Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

ChennaiCentral.com (“ChennaiCentral”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is a free, independent city guide to Chennai, India, created and maintained as a Vikram Sound Studios (VSS) project. This Privacy Policy applies to the website at chennaicentral.com and describes what data we do and do not collect when you visit, how that data is used, and the third parties involved. By using this website, you agree to the practices described here. If you do not agree, please discontinue use of the site.

2. Information we collect

We have deliberately kept this site low on data collection:

• No accounts. We do not ask you to register, log in, or create an account to read anything on this site.
• Information you volunteer. We do not directly collect personal information except what you choose to submit through our contact or newsletter forms — typically your name and email address, plus any message you write. You are never required to provide this to use the guide.
• Basic non-identifying analytics. Like most websites, our hosting and analytics layer records non-identifying technical information such as approximate region, browser type, device type, and which pages were viewed. This is used in aggregate to understand what readers find useful — not to identify you personally.

3. Cookies and similar technologies

A cookie is a small text file stored on your device by your browser. This site and its third-party partners use cookies and similar technologies (such as web beacons and local storage) to deliver and measure advertising, remember preferences, and keep the site working. Some cookies are set by us; many are set by the third-party advertising and affiliate partners described below. You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings — see Your choices & rights for details.

4. Third-party advertising (Google AdSense and others)

To keep ChennaiCentral free, we display advertising served by Google AdSense and other third-party ad vendors. Please note the following:

• Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site. This includes the DoubleClick / DART cookie and the AdSense cookie, which enable Google and its partners to serve ads to you based on your prior visits to this website and other websites on the internet.
• Third-party vendors and ad networks may also use cookies on this site to serve and measure ads based on your visits here and elsewhere.
• You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. You can also opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalised advertising at www.aboutads.info/choices and optout.networkadvertising.org.

For more detail, see Google's page on How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

5. Affiliate links

Some outbound links on this site — for example hotel and accommodation bookings via Booking.com and similar partners — are affiliate links. If you click one and make a purchase or booking, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate partners may set their own cookies to attribute the referral. Affiliate relationships never change our editorial choices, and affiliate or sponsored placements are disclosed where they appear.

6. Analytics

For our own understanding of site traffic, we use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which is privacy-first: it does not use client-side state such as cookies or localStorage to track individual visitors, and it does not fingerprint or follow people across other sites. We see aggregate trends, not individuals.

7. Third-party content & data sources

ChennaiCentral pulls live data and openly-licensed media from external services, including Open-Meteo (weather), Wikimedia Commons (photography), OpenStreetMap (mapping), and public news RSS feeds. Embedded or linked third-party content — such as an OpenStreetMap map or a link to YouTube — may collect data about you in accordance with those providers' own privacy policies, which we do not control.

8. Newsletter & contact forms

If you submit your email through a contact or newsletter form, we use it only to respond to your message or to send the newsletter you asked for. When enabled, these forms are handled by Formspree, which processes the submission on our behalf. We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it except as needed to operate these forms.

9. Children's privacy

This website is a general-audience city guide and is not directed at children under 13 (or under 16 where applicable). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.

10. Your choices & rights

You have meaningful control over your data:

• Cookies: you can block or delete cookies at any time through your browser settings. Doing so may affect how some third-party features and ads behave.
• Personalised ads: opt out via Google Ads Settings, www.aboutads.info/choices, and optout.networkadvertising.org.
• Your submissions: you can ask us to access or delete any email or message you have sent us by reaching out through our contact page.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, partners, or the law. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Material changes take effect as of that effective date, and your continued use of the site afterwards constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact

Questions about this policy or your data? Please reach us through our contact page and we'll be glad to help. You may also want to read our Terms of Use or learn more about who we are.