This Privacy Policy explains what personal information Blocvibe ("we", "us", "our") collects through our website at www.blocvibe.com and when you contact us, why we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and the choices and rights you have. We have written it to describe what our website actually does.

1. About this policy

This policy applies to visitors to our website, to people who send us an enquiry or subscribe to our newsletter, and to anyone who contacts us by email, telephone or WhatsApp.

It does not cover information we handle on behalf of clients while delivering a project, such as data inside software we build or maintain for them. That information is governed by the agreement with the client concerned.

2. Who we are and how to contact us

Blocvibe is a software development company operating from India. Our office address is shown on our contact page.

For any question about this policy or your personal information, email us at info@blocvibe.com.

3. The information we collect

When you send an enquiry

We have two enquiry forms. The form on our contact page asks for:

  • Required: your name, your business email address, the service you are interested in and a description of your project.
  • Optional: your company name, your website address, an approximate budget and an expected timeline.

A shorter form may appear once when you first visit our website. It asks for your name, your email address and how we can help, and, only if you choose to give it, a telephone or WhatsApp number.

With either form, we also record that you agreed to this Privacy Policy, the wording you agreed to and when, and the page you sent the form from, and, for the contact page form, whether you chose to receive our newsletter. Only the shorter form asks for a telephone number, and our website has no user accounts.

To protect the form against spam and abuse, we store a one-way coded version (a keyed hash) of your IP address rather than the address itself, together with the name of your browser and device type as your browser reports it.

When you subscribe to our newsletter

We collect your email address, a record of your consent and a keyed hash of your IP address. We send you an email asking you to confirm your subscription, and you are only added to our list once you confirm.

How we protect our forms from spam

Our enquiry forms, our newsletter sign-up and the password reset page for our staff use Cloudflare Turnstile to check that a person, not an automated program, is sending them. When one of these forms is about to be used, your browser loads Turnstile from Cloudflare, which receives your IP address and technical information about your browser, device and connection to make that check. Cloudflare may also use this information, as an independent controller, to improve its bot detection, as described in the Cloudflare Turnstile Privacy Addendum. We receive only Cloudflare's answer, not that information. Usually you will not notice the check; occasionally Cloudflare asks you to tick a box.

We also check that a form was not sent impossibly quickly, that the same enquiry is not sent twice, and that your email address is not at a disposable ("throwaway") email service and that its domain can receive email, which we look up in the public domain name system. When we refuse a submission, we record the kind of problem, the form, the time and a keyed hash of your IP address, but not what you typed or your email address. These records are deleted after 90 days.

When you contact us directly

If you email, phone or message us on WhatsApp, we receive the details you choose to share, such as your name, email address, telephone number and the content of your message. WhatsApp is operated by WhatsApp LLC under its own terms and privacy policy.

When you browse our website

We do not use analytics, advertising or tracking tools, and we do not build profiles of visitors. As with any website, our servers and our hosting provider process your IP address and basic request information, such as the page requested and the time, to deliver pages to you and to keep the website secure. To limit abuse, our systems keep short-lived records based on a keyed hash of your IP address. When a form with a telephone field is shown, our server also looks up which country your IP address belongs to, so the field can start with your country's dialling code (you can change it). The lookup uses a copy of the DB-IP "IP to Country Lite" database kept on our own server: your IP address is not sent to anyone else for this, and neither the address nor the country is stored by us. We never ask for your device's location. IP geolocation by DB-IP. Our Cookie Policy explains the small amount of information our website stores in your browser.

If you choose to load the Google Map

The map on our contact page is provided by Google and only loads if you choose to show it. When it loads, your browser connects to Google, which receives your IP address and may set its own cookies under Google's privacy policy.

Reviews shown on our website

We show reviews that clients have published about Blocvibe on Google, including the reviewer's display name, profile picture, rating and comments as published there. If you wrote a review and would like it removed from our website, email us or change it on Google.

Information we do not ask for

We do not collect payment or card details through our website. Please do not send us sensitive information, such as health, financial or identity documents, through the enquiry form or by email unless we have agreed a secure way to share it.

4. How we use your information

We use your information to:

  • respond to your enquiry and communicate with you about the services you asked about;
  • prepare for project discussions, estimates and proposals you request;
  • keep a record of our communications and manage our relationship with clients and prospective clients;
  • send our newsletter and blog updates, only if you asked for them and confirmed your subscription;
  • protect our website and forms against spam, misuse and attacks;
  • meet our legal, tax and accounting obligations and establish or defend legal claims.

We do not sell your personal information, use it for advertising or make decisions about you based solely on automated processing.

Where data protection laws require a legal basis for using personal information, such as the GDPR in the European Union or UK GDPR in the United Kingdom, we rely on:

  • your consent, for our newsletter and for loading the Google Map, which you can withdraw at any time;
  • steps you ask us to take before entering into a contract, when we respond to an enquiry or prepare a proposal;
  • our legitimate interests in running our business, keeping records and protecting our website, balanced against your rights;
  • legal obligations that apply to us.

Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, we process your personal data with your consent, which you give when you submit the form or subscribe, or for other uses that the Act permits.

5. Who we share your information with

We share personal information only where it is needed for the purposes above, with:

  • service providers that host our website and database and that deliver our emails, who may only use the information to provide their services to us, and Cloudflare, which checks that our forms are used by people (see "How we protect our forms from spam");
  • professional advisers, such as accountants and lawyers, where needed;
  • authorities, courts or other parties where the law requires it, or where needed to protect our rights or the safety of others, including in response to abuse of our website as described in our Terms and Conditions;
  • a buyer or successor, if our business or part of it is reorganised, sold or transferred.

You can ask us for details of the service providers we use by emailing info@blocvibe.com. If you choose to use WhatsApp or load the Google Map, those services receive information directly under their own policies, as Cloudflare does when it checks a form.

6. International transfers

We operate from India. If you contact us from another country, your information will be transferred to and processed in India, and our service providers may process it in other countries. Data protection laws in those countries may differ from those where you live. Where the law that applies to you requires particular safeguards for such transfers, we take the steps it requires.

7. How long we keep your information

We keep personal information only as long as we reasonably need it for the purposes described in this policy, including to meet legal, tax and accounting requirements and to resolve disputes.

  • Enquiries are kept while we discuss your project and for as long as afterwards as is reasonably needed to manage our relationship and meet our obligations. You can ask us to delete an enquiry at any time.
  • Newsletter subscriptions are kept until you unsubscribe. We then keep a record that you unsubscribed, so we do not email you again. Sign-ups that are never confirmed are deleted automatically after 30 days.
  • Security records, such as short-lived limits on repeated form submissions, are deleted automatically once they are no longer needed. Records of refused form submissions are deleted after 90 days.

8. How we protect your information

We use technical and organisational measures appropriate to the information we hold, including:

  • encrypted connections (HTTPS) between your browser and our website;
  • access to enquiries and subscriber details limited to authorised staff with individual accounts and role-based permissions;
  • securely hashed passwords and protection against repeated sign-in attempts for our staff;
  • storing IP addresses from our forms only in hashed form.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a personal data breach occurs, we will take the steps the law requires, including informing you or the relevant authorities where required.

9. Your rights and choices

Your rights depend on the law that applies to you. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

  • access the personal information we hold about you and receive a copy;
  • have inaccurate or incomplete information corrected, completed or updated;
  • have your information erased;
  • restrict or object to certain uses of your information, including use based on our legitimate interests;
  • receive information you gave us in a portable format;
  • withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting what we did before you withdrew it;
  • nominate another person to exercise your rights in the event of your death or incapacity, under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act;
  • complain to a data protection authority, such as the Information Commissioner's Office in the United Kingdom, a supervisory authority in the European Union or the Data Protection Board of India, as applicable.

To exercise any of these rights, or to raise a concern, email info@blocvibe.com. We may need to confirm your identity before acting on a request, and we will respond within the time the applicable law requires. Please contact us first with any complaint, so we can try to resolve it.

You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time using the link in any newsletter or by emailing us. You can change whether the Google Map loads automatically on our Cookie Policy page.

10. Children

Our website and services are intended for businesses and are not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

11. Other websites and services

Our website links to other websites and services, such as Google, WhatsApp and social networks. Their own privacy policies apply when you use them, and we are not responsible for how they handle your information.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our website, our services or the law changes. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated. If we make significant changes, we will make them clear on our website and, where appropriate, tell you directly.

13. Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please email info@blocvibe.com.