PRIVACYPOLICY

A. Registration Information

When you register as a contestant, we may collect:

• Full name
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Mobile number
• Email address
• City and state
• Password/account credentials
• Profile photograph
• Identity and age-verification documents
• Other information required to verify eligibility

B. Voting Information

When you cast votes, we may collect information necessary to process and verify the transaction, which may include:

• Selected contestant
• Number of votes purchased
• Transaction/reference ID
• Date and time of transaction
• Payment status
• Technical information associated with the transaction

Payment card, banking or other sensitive payment credentials are processed through the designated payment gateway and are not intended to be stored by THE BORDERBOUND unless specifically required for lawful payment processing.

C. Technical Information

When you use our website, we may automatically receive certain technical information, such as:

• IP address
• Browser type
• Device information
• Operating system
• Approximate location derived from technical information
• Website activity and interaction data
• Cookies and similar technologies
• Security and fraud-prevention information

We may use collected information to:

• Process contestant registrations
• Verify contestant eligibility and identity
• Create and manage user accounts
• Process payments
• Process and validate votes
• Maintain the official voting system and leaderboard
• Detect fraudulent, automated or unauthorized activity
• Prevent abuse and manipulation of the website
• Communicate with applicants, contestants and users
• Provide customer support
• Publish approved contestant profiles where applicable
• Administer the show and selection process
• Comply with legal and regulatory requirements
• Maintain website security
• Improve our website, systems and user experience
• Maintain records required for operational, accounting or legal purposes

If you are selected for public voting, certain information from your contestant profile may be displayed publicly on the official THE BORDERBOUND website.

This may include information such as:

• Name
• Age
• City/state
• Profile photograph
• Contestant number
• Public contestant biography
• Voting position or vote count, where applicable

During the official voting period, the website may display publicly available competition information, including:

• Contestant ranking
• Vote count
• Position on the leaderboard
• Other information necessary to communicate the status of the competition

The displayed leaderboard may be provisional until final vote validation is completed.

Payments may be processed through our designated payment gateway, including PayU or another payment service provider specified by the Organizer.

Payment providers may independently process information according to their own privacy policies and applicable laws.

THE BORDERBOUND does not request users to provide their:

• UPI PIN
• ATM PIN
• Internet banking password
• Card PIN
• OTP for purposes other than the legitimate payment/verification flow

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to:

• Keep the website functioning properly
• Maintain sessions
• Remember preferences
• Understand website usage
• Improve performance
• Maintain security
• Detect suspicious activity

You may be able to control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may affect website functionality.

We may share personal information where reasonably necessary with:

• Payment gateway and payment-processing providers
• Website hosting and technology providers
• Identity/eligibility verification providers
• Fraud-prevention and security service providers
• Professional advisers and service providers
• Production and operational partners where necessary
• Government authorities, regulators or law-enforcement agencies where legally required

We do not intend to sell your personal information as a standalone commercial product.

Service providers receiving information from us may only use it for the purposes for which they have been engaged, subject to applicable contractual and legal requirements.

Some technology, hosting, payment, analytics or service providers may process information outside India.

Where personal information is transferred or processed outside India, we will take steps required under applicable law.

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, misuse or destruction.

However, no internet transmission or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

Users are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of their account credentials.

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including:

• Providing our services
• Administering THE BORDERBOUND
• Maintaining transaction and voting records
• Resolving disputes
• Preventing fraud and abuse
• Complying with legal, tax, accounting and regulatory obligations

Different categories of information may be retained for different periods depending on their purpose and applicable legal requirements.

Subject to applicable law, you may have rights regarding your personal information, including the right to:

• Request access to certain personal information
• Request correction of inaccurate information
• Request deletion where legally applicable
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent
• Raise a grievance regarding processing of your personal information
• Request information regarding how your personal data is handled

Certain information may need to be retained where required by law or where necessary for legitimate operational, security or dispute-resolution purposes.

Contestant participation in THE BORDERBOUND is subject to the eligibility requirements published in the official Terms & Conditions.

Where applicable, additional consent, verification or safeguards may be required for participants who are minors.

Users should not submit another person's personal information without appropriate authorization.

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, payment services, social media platforms or other services.

THE BORDERBOUND is not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites.

We encourage users to review the privacy policies of those services before providing personal information.

Information may be processed to identify and investigate:

• Automated voting
• Bot activity
• Suspicious transactions
• Payment abuse
• Multiple unauthorized transactions
• Attempts to manipulate voting systems
• Exploitation of website vulnerabilities
• Other activity that may compromise the integrity or security of the platform

Information may be retained or disclosed where reasonably necessary for investigation, enforcement or legal compliance.

We may contact users regarding:

• Registration
• Payments
• Voting
• Account activity
• Important show updates
• Security issues
• Customer support
• Changes to our policies or services

Where legally required, promotional communications will be subject to applicable consent and communication requirements.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in:

• THE BORDERBOUND
• Our website
• Technology
• Legal requirements
• Data-processing practices

The updated version will be published on the official website with a revised “Last Updated” date.

This Privacy Policy shall be governed by the applicable laws of India.

Any disputes relating to privacy or the use of personal information shall be handled in accordance with applicable Indian law.