Privacy and tracking

What we do not collect

Our page counts and reading records never contain your IP address or your browser’s user-agent string. We do not build advertising profiles and we do not sell reader data. The companies that host this site and run its sign-in do record IP addresses for security.

What every page view records

When a page is served we record that a page was served — the article, the time, the coarse device class (phone, tablet or desktop) and the site you arrived from, kept as a domain name only, never a full link. These records carry no identifier of any kind. They cannot be linked to each other, to a session, or to you. They tell us how many people read something and nothing about who.

Our hosting provider, Vercel, also counts visits for us with its Web Analytics service. It uses no cookies. It records the page, the site you arrived from, your country, and the type of browser, operating system and device, and it can tell one visitor from another only within a single day.

If you agree

With your agreement we additionally record how far you scroll, whether you finish an article, and which links you follow, tied to a random identifier stored in your browser. That identifier is generated only once this measurement is on — when you agree, or for readers in India as described below — and it is not derived from anything about you or your device. We use this to work out which stories lose readers and where, which is how we decide what to change.

Agreeing also loads Google Analytics, which we use alongside our own records for search reporting. If you decline, it is not requested at all.

Readers in India

If your browser is set to India Standard Time, we take you to be reading from India. Until 12 May 2027, the measurement described above, Google Analytics included, is on by default for readers in India: a notice says so on your first visit, and choosing Turn off in that notice, or Decline in Privacy settings, stops it and deletes the identifier and the analytics cookies. From 13 May 2027, when the consent rules of India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act take effect, readers in India will be asked first, as readers everywhere else are now.

Changing your mind

Your choice is stored in a cookie on this site and is remembered for twelve months, after which we ask again. To change it at any time, use Privacy settings at the foot of every page: it asks you again, and declining clears the identifier and the analytics cookies.

If you sign in

Signing in creates an account identified by the email address from your Google sign-in. If you follow topics or authors, or subscribe to a newsletter, those choices are stored against that account. Your account is yours: your follow list is visible to you and to nobody else, including other readers.

Your rights and contact

You can ask for a copy of the data held about your account, ask us to correct it, or have your account and everything stored against it deleted, by writing to our grievance officer at grievance@theindiadecade.com from the email address you sign in with. Complaints about how we handle your data go to the same address.