Privacy notice

What we collect

• Account details. Your name, email address, password (stored only as a one-way hash, never in readable form), the exams you are preparing for, and your interface preferences.
• What you do on the platform. Tests you start and submit, the answers you give, marks, timing per question, flashcard reviews, and the topics you are weak and strong in.
• What you upload. Drawings, photographs of models and write-ups submitted for the hand-marked papers, and any notes you attach to them, along with the evaluator's marks and written feedback.
• Proctoring records, when you sit a paper that is proctored. See the separate section below.
• Payment records. Plans, orders, invoices, coupons and credits. Card and bank details are handled by the payment provider and never reach or pass through our servers.
• Support and feedback you send us, including anything you write in a support request.
• Technical and security records. Sign-in events and administrative actions in an audit log, and abuse-prevention counters. Those counters store a salted one-way hash of an IP address or email address rather than the value itself, so they cannot be read back.

Proctoring, including webcam images

Some papers can be set to run proctored. Where that is enabled, the platform records activity during the sitting, such as leaving full screen or switching away from the tab. Where webcam proctoring is switched on for a paper, it also captures still images from your camera at intervals while you sit it, and may capture images of your screen. Those images are analysed automatically to count the faces visible in the frame.

You are told before a proctored sitting begins, and you can decline by not starting that paper. Proctoring images are used only to review the integrity of that sitting. They are not used to identify you elsewhere, are not used for advertising, and are not sold or shared for anyone else's purposes.

Proctoring images and screen captures are deleted after 30 days.

Why we process it

To give you the tests and study material you came for; to mark your work and return feedback; to show you your own performance and where to focus; to run accounts, subscriptions, invoicing and support; to keep sittings honest where proctoring is enabled; and to keep the platform secure and available, which includes blocking automated abuse of the sign-up and sign-in forms.

Who else processes it

We do not sell your data and do not share it for anyone else's marketing. A small number of providers process data on our behalf so the platform can work:

• Cloudflare Turnstile runs the automated check on our sign-up, sign-in and password-reset forms. Cloudflare receives your IP address and signals about your browser in order to tell a person from a script. It does not receive what you type into the form.
• Our email provider delivers confirmation links, password resets and notifications. It handles your email address and the contents of those messages.
• Our payment provider takes payments and holds the card or bank details we never see. Payments are currently in sandbox mode, so no live payment details are being taken.
• Our hosting provider runs the servers and stores the database and your uploads.

We may also disclose data where the law requires it, or to establish or defend a legal claim.

Cookies and sessions

We set a cookie so you stay signed in, and one to protect forms against cross-site request forgery. Both are necessary for the platform to work, and we do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. Student accounts are limited to one active session at a time, so signing in somewhere else ends the earlier session.

How long we keep it

• Your account and your results for as long as your account is open, so your history stays available to you. Ask us to close it and they are deleted with it.
• Proctoring images and screen captures, 30 days.
• Trial accounts that are never claimed, 30 days.
• Abuse-prevention counters, at most one hour.
• Invoices and payment records, for as long as tax and accounting law requires them to be kept.

Your rights

You can ask us to give you a copy of your data, to correct it, or to delete it, and you can withdraw consent where we relied on it.

From your own account you can reset your progress, which clears your finished attempts and submissions from your history. Closing your account and erasing your data is not yet self-service: write to hello@swabhyas.com and we will do it for you. We will respond as quickly as we reasonably can.

If you are under 18

Many people preparing for these entrance examinations are school leavers and may be under 18. Indian data-protection law treats a person under 18 as a child and requires a parent or guardian's verifiable consent before their data is processed. If you are under 18, please ask a parent or guardian to set up and supervise the account, and do not sit a proctored paper without their agreement. If you believe a child's data has been processed without that consent, write to us at hello@swabhyas.com and we will act on it.

Grievances

If you are unhappy with how your data has been handled, contact hello@swabhyas.com. You also have the right to complain to the data-protection authority in India.

Changes

If we change how we handle your data we will update this page, and will tell you directly where the change is significant.