Privacy policy

Last updated: 29 September 2026.

HIMWATS runs this website. This policy explains what we collect and what we do with it. It is deliberately short, because we collect very little.

What we collect

When you write to us. The contact form asks for your name, email address, an optional phone number, and your message. We use these only to reply to you.

When you donate. If you donate by bank transfer, cheque or demand draft, our bank records the transaction in the ordinary way. If you give us an email address we use it to send a receipt. Donors who ask to be acknowledged are listed on our donors page by name and title only — never with an amount, an address or contact details.

When you visit. We count visits using Google Analytics, so that we can tell whether people are finding the site and which pages are read. To do this it sets two small cookies on your device (named _ga and _ga_…), which last for up to two years. They belong to this website only: they let Google Analytics tell a returning visitor from a new one, but they do not follow you to other websites, and we have switched off Google’s advertising features — nothing from your visit is used to show you ads.

What that lets us see is how many pages were read, whether people come back, roughly which part of the world they were read from, and which site or search brought someone here. What it does not let us do is work out who you are. Google Analytics does not keep your IP address; it works out an approximate location and discards the address.

If your browser sends a Do Not Track signal, we do not count your visit at all and no cookie is set. You can also delete these cookies, or block them, in your browser’s settings; the site works the same without them.

Our hosting provider also keeps ordinary server logs, which include IP addresses, for security purposes.

What we do not do

We do not sell, rent or share your information with anyone else for their own purposes. We do not send marketing email to people who have not asked for it.

Third parties

Videos on this site are hosted on YouTube. They are not loaded until you press play — until then, no request is made to YouTube and no cookie is set. Once you press play, YouTube’s own privacy policy applies to that playback.

Visit counting is done by Google Analytics, as described above, and donations are handled by our payment gateway, which is a separate company with its own terms. We never see or store your card, UPI or bank details.

How long we keep things

Enquiries are kept while they are useful and then deleted. Donation records are kept for as long as Indian law requires them to be kept for accounting and tax purposes.

Asking us to remove your information

Write to himwats.office@gmail.com and ask. We will remove what we can, and tell you plainly if something has to be kept for legal reasons — donation records, for instance.

Who to contact