Privacy Policy

Data Fiduciary Identity

The Data Fiduciary responsible for the collection, safeguarding, and processing of personal data under this policy is:

Heritage Architecture Foundation
A Registered Public Charitable Trust
Registered Office: 27 A, Appachi Garden, Cheran Ma Nagar, Vilankurichi Road,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu – 641035, India.
Telephone: +91 7812829789
Email: contact@heritagearchitecturefoundation.org

This policy governs your interaction with our website (heritagearchitecturefoundation.org), survey programmes, architectural walk registrations, archival donations, and direct correspondence with our trustees and survey coordinators.

Information We Collect

We adhere strictly to the principle of data minimisation, collecting only information necessary to accomplish our charitable objectives:

A. Information You Provide Directly

• Walk Registrations: Full name, email address, phone or WhatsApp number (for day-of-walk logistics), participant counts, and any accessibility notes.
• General & Support Inquiries: Name, contact details, affiliated institution/organisation, and the message content submitted via our contact and enquiry forms.
• Volunteer & Internship Applications: Contact details, academic background, architectural drawing/survey experience, and curriculum vitae.
• Donations & CSR Contributions: Donor identification details, address, PAN (Permanent Account Number) required under the Income-tax Act, 1961 for tax reporting and issuing charitable receipts.

B. Information Collected Automatically

• Technical Usage Data: Anonymised IP addresses, browser type, operating system, pages viewed, time spent per page, and referral links collected via Google Analytics (Measurement ID: G-1YWL2LWKZV).

Purpose and Legal Basis of Processing

We process personal data solely on lawful grounds under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) and applicable Indian laws:

No Commercialization: We do not sell, rent, monetize, or trade your personal data to any commercial advertisers, data brokers, or marketing networks.

Cookies & Tracking Technologies

Cookies are small text files placed on your device to ensure smooth website navigation and evaluate aggregated public interest in our educational records.

• Essential Cookies: Stored locally to record your cookie consent choice (haf_cookie_consent) so you are not prompted on every page.
• Analytics Cookies: Set by Google Analytics (such as _ga and _ga_1YWL2LWKZV) to distinguish unique visitors anonymously and measure overall site traffic.

Managing Your Choice: You may accept or decline analytics cookies at any time via our cookie notice box. If declined, Google Analytics tracking is immediately silenced on your device. You may also clear cookies at any time through your browser settings.

Third-Party Service Providers

We use a minimal set of established, privacy-respecting technology providers to operate our digital presence:

• Formspree (Formspree, Inc.): Encrypted form transmission provider that forwards messages submitted through our site directly to the trust's authenticated inbox.
• Firebase Hosting (Google LLC): Fast, SSL-encrypted global delivery of our static web documents and architectural drawings.
• Google Analytics (Google LLC): Anonymous traffic measurement, configured with IP anonymisation.

All service providers process data under contractual confidentiality obligations and are not permitted to use your information for independent marketing.

Data Retention & Security

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary to complete the specific purpose for which it was gathered:

• Inquiry Correspondence: Retained for up to 12 months following resolution of your query, after which it is archived or deleted.
• Walk Participant Lists: Retained for 30 days after the event date for safety and coordination, then purged.
• Donation & CSR Records: Maintained for a minimum of 8 years in accordance with statutory accounting and tax compliance requirements under Indian law.

Our website enforces Transport Layer Security (TLS/HTTPS) across all pages, preventing unauthorized eavesdropping or interception of data submitted via forms.

Historical Archival Material

The core mission of the Heritage Architecture Foundation is safeguarding architectural drawings, field photographs, and historical building records for posterity.

Where families, architectural practices, or researchers donate materials to The Record, rights and attribution are governed by a formal Deed of Gift. Attribution of creators and donors is preserved permanently in our public catalog unless anonymity is explicitly requested in the donation agreement.

Your Legal Rights

Under applicable Indian and international data protection laws, you possess the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Right to Access: You may request a summary of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to Correction: You may ask us to correct inaccurate, outdated, or incomplete data.
• Right to Erasure: You may request the deletion of your personal contact data, provided statutory retention obligations (such as tax laws) do not require its preservation.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting past lawful processing.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact our trust office in writing at contact@heritagearchitecturefoundation.org.

Grievance Redressal Officer

In accordance with the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the details of our Grievance Redressal Officer are as follows:

We review and respond to all privacy complaints and inquiries within 30 business days of receipt.