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Privacy Policy

Updated on 13th October 2026

1. Introduction & Data Minimisation Philosophy

 

Writers Pouch (“we,” “us,” or “our”) operates the websites https://www.writerspouch.org/ and https://www.writerspouch.com/ (collectively, the “Platform”). Our Platform showcases curated literary content, including short stories and poetry, and offers digital publications and ebooks for purchase.

We are committed to respecting your privacy and practising strict data minimisation. You are not required to register for an account, create a profile, or provide verified personal information to browse content or read stories on our Platform.

 

We only collect personal information—including direct data (such as names, billing details, and email addresses for eBook purchases or inquiries) and technical identifiers (such as IP addresses and standard server logs collected automatically for security and performance)—when strictly necessary to operate the Platform, process orders, fulfil legal requirements, host guest comments, or respond to communications.

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Age Restriction: The Platform is intended solely for adult users who are 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly offer services to, process data from, or target our content to minors.

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2. Consent & Applicable Legal Framework

 

By accessing or using our Platform—whether as a casual reader, guest commenter, contributor, or customer—you acknowledge that you have read this Privacy Policy and consent to the collection, storage, and processing of your information as described herein.

 

We process personal data in compliance with the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023.

 

Withdrawing Consent: You may withdraw your consent for data processing at any time by contacting us at help@writerspouch.com. Upon request, we will stop future processing and erase your data, except where retention is required by law. Please note that statutory obligations (such as retaining eBook transaction invoices for tax compliance under Indian law) and essential technical logs (kept for server security) are legally exempt from immediate deletion.

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3. Information Collection and Use

 

We collect only the minimum personal information needed to deliver our literary content, process orders, and meet legal requirements. Depending on how you interact with our Platform, information collection occurs in the following contexts:

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  1. Browsing & Reading: Browsing our open-access literary content requires no account registration, login, or personal profile. However, like most websites, our web servers automatically collect standard technical identifiers—such as your IP address, browser type, and access times—for security, network performance, and system diagnostics (as detailed in Section 5 below).
     

  2. Guest Comments & Discussions: If you leave a comment on a story or article, you may post as a guest using any pseudonym or handle of your choice. Providing a real name or valid email address is entirely optional and is not verified or required to post. All comments are subject to platform moderation; any comments that violate our community guidelines or Terms of Use (e.g., spam, harassment, or unlawful material) may be edited or deleted without prior notice.
     

  3. Digital eBook Purchases: When you purchase an eBook or digital product on our Platform, we collect and retain your name, email address, postal/billing address, and purchase invoice. We use this information to deliver digital download links, handle customer support, and comply with mandatory tax, accounting, and statutory record-keeping obligations under Indian law. Payment credentials (such as credit/debit card numbers, UPI IDs, or net banking passwords) are processed securely and directly by our payment gateway partner, Razorpay, and are never stored on our servers.
     

  4. Support & Submissions: If you submit creative work or send inquiries to help@writerspouch.com, we retain your email address and communication history solely to evaluate your submission or resolve your inquiry.

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4. Sensitive Personal Data (SPD)

 

Writers Pouch does not collect, request, or store Sensitive Personal Data—such as account passwords, detailed financial credentials, health information, biometric identifiers, religion, caste, or sexual orientation.

 

We handle all payment transactions for digital eBooks externally through our secure, RBI-compliant payment gateway partner, Razorpay. You enter sensitive financial information (such as credit/debit card numbers, UPI PINs, or net banking credentials) directly into Razorpay’s encrypted checkout interface. It is never transmitted to, processed by, or stored on Writers Pouch servers.

 

To understand how Razorpay collects, processes, and protects your payment data, please review the Razorpay Privacy Policy.

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5. Technical Logs, IP Addresses, Cookies & Embedded Media
 

  1. Technical Log Data: When you access or navigate our Platform, our web infrastructure (primarily hosted via Wix and associated cloud service providers) automatically captures and records standard technical server logs. This technical data may include, but is not limited to:
     

    1. Your computer or mobile device’s Internet Protocol (IP) address.
       

    2. Browser type, language preferences, operating system, and hardware characteristics.
       

    3. Referring/exit pages, search queries, access timestamps, and time spent on specific pages.
       

    4. System performance logs, network diagnostics, and error reporting data.
       

    5. Purpose: We process technical log data strictly to maintain operational integrity, server stability, network diagnostics, threat detection, DDoS protection, and to prevent automated spam or abuse.
       

  2. Essential Cookies & System Tracking: Our Platform utilises strictly necessary essential cookies to enable core website functionality, security protocols, API session bindings, page rendering (such as XSRF-TOKEN, hs, svSession, and SSR-caching) and session performance. For a detailed and updated overview of the core technical cookies deployed by our host, please refer to the Wix Cookies Documentation. You can manage or turn off cookies via your browser settings, though restricting essential cookies may affect site functionality.
     

  3. Embedded Content & External Platform Integrations: To enrich our literary and visual content, our Platform features embedded media widgets, integrated players, and hyperlinked content from external third-party platforms. These currently include, but are not limited to:
     

    1. Video Platforms: Embedded video players (such as YouTube).
       

    2. Audio Platforms: Embedded audio streaming widgets (such as Spotify).
       

    3. Publishing & Community Tools: Integrated links, feeds, or embedded content from publishing networks (such as Substack and Weebly), as well as potential future literary or multimedia services.
       

    4. Disclaimer & Independent Policies: Interacting with embedded players or clicking third-party links may allow these external services to deploy their own cookies, log your IP address, or collect usage analytics according to their independent privacy practices. Each external platform governs data under its own terms; privacy practices, data retention rules, and tracking behaviour vary by platform. Writers Pouch does not control, store, or accept liability for data collected directly by these third-party services, and we encourage you to review the individual privacy policies of any third-party platform you interact with.

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6. Third-Party Service Providers

 

To operate our Platform effectively, process transactions, host content, and maintain website performance, we partner with reliable third-party service providers. These third parties have access to your personal data or technical identifiers only to the extent necessary to perform specific tasks on our behalf. They are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.

 

Our third-party infrastructure currently includes, but is not limited to:
 

  1. Website Hosting & Infrastructure (Wix): Our site is hosted on the Wix platform, which provides the cloud infrastructure, databases, security frameworks, and core functional cookies required to keep our website running securely.
     

  2. Payment Processing (Razorpay): All eBook sales and payment processing are handled through Razorpay. Razorpay collects and processes your sensitive payment details under strict PCI-DSS security standards and its own independent privacy practices.
     

  3. Embedded Media & External Content Hosts: As detailed in Section 5, we embed or link content from third-party media platforms (including YouTube, Spotify, Substack, and Weebly). Interactions with these embedded services are governed directly by the respective privacy policies of those platforms.
     

  4. Communication & Support Tools: If you email us directly at help@writerspouch.com, your communications are processed through our standard enterprise email domain service providers solely for handling your inquiry or creative submission.
     

We do not sell, rent, trade, or monetise your personal information to third parties for marketing or commercial advertising purposes.

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7. Data Security and Storage

 

We prioritise the security of your personal information and take reasonable administrative, technical, and physical measures to protect it against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure.
 

  1. Infrastructure & Encryption: Our Platform is hosted on Wix, which provides enterprise-grade infrastructure protection, secure SSL/TLS encryption for data transmitted between your browser and our site, and automated firewalls.
     

  2. Payment Security: We process all digital purchases through Razorpay using Level 1 PCI-DSS-compliant encryption protocols. Sensitive financial data (such as card numbers or banking passwords) never touches our servers.
     

  3. Access Controls: We strictly restrict access to administrative backends, support emails (help@writerspouch.com), and customer order invoices to authorised platform administrators on a need-to-know basis.
     

  4. Security Disclaimer: While we implement robust security safeguards in alignment with Indian legal requirements, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. Consequently, we cannot guarantee absolute security against all potential cyber threats or unauthorised intrusions.

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8. Data Retention and Erasure Policy

 

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the operational purposes for which it was collected, or as required by applicable laws and regulations.
 

  1. eBook Transactions & Invoices: We retain personal details associated with digital purchases (customer name, email address, billing address, and transaction invoices) for as long as legally required to comply with statutory accounting, auditing, and tax obligations under Indian law (typically up to 7 to 10 years).
     

  2. Support & Submissions: Email communications sent to help@writerspouch.com regarding creative submissions or support inquiries are retained for as long as necessary to review your work, resolve your issue, or maintain ongoing correspondence.
     

  3. Guest Comments: Because public comments are submitted on a guest basis without mandatory user registration, accounts, or email identity verification, we do not maintain a mechanism to verify ownership of anonymous or pseudonymous comments reliably. Consequently, posted guest comments become part of the public literary discussion thread and are generally permanent, except where edited or deleted at the sole discretion of platform administrators for community guideline violations.
     

  4. Technical Server Logs: We periodically clear or overwrite automated server log data and IP records in accordance with standard system maintenance protocols.
     

  5. Data Erasure Requests: Subject to statutory retention requirements (such as mandatory tax invoices) and technical feasibility (such as the inability to verify ownership of unauthenticated guest comments), you have the right to request the deletion or erasure of your identifiable personal data held by us by emailing help@writerspouch.com.

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9. Your Rights Under Indian Data Law (DPDP Act, 2023)

 

Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act), users located in India (“Data Principals”) possess specific statutory rights regarding their digital personal data processed by Writers Pouch:
 

  1. Right to Access Information: You have the right to request a summary of the personal data we process about you, the processing activities undertaken, and the categories of third parties (such as Razorpay or Wix) with whom such data has been shared.
     

  2. Right to Correction and Updating: You have the right to request the correction, completion, or updating of inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading personal data retained by us (e.g., updating a billing address or contact email associated with an eBook order).
     

  3. Right to Erasure: You have the right to request the erasure of your personal data when it is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected or upon withdrawal of consent. As detailed in Section 8, this right is subject to mandatory legal exceptions under Indian law (such as statutory tax invoice retention) and technical feasibility (such as unauthenticated guest comments).
     

  4. Right to Grievance Redressal: You have the right to readily accessible means to register a complaint or grievance regarding the processing of your personal data. We are obligated to respond to and address your privacy grievances promptly.
     

  5. Right to Nominate: You have the right to nominate another individual who shall, in the event of your death or incapacity, exercise your data privacy rights on your behalf in accordance with applicable rules under the Act.
     

Exercising Your Rights & Verification:

To exercise any of these rights, please get in touch with us at help@writerspouch.com. To protect user privacy and prevent fraudulent requests, we may require reasonable proof of identity (such as order invoice verification from your email address) before fulfilling access, correction, or erasure requests.

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10. Policy Updates & Grievance Redressal
 

  1. Updates to This Policy: We reserve the right to update or modify this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in our platform operations, third-party service integrations, or applicable Indian laws. When material updates are made, the revised policy will be published on our Platform with an updated “Last Modified” date. We encourage users to review this page periodically to stay informed about our data practices.
     

  2. Grievance Redressal Officer: In accordance with the Information Technology Act, 2000 (and rules made thereunder) and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, Writers Pouch has designated a Grievance Officer to address questions, concerns, complaints, or rights requests regarding your personal data:
     

    1. Grievance Officer: Nikhila Kotni
       

    2. Platform / Entity: Writers Pouch (writerspouch.org / writerspouch.com)
       

    3. Contact Email: help@writerspouch.com.
       

    4. Response Timeline: We will acknowledge receipt of your data grievance or privacy inquiry within 48 hours and endeavour to resolve the matter within the timelines stipulated under applicable law (up to 15 days under IT Rules / 90 days under DPDP Rules).

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11. Children’s Privacy & Age Restrictions (Strictly 18+)
 

  1. Adult-Only Platform: Writers Pouch is intended strictly and exclusively for use by adults (individuals who are at least 18 years of age or have reached the legal age of majority in their jurisdiction). Our literary content, eBook store, public commenting features, and submission process are not intended for or directed at children or minors.
     

  2. Prohibition on Data Collection from Minors: In accordance with the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 and applicable global privacy laws, we do not knowingly market to, interact with, solicit, collect, or process personal data from anyone under 18 years of age.
     

  3. Parental & Legal Notice: If you are under 18 years of age, you are prohibited from providing any personal information, purchasing eBooks, leaving guest comments, or submitting creative work to our Platform. If a parent, guardian, or legal representative becomes aware that a minor under 18 has submitted personal data to us, please get in touch with us immediately at help@writerspouch.com, and we will promptly delete all associated information from our active servers and records.

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12. Contact Us Forms, Submissions & Email Communications
 

When you communicate with Writers Pouch through electronic methods—such as site contact forms, inquiry forms, or emails sent directly to help@writerspouch.com—we collect and process data under the following parameters:
 

  1. Information Collected: We collect the personal information you voluntarily provide, which typically includes your name, email address, message contents, and any attached files (e.g., literary manuscripts, poetry submissions, artwork, or support requests).
     

  2. Purpose of Processing: We use this data only to respond to your inquiry, review creative works for potential publication, manage contributor communications, or fulfil customer support requests.
     

  3. Non-Commercial Commitment: Information provided via contact forms or editorial submission emails is never added to external marketing subscriber lists, sold, or shared with third parties for commercial advertising.
     

  4. Retention Period: Contact entries and email communications are retained in our secure email administration backend only for as long as necessary to address your inquiry, manage ongoing contributor relationships, or satisfy internal record-keeping needs.

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