Privacy Policy

Builtbyindies (builtbyindies.com) is a community where independent makers launch products and share their work. It is operated by Vyshnav TR, who is responsible for your personal data under this policy. You can reach us at [email protected].

Information you give us

• Account details: your name, email address and password (passwords are handled by Firebase Authentication and we never see them). If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address and profile photo from Google.
• Profile details: username, photo, bio, location, pronouns, website, the product you are building, and social handles, if you add them.
• Content: products you submit (including logos and screenshots), stories, buildlog posts, comments, upvotes, bookmarks, follows and reports.
• Messages: direct messages you send and receive, and reactions to them.
• Affiliate payout details: your chosen payout method (UPI or PayPal), the UPI ID or PayPal address, and the name on the account.
• Support and feedback: anything you send us by email or through the feedback form.

Information from payments

When you buy a paid launch or an ad, checkout is handled by Dodo Payments. We receive a confirmation of the payment, including the amount, what was purchased and the payment status. We do not receive or store your full card details.

Information collected automatically

• Analytics: we use Google Analytics for Firebase to understand which pages are visited. It collects page views, approximate location, device and browser information, and uses cookies or similar identifiers.
• View and click counts: to count product, story and post views without double counting, we use a one-way hash of your IP address that changes every day. We do not store your IP address or link these counts to your identity.
• Security and server logs: our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes IP addresses and request data to deliver the site and protect it from abuse. Cloudflare Turnstile checks that signups come from a real person.
• Activity on the site: things like your streak, karma, and which launches you have supported, so these features work.

Information from public sources

We may look at publicly available information about products and their makers, such as a product’s website or a public directory listing, to feature products or to contact makers about launching on Builtbyindies. If we contact you this way, you can ask us not to contact you again.

We use personal data to:

• create and secure your account and let you sign in;
• run the community features: profiles, launches, rankings, comments, messages, karma, streaks and awards;
• process payments, deliver paid launches and ads, and run the affiliate program, including paying commissions;
• send emails about your account, your launches and activity involving you, and optional digests and reminders;
• promote products launched on Builtbyindies, for example in newsletters, blog posts and social media;
• understand how the site is used so we can improve it;
• prevent spam, fraud, vote manipulation and other abuse, and enforce our Terms and Community Guidelines;
• comply with legal obligations, such as keeping payment records.

Where data protection law requires a legal basis, we rely on: performing our contract with you (running your account and paid services); our legitimate interests (keeping the community safe, improving and promoting the Service); your consent (for example, analytics cookies where consent is required); and legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.

Builtbyindies is a public community. Your profile (name, username, photo, bio and the links you add), the products you launch, your stories, buildlog posts and comments, your followers and who you follow, and your karma and awards can be seen by anyone and may be indexed by search engines. Your email address, payout details and direct messages are not public.

We share personal data only with service providers that help us run Builtbyindies, and only as much as they need to do their job:

We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect the rights and safety of our members or the public, or as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of the Service, in which case this policy will continue to apply to your data.

• Essential: Firebase Authentication stores data in your browser to keep you signed in.
• Referral: if you arrive through a referral link, a first-party cookie (bbi_ref) remembers the code for 60 days so the referrer can be credited if you sign up.
• Analytics: Google Analytics for Firebase uses cookies to count visits and sessions.
• Preferences: we store small settings in your browser’s local storage, such as a username you picked before signing up.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking essential storage will stop you from staying signed in.

We keep your account data for as long as your account is open. When you ask us to delete your account, we delete or anonymise your personal data within 30 days, except where we must keep it longer: payment and payout records are kept as long as tax and accounting law requires, and limited records may be kept to prevent abuse (for example, of suspended accounts). Content that others have quoted or that was already sent in emails may remain in those places.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you and get a copy of it;
• correct inaccurate data (most of it you can edit yourself on your profile page);
• delete your account and personal data;
• object to or restrict certain processing, or withdraw consent you have given;
• receive your data in a portable format;
• complain to your local data protection authority.

To use any of these rights, email [email protected] from the address on your account. We will respond within 30 days and will not charge you. You can unsubscribe from non-essential emails at any time with the link in each email.

We use industry-standard measures to protect your data, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), authentication through Firebase, and access controls that keep private data such as email addresses and payout details on the server side. No system is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach affects your data, we will notify you as required by law.

We are based in India, and our service providers process data in several countries, including the United States. Where data is transferred across borders, we rely on our providers’ safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses, to protect it.

Builtbyindies is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal data. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

We will update this policy when our practices change. The date at the top shows the latest version. If the changes are significant, we will tell you on the site or by email.

For privacy questions or requests, email [email protected].