Welcome to TheBhom (accessible at https://www.thebhom.in). We are committed to safeguarding your privacy, ensuring absolute transparency regarding data processing, and complying with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (India), the Information Technology Act, 2000, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA).
This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, handle, store, and protect information when you read our technical buying guides, explore verified e-commerce loot deals, or communicate with our editorial desk.
🔒 Our Core Privacy-by-Design Pledge
TheBhom operates with a strict Data Minimization standard. We do NOT require mandatory user registration or login to read our guides, inspect processor hierarchies, or explore shopping deals. We do NOT collect bank account numbers, credit/debit card information, or government identification numbers.
1. Information We Collect & Process
A. Information You Provide Voluntarily
- Inquiry & Correspondence Data: When you submit a message through our Contact Helpdesk, send an email to our editorial desk, or file a DMCA inquiry, we collect your name, email address, message subject, and the contents of your inquiry solely to respond to your request.
- Voluntary Community Subscriptions: If you join our public Telegram deal alert channels or WhatsApp community, interactions are governed by the respective platform's privacy terms. We do not sell or harvest subscriber contact lists for third-party commercial marketing.
B. Automatically Collected Technical Telemetry
When you visit our website, our web servers and edge infrastructure (Cloudflare CDN) automatically record standard technical log data to deliver high-speed web pages and maintain platform security:
- Internet Protocol (IP) Address: Used temporarily for automated DDoS mitigation, rate limiting, and country-level geographic routing.
- Device & Browser Metadata: Browser type, operating system (e.g., Android, iOS, Windows, macOS), device screen resolution, referring URLs, date/time stamps, and preferred language.
- Performance Telemetry: HTTP status codes, page load latency, and edge cache hit/miss metrics to optimize mobile performance across India's network bandwidths.
2. Google AdSense & Third-Party Advertising Disclosures
TheBhom is supported by digital advertising to keep our comprehensive technical buying guides and daily deal verification 100% free for all readers. We partner with Google AdSense (Google LLC, Publisher ID: ca-pub-4674566886677472) and certified third-party ad networks.
How Google Uses Advertising Cookies
- Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies (including the DoubleClick DART cookie) to serve advertisements on TheBhom.
- Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our users based on their visits to TheBhom and/or other websites across the Internet.
- Users may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting the official Google Ads Settings portal: https://adssettings.google.com/.
- Alternatively, you may opt out of third-party vendor cookies for personalized advertising by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) opt-out page at optout.networkadvertising.org or the Digital Advertising Alliance at optout.aboutads.info.
3. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Disclosures
We use Google Analytics 4 (Measurement ID: G-GHVNZWFVQV) to understand aggregate readership patterns, such as which buying guides are most helpful to consumers and average session duration. GA4 processes data anonymously:
- Google Analytics 4 does not log or store individual IP addresses on its servers.
- All telemetry is aggregated into statistical groups (e.g., total readers on "Best Smartphone Processors" guide) without identifying individual persons.
- You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing your browser by installing the official Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
4. E-Commerce Affiliate Network Disclosures
When you click on an external product link on TheBhom and navigate to an e-commerce platform (such as Amazon India, Flipkart, Myntra, or an affiliate partner via EarnKaro), a temporary referral cookie is placed by the merchant to attribute qualifying purchases:
- These cookies typically possess an active duration of 24 hours to 30 days depending on merchant terms.
- TheBhom never receives access to your payment methods, billing addresses, credit card numbers, or transaction passwords on retailer websites. All checkout transactions occur securely on the merchant's encrypted domain.
5. How We Use Collected Data
We utilize the minimal technical data collected exclusively for legitimate operational purposes:
- To serve responsive, fast-loading editorial guides and verified deal catalogs.
- To detect, prevent, and mitigate cyber-attacks, bot spam, and malicious server intrusions.
- To evaluate aggregate reader interest and guide future hardware review coverage.
- To communicate directly with readers who submit questions to our helpdesk.
- We never sell, lease, rent, or trade your personal email address or correspondence data to third-party data brokers.
6. Data Security & Infrastructure Safeguards
We implement enterprise-grade technical and organizational security measures to protect your connection to TheBhom:
- Full SSL/TLS Encryption: All data transmitted between your browser and TheBhom is encrypted using modern TLS 1.3 / HTTPS encryption.
- Cloudflare Edge Defense: Our domain is protected by Cloudflare Web Application Firewall (WAF), automatic DDoS shielding, and edge-level threat intelligence.
- Strict Access Controls: Internal helpdesk correspondence is restricted strictly to authorized editorial personnel.
7. Children's Online Privacy Protection (COPPA Compliance)
TheBhom is a general audience digital publication focused on consumer hardware reviews and shopping deals. We do not knowingly solicit or collect personal identifiable information from children under the age of 13 (or under 18 in India without parental consent). If we become aware that a minor has provided us with personal contact details, we delete such information immediately from our correspondence archives.
8. Your Statutory Rights (DPDP Act & GDPR)
Depending on your geographic location, you enjoy statutory rights regarding your personal information:
- Right to Access & Confirmation: You have the right to request confirmation of whether we process any personal correspondence data related to you.
- Right to Correction & Erasure: You may request the correction of inaccurate data or the complete deletion of prior contact form inquiries.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: Where data processing is grounded in consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time.
9. Grievance Redressal & Data Protection Officer
In accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the contact details of our designated Grievance Officer are provided below:
- Designation: Grievance Redressal Officer
- Entity: TheBhom Digital Media
- Headquarters: Connaught Place, New Delhi 110001, India
- Email: privacy@thebhom.in (Subject line: Grievance Redressal)
- Statutory Timeline: Inquiries are acknowledged within 24 hours and addressed within 15 calendar days.
10. Updates to This Privacy Policy
We may periodically update this Privacy Policy to reflect enhancements in our editorial features, shifts in applicable privacy regulations, or upgrades to advertising partner standards. When changes occur, the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page is revised accordingly. We encourage readers to review this page periodically.