Privacy Policy

Deaf Biblical Ministry ("DBM", "the Society", "we", "our" or "us") is a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, based at Dimapur, Nagaland. We run a school and residential hostel for Deaf children, along with vocational training, sign language interpretation, counselling and community programmes.

We hold personal information about children, parents, staff, donors, volunteers and visitors. This policy sets out what we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what you can ask us to do about it.

We follow the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the Information Technology Act, 2000 together with the rules made under them. Where we handle information about children, we apply the additional protections that the law requires.

1. What this policy covers

This policy applies to:

• our public website at dbm.org.in and its subdomains;
• the school portal at school.dbm.org.in, used by staff, parents and students;
• admissions, enrolment, teaching, hostel care and student welfare at our school;
• donations, sponsorships and grant reporting;
• recruitment, employment and volunteering with the Society;
• our email, telephone, WhatsApp and social media correspondence.

It does not apply to websites and services run by other organisations, even where we link to them. Section 12 explains how to think about those.

2. Information we collect

2.1 From website visitors

• Name, email address and the content of any message you send us through the contact form. Contact form messages are handled on our own systems and are not passed to any outside form service. We keep them for two years and then delete them automatically.
• Technical information created automatically when you load a page: IP address, browser and device type, operating system, referring page, pages viewed and the time of the visit.
• Anything you choose to tell us in an email, a call or a message.

2.2 From donors and supporters

• Name, postal address, email address and phone number.
• Donation amount, date, frequency and payment reference.
• PAN or other tax identifier where you ask for an 80G receipt, because the Income Tax Act requires us to report it.
• Correspondence about sponsorship of a child, a class or a programme.

We do not receive or store your card number, UPI PIN, CVV, bank login or any other payment credential. Payments are handled entirely by our payment gateway on its own systems. See section 6.

2.3 About students and their families

To admit, teach and care for a child we collect:

• the child's name, date of birth, sex, photograph, address and admission number;
• parent or guardian names, relationship to the child, occupation, contact numbers, email address and address;
• proof of identity and age, such as a birth certificate, Aadhaar or a disability certificate;
• audiological records, degree and cause of hearing loss and any hearing device in use;
• medical history, allergies, medication, immunisation, dietary needs and emergency contacts;
• attendance, marks, report cards, transfer certificates, homework and teacher observations;
• hostel records, including room allocation, leave, visitor logs and welfare notes;
• fee accounts, scholarship and concession records;
• transport route and pick-up details where applicable;
• photographs and video taken during school activities, subject to section 11.

Some of this is sensitive. Health and disability information is used only for the care, safety, teaching and statutory reporting of the child. It is visible only to the staff who need it for that purpose.

2.4 About staff, applicants and volunteers

• Name, contact details, address, date of birth and photograph.
• Curriculum vitae, qualifications, certificates and references.
• Employment records, attendance, leave, appraisals and disciplinary records.
• Salary, PAN, bank account for salary payment, and provident fund or tax records where applicable.
• Background verification results where the role involves working with children.

2.5 About campus visitors

Visitors to our premises may be asked to record their name, contact number, whom they are visiting and the time of entry and exit. Where closed circuit cameras are in use, signs are displayed at the entry to the area covered.

3. Children's data

Most of the children we serve are below eighteen years of age, and many are below the age at which they can give consent for themselves.

• We process a child's personal data on the verifiable consent of a parent or lawful guardian, given at admission and renewed when the purpose changes.
• We verify that the person giving consent is in fact the parent or guardian, using the identity documents collected at admission.
• We do not use a child's data for advertising of any kind, and we do not permit behavioural tracking or profiling of children on our website or portal.
• We do not process a child's data in any way that is likely to cause a detrimental effect on the child's wellbeing.
• We publish a child's photograph or name only under section 11.
• A parent or guardian may ask to see, correct or withdraw their child's data at any time, subject to records we are legally required to retain.

Where a person with a disability has a lawful guardian, the same protections apply, and the guardian exercises these rights on their behalf.

4. Why we use your information

We do not use your information for any purpose materially different from the one it was collected for without telling you first and, where the law requires it, asking for fresh consent.

5. We do not sell your data

We do not sell, rent, trade or lease personal information to anyone. We do not share donor lists with other organisations. We do not permit advertising networks to profile our visitors.

6. Who we share information with

We share personal data only where one of the following applies.

6.1 Service providers acting on our instructions

These organisations process data only for us, only for the purpose we set and under an obligation to keep it confidential.

Each of these providers has its own privacy policy governing what it does with data in its own right. Where a provider changes, we update this table.

6.2 Government and legal disclosure

We disclose information where we are required to by law or by an order of a court, tribunal or authorised government agency. This includes returns to the Income Tax Department, filings under the Societies Registration Act, reports to the Department of School Education, Government of Nagaland, and any report we are obliged to make to child protection authorities or the police.

6.3 Safety

We disclose information where it is necessary to protect the life, safety or wellbeing of a child, a member of staff or any other person, and there is no time or opportunity to obtain consent.

6.4 Professional advisers

Our auditors, lawyers, bankers and insurers receive information where they need it to advise us, under a duty of confidentiality.

7. Cookies and website measurement

Our website uses only what is needed to make pages work. We do not run advertising cookies, and we do not allow third parties to profile our visitors for advertising.

• Necessary cookies. Our hosting provider sets cookies to keep the site secure and to distinguish real visitors from automated traffic. The staff area at /manage uses a session cookie to keep an authorised publisher signed in. These cannot be switched off without breaking the site.
• Server logs. Our host records requests, including IP address and page requested. These logs are used to diagnose faults and investigate abuse, and are held for a short period.
• Fonts and maps. Loading a page fetches fonts from Google, which discloses your IP address to Google. Opening our map link takes you to Google Maps, where Google's own policy applies.
• The contact form check. The contact page runs a Cloudflare check that tells a person apart from an automated script. It looks at your browser and your IP address to do this. It is not an advertising tool and does not track you across other websites. We chose it partly because, unlike a picture puzzle, it never falls back to an audio challenge, which would exclude the Deaf visitors this site is for.

You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings. If you block necessary cookies, parts of the site may stop working.

8. Where your data is held

Our records are held in India wherever possible. Some of the services listed in section 6 store or route data through servers outside India. Where that happens, we rely on the provider's contractual commitments to protect the data, and we transfer only to countries not restricted by the Central Government. Student records held in the school portal are not transferred outside India except for routine backup by the hosting provider.

9. How long we keep information

When a retention period ends we delete the record or remove the details that identify a person from it.

10. How we protect information

• Access to student, staff and donor records is limited to the people whose work requires it.
• The staff publishing area is protected by identity-based access control, not a shared password.
• The website and portal are served over encrypted connections.
• Passwords are stored hashed, never in readable form.
• Paper records are kept in locked storage in the school office.
• Staff and volunteers are told what they may and may not do with student information, and are bound to confidentiality. Photographing or posting about students without written permission is prohibited.
• Records are backed up, and backups are protected to the same standard as the originals.

No system is completely secure. We do not promise that our safeguards will never fail. We do promise to act quickly if they do.

11. Photographs, video and publicity

Photographs of our work help us explain it to supporters, but a child's image is the child's own.

• We ask parents and guardians for written consent before using a child's photograph, video or name in any public material. Consent is recorded at admission and can be refused without any effect on the child's place or treatment.
• Consent can be withdrawn at any time by writing to us. We will stop future use and remove the image from material we control. We cannot recall printed material already distributed or copies others have made.
• We do not publish a child's full name alongside their photograph, and we do not publish home addresses, contact details, medical details or details of a child's family circumstances.
• Staff and volunteers may not post images of students on personal social media.
• Visitors and journalists may photograph on our premises only with prior written permission.

12. Links to other websites

Our pages link to other sites, including our payment gateway, map listings and the school portal. Following a link takes you out of our care. We do not control what those sites collect or how they use it, and we are not responsible for their practices. Read their policies before giving them your information.

13. Your rights

Subject to the records we are legally required to keep, you may ask us to:

• Tell you what we hold. A summary of the personal data we process about you, what we do with it and who we have shared it with.
• Correct it. Complete, correct or update anything inaccurate or out of date.
• Erase it. Delete data we no longer need for the purpose it was collected for.
• Withdraw consent. Withdraw consent you previously gave, as easily as you gave it. This does not undo what was lawfully done before you withdrew, and withdrawing consent for something essential, such as a student's academic record, may mean we cannot continue to provide that service.
• Nominate someone. Name a person who may exercise these rights on your behalf if you die or become unable to act.
• Complain. Raise a grievance with us, and escalate it if you are not satisfied.

To exercise any of these, write to the Grievance Officer at the address in section 16. We will ask for enough information to confirm who you are, so that we do not disclose a child's or a donor's data to the wrong person. Parents and guardians may exercise these rights for their child. We respond within thirty days. If we cannot do what you ask, we will tell you why.

There is no charge for making a request. We ask that requests are made honestly, and we may decline requests that are repetitive or made to harass.

14. Marketing and fundraising messages

We send updates, newsletters and appeals only to people who have asked to receive them. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and you can also reply to any message asking to be removed. We continue to send operational messages, such as a receipt for a donation or a notice about your child's school, because they are not marketing.

15. If something goes wrong

If personal data in our care is lost, disclosed or accessed without authority, we will investigate at once, take steps to contain it, notify the Data Protection Board of India as required, and inform the people affected where there is a risk to them. Parents will be informed directly where a child's data is involved.

16. Grievance Officer and contact

Questions, requests and complaints about this policy or about how we handle personal data should go to:

Obed Walling
Grievance Officer
Deaf Biblical Ministry
Lane 3, Ward 10, Naharbari, Dimapur - 797116, Nagaland, India
Email: hello@dbm.org.in
Phone: +91 6909150432

We acknowledge every grievance and aim to resolve it within thirty days. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

17. Changes to this policy

We update this policy when our practices, services or legal obligations change. The effective date at the top shows when the current version took effect. Where a change materially affects how we use data you have already given us, we will tell you directly and, where the law requires it, ask for fresh consent.