Privacy Policy

Summary

• Who holds your data — Shivix Adsphere Private Limited, which operates AdChowk. We are the Data Fiduciary under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
• What we collect — mostly business contact details and what you tell us about your advertising requirement. Name and phone number are the only two fields we require.
• Why — to answer your enquiry, plan and run your campaign, prove your advertising went up, and run our business.
• Do we sell your data — no. We do not sell personal data, and we never will.
• Marketing — only if you actively tick the box. It is never pre-ticked, refusing never blocks anything, and you can withdraw at any time.
• Your rights — access, correction, erasure, grievance and nomination, all exercisable at Your Data Rights.
• Who to contact — To confirm (privacy@adchowk.com), or hello@adchowk.com.

1. Who we are

• Data Fiduciary: Shivix Adsphere Private Limited (operating as AdChowk).
• CIN: U73100AP2026PTC123793.
• Registered office: 9-14-5/18/4F, 5th Floor, Balaji Nagar, VIP Road, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam (Urban), Visakhapatnam 530003, Andhra Pradesh, India.
• Privacy contact: To confirm (privacy@adchowk.com) · hello@adchowk.com · +91 85007 00657.
• Grievance Officer: To confirm — see Grievance Redressal.

This policy explains what we do with personal data when you use adchowk.com, enquire with us, become a customer or partner, or appear in the photographs we take to verify advertising placements.

2. The law we work to

We are governed by the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, together with the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020.

⭐ We are building to full DPDP compliance ahead of the statutory phase-in. Where this policy describes something we do not do yet, it says so plainly rather than implying it is already in place.

3. What we collect

3.1 When you enquire (the main case)

• Name — ⭐ required, from you.
• Phone number — ⭐ required, from you.
• E-mail address — optional, from you.
• Company / business name — optional, from you.
• City and locality of interest — optional, from you.
• Advertising format(s) of interest — optional, from you.
• Budget band — optional, from you.
• Campaign start date and duration — optional, from you.
• Your message — optional, from you.
• Advertising sites you shortlisted — optional, from your activity on the Platform.
• The page you enquired from — automatic, from our system.
• Campaign source tags (UTM) — automatic, from your referring link.
• Anti-spam signals — time taken to complete the form, and a hidden field bots fill in; automatic, from our system.
• Your consent record — which version of our Terms and this policy was shown, when, and whether you opted into marketing; automatic, from our system.

⭐ Only name and phone are mandatory. Everything else is optional by design, so that you can get a price without handing over more than you want to.

3.2 If you create an account

E-mail address, a securely hashed password (we never store your password in readable form), phone number where you provide one, and your account activity — shortlists, saved searches, enquiries and proposals.

3.3 If you are a media owner or partner

Business name, contact person, phone, e-mail, city, the sites you offer, and — once we contract with you — the identity, tax registration, licence and bank details we are required to hold. See Media Owner & Partner Terms.

3.4 ⭐ Proof photographs (specific to what we do)

To prove an advertisement was placed, we capture photographs of the site, with GPS coordinates and a timestamp. These are photographs of public places. They may incidentally include people passing by, vehicles and number plates, and nearby shopfronts.

This is unusual enough to deserve its own document: Proof, Photography & Imagery Policy explains what we capture, what we do with it, how we limit incidental capture, and how to ask us to redact or remove an image of you.

3.5 When you book a call

Booking is handled by a third-party scheduling provider. The name, e-mail and phone you enter go to that provider, on their systems, and then to us. See section 7.

3.6 Automatically, when you browse

IP address, device and browser type, operating system, pages viewed, referring page, and approximate location derived from IP. Cookies and similar technologies are covered by our Cookie Policy.

3.7 What we do not collect

⛔ We do not knowingly collect: financial account numbers or card details through this website (we do not process payments on it); biometric data; health data; caste, religion, political opinion or any comparable sensitive category; or the personal data of children.

4. Why we use it, and on what basis

DPDP allows processing with your consent, or for certain legitimate uses. Here is which applies, purpose by purpose:

• Answering your enquiry and giving you a quotation — consent, given when you submit the form. The core purpose — the reason you contacted us.
• Planning, arranging, executing and reporting on your campaign — consent / performance of our agreement.
• Producing and delivering GPS-verified proof — consent / performance of our agreement.
• Invoicing, tax, accounting and statutory records — legal obligation. We must keep these regardless of consent.
• Customer support and service messages — consent / legitimate use. Service messages are not marketing.
• Fraud prevention, spam filtering and platform security — legitimate use. Includes the anti-spam signals in §3.1.
• Improving the Platform and our placement recommendations — legitimate use, using aggregated and de-identified data wherever possible.
• Marketing — offers, seasonal availability, placement ideas — ⭐ separate, explicit, opt-in consent only. Never bundled with an enquiry. Never pre-ticked. Refusing never blocks a service.
• Responding to a lawful order from a court or authority — legal obligation.

⛔ We do not use your personal data to train third-party AI models, and we do not sell it, rent it, or trade it. Ever.

5. Consent, and taking it back

5.1 Where we rely on consent, it is free, specific, informed, unconditional and given by a clear affirmative act. We show you a plain-language notice on the same screen, above the submit button, before you give it.

5.2 ⭐ Withdrawing is as easy as giving. You can:

• Unsubscribe link — in every marketing e-mail.
• Reply STOP — to any marketing message on WhatsApp or SMS.
• Self-serve — via Your Data Rights.
• Write to us — To confirm (privacy@adchowk.com).

5.3 Withdrawal is not retrospective — it does not undo processing already carried out lawfully, and it does not affect records we must keep by law (invoices, tax records, campaign evidence).

5.4 If you withdraw consent for a purpose we need in order to serve you, we will tell you what stops working, rather than quietly degrading the service.

6. Who we share it with

We share personal data only as set out here:

• Media owners and installation partners — the minimum needed to execute a booking, usually the campaign, site, dates and artwork; a contact name and number where site access requires it. To place your advertising.
• Printing and production vendors — artwork and delivery details. To produce your advertising.
• Our IT and hosting providers — data stored or processed on their infrastructure. To run the Platform.
• Analytics and marketing tools — usage data, subject to your cookie choices. To understand and improve the site.
• Scheduling provider — name, e-mail, phone, timezone. To book a call.
• Messaging providers (e-mail, SMS, WhatsApp) — contact details and message content. To reply to you.
• Payment providers, once payments are live — transaction data. To take payment.
• Professional advisers — accountants, auditors, lawyers — as needed. Advice and statutory compliance.
• Government, courts, regulators, law enforcement — as legally required. Legal obligation.
• A buyer or successor, on a merger, acquisition or business transfer — as applicable. ⚠️ We will tell you if this happens.

Every processor is engaged under a contract requiring them to process only on our instructions, keep the data secure, and delete or return it when the engagement ends.

⛔ We do not share your data with other advertisers, and we do not disclose your budget, your campaign plan or your commercial terms to anyone outside the list above.

7. Third parties who collect data directly

⚠️ Some third parties collect data directly from you, so their own policies apply alongside ours:

• Scheduling provider (call booking) — you enter your details into their form, on their systems, before we see them.
• Analytics / tag management — set cookies and collect usage data in your browser; see the Cookie Policy.
• Map and tile providers — receive requests from your browser to render maps.
• Social platforms — if you arrive from, or interact with, one of our social profiles.

⭐ We gate third-party embeds behind a click and a notice, so nothing loads and nothing is collected until you choose it. Where that is not yet true of a given embed, we say so on the page in question.

8. How long we keep it

• Enquiries that did not become customers — 24 months from last contact. Advertising is seasonal; a shorter window loses genuine returning enquiries.
• Customer campaign and booking records — 8 years. Statutory books-of-account and tax record requirements.
• GPS proof photographs — 36 months from campaign end. They are the evidence the campaign ran.
• Account data — while the account is open, then 12 months. Reactivation and dispute window.
• Marketing consent records — life of the consent, plus 3 years after withdrawal. The record must outlive the consent, or withdrawal cannot be evidenced.
• Content removed following a takedown — 180 days. Required by the IT Rules.
• Server and access logs — 12 months. Security and incident investigation.
• Records we must keep by law — as the law requires. Legal obligation.

When a period ends we delete the data or irreversibly de-identify it. ⚠️ Data may persist briefly in routine backups after deletion from live systems; backups are on their own expiry cycle and are not used for any other purpose.

9. Where your data is processed

9.1 We process personal data primarily in India.

9.2 ⚠️ Some of our service providers process data outside India — this is normal for cloud hosting, e-mail, scheduling and analytics. Where that happens, we transfer only what is necessary, under a contract imposing equivalent protection, and only to countries not restricted by the Government of India for this purpose.

9.3 If the Government of India restricts transfers to a country we use, we will change provider or region rather than continue.

10. How we protect it

• Encryption in transit (HTTPS across the site) — ✅ in place.
• Passwords stored only as salted hashes, never in readable form — ✅ required standard.
• Access limited to staff who need it, on a least-privilege basis — ✅ in place.
• Contractual security obligations on every processor — ✅ in place.
• Anti-spam and anti-automation controls on public forms — ✅ in place.
• Logging and monitoring of access to personal data — 🔄 being strengthened.
• Periodic review of access rights and third-party processors — 🔄 being formalised.

⚠️ No system is perfectly secure, and we will not claim otherwise. We take reasonable and appropriate safeguards, and we tell you honestly which controls are established and which are still being built.

11. If something goes wrong

If a personal data breach occurs, we will notify the Data Protection Board of India without delay and provide the required detailed report within 72 hours, and notify each affected person with what happened, the likely consequences, what we have done, and what they should do.

⭐ There is no minimum threshold. A breach affecting one person is reported exactly like one affecting a million.

12. Your rights

Under the DPDP Act you have the right to:

• Access — a summary of the personal data we hold about you and how we process it. Via Your Data Rights.
• Correction — have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected, updated or completed. Via Your Data Rights.
• Erasure — have your data deleted where we no longer need it and no law requires us to keep it. Via Your Data Rights.
• Withdraw consent — stop processing that relies on consent — see section 5. Via Your Data Rights.
• Grievance — a readily available means of raising a complaint with us. Via Grievance Redressal.
• ⭐ Nominate — nominate another person to exercise your rights if you die or become incapacitated. Via Your Data Rights.
• Complain to the Board — approach the Data Protection Board of India if we do not resolve your grievance.

We respond within 30 days. There is no charge. We may need to verify your identity first — that protects you, not us.

13. Your duties

The DPDP Act also places duties on you: give accurate information, do not impersonate anyone else, and do not file a false or frivolous grievance. We mention this because the Act does.

14. Children

The Platform is a business-to-business service and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect the personal data of anyone under 18. We do not carry out behavioural tracking or targeted advertising directed at children. If you believe we hold a child's data, write to us and we will delete it promptly.

15. Cookies

Covered separately and in full at Cookie Policy.

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The current version and its date are always at the top of this page. For a material change we give reasonable notice — a notice on the Platform, and an e-mail to registered users. We also remind users of our policies at least once a year.

17. Contact

• Privacy questions and data requests — To confirm (privacy@adchowk.com) · Your Data Rights.
• Complaints — To confirm Grievance Officer · Grievance Redressal.
• Anything else — hello@adchowk.com · +91 85007 00657 · Contact us.

Postal: Shivix Adsphere Private Limited, 9-14-5/18/4F, 5th Floor, Balaji Nagar, VIP Road, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam (Urban), Visakhapatnam 530003, Andhra Pradesh, India.

If we do not resolve your grievance to your satisfaction, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

AdChowk is a brand of Shivix Adsphere Private Limited · CIN U73100AP2026PTC123793