Privacy Policy

TheRealSkill (“we”, “our”, or “us”) is committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and your rights regarding it.

By accessing or using our website at therealskill.com or contacting us via WhatsApp, email, or any other channel, you acknowledge and agree to the practices described in this policy.

We operate under the applicable data protection laws of India, including the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA).

We collect the following categories of personal data:

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

• Identity data: Full name, college/institution name, year of study, branch/department
• Contact data: Email address, WhatsApp/mobile number
• Academic data: Project requirements, technology preferences, college guidelines you share with us
• Payment data: Transaction reference numbers, payment confirmations (we do not store full card numbers or UPI credentials — these are handled by Razorpay)
• Communication data: Messages you send us via WhatsApp, email, or our contact form

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

• Usage data: Pages visited, time spent, referring URL, browser type, device type
• Technical data: IP address, operating system, screen resolution
• Cookie data: Session preferences, consent choices (see Section 4)

2.3 Information from Third Parties

If you interact with us through WhatsApp Business, we may receive your WhatsApp display name and phone number. We do not purchase or source personal data from data brokers.

We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:

We will never sell your personal data to third parties for marketing purposes.

Our website uses the following types of cookies and storage technologies:

• Strictly necessary: Session storage to remember your preferences (e.g., dismissing the banner, popup state). Required for the site to function.
• Analytics: We may use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use our site (aggregated, anonymised data). You can opt out using browser extensions like Google Analytics Opt-out Add-on.
• No advertising cookies: We do not use cookies to track you across other websites or serve targeted advertisements.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling cookies may affect some site functionality.

We share your data with the following trusted third parties solely to deliver our services:

• Razorpay: Payment processing. Your payment card/UPI details are entered directly on Razorpay's PCI-DSS compliant platform and are never stored by us. See Razorpay's Privacy Policy.
• Meta (WhatsApp Business): For customer support and delivery notifications. Subject to Meta's data policies.
• Google (Analytics, Fonts): We use Google Fonts (loaded via next/font for privacy-friendly self-hosting) and may use Google Analytics.
• Vercel: Our website hosting provider. Vercel may log request metadata (IP, user agent) for security and performance.

All third-party providers are contractually obligated to handle your data securely and only for the purposes we specify.

We implement industry-standard technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction:

• HTTPS encryption for all data in transit
• Access controls limiting staff access to data on a need-to-know basis
• Secure, encrypted communication channels for project delivery
• Regular review of our data handling practices

No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. While we take all reasonable precautions, we cannot guarantee absolute security of your data.

We retain your personal data for as long as:

• Active customers: For the duration of our service relationship plus 3 years for accounting and legal compliance.
• Enquiries (no purchase): Up to 1 year from last contact, then deleted unless you have consented to marketing communications.
• Marketing consent: Until you withdraw consent.
• Legal obligations: Where required by Indian tax law or other applicable regulation, we may retain records for up to 7 years.

Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (India) and applicable law, you have the following rights:

• Right to Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to Correction: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to Erasure: Request deletion of your data (subject to legal retention obligations).
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Withdraw consent for marketing communications at any time.
• Right to Grievance Redressal: File a complaint with our Grievance Officer (see Section 11).

To exercise any of these rights, email us at hello@therealskill.com or message us on WhatsApp at +91-9959-691-347. We will respond within 30 days.

Our services are intended for students aged 18 and above (or those enrolled in B.Tech / M.Tech programmes, which typically require the student to be 17+). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13.

If you believe a minor has submitted personal data to us, please contact us at hello@therealskill.com and we will promptly delete it.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or applicable law. When we make material changes, we will:

• Update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page
• Notify active customers via email or WhatsApp where required

Your continued use of our services after any update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

In accordance with the Information Technology Act, 2000, we have appointed a Grievance Officer to address any concerns about our data handling practices: