Privacy built for trust, students, and community work.

STEM for India, also referred to as SFI, is an education initiative focused on expanding practical STEM access for rural students and communities in India. This Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information when you visit this website, contact us, or choose to participate in our volunteer, school, partnership, or program activities.

For privacy questions, requests, or grievances, contact us at jigyanshu15@gmail.com. If SFI later appoints a dedicated privacy officer or grievance officer, this page will be updated with those details.

This policy applies to this website, email communications with SFI, and personal information we receive through program, volunteer, partnership, and school outreach activities connected to this website.

Some SFI programs may also have activity-specific consent forms, school notices, parent or guardian forms, media releases, volunteer agreements, or safeguarding procedures. If those documents say something more specific about a program, the more specific document applies to that program.

We keep collection limited to what is useful for the website and the mission. Depending on how you interact with SFI, we may collect:

• Contact information: your name, email address, organization, role, and message if you email us or ask to get involved.
• Volunteer and partner information: availability, skills, affiliation, location, and other details you choose to share so we can coordinate opportunities.
• Program information: information about students, parents or guardians, teachers, schools, cohorts, attendance, learning needs, or program participation when it is needed to run an SFI activity.
• Media and stories: photos, videos, quotes, or testimonials only when shared with appropriate permission and, for children, parent or guardian consent where required.
• Technical information: basic logs such as IP address, browser type, device type, pages visited, dates, and times, which may be collected by hosting or security systems.

The current website is designed as an informational site. It does not require accounts, online student profiles, online payment details, or public posting by users.

Please do not send sensitive identity documents, financial information, medical information, precise home addresses, or detailed information about a child by email unless SFI has specifically asked for it through a secure and appropriate process.

We use personal information for limited mission-related purposes:

• to respond to messages and partnership inquiries;
• to coordinate volunteer interest, training, and participation;
• to plan, deliver, and evaluate STEM programs with schools;
• to communicate with parents, guardians, teachers, and partners;
• to document program impact, grants, and operational needs;
• to protect the safety of students, volunteers, staff, and the website;
• to comply with legal, accounting, reporting, and governance duties.

We do not sell personal information. We do not use student or child information for targeted advertising.

When you voluntarily contact SFI, we use the information you provide to respond to that request. Where consent is required, we aim to make the request clear, specific, and limited to the information needed for the stated purpose.

You may withdraw consent by contacting us. Withdrawal does not affect processing that already happened before the withdrawal, and we may still keep information where retention is required by law, safety, accounting, or dispute resolution obligations.

SFI works in an education context and may serve students who are minors. We treat student information carefully and collect it only when needed for a legitimate program purpose, safety purpose, or documented school or parent engagement.

Under Indian privacy law, a child is generally a person under 18. When SFI collects personal information directly from or about a child for a program, we will seek verifiable consent from a parent or lawful guardian where required and will avoid processing that could harm a child.

This website is not intended to knowingly collect personal information online from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe a child under 13 has provided personal information through the website or by email, contact us and we will review, delete, or limit the information as appropriate.

We do not track children across websites, behaviorally monitor children for marketing, or target advertising to children.

We share personal information only when there is a reason connected to the purposes above. This may include sharing with:

• hosting, email, security, and communication service providers;
• schools, teachers, mentors, volunteers, or partners involved in a program;
• grant makers, auditors, or advisors where reporting is needed;
• law enforcement, regulators, or authorities when required by law;
• people who need information to protect a student, volunteer, or community member from harm.

We ask service providers and partners to handle personal information responsibly and only for the work they perform for or with SFI.

The website may use basic technical cookies or logs needed to run, protect, and improve the site. Hosting providers may automatically log IP address, browser, device, and request information.

We do not currently describe the site as using advertising cookies, cross-site behavioral tracking, or targeted advertising. If SFI adds analytics, donation tools, embedded media, or other third-party tools that materially change tracking, we will update this policy and, where required, provide appropriate choices.

We keep personal information only as long as it is needed for the purpose for which it was collected, unless a longer period is required for legal, safety, financial, grant, audit, or dispute resolution reasons.

• Ordinary email inquiries are kept only as long as needed to respond, manage the relationship, and maintain reasonable records.
• Volunteer and partnership records are kept while the relationship is active and for a reasonable period afterward.
• Program records involving students may be kept for the duration of the program and for reporting, safeguarding, legal, or audit needs.
• Media permissions may be kept while related photos, videos, or stories are used, unless consent is withdrawn and no legal reason requires continued retention.

We use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards for the size and nature of SFI, including limited access, careful handling by team members and volunteers, secure hosting practices, and appropriate confidentiality expectations for people working with program data.

No internet transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be perfectly secure. If we become aware of a personal data breach that requires notice, we will notify affected people and relevant authorities as required by applicable law.

SFI is focused on work in India, but our website, email, hosting, or collaboration tools may use service providers that process information in India or other countries.

When information is processed outside India, we aim to use providers and practices that protect the information appropriately and to comply with applicable transfer restrictions.

Depending on where you live and the nature of the information, you may have the right to ask SFI to access, correct, update, complete, delete, or restrict certain personal information. You may also ask to withdraw consent where consent is the basis for processing.

To make a request, email jigyanshu15@gmail.com. We may need to verify your identity or authority before acting on a request, especially for student information or requests made by a parent, guardian, school, or partner.

This website may link to schools, partners, social platforms, resources, or external tools. Their privacy practices are controlled by them, not SFI. Review their policies before sharing personal information with them.

We may update this Privacy Policy as SFI grows, as programs change, or as laws and guidance evolve. The updated version will be posted on this page with a new "Last updated" date.

Material changes that significantly affect how we handle personal information will be communicated in a reasonable way, such as a notice on the website or direct communication where appropriate.