The short version
- The site keeps what you type into it and very little else. There are no ads. Google Analytics counts visits, and stores a cookie only if you agree in the banner.
- Other signed-in users can see your name, username, photo, bio, branch and year, and anything you post with your name on it.
- The newest reviews and the complaints still open are shown on the public home page, with no name, username or photo at all.
- Posting anonymously hides you from other students. It doesn't hide you from the site admin.
- You can change your details at any time, and delete your account from Settings. Deleting it removes what you posted.
Who runs the site
PCE Campus Voice is an independent site run by students. It isn't run by Poornima College of Engineering, and the college doesn't receive the data described here. In this notice, "the site admin" means whoever runs this copy of the site, and the way to reach them is the contact page.
What's stored
| What | Why | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Your college email | To sign you in, to check you're at the college, and to send you codes. It also gets an email when a complaint you raised changes status (you can turn that off in Settings) and, only if you ask for it, a weekly summary. Nothing else is ever sent to it | You and the site admin |
| Name, username, photo, bio, branch and year | Shown on your profile and next to posts that carry your name | Signed-in students |
| Whether you live in the hostel | You told us on sign-up. It isn't shown on your profile | You and the site admin |
| Your password | Stored only as an Argon2id hash, which can't be turned back into the password | Nobody |
| Sign-up and password reset codes | Stored only as a salted hash. A code works for 10 minutes and five tries, and is deleted a day later | Nobody |
| Your email choices | Whether you want complaint updates and the weekly summary, and when the last summary went out | You and the site admin |
| Reviews, replies, meal ratings and complaints | This is what the site is for | Signed-in users. The author of an anonymous post is known only to the site admin. The newest reviews and open complaints also appear on the public home page with no author shown |
| Community posts, photos, comments, reactions and chat messages | The community board and live chat. Photos are shrunk and have their location and camera details removed before they're stored | Signed-in students of this college. Anonymous ones show a made-up name; the real author is known only to the site admin |
| "Helpful" and "Same problem here" votes | To count them, and to stop anyone voting twice | Others see the totals, not who voted |
| Reports you make about a review, a community post or a chat message | So the site admin can look at the review | The site admin. The author isn't told who reported it |
| Sign-in sessions: a hash of the cookie token, when it expires, and your browser's name | To keep you signed in, and to show how many devices you're signed in on | You (the count) and the site admin |
| Messages sent through the contact page | So the site admin can reply | The site admin |
| The moderation log | A record of admin actions, such as hiding a review. Some entries include an email address | The site admin |
| Your IP address | Held in memory for about an hour to limit password guessing and spam. It isn't written to the database | Nobody |
The site doesn't collect your phone number, your roll number, your location, or anything from your contacts or other apps.
Anonymous posts
When you tick "without my name", other students see "Anonymous student" in place of your name, username and photo. The post doesn't appear on your profile and isn't counted in the numbers shown there.
The public home page goes further: it shows the newest reviews and open complaints with no author at all, even when you posted with your name. Your name only appears inside the site.
The database still records who wrote it, and site admins see the name and college email of the author on every post, anonymous ones included, so they can deal with abuse. If you need to stay anonymous from the college, or from whoever runs this site, don't post it here.
Cookies
The site sets one cookie of its own, campus_session, when you sign in. It holds a random
token that keeps you signed in for up to 14 days, or until you sign out. Scripts on the page can't read
it, and it isn't sent when another website links or sends you here.
Google Analytics counts visits and the pages viewed, so we can see what students use. The first time you
visit, a banner asks whether it may store a cookie. If you choose "Only necessary", it doesn't, and only
cookieless signals are sent. Before anything goes to Google, the address is cleaned: query strings are
removed and profile addresses lose the username. Your choice is kept in your browser as
cv-consent, and you can change it at any time.
There are no ads on this site.
Fonts, icons and pictures are served from this site. Apart from Google Analytics, your browser doesn't contact any other service to show these pages.
Where it's kept
Everything is kept in a single database file on the computer that runs the site. It isn't sold, and it isn't shared with any other company or with the college. There are two exceptions. First, email: the site's emails pass through its mail provider, Resend, on their way to your inbox, so Resend sees your address and the message.
The site's emails come from [email protected] (codes, sign-in notices, complaint updates and the weekly summary) and [email protected] (replies to messages). Nobody at either address will ever ask you for a code or a password.
Second, backups. The database is backed up every night. The copies on the server are kept for 14 days. One copy a night is also encrypted and stored in the site owner's private Telegram chat, so the site survives losing its server; without the passphrase, which only the site owner has, that copy can't be read. A backup can still contain something you deleted from the site: for up to 14 days on the server, and in the encrypted Telegram copies until the site owner deletes them. The site owner also gets short alerts on Telegram (for example "a new message in the inbox"), which never include your name, email or what you wrote.
How long it's kept
- Your account and what you post stay until you delete them, or until you delete your account.
- Sign-in sessions end after 14 days, or when you sign out. Expired ones are removed when the server starts.
- Sign-up and reset codes are deleted a day after they're sent.
- Community posts, photos and comments stay until you or the site admin delete them. Chat messages are deleted after 30 days.
- Contact messages stay so the site admin can refer back to them. Ask if you want one removed.
- Moderation log entries stay, because a record of what admins did is only useful if it's kept.
Deleting your account
You can delete your account from Settings. You'll be asked for your password. Deleting it removes, straight away:
- your account, profile and photo
- your reviews and the replies under them, your replies elsewhere, your meal ratings and your complaints
- your community posts and photos, comments, reactions and chat messages
- your votes and the reports you made
- every sign-in session
Two things stay: contact messages you sent, which lose their link to your account, and moderation log entries, which may include your email if an admin acted on your account. If you're an admin, notices you posted are deleted too, and articles you wrote stay up with "Site admin" as the author.
Your choices
- See and correct your details in Settings.
- Get a copy of what's stored about you with Download my data in Settings. It's one file with everything linked to your account.
- Choose your emails in Settings: complaint updates on or off, and the weekly summary on or off. Every summary has an unsubscribe link.
- Remove any single post yourself, or everything by deleting your account.
- Post without your name whenever you like, knowing the limits above.
India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 sets out rights to access, correct and erase your personal data. This site already offers all three, through the options above, whatever parts of the law are in force when you read this.
Security
Passwords are hashed with Argon2id. After too many wrong passwords, signing in pauses for a while. Every change you make needs a token tied to your session, which stops other websites acting in your name. The pages refuse to run scripts from anywhere else.
No site is perfectly secure. If you think someone else has used your account, change your password in Settings. That signs out every other device at once. Then tell the site admin.
Changes to this notice
If this notice changes in a way that matters, the date at the top will change and a notice will be posted on the site. What's stored about you won't be used in a new way without that notice going up first.