Privacy

Who is responsible

IIL Media LLP publishes this site and is the data fiduciary under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Nothing here needs an account, a name or an email address. We ask for consent before any non-essential cookie is set, never assume consent from browsing, and never block the site behind a consent wall.

If you say no

We record nothing about your reading. We set one cookie, m24_consent, to remember your choice so we don’t ask again. Threads you follow are remembered only in your own browser.

Page speed, whatever you choose

Each page sends us how fast it loaded: the page’s address, the timing, and whether it was a phone or a desktop. There is no cookie, no identifier and nothing about you in it; it cannot be linked to a person or to a reading record. We keep these measurements for 30 days to find slow pages.

If you agree

We create a random ID, stored in a cookie called m24_rid for up to a year. It contains no name, email or other personal details. With it we record:

• which stories were shown to you, and where on the site;
• which stories you opened;
• how long you spent reading and whether you reached the end;
• which threads you followed or unfollowed.

We use these records for two things: the most-read lists on the site, and our own editorial decisions about what to cover and how. We do not build a profile of you, and nothing you read changes what you are shown. The most important stories are the same for everyone.

How long we keep it

Reading records are deleted automatically after 90 days. The random ID itself holds nothing about you and is kept until you withdraw consent, or until it has sat unused for 13 months, when it is deleted too.

Change your mind at any time

Select “Privacy settings” in the footer (or the button below), then “No thanks”. We immediately delete your ID and everything recorded with it. Withdrawing is as easy as agreeing was.

Privacy settings

Must-know alerts

Alerts are off unless you turn them on and your browser asks your permission. If you do, we store only what your browser gives us to deliver them: an address at your browser’s push service (run by Google, Mozilla, Apple or Microsoft, depending on your browser) and two encryption keys. It is not linked to your reading records or the ID above. The push service carries each alert to your device.

Turn alerts off with the same button, or block notifications in your browser; we delete the stored address when you turn them off or when the push service tells us it no longer exists (or after repeated failed deliveries to it).

Offline reading

On supported browsers, this site’s service worker saves the pages you open (not searches) on your device, so they work without a connection. They never leave your device. They are cleared when you say no to reading records, or when you clear this site’s data in your browser.

Display settings

Your theme and text size choices are stored only in your browser (local storage) and never sent to us.

What we don’t do

• No advertising and no advertising trackers.
• No selling or sharing of reading data.
• Our servers see your IP address to deliver pages and to limit abuse. For the abuse limits we keep, for at most a day, a scrambled form of it that cannot be turned back into the address; it is never stored with your reading records.

Questions, requests and grievances

To ask what we hold, have it deleted, or raise a grievance under the Act, write to us. We answer within the period the rules set. Every request can also be met by withdrawing consent above, which deletes all reading records tied to your ID.

Until our inbox is live, send messages through the Instagram page.