Privacy Policy: Rong Archive
Rong Archive respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, how we protect it, and the choices available to you.
By creating an account or using Rong Archive, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.
1. About Rong Archive
Rong Archive is a community-driven digital archive dedicated to preserving, documenting, and sharing the Lepcha language (Róng ríng), cultural knowledge, oral traditions, and related educational materials.
2. Information We Collect
Account Information
When you create an account, we may collect:
- Name or display name.
- Email address.
- Profile photograph (if provided).
- Authentication identifiers associated with your login provider.
Third-Party Authentication (Google Sign-In)
If you sign in using Google, we may receive your unique Google account identifier, name, email address, and profile image URL. Information received through Google Authentication is used solely for account authentication and management and is handled in accordance with Google's applicable user data policies. We only receive information that you explicitly authorize Google to share. Users may revoke Rong Archive's access to their Google account at any time through their Google Account security settings.
Contribution Information
When you contribute content, we store:
- Words, definitions, translations, and usage examples.
- Pronunciations and audio files. Note: Audio recordings are processed solely for phonetic, linguistic, and educational demonstration purposes and are never utilized for biometric identification, user profiling, or tracking.
- Cultural notes, edit suggestions, and moderation history logs.
Technical Information
We automatically collect limited technical information necessary to operate, optimize, and secure the platform, including:
- IP address.
- Browser type and device information.
- Operating system information.
- Session identifiers and secure access tokens.
- System error logs.
3. How We Use Information
We use collected information to:
- Create, maintain, and secure user accounts.
- Authenticate user identity and prevent unauthorized access.
- Review, verify, and moderate linguistic contributions.
- Improve archive quality, search relevance, and data accuracy.
- Respond to technical support or platform inquiries.
- Detect and prevent spam, abuse, fraud, or security vulnerabilities.
- Generate archive statistics and contributor recognition elements.
4. Search Logs and Analytics
Rong Archive records search queries and search activity to analyze dictionary coverage, correct errors, and improve search relevance. Search analytics may be aggregated or de-identified where practical to protect your privacy. We do not use search activity for advertising or behavioral profiling.
5. Cookies and Sessions
Rong Archive uses essential, secure cookies and session technologies to keep users signed in, maintain account sessions, protect against unauthorized data modification (such as CSRF protection), and provide core platform functionality. These technologies are strictly functional and necessary for the secure operation of the platform.
6. Audio Files and Media Uploads
Audio pronunciations, photographs, and historical manuscript scans contributed to the platform become publicly accessible to third-party visitors and researchers once approved and published as part of the archive. Published media files may be preserved indefinitely as part of Rong Archive's cultural, educational, and archival mission, subject to applicable laws and moderation policies.
7. Contribution Attribution & Provenance Records
Approved contributions may be publicly attributed to your chosen account name or contributor profile. Rong Archive may retain anonymized contribution records where necessary to preserve the integrity, provenance, and historical continuity of linguistic and cultural materials.
8. Account Deletion and Anonymization
If you choose to delete your account:
- Your personal account details, email address, and external authentication tokens will be removed or anonymized.
- Your approved dictionary contributions, translations, and audio pronunciations will remain part of the collective cultural record to preserve historical accuracy, linguistic integrity, and educational value.
- These archived contributions will be permanently decoupled from your identity and attributed to "Anonymized Contributor" or a similar designation.
- Temporary server and technical logs are retained only as long as reasonably necessary for security, troubleshooting, and operational purposes and may be periodically overwritten, rotated, or deleted.
- Archived backup copies of our databases and system state may persist for a limited period before being automatically replaced or deleted as part of normal backup rotation procedures.
9. How We Share Information
Rong Archive does not sell, rent, trade, or commercially exploit personal information. We may share limited information only when necessary:
- With trusted service providers that help operate and secure our infrastructure under strict confidentiality.
- To comply with valid legal obligations, lawful governmental requests, or court orders applicable under Indian law.
- To protect users, contributors, or the platform from fraud, abuse, security incidents, or systemic harm.
10. Data Security
We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, no online service or server transmission can guarantee absolute, impenetrable security.
11. Data Retention
Rong Archive retains personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to provide services, maintain platform security, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, and preserve approved archival contributions. Different categories of information may be retained for different periods depending on operational, legal, and archival requirements.
12. Children's Privacy
Rong Archive is not intended for individuals under the minimum age required to access online services under the laws of their country of residence, and in no event for children under 13 years of age. If we discover that personal information has been collected from a child in violation of this policy, we will take immediate steps to remove or anonymize such data.
13. Your Rights
Subject to applicable law (including India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act), you hold distinct rights regarding your data, which you can execute by contacting us:
- Right to Access: You may request a summary of the personal data we hold about you.
- Right to Correction: You may request updates or corrections to inaccurate profile details.
- Right to Deletion / Anonymization: You may request the deletion or anonymization of your personal profile information.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: You may withdraw your consent for data processing at any time by requesting account deletion.
14. International Data Processing
By using Rong Archive, you understand that your information may be processed and stored on hosting infrastructure. Our hosting infrastructure may be located in India, Singapore, Europe, or other jurisdictions depending on our service providers.
15. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect platform improvements, technical modifications, or evolving legal requirements. Continued use of the platform after changes become effective constitutes acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.
16. Contact Information
Questions, privacy requests, data access requests, correction requests, deletion requests, or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy may be directed to:
Email: contact@rong-archive.org