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Privacy Policy

Last updated: 11 November 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Planning for India (“we”, “us”, “our”) collects, uses, stores, and shares personal data when you visit planningforindia.com (the “Site”). Planning for India is an independent editorial website that publishes practical guides to travel in India, along with related explainers on visas and passports, festivals, food, education, and trip planning.

We want this policy to match how the Site actually works: comments and a contact form, analytics, a cookie banner, advertising, embedded content, and a Hostinger Reach script that may offer email or newsletter sign-up. If you have a question or a request about your data, please use our Contact page. We have not listed a postal address here.

1. Who we are

The Site is published by the Planning for India editorial team and is hosted in India. For personal data we collect through the Site, we act as the data fiduciary under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the “DPDP Act”).

This policy should be read with our Cookie Policy, Terms & Conditions, and Editorial Disclaimer.

2. The data we collect

We collect only what is needed to run the Site, respond to you, measure how the Site is used, and show advertising. Depending on how you use the Site, that may include:

  • Comments: the name, email address, website, and comment text you submit, plus your IP address and browser user-agent string, which WordPress uses to help detect spam. If you opt in, cookies may remember your name, email, and website for later comments.
  • Contact form: the details you send through the form on our Contact page, such as your name, email address, and message, together with technical data needed to deliver the form (for example, the time of submission and your IP address).
  • Email or newsletter sign-up (Hostinger Reach): the Site loads a Hostinger Reach script on pages. If you choose to subscribe or otherwise submit your email through a Reach form or widget, Hostinger processes that address and any related preferences on our behalf so we can send the updates you asked for. We do not add you to a mailing list unless you sign up.
  • Analytics: we use Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-S5LZE9NSNG) to understand, in aggregated form, which pages are useful, how visitors reach the Site, and how the Site performs. Google may set cookies or use similar identifiers to collect usage data such as pages viewed, approximate location, device and browser type, and referral source.
  • Cookies and similar storage: a first-party cookie banner lets you accept all cookies or limit the session to essential cookies. Essential storage includes a preference key (including pfi_cookie_consent) so we do not prompt you on every visit, and local settings used by interactive tools such as the trip budget estimator, packing list, and arcade. Advertising and analytics cookies are described below and in the Cookie Policy.
  • Server and security logs: our hosting provider may record IP addresses, requested URLs, and basic device data to operate, secure, and troubleshoot the Site.
  • Accounts: if you register or log in (for example, as a site administrator or an approved contributor), we store the profile information needed to run that account. Most readers do not need an account.

We do not ask you to upload images through the public Site. If an image is ever uploaded to the Site, avoid including embedded location data (EXIF GPS), because visitors may be able to extract it.

3. Google AdSense and advertising cookies

The Site displays advertising through Google AdSense (publisher ID ca-pub-1666478621564751). Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to this Site or other websites.

Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to this Site and/or other sites on the Internet. Google may use the DART cookie and similar technologies for this purpose.

You can opt out of personalised advertising by Google at https://adssettings.google.com. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalised advertising by visiting https://www.aboutads.info.

These advertising partners may collect data about your browser, approximate location, and browsing activity on this and other sites. We do not control their cookies. If you choose “Essential Only” on our banner, we will not use the visit to set our non-essential preferences, but third-party ad scripts that load with the page may still operate according to your browser settings and the vendor’s own controls. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser.

4. Embedded content from other websites

Articles may include embedded content, such as videos, maps, posts, or images hosted elsewhere. Embedded content behaves as if you had visited the other website. Those sites may collect data, set cookies, and track your interaction with the embed, especially if you are logged in there.

If you leave a comment, an anonymised hash of your email address may be sent to the Gravatar service to check whether you have a profile photo there. Gravatar’s policy is published by Automattic at https://automattic.com/privacy/. After a comment is approved, that photo may appear next to your comment.

5. Why we use your data, and on what basis

We use personal data to:

  • publish and moderate comments, and reduce spam;
  • answer messages sent through the Contact page;
  • send a newsletter or updates only if you subscribe through Hostinger Reach or a similar form;
  • understand how the Site is used and improve our guides and tools;
  • show advertising that helps fund the Site;
  • keep the Site secure and meet legal obligations.

Where the DPDP Act requires consent, we will ask for it (for example, through the cookie banner or a sign-up form). You can withdraw consent just as easily, subject to any legal exception. We also process some data because it is needed to provide a service you requested, or because we have a legitimate operational need to keep the Site running and secure, in line with the Act.

6. Who we share data with

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with parties that help us operate the Site, and only as needed:

  • Hosting: Hostinger, which hosts the Site and related services;
  • Analytics: Google, for Google Analytics 4;
  • Advertising: Google, for AdSense, and other ad vendors that Google or the page may load;
  • Email or newsletter tools: Hostinger Reach, if you subscribe;
  • Spam and security services: automated comment or form filters, and security tools used by the Site or host;
  • The public: if you post a comment, the comment and the name you provide are visible on the page.

Some of these providers may process data on servers outside India. We use them to run a public website, and we expect them to protect the data they handle for us. If you request a password reset on an account, your IP address may be included in the reset email.

We may also disclose data if the law requires it, or to protect the Site, our readers, or other people from harm.

7. How long we keep data

We keep personal data only as long as we need it for the purposes above, or as long as the law requires:

  • Comments and their metadata are stored indefinitely, so we can recognise and approve follow-up comments without holding every later comment in a moderation queue.
  • Contact form messages are kept long enough to reply, follow up if needed, and maintain a basic record of the correspondence. We then delete or anonymise them when they are no longer required.
  • Newsletter or Reach subscriptions last until you unsubscribe or ask us to erase them, unless we must keep a suppression record so we do not email you again by mistake.
  • Analytics and advertising data are retained according to the settings we use with Google and the vendors’ own retention rules.
  • Account profiles, if any, are stored until the account is closed, except for information we must keep for legal, security, or accounting reasons.

Server logs are kept for a limited operational period, then rotated or deleted by the host according to its practices.

8. Your rights under the DPDP Act, 2023

If we hold your personal data, you are a data principal under the DPDP Act. Subject to the conditions and exceptions in the Act, you may:

  • ask whether we hold personal data about you, and request access to it;
  • request a correction, completion, or update if the data is inaccurate or incomplete;
  • request erasure of personal data that we no longer need, or that you want withdrawn, where the Act allows;
  • withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
  • nominate, in the manner the law provides, another person to exercise these rights in the event of your death or incapacity;
  • raise a grievance, and, if it is not resolved, pursue the redressal route provided under the Act.

If you have a WordPress account on this Site, you can also review or edit most profile fields yourself (you cannot change your username). To make a request, or to complain about how we have handled your data, use the Contact page. Please describe the request clearly so we can verify that we are speaking with the right person. We will respond within the time the law requires.

These rights do not require us to delete information we must keep for legal, security, or accounting purposes, or comments you chose to publish if erasure would break the public record of a discussion, except as the law provides.

9. Children

The Site is written for a general audience planning travel and related practical matters. It is not directed at children. Under the DPDP Act, a child is a person under 18 years of age.

We do not knowingly collect personal data from children, and we do not use children’s personal data for tracking or targeted advertising. If you believe a child has submitted personal data to us, please tell us through the Contact page so we can delete it and, where required, seek the appropriate parent or guardian involvement.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when our practices, tools, or legal obligations change. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page will change when we do. The current version will always be published at https://planningforindia.com/privacy-policy/. If a change is material, we will also try to flag it on the Site.

11. How to contact us

For privacy questions, data-principal requests, or grievances, please use the form and details on our Contact page:

https://planningforindia.com/contact-us/

Please do not send payment information, passport scans, or other sensitive documents unless we have specifically asked for them as part of a support request we can handle.