Privacy Policy
1. Who we are
TheCivilStudies (thecivilstudies.com) is an Indian civil-engineering learning website offering articles, free calculators, a community Q&A, a job board, digital downloads and the Pro membership. In this policy “we” means TheCivilStudies and “you” means anyone who uses the site.
2. What we collect
- Account details — name, email address, username and password (stored encrypted) when you create a free or Pro account.
- Orders — name, email, the products or plan you bought, amount and order date. Payments are processed by Cashfree Payments; we receive only the payment status and reference, never your card, UPI or bank details.
- Community content — questions, answers, comments, uploaded images, votes and reputation points. These are public and shown with your display name. Your email address is never shown publicly.
- Newsletter & forms — your email (and name, if you give it) when you subscribe or contact us.
- Push notifications — if you allow browser notifications, OneSignal stores a device token so we can send new-article alerts. You can switch this off in your browser at any time.
- Usage data — pages visited, device and browser type, approximate location and referring site, collected through Jetpack Stats and Google Analytics.
- Security data — IP address and request details, used by our firewall (MalCare) and spam filter (Akismet) to block attacks and spam.
The job board only links to official recruitment websites. We do not collect job applications or CVs.
3. Ads, cookies & analytics
Our free content is funded by advertising served through Ezoic and its demand partners, including Google Ad Exchange and Google AdSense. These partners may use cookies and similar identifiers to show ads, measure them and, where you allow it, personalise them based on your interests.
- You can manage ad cookies through the consent options shown on the site and in your browser settings.
- You can control Google ad personalisation at adssettings.google.com.
- Ezoic’s own privacy information is available at ezoic.com/privacy-policy.
- Pro members browse without ads.
We also use essential cookies to keep you logged in, remember your cart and protect forms from spam.
4. How we use your data
- To create and run your account, deliver downloads and give Pro access.
- To send emails you expect — order confirmations, download links, membership reminders and “someone answered your question” alerts.
- To send the newsletter, only if you subscribed (every email has an unsubscribe link).
- To keep the site safe, stop spam and fraud, and moderate the community.
- To understand which content is useful and improve the site.
- To meet legal, tax and accounting obligations.
5. Who we share data with
We share data only with service providers who help us run the site, and only what they need:
- Hostinger (web hosting) · Cashfree Payments (payments) · Ezoic and its ad partners, including Google (advertising) · Google (analytics) · Automattic / Jetpack and Akismet (statistics, subscriptions, spam filtering) · OneSignal (push notifications) · Mailchimp and our email provider (newsletters and transactional emails) · MalCare (security).
Some of these providers process data outside India under their own privacy and security commitments. We do not sell personal data. We may disclose information if required by law or to protect our users and the site.
6. How long we keep data
- Account data — until you ask us to delete your account.
- Order and invoice records — as long as Indian tax and accounting law requires.
- Community posts — until you delete them or ask us to; on account deletion we can remove or anonymise your posts.
- Security and server logs — for a short period, then deleted automatically.
7. Your rights
Under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and other applicable laws, you can ask us to:
- tell you what personal data we hold about you and how we use it;
- correct or update inaccurate data;
- delete your data and account (except records we must keep by law);
- withdraw consent, for example to the newsletter or push notifications.
Email info@thecivilstudies.com from your registered address. We reply within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you may raise a grievance with us at the same address, and you also have the right to approach the Data Protection Board of India.
8. Children
The site is meant for students and professionals. Users under 18 should create an account or buy anything only with a parent’s or guardian’s consent. If you believe a child has given us personal data without consent, contact us and we will delete it.
9. Security
We use HTTPS, a website firewall, spam protection, encrypted passwords and trusted payment partners. No website can be 100% secure, so please use a strong, unique password for your account.
10. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when our services change. The “Last updated” date at the top shows the latest version. Significant changes will be highlighted on the site.
11. Contact
Privacy questions or requests: info@thecivilstudies.com. See also our Terms of Use and Refund & Cancellation Policy.