tinkle.in is India’s first destination site targeted at teens (8-12+ years), however it is open to people of all ages. It is a unique site for engaging activities and social networking. The service is designed to be a safe introduction to the online world. Users can create trading cards, stories, play games and form clubs to participate in contests. ACK Media/Amar Chitra Katha Pvt. Ltd. owns tinkle.in and related sites www.amarchitrakatha.com.

Many of the visitors to the site are children and therefore tinkleonline.com takes special care to protect the personal information of the users. Our priority is to ensure that our users can share ideas, play games and engage in online activities within a safe and secure environment.

To help ensure a rewarding and safe online experience for the children who use tinkle.in, we provide you with this summary of our information practices:

tinkle.in provides children with a safe environment where they can explore their identity and be creative. All content sent in by users and displayed on the site is rigorously screened by moderators to ensure that no personal information about a user is inadvertently revealed. All site content is also monitored by moderators to ensure that it is appropriate for children. Messages between users are standardized to prevent undesirable interactions.

When a user signs up to join tinkle.in, we directly collect personal information from the user (first name, email address, shipping address) in order to process the registration request. We ask for this only to communicate with the user about support, security, privacy, or administrative issues. Other information we ask for — such as gender and date of birth – is used by tinkle.in for research purposes to better understand who our users are.

For some of our online activities – such as polls or surveys – we may ask users to provide additional information that is not personally identifiable, such as a visitor’s favourite colour or favourite animal. Additionally, when visitors come to our site, we automatically collect some non-personally identifiable technical information, such as the type of computer operating system (e.g., Windows or Mac), the user’s IP Address, the web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer) being used, and information regarding the Internet service provider. We may sometimes use the information collected to improve site design and content, to personalize a user’s experience and offer products, programs, and services of interest to them.

All the information that we collect about our users is stored in a secure data facility, and is only available to authorized personnel at tinkle.in.

Currently, users who avail of a tinkle.in account are allowed to create digital avatars as well as create and share digital cards and stories. Content contributed by users is only visible to other users who have a tinkle.in account. User content that is on display on the site is screened by Tinkle moderators to ensure that no personal information (real name, email address, shipping address, telephone number) is revealed to other users, ensuring a safe environment for children.

tinkle.in allows users to provide us with non-member friends’ first names and email addresses so that we can send an invitation to the non-members to join tinkle.in. If the invitation is declined, the names and email addresses are immediately deleted so no personal information is stored. The site offers social networking features

In the course of providing web-based products and services (such as web based games and applications) and in order to provide the highest quality user experience for our users, tinkle.in tracks the activity of users accessing our site. This information includes IP addresses of users, page views, unique visitors, and repeat visitors. This data does not correspond in any way with any personally identifiable information. We also use cookies, which are stored on the user’s computer, to enhance the online experience. This cookie tracks user preferences, their online/offline status and user activities and interaction while on our site. Users may choose to reject these cookies, but if they do, they may be unable to take advantage of all the tinkle.in features and services.

Occasionally, tinkle.in may run promotions or special offers that require users to provide certain information, including their name, email address and shipping address. These promotions and special offers are optional, but if the user decides to participate, the personal information provided may be shared with a third party in order to deliver awards or special offers to the user.

The financial information that you enter to purchase a membership or enable a purchase from Tinkle or our affiliated website www.amarchitrakatha.com is not stored by us, but only by our financial institution for the purpose of processing credit card payments made to us. This information is safeguarded with extremely high, bank-level security and all credit card processing is done using completely secure, above industry standard encryption to secure and encrypt your credit card transaction and other personal information.

tinkle.in has several social networking features. As such, personal information may be read by others if it’s posted in a digital card design, in blogs, in a message, a wiki, a comment or a story submitted by the user. If a parent objects to any information posted by their child, they may contact Tinkle and we will delete it.

Parents or legal guardians, may also request that tinkleonline.com remove children’s personal information at any time. They can do this by sending an email to tinkle@ack-media.com.

We take additional precautions to secure and protect the information we collect. For example, all personal information is password protected. Additionally, certain data, such as financial information, is collected via an SSL connection. However, no information collected over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If we become aware of a security breach that may affect a user’s personal information, we will immediately notify the user via the email address provided.

tinkle.in does not rent or sell personal information to any third party. We will only share the user’s personal information under the following circumstances:
To comply with a subpoena, court order, or other legal proceeding, or if otherwise requested by a legitimate law enforcement body to cooperate in their investigations.
To prevent, investigate, or to take some other action against illegal activities, potential fraud, potential physical threats to any person, violations of our terms of service, or in any other way as required by law.

To ensure functionality of the website and execution of promotions, we will provide information to affiliated companies or other businesses or persons who provide web site hosting, maintenance and security services, fulfill delivery of physical merchandise (e.g., awards), or create new site features. We require that these parties process such information in compliance with this Privacy Policy, we authorize only a limited use of such information, and we require these parties to use appropriate confidentiality measures.

If you have any questions or concerns about how tinkle.in secures personal information, contact tinkle@ack-media.com

From time to time, tinkle.in may make changes to this privacy policy. We will notify our users of any changes that may impact how we use your information by sending an email to the email address of each user or by placing a prominent notice on our site.