Shivam Das Bulletin News ("we," "us," or "our") operates this community news wire. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect when you use the site, how we use it, and the choices you have.
1. Information we collect
We collect information in the following ways:
- Account information — when you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address, and profile picture from Google, and we create a corresponding profile on our servers (including a public profile URL).
- Date of birth — collected once, used only to confirm you meet our minimum age requirement before you can publish a post or submit a contribution. It is never displayed publicly.
- Content you submit — posts, comments, reactions, follows, and contributions you create on the site.
- Payment details for contributions — if you submit a paid contribution, the bank or crypto details you provide (see Section 5 below).
- Usage data — basic technical data such as IP address and browser type, collected automatically as part of standard web server operation.
2. How we use your information
We use the information we collect to:
- Operate your account and authenticate your sessions
- Display your published posts, comments, and profile to other users
- Enforce our minimum age requirement for publishing and contributing
- Detect duplicate or plagiarized content across posts
- Notify you of follows, contributions, and other activity relevant to your account
- Maintain the security and integrity of the site
3. Sign-in with Google
We use Firebase Authentication solely to verify your identity via Google Sign-In. Once your identity is verified, we issue our own session — Firebase is not involved in any subsequent request, and Google does not receive any of your activity on this site (posts, comments, contributions) beyond the initial sign-in event.
4. Cookies & sessions
We set a single, essential, httpOnly session cookie after you sign in, used to keep you logged in and to identify your account on authenticated requests. This cookie cannot be read by JavaScript and is not used for advertising or cross-site tracking. Signing out (or the cookie's 30-day expiry) invalidates the session.
5. Contributions & payment details
When you submit a paid contribution to another author's post, the payment details you provide (bank account information or a crypto wallet address) are stored and shown only to the original author, and only after they accept your contribution. We do not process payments ourselves — any transfer happens directly between you and the author, outside this platform.
6. How we share information
We do not sell your personal information. We share information only in these limited circumstances:
- Your name, profile picture, and published content are visible publicly, by design — this is a public news wire
- Accepted contribution payment details are shared with the relevant post's author only
- We may disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of our users or the public
7. Data retention
We retain account and content data for as long as your account remains active. Session records are automatically deleted from our systems after expiry or logout.
8. Your rights & choices
You can review and edit your profile information at any time while signed in. To request deletion of your account or data, contact us using the details below — we will respond within a reasonable time.
9. Children's privacy
This site requires all users publishing or contributing content to confirm they are at least 18 years old. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 18.
10. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by an updated "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
11. Contact us
Questions about this Privacy Policy? Reach out via our Contact Us page.