At The Pixel Masala, we understand that the photographs and information you share with us can be personal. We are committed to handling your information responsibly, transparently and with appropriate care.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how it may be used and shared, how long it may be retained, and the choices available to you regarding your personal information.

By using The Pixel Masala website, creating an account, uploading a photograph, placing an order or contacting us, you acknowledge the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

Information We Collect

Depending on how you use our website and services, we may collect:

• Your name
• Email address
• Mobile number
• Billing and delivery address
  Account and login
• information
• Photographs and images
• uploaded by you
• Instructions or stories provided with an artwork order
• Artwork, frame and size selections
• Shopping-cart and order information
• Payment and transaction-related information
• Referral information, where applicable
• Customer-support messages and enquiries
• Feedback you provide to us
• Device and browser information
• IP address
• Website usage information
• Cookies and similar technology data

We aim to collect only information reasonably required to operate our website, provide our services and fulfil customer orders.

How We Use Your Information

We may use your information to:

• Create and manage your customer account
• Receive and process your artwork order
• Create personalised artwork from your
• uploaded photograph
  Follow the instructions associated with your order
• Process and confirm transactions
• Arrange production, printing and framing
• Arrange packaging and delivery
• Provide order updates
• Respond to enquiries and support requests
• Manage referrals or rewards, where applicable
• Maintain appropriate transaction and business records
• Detect and prevent fraud, misuse or security incidents
  Maintain and improve our website
• Understand website performance and usage
  Comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements
• Send marketing communications where permitted

How We Handle Uploaded Photographs

Photographs uploaded to The Pixel Masala are used as part of providing the personalised artwork service you request.

Access to uploaded photographs should be limited to people and service providers who reasonably require access to perform the relevant service.

Your photograph may need to pass through different stages of the fulfilment process, such as artwork creation, production, printing or framing.

Uploading a photograph for an order does not automatically give The Pixel Masala permission to publicly use that photograph for marketing or promotional purposes.

4. Photographs And Artwork In Our Marketing

We will not intentionally publish your original photograph or personalised artwork in our:

• Website gallery
  Social-media content
  Advertising
• Email marketing
• Printed promotional material
• Portfolio
• Other public-facing promotional material
  without appropriate permission where required.
• If we would like to feature your photograph or completed artwork, we may contact you separately for permission.
• Choosing not to provide such permission will not prevent you from placing an order with The Pixel Masala.

Information You Include With Your Artwork

• You may choose to provide personal instructions or explain the story behind a photograph.
  For example, you may tell us that an image is connected with a birthday, wedding, anniversary, Mother's Day, Father's Day, a family memory, a favourite pet or someone important to you.
• Please provide only information relevant to creating your artwork.
• We recommend that you do not include unnecessary sensitive or confidential information such as passwords, banking credentials, government identification numbers or medical information in artwork instructions.

Payment Information

Payments may be processed through a third-party payment service provider.

The payment provider may collect and process information required to complete your transaction under its own privacy and security practices.

The Pixel Masala may receive information necessary to:

• Confirm that payment has been made Associate payment with your order
• Maintain transaction records
• Process an applicable refund
• Investigate payment-related issues

Information We Share With Service Providers

We may use third-party service providers to help operate The Pixel Masala and fulfil customer orders.

Depending on the service being provided, these may include companies involved in:

• Website hosting
• Cloud storage
• Website maintenance
• Payment processing
• Artwork production
• Printing
• Framing
• Packaging
• Courier and delivery
• Email or customer communications
• Analytics
• Accounting
• Security
• Customer support

We aim to provide each service provider only with information reasonably required to perform its function.

For example, a courier provider may require your name, telephone number and delivery address, while an artwork-production provider may require access to the photograph associated with your order.

Legal Disclosure

We may disclose information where reasonably necessary to:

• Comply with applicable law
  Respond to a valid legal or regulatory requirement
• Protect our customers or business
• Investigate suspected fraud or unlawful activity
• Address security incidents
  Establish or defend legal rights

Cookies And Similar Technologies

The Pixel Masala website may use cookies and similar technologies to:

• Operate essential website functions
• Maintain login sessions
• Remember customer selections
• Maintain shopping carts
• Understand website usage
• Improve performance
• Diagnose website problems
• Measure advertising or marketing performance, where applicable
• Where required, appropriate choices will be provided for non-essential cookies.
• The final cookie information should reflect the actual services installed on the website.

Marketing Communications

Where permitted, we may send information about:

• New artwork styles
• New collections
• Special occasions
• Offers
• Mother's Day
• Father's Day
• Birthdays
• Anniversaries
• Festivals
• Other The Pixel Masala news
• Where required, marketing communications will be sent on the basis of appropriate permission or consent.

You can unsubscribe from promotional communications using the option provided in those communications.

Unsubscribing from marketing does not prevent us from sending essential communications relating to an existing order, payment, delivery, security issue or customer-support request.

Data Retention

We intend to keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected or where retention is required for legitimate business, accounting, dispute-resolution or legal purposes.

Different categories of information may have different retention periods, including:

• Customer accounts
• Orders
• Transaction records
• Uploaded photographs
• Completed artwork files
• Customer communications
• Delivery records
• Referral records

Backups

Information removed from an active system may remain temporarily within protected system backups until those backups are overwritten or removed according to the applicable backup schedule.

Access to backup information should be restricted appropriately.

Security

We take reasonable administrative, organisational and technical measures designed to protect customer information against:

• Unauthorised access
• Loss
• Misuse
• Unauthorised disclosure
• Unauthorised alteration
• Accidental destruction

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

Customers are also responsible for keeping account passwords and login details confidential.

Your Privacy Choices And Rights

Subject to applicable law and the circumstances of your request, you may contact us regarding:

• Access to information about your personal data
• Correction of inaccurate information
• Updating incomplete information
• Erasure or deletion of applicable information
• Withdrawal of consent where processing is based on consent
• Marketing preferences
• A privacy concern
• A grievance regarding the handling of personal information
• We may need to verify your identity before processing certain requests in order to protect your information from unauthorised access or deletion.

Withdrawal Of Consent

Where particular processing depends on your consent, you may request to withdraw that consent.

Withdrawal may affect our ability to continue providing a service where the relevant information is necessary to perform that service.

For example, if an uploaded photograph is deleted while personalised artwork is still being created, we may be unable to complete the order.

Customer Accounts

Where account functionality is available, you may request closure of your account.

Some transaction or order-related information may still need to be retained where reasonably necessary for applicable legal, accounting, fraud-prevention or record-keeping purposes.

Children's Personal Information

The Pixel Masala website and checkout service are not intended to encourage children to independently provide personal information or enter into transactions where they are not legally permitted to do so.

A customer may submit an appropriate family photograph containing a child as part of a personalised artwork order.

Questions concerning the suitability of photographs submitted for artwork are governed by our Terms of Service.

Third-Party Websites

Our website may contain links to external websites or services.

Third-party websites operate under their own privacy practices and policies. The Pixel Masala is not responsible for the privacy practices of services that we do not control.

Processing Outside India

Some hosting, technology, communication or other service providers may operate infrastructure outside India.

Where personal information is processed through such services, we intend to manage those arrangements in accordance with applicable requirements.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when our services, technologies, providers, business practices or applicable requirements change.

The latest version will be published on this page with its updated date.

Contact Us

For questions, privacy requests or concerns regarding personal information, please contact:

• Privacy / Support Email: hello@thepixelmasala.com