Privacy

No reader accounts

You can read and play everything without signing up. There is no reader login, no comments system and no newsletter sign-up on this site, and no web form that collects your details.

No analytics or ad trackers

The site loads no analytics, advertising or social-media tracking scripts.

One cookie, for editors only

A sign-in cookie is set only when a Hyderabad Stories editor signs in to the editorial area; it lasts at most seven days. Readers receive no cookies from us (the games' local storage, below, is not a cookie and is never sent with a request).

Games keep your scores on your device

The games on /play — Pehle Kaun?, Kidhar Hai? and the Hyderabad Passport — keep your scores, streak and area stamps in your browser’s local storage, on your device only. They are never sent to us and there is no account; a Passport stamp is recorded there when you spend a few seconds on an area’s page. Clearing your browser data, or “Start over” on the Passport page, deletes them. Kidhar Hai? uses the same OpenFreeMap map as the area pages, and the endless Pehle Kaun? fetches its cards from our own server.

Maps and weather

Maps on area pages, Explore, After Dark and Kidhar Hai? load map tiles from OpenFreeMap directly in your browser, only when the map scrolls into view (in Kidhar Hai?, when the game opens) — so OpenFreeMap receives your IP address, as any website you visit does. Weather and air quality are fetched by our server from Open-Meteo; your details are not sent.

Images, videos and links out

Photographs are served from our own domain. Videos are links to YouTube, not embedded players; their preview stills are fetched by our server, so your browser does not contact YouTube until you follow a link. Credited news reports, the Google Maps links on business and company pages (“Directions”, “Find on Maps”), and links to businesses' own websites and social accounts take you to those sites only when you choose to follow them.

Fonts

The site's fonts are served from our own domain; no font service receives your requests.

Hosting, storage and logs

The site runs on Vercel; pages are generated on its servers in Singapore and delivered through its nearest edge network. Our database (Neon, Singapore) holds the published content and our editors' accounts — no reader data. Vercel keeps standard request logs — such as IP address, the page requested and any search terms in its address (for example a question typed into Ask) — for security and operation, under its own retention policy. We do not export or keep copies of those logs.

When you write to us

If you email or call us, we use what you send only to reply and to report the story or correction you raise. We do not sell or share it.

People in our stories and profiles

We publish reporting and profiles about people in Hyderabad's public and business life. If you are the subject of a profile or story and something is inaccurate, out of date or should not be public, write to us — we review every request.

If we add a feature that collects information — a form, a newsletter, analytics — this page will say so before it goes live. Last reviewed 22 October 2026. See also our terms of use.