ongoing moderation or legal proceedings

Data Retention

Active accounts: Data kept while account is active and for legal compliance
Deleted accounts: Personal data anonymized within 30 days
Reviews: Kept anonymously even after account deletion (for platform integrity)
Votes: Anonymized and retained for review ranking quality
Flags and reports: Retained for 1 year for moderation quality and appeals
Security logs: IP addresses and access logs kept for 90 days
Moderation decisions: Retained for 2 years for appeal purposes

Why we retain anonymized reviews: Reviews form the core value of our platform. Deleting them would harm the community and students relying on authentic feedback. After account deletion, reviews remain but cannot be linked back to you.

Cookies and Tracking

Authentication tokens: Stored locally to keep you logged in
Session cookies: Essential for platform functionality
Analytics cookies: Used to understand usage patterns (can be disabled)
No advertising cookies: We don't use cookies for ad tracking
No cross-site tracking: We don't track you across other websites

Security

Encrypted connections (HTTPS/SSL)
Encrypted database storage
Row-level security policies
Regular security audits
Automated backup systems

Contact

For privacy-related questions or to exercise your rights, please contact us.