Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Bharat Council of Skill Development (“BCSD”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal information when you use our website, Progressive Web App (PWA), and related learning services (together, the “Platform”).

BCSD is an Indian skill-development and certification platform. Learners can browse and purchase courses, watch lessons, take practice and certification tests, save notes, ask questions, leave reviews, download certificates, and receive notifications. Instructors can create courses, complete identity verification (KYC), and receive payouts. The Platform is available in English, Hindi, Gujarati, and Marathi.

The data fiduciary for personal information processed on the Platform is Bharat Council of Skill Development (BCSD), India. BCSD Business at business.bcsd.co.in is a related offering for organisations and may be governed by additional notices.

For privacy requests, write to privacy@bcsd.co.in. For general support, write to support@bcsd.co.in.

This policy applies to:

• The BCSD website and any subdomain we operate for learning, checkout, instructor tools, and account management
• The BCSD installable PWA (home-screen app) on phones, tablets, and desktops
• Student features: accounts, cart, checkout, My Learning, tests, notes, Q&A, reviews, favourites, purchase history, and certificates
• Instructor features: onboarding, course creation, curriculum and media library, KYC, earnings, and student communication
• Communications we send, including email, SMS/OTP, in-app alerts, and optional push notifications

It does not apply to third-party websites we link to (for example, an instructor’s external profile) or to payment pages operated by Razorpay, Google, or Meta, which have their own policies.

Account and profile

When you sign up or log in we collect your name, email address, password (stored in hashed form), optional mobile number, profile photo, language preference, and marketing-offer preference. You may also sign in with Google or Facebook; those providers share the name, email, and profile image you allow them to share.

Addresses and checkout

For billing and GST invoices you may save a current and billing address (house/street, area, PIN code, city, and state). PIN lookup may be used to auto-fill locality details so checkout is faster.

Learning activity

• Courses you view, add to cart or favourites, purchase, and complete
• Video playback progress, lesson notes, and curriculum position
• Practice and certification test attempts, answers, scores, time spent, and results
• Questions, answers, and course reviews you post
• Certificates and other documents issued to you

Payments

Course prices, GST, coupons, and order totals are processed on BCSD. Card, UPI, net-banking, and wallet details are collected by Razorpay, our payment partner — we receive payment status, Razorpay order/payment IDs, and a signature to confirm the transaction. We do not store full card numbers on BCSD servers.

Instructor verification and payouts

If you apply to teach, we collect a teaching-sample video, residential and current address, bank account details (holder name, bank, branch, account type, account number, IFSC), and identity documents such as PAN and Aadhaar (number and uploaded file), plus any supporting images our KYC form requests. These are used only to verify instructors and to pay course revenue.

Device, app, and security data

• Browser type, operating system, and a device identifier stored on your device
• IP address, approximate network location, and logs needed to keep accounts secure
• Optional precise location (latitude/longitude and city/region/country) if you allow the browser permission — used as device context during sign-in and cached for the session
• Notification preferences (in-app, push, sound) and delivery status
• PWA install state and service-worker cache needed to run the app offline

Information stored on your device

The Platform stores session tokens, language (bcsd_locale), colour theme (bcsd-color-mode), learning progress, test drafts, and similar preferences in cookies, localStorage, or sessionStorage. See our Cookie Policy for the full list.

We use personal information to:

• Create and secure your account, send OTPs, and keep you signed in across the website and PWA
• Show courses, process cart and checkout, apply GST, and confirm Razorpay payments
• Deliver lessons, save progress and notes, run tests, and issue certificates
• Enable Q&A, reviews, instructor messages, and notifications you choose to receive
• Verify instructors, review teaching samples, and pay earnings to the nominated bank account
• Personalise language, theme, and course recommendations, and send optional offers if you opt in
• Detect fraud, abuse, sharing of course access, and payment anomalies
• Meet legal duties under Indian tax, KYC, consumer-protection, and data-protection laws
• Improve the Platform, including video playback quality and search

We process personal data in line with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) and other applicable Indian law, typically because:

• You have given consent (for example, marketing emails, optional mobile number, location permission, push notifications, or social sign-in)
• The processing is needed to provide the service you requested (account, course access, tests, certificates, instructor payouts)
• The processing is required by law (GST invoicing, tax records, KYC for payouts where applicable)
• The processing is needed for legitimate uses such as security, fraud prevention, and product improvement, in a way that does not override your rights

You may withdraw consent for optional processing at any time from profile, notification settings, or browser/app permissions. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing already completed, or processing we must continue for a contract or legal duty.

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only as needed to run BCSD:

• Razorpay — to create orders, collect payment, and confirm success or failure
• Google and Meta (Facebook) — if you choose those sign-in buttons
• Cloud hosting, email/SMS, storage, and content-delivery providers who process data on our instructions
• Map/geocoding services (currently BigDataCloud) when you allow location, to turn coordinates into city/region/country
• Instructors — limited student information needed to teach (for example, first name on Q&A, reviews, or enrolment lists). Instructors do not receive your full payment card data
• BCSD staff who review KYC, teaching videos, support tickets, and abuse reports
• Regulators, courts, or law-enforcement when required by Indian law
• A successor organisation if BCSD is involved in a merger, acquisition, or restructuring, under the same privacy commitments

We use essential cookies and on-device storage so the Platform can remember your language, theme, login session, cart-related state, and learning progress. The PWA may cache pages, images, and scripts so the app loads faster and works with a poor connection.

Third parties such as Google, Facebook, and Razorpay may set their own cookies when you use those features. Details are in the Cookie Policy.

• Account and profile data — while your account is active, and for a reasonable period after closure to complete refunds, resolve disputes, or meet legal duties
• Purchase, GST, and payout records — as required under Indian tax and accounting rules (typically several years)
• Learning progress, tests, notes, Q&A, reviews, and certificates — while you use the service, and as needed to show your history
• Instructor KYC and bank details — while you are an instructor and for the period required for payouts, audit, and law
• Security logs and device identifiers — for a limited period needed to investigate abuse
• On-device drafts and session location — until you clear site data or the session ends

When information is no longer needed, we delete or irreversibly anonymise it, unless a longer period is required by law.

Subject to the DPDP Act and other applicable law, you may:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Correct inaccurate or incomplete profile, address, or instructor details from your account screens
• Request erasure of information that we no longer need for a contract or legal duty
• Withdraw consent for marketing, optional phone number, location, or push notifications
• Nominate another person to exercise rights on your behalf, where the law allows
• Raise a grievance with our Grievance Officer at privacy@bcsd.co.in

Some course records (for example, certificates already issued, GST invoices, or completed tests used to award a credential) may need to be retained even after a general deletion request. We will explain what we can and cannot delete.

BCSD offers board-prep and skill courses that may be used by students in Classes 10, 11 and 12. Under the DPDP Act, a person under 18 years is a child. If you are under 18, you may use BCSD only with a parent or legal guardian’s consent. The parent or guardian should create or supervise the account, and may contact us to review or delete the child’s information.

We do not knowingly use children’s data for targeted advertising. Instructor KYC, bank payouts, and independent contracts are for adults (18+).

Teaching-sample videos, PAN, Aadhaar, address, and bank details are used only for instructor verification, fraud prevention, and payouts. They are reviewed by authorised BCSD staff and stored with restricted access. We do not publish your Aadhaar or full bank account number on the public course pages.

Your public instructor identity (name, photo, bio, and courses) is visible to learners as part of the catalogue. Earnings dashboards and student lists are visible only to you and to BCSD staff who support the Platform.

We use HTTPS, hashed passwords, access-controlled APIs, signed Razorpay callbacks, and role-based staff access. Course video may be delivered through protected players. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure; please use a strong password and do not share OTPs or login links.

BCSD is operated for users in India. Some subprocessors (for example cloud, email, social login, or geocoding) may process data on servers outside India. Where that happens, we take steps required by applicable law so that your information remains protected.

We may update this Privacy Policy when we add features or when the law changes. The “Last updated” date at the top will change. Material updates may also be notified in the app, by email, or on the website. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised policy, to the extent permitted by law.

Grievance Officer, Bharat Council of Skill Development (BCSD), India.

• Privacy and data-principal requests: privacy@bcsd.co.in
• Account, courses, payments, and certificates: support@bcsd.co.in
• Website: bcsd.co.in
• BCSD Business: business.bcsd.co.in

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may also approach the Data Protection Board of India or other competent authority under applicable law.