Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

The Design Habitat ("TDH", "we", "us") provides design entrance coaching and related programmes from our centres in Pune (6120/6130, 6th Floor, Marvel Fuego, Above Nexa Showroom, Opposite Seasons Mall, Hadapsar, Pune 411028) and Nashik (4th Floor, DWEEP The Commercial, Thatte Nagar, College Road, Nashik 422005), and online. This policy explains how we handle personal data collected through thedesignhabitat.com, our enquiry and lead forms (including forms on Facebook, Instagram and Google), WhatsApp, phone calls and our centres.

2. What we collect

• Contact details: name, mobile number, email address and city.
• Enquiry details: whether you are a student or parent, current class, the exams or programmes you are interested in, whether you have registered for an exam, when you want to start, and any message you send us.
• Student work you choose to share, for example portfolio pieces sent for review on WhatsApp.
• Campaign and usage data: the ad or link that brought you to us (such as UTM parameters, Google click ID or Facebook click ID), pages visited, and basic device and browser information collected through cookies and similar technologies (see section 6).

3. Why we use it

• To respond to your enquiry, including calling or messaging you on WhatsApp about the programme you asked about, its fee and batch timings.
• To arrange counselling, demo classes, admissions and, if you enrol, to deliver our programmes.
• To review student work you send us and give feedback.
• To measure and improve our advertising and website, for example to know which ads lead to useful enquiries.
• To meet legal, accounting and record-keeping obligations.

4. Consent

We process your personal data on the basis of the consent you give when you submit a form, message us or call us, and for the legitimate uses permitted under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. You can withdraw your consent at any time by writing to the contact in section 10; we will then stop contacting you, except where we must keep certain records by law. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.

5. Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with service providers who help us run TDH, under their own privacy and security terms:

• Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp): advertising, lead forms and messaging.
• Google (Google Ads, Google Workspace including Sheets and Gmail): advertising, lead forms and storing enquiries for our counsellors.
• Website and form providers (our hosting provider and the form service that delivers enquiries to our email).

We may also disclose data where the law requires it. Some providers may process data outside India.

6. Cookies, pixels and ads

Our campaign pages may use the Meta Pixel and Google tags. These record visits and actions such as submitting a form or tapping a WhatsApp button, so we can measure our ads and show relevant ads to people who visited our site. You can control ad personalisation in your Facebook, Instagram and Google account settings, and block or delete cookies in your browser settings.

7. Students under 18

Many of our students are under 18. If you are under 18, please share your details with the knowledge of a parent or guardian. We speak with a parent or guardian before any enrolment, and a parent or guardian can ask us at any time to access, correct or delete a child's data. We do not use the personal data of children for targeted advertising or behavioural tracking.

8. How long we keep it

We keep enquiry data for up to 24 months after our last contact with you, unless you ask us to delete it sooner. If you enrol, we keep student records for as long as needed to provide the programme and to meet legal and accounting requirements. After that we delete or anonymise the data.

9. Your rights

You can ask us for a summary of the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct, update or erase it, withdraw your consent, nominate someone to exercise your rights if you are unable to, and raise a grievance with us. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may approach the Data Protection Board of India.

10. Contact and grievances

For any request or complaint about your personal data, email info@thedesignhabitat.com with the subject "Privacy request", or call +91 78880 33033 (Pune) or +91 77680 33033 (Nashik). We aim to respond within 30 days.

11. Security and changes

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, and limit access to the staff who need it. We may update this policy from time to time; the date at the top shows the latest version.