Privacy Policy

Kirtans.com is an independent directory and learning resource for the Kirtan and Bhakti community. We collect as little personal information as we can, and this page explains — in plain language — what we do collect, why, and who processes it on our behalf.

What we collect and why

Analytics (Google Analytics)

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the site — which pages are read, roughly where visitors come from, and what devices they use. Google Analytics sets cookies and processes usage data (including a truncated form of your IP address) on Google's servers.

• If you are visiting from the EU, EEA, or UK (or we can't tell where you're visiting from), analytics stays off until you accept the cookie banner. If you decline, analytics never loads and no analytics cookies are set.
• Your accept/decline choice is stored in your browser's local storage so we don't ask again on every visit.
• You can learn more in Google's Privacy Policy.

Advertising & remarketing (Google Signals)

We use Google Analytics' advertising features — Google Signals — to run remarketing campaigns through Google Ads. In practice this means that if you have consented (where consent is required) and are signed in to a Google account with Ads Personalization enabled, Google may use cookies and your Google account data to include you in an advertising audience, so you might later see Kirtans.com ads on Google services and partner sites. Google also provides us aggregated demographic and interest reports; we never see data about you individually.

We honor Google Consent Mode v2: for visitors in the EU, EEA, or UK (or when we can't tell where you're visiting from), all advertising signals — ad_storage, ad_user_data, and ad_personalization — plus analytics_storage default to denied and are only granted after you accept the cookie banner.

How to opt out:

• Decline the cookie banner (EU/EEA/UK) — neither analytics nor advertising cookies are ever set, and Google's scripts never load.
• Turn off personalized ads in your Google account at Google Ads Settings.
• Install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

Newsletter (Mailchimp)

If you sign up for our newsletter, the email address you submit is sent to and stored by Mailchimp (Intuit Inc.), the service we use to send it. Mailchimp processes your email address solely so we can deliver the newsletter. Every newsletter includes an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing removes you from the list. See Mailchimp's privacy statement for details.

Contact and submission forms

When you use our contact form, share an event, or request an artist listing, we store what you submit (including your name and email address if provided) in our database so we can review it and reply. Two services help us run these forms:

• Cloudflare Turnstile checks that submissions come from a human, not a bot. It may process technical information about your browser to do so.
• Resend delivers the notification email that tells us a submission arrived, and any email we send you in reply.

Embedded YouTube videos

Chant-along videos are embedded using YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com), which is designed not to set tracking cookies until you press play. Once you play a video, YouTube (Google) may process data as described in its own privacy policy.

Payments (planned — Stripe)

We may in the future offer paid features or accept payments. If we do, payments will be processed by Stripe. Kirtans.com will never see or store your full card details — they go directly to Stripe. We will update this policy before any payment feature launches. See Stripe's Privacy Policy.

What we don't do

• We don't sell or rent your personal information to anyone.
• We don't show third-party ads on Kirtans.com. The only advertising-related processing is the Google remarketing described above — used to promote Kirtans.com itself, and only with your consent where consent is required.
• We don't require an account to browse — the whole site is open.

How long we keep data

Form submissions are kept for as long as needed to review and act on them. Newsletter addresses are kept until you unsubscribe. Analytics data is retained according to our Google Analytics settings and Google's retention policies.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR or UK GDPR), you may have the right to access, correct, or delete personal information we hold about you, to object to or restrict its processing, and to withdraw consent at any time. To exercise any of these rights, email us at connect@kirtans.com and we'll respond as quickly as we can.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle personal information — for example when payments launch — we'll update this page and the "last updated" date above.

Contact

Questions about privacy on Kirtans.com? Email connect@kirtans.com or use the contact form.