Effective Date: September 13, 2026
Last Updated: September 13, 2026
Contest Hopper ("Contest Hopper", "CH", "we", "our", or "us") operates contesthopper.com. We provide an independent opportunity-discovery platform helping students, developers, and creators discover verified competitions, hackathons, scholarships, and fellowships.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, handle, protect, and process personal information when you visit or interact with Contest Hopper, in accordance with applicable Indian data protection laws and international standards.
1. Introduction & Scope
Contest Hopper respects your privacy. Our core mission is opportunity discovery, and our platform is engineered to minimize unnecessary data collection while keeping our services fast, transparent, and free to browse.
This Privacy Policy applies to personal data collected through contesthopper.com, including user accounts, saved collections, notification preferences, our community blog dashboard, and contact inquiries.
This policy forms an integral part of our Terms & Conditions. By accessing or using Contest Hopper, you acknowledge the data practices described herein.
2. Information We Collect
We collect information in the following circumstances:
A. Information You Provide Directly
- Account Registration: When you register an account, we collect your display name, email address, profile avatar (e.g. through Google OAuth or email sign-up), and optional bio details.
- User-Generated Content & Blogs: If you write or publish articles through our community blog platform, we store your article text, headings, tags, author name, and publication timestamps.
- Bookmarks & Saved Lists: Contests, hackathons, and opportunities that you save to personal boards or bookmarks.
- Direct Communications: Inquiries, feedback, support messages, or reports you send to our official email channels or contact forms.
B. Information Collected Automatically
- Usage & Telemetry Data: We collect non-sensitive telemetry such as opportunity click events, search queries, filter selections, and anonymous pageview metrics to identify popular categories and keep our search index accurate.
- Device & Access Metadata: Standard web server logs, including browser type, operating system, referring URL, timestamp, and anonymized IP hash for rate limiting and guest access tracking.
- Local Storage & Cookies: We use lightweight browser storage tokens to remember your theme preference (dark/light) and active authentication sessions.
3. How We Use Your Information
We process your personal information strictly for legitimate, user-focused operational purposes:
- To maintain, provide, and improve the Contest Hopper platform and search functionality.
- To enable user account features, bookmark boards, personalized recommendations, and notification bells.
- To review and verify submitted community blogs before publication.
- To respond to your support requests, copyright inquiries, or feedback.
- To detect, prevent, and mitigate fraud, automated abuse, scraping, security breaches, and platform downtime.
- To enforce our Terms & Conditions and comply with applicable statutory obligations.
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data. Contest Hopper does not monetize user records through third-party data brokers.
4. Security & OTP Safeguards
In accordance with Section 7 of our Terms & Conditions, Contest Hopper enforces strict safeguards regarding user credentials and payments:
- No Unofficial Payment Requests: Contest Hopper will never ask users to transfer money to individuals claiming to represent CH through unofficial communication channels.
- No Unofficial Credential Requests: CH will never contact you asking for your password, banking information, credit/debit card numbers, or OTPs.
- Authorized OTP Usage: One-Time Passwords (OTPs) may only be generated and requested through automated, official on-site workflows for legitimate purposes such as login verification, two-factor authentication, or password recovery.
- User Responsibility: Never share an OTP with anyone claiming to represent Contest Hopper. If you receive an unsolicited request for credentials or money, report it immediately to [email protected].
5. Third-Party Links & External Organizers
As outlined in Section 35 of our Terms & Conditions, Contest Hopper is an independent discovery platform that provides direct links (such as "Apply Now", "Register", or "Official Website") to external organizers.
When you click an external link to register or participate in a competition:
- You navigate away from Contest Hopper to an external domain operated by a third-party organizer.
- Any personal, educational, or payment information you submit on that third party's website is collected directly by that organizer and is governed solely by their own privacy policy and terms.
- Contest Hopper does not control, supervise, or assume responsibility for external websites, payment gateways, or organizer data handling practices.
We encourage users to review the privacy policies and eligibility criteria of third-party organizers before submitting any personal details.
6. Blogs & User-Generated Content
When you write and publish an article through our community blog platform (Sections 23–25 of our Terms):
- Author Attribution: Your designated author name and linked profile details are displayed publicly alongside your published article.
- Editorial Review: Blog submissions may be reviewed by our moderation team prior to publication to check for factual accuracy, plagiarism, or inappropriate content.
- License to Host: Authors retain underlying intellectual property rights over their original work while granting Contest Hopper a worldwide, royalty-free license to display, index, format, and archive the post on contesthopper.com.
7. Data Protection & Legal Basis
Contest Hopper is operated within India. We process and protect personal information under the legal framework of India, including the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) and other applicable statutory regulations.
We employ industry-standard administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, including:
- TLS/SSL encryption for all data in transit across contesthopper.com.
- Secure cryptographic hashing for passwords, authentication tokens, and IP records.
- Role-based access controls restricting internal access to administrative functions.
- Automated rate limiting and origin verification to prevent unauthorized scraping or automated intrusion.
Users accessing Contest Hopper internationally acknowledge that their data is processed in accordance with Indian regulatory standards and our international privacy commitments.
9. Account Deletion & Data Retention
In accordance with Section 39 of our Terms & Conditions, users have the right to request deletion of their Contest Hopper account at any time.
When you delete your account:
- Your profile information, authentication records, saved bookmark collections, and notification history are permanently expunged from our active databases.
- Public community blog posts authored by you may be anonymized or removed upon your written request, subject to legitimate archival or legal requirements.
- Certain minimal metadata may be retained where strictly required by law, such as financial transaction records (if paid features are used), security audit logs, or records necessary to investigate fraud or legal disputes.
To initiate an account deletion or data purge request, email us at [email protected] with the subject line "Account Deletion Request" from your registered email address.
10. Your Rights & Choices
Depending on your jurisdiction, you have the following rights regarding your personal information:
- Right to Access: You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- Right to Rectification: You can update or correct inaccurate profile details directly from your account settings or by contacting us.
- Right to Erasure: You can request the deletion of your personal data as outlined in Section 9 above.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time.
- Right to Restrict or Object: You can object to certain processing activities or opt out of non-essential communications.
We process all verified requests in good faith and without undue delay.
11. Protection of Minors
Contest Hopper is an educational opportunity-discovery platform intended for students and learners of diverse ages.
We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under the age of 13 without appropriate parental or guardian oversight. Where applicable laws mandate parental consent for minors to create an account, parents or guardians must review and consent to these practices.
If you believe that a minor has provided us with personal information without required authorization, please contact us at [email protected] so we can take immediate corrective measures.
12. Updates & Privacy Contacts
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect improvements to our platform or changes in statutory requirements. Any revisions will be published here with an updated "Last Updated" date.
For privacy inquiries, rights requests, or data protection concerns, please contact our designated privacy desk:
- Privacy & Data Protection: [email protected]
- General Support: [email protected]
- Legal Desk: [email protected]
- Official Website: https://www.contesthopper.com