Privacy Policy

Most of the information we hold is information you give us yourself when you sign up and take part in contests.

Details you provide. When you create an account or complete your profile, we collect your:

• Full name
• Email address
• Phone number (mobile)
• School or college name
• Class or grade

Contest data. When you register for and take part in a contest, we collect your registration details, your submissions and answers, and your scores and results.

Sign in with Google. If you choose “Sign in with Google”, Google shares your name, email address, and profile picture with us. We never receive your Google password or any other Google account data.

Account security data. Your password is stored only as a salted, one-way hash — never in a form that we or anyone else could read. Our servers also keep basic technical logs (see Cookies and logs).

We use your information only for the purposes below:

• Run your account. To create your account, sign you in, and keep it working — this is the core service you asked us for.
• Run contests. To register you for contests, conduct them, grade submissions, and publish results.
• Contact you. To send account and contest messages by email or SMS — for example verification codes (OTP), contest reminders, result announcements, and important notices.
• Keep contests fair. To verify identity and detect duplicate, fake, or misused accounts.
• Keep Shikhor safe and working. To secure the platform, prevent abuse, diagnose problems, and improve how it works.
• Meet legal obligations. To comply with the law if we are ever required to.

We do not use your information for advertising, and we do not sell it to anyone.

We do not sell your personal data and we do not share it with anyone for their own marketing. We share limited information only in these situations:

Service providers who help us run Shikhor (they act on our instructions and cannot use your data for their own purposes):

• Google — if you use “Sign in with Google”, your login is handled by Google. Google’s handling of your information is governed by the Google Privacy Policy.
• BulkSMSBD — our SMS delivery provider in Bangladesh. When we send you a text message (such as a verification code or a contest reminder), we pass your phone number and the message content to BulkSMSBD so they can deliver it.

Legal reasons — if we are required to by law, a court order, or a valid request from a government authority in Bangladesh, or where we need to protect the rights, safety, or property of Shikhor, our users, or the public.

Change of operators — if Shikhor is ever transferred to new operators, your information may be part of that transfer, but it would stay protected by a policy at least as protective as this one.

• We use a small number of cookies that are necessary for Shikhor to work — mainly a secure login cookie that keeps you signed in. It is httpOnly (JavaScript in your browser cannot read it) and is shared across shikhor.net and its subdomains (such as admin.shikhor.net) so you don’t have to log in separately on each.
• We do not use advertising cookies or third-party tracking cookies.
• Our servers keep standard logs (such as IP address, browser type, and the time of a request) to keep the service secure and to fix problems. These are kept for a limited time.
• Because the login cookie is essential, Shikhor may not work properly if you block cookies for our site.

• We keep your account information and contest history for as long as your account is active, so you can see your past contests and results.
• If you ask us to delete your account, we delete or anonymise your personal information within a reasonable time — except where we need to keep certain records, such as results that have already been published or information we must keep to comply with the law or to resolve a dispute.
• Backups are kept for a limited period and then overwritten.
• SMS delivery records and server logs are kept only for a short period.

You can ask us to:

• Access — give you a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct — fix information that is wrong. You can edit most of your profile yourself in your account settings.
• Delete — delete your account and personal information (subject to the exceptions in How long we keep your information).
• Stop non-essential messages — opt out of reminders and announcements that aren’t required for your account to function.

To make any of these requests, email us at admins.shikhor@gmail.com from the email address on your account (a parent or guardian may contact us on your behalf). We may ask you to confirm your identity first, to protect your account, and we aim to respond within 30 days.

Many Shikhor users are school and college students, and some are under 18. We take that seriously and follow the spirit of children’s data-protection rules.

• We collect only the information we genuinely need to register a student for a contest and to contact them about it.
• We never show advertising to students, and we never sell or share their information for marketing.
• We encourage parents and guardians to be aware of and involved in their child’s use of Shikhor. If you are a parent or guardian and want to review, correct, or delete your child’s information — or you have any concern about how it is handled — please contact us at admins.shikhor@gmail.com and we will help.
• If you are a student, please ask a parent, guardian, or teacher before signing up, and use an email address and phone number that a trusted adult knows about.
• If we learn that we have collected a child’s information in a way their parent or guardian objects to, we will delete it promptly unless we are required to keep it.

• Your data is stored in a PostgreSQL database on a private server (VPS) that we control — not on third-party marketing platforms, and it is never sold.
• All connections to Shikhor are encrypted with HTTPS/TLS.
• Passwords are stored only as salted, one-way hashes.
• Login sessions use secure, httpOnly cookies.
• Access to the admin panel and the database is limited to a small number of authorised people and protected by authentication.
• We keep our software updated and take reasonable steps to guard against unauthorised access.

No online service can be completely secure, but we work to protect your information and to act quickly if something goes wrong. If a security breach ever affects your personal information, we will notify the users affected and take appropriate steps.

Every account is verified in two layers: email OTP confirmation at signup, and a manual document review (ID card, salary slip, or result sheet) before the account is marked verified. / প্রতিটা অ্যাকাউন্ট দুই ধাপে ভেরিফাই করা হয়: সাইনআপের সময় ইমেইল OTP নিশ্চিতকরণ, এবং একটা ডকুমেন্ট (ID card, salary slip, বা result sheet) ম্যানুয়ালি রিভিউ করার পর অ্যাকাউন্ট ভেরিফায়েড হিসেবে চিহ্নিত হয়।

A device signal is collected during account activity as part of our security measures. / সিকিউরিটি ব্যবস্থার অংশ হিসেবে অ্যাকাউন্ট কার্যকলাপের সময় একটা ডিভাইস সিগন্যাল সংগ্রহ করা হয়।

Shikhor may link to other websites, such as contest partners or learning resources. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites, so please read their own privacy policies before sharing information with them.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time — for example, when we add features or change how we handle data. When we do, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page, and for significant changes we will also give notice on the site or by email. If you keep using Shikhor after an update, that means you accept the revised policy.

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests about this Privacy Policy or your personal information, contact us at:

Email: admins.shikhor@gmail.com

We will do our best to help.