Legal

Privacy policy

Last updated: 8 November 2026 (forms now stored on our server)

This policy explains what happens to your information when you visit the Team Bit Flare website ("the site"), run by Team Bit Flare, a student hackathon team in Pune, India ("we", "us"). In short: we don't sell your data, we don't show ads, and we don't use tracking cookies.

What we collect

• Nothing by default. You can walk the whole site without giving us any personal information. There are no accounts or logins.
• Contact messages. When you use a contact form, your name, email address and message are stored securely on our hosting provider (Cloudflare) so the team can read and answer them. Only the team can see them, through a password-protected page. If the form can't reach our server, it opens your own email app instead.
• Guestbook notes. If you sign the chalkboard guestbook, the name, role and note you enter are stored with Cloudflare and shown publicly on the board for every visitor. From the browser you signed with, you can edit or delete your own note at any time. Please don't put private information in a note.
• Spam protection. To stop abuse, the forms use Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks your browser without tracking cookies, and we keep a one-way scrambled code (a hash) of your IP address with each message and note so we can limit repeated posts. We never store the IP address itself.
• Visit statistics, only if you agree. If you click "Accept" on the privacy banner, we count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics. It uses no cookies, doesn't build a profile of you, and only gives us totals such as page views, countries and device types.

Cookies and browser storage

The site sets no cookies of its own. It uses your browser's local storage, which stays on your device, to remember:

• your privacy choice (Accept or Decline);
• your best score in the Riddle Room game;
• a private key for each guestbook note you sign, so you can edit or delete it later from the same browser;
• guestbook notes, only if our server can't be reached, and a short timer that stops repeated posts;
• a short timer that stops a contact form being sent twice.

You can clear all of this at any time from your browser settings. To change your analytics choice, use "Cookie settings" at the bottom of any page.

Services we rely on

Loading the site means your browser connects to these providers, which receive your IP address as part of normal web traffic:

• Cloudflare, which hosts and delivers the site and stores form messages and guestbook notes;
• Google Fonts, for the typefaces;
• jsDelivr, which delivers the three.js 3D library;
• Cloudflare Turnstile, the spam check on the forms.

Links to Instagram, LinkedIn and other sites take you to services with their own privacy policies.

How long we keep it

We keep contact messages for as long as we need them to reply and follow up, then delete them. Guestbook notes stay until they are removed. Analytics totals are kept by Cloudflare in aggregate form.

Your rights

Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 you can ask us to show, correct or delete the personal data we hold about you, including any guestbook note you posted. Email bitflare22@gmail.com and we'll respond within 30 days.

Children

The site is for a general audience and isn't aimed at children under 13. We don't knowingly collect their information.

Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page.

Contact

Questions about privacy: bitflare22@gmail.com.