Privacy policy and cookies
What we hold about you, why we hold it, and exactly what happens when you ask for it back or ask us to delete it. Written against the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023.
- Updated
- Sections
- 9
Vortex Autonomous Systems is the Data Fiduciary for the personal data described here, which in DPDP terms means we decide why and how it is processed. You are the Data Principal.
Requests and questions go to store@vortexsystem.org, or through the contact page, which also names the grievance officer.
Only what an order actually needs. There is no tracking pixel on this site, no advertising network, and no third-party analytics script.
| Data | Why | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Phone number | Sign-in, and the courier needs it for delivery | Contract |
| Name, email | Order confirmation, invoice, support | Contract |
| Delivery and billing address | Shipping, and place of supply for GST | Contract / legal |
| GSTIN, legal name | Only if you give them, to put on your invoice | Consent |
| Order and payment history | Fulfilment, returns, and tax records | Contract / legal |
| Saved builds | So the Build Studio can reopen your work | Contract |
| Marketing consent | Only if you tick it, and only until you untick it | Consent |
We never hold your card details
Card numbers go straight from your browser to our PCI-DSS compliant payment gateway. We receive a reference and a status. There is no card number in our database to lose.
Different records have genuinely different lifetimes, and the long one is not our choice.
- Invoices and tax records
- 8 years
- Abandoned carts
- 30 days
- Sign-in codes and sessions
- 24 hours
- Saved builds on a closed account
- Deleted with the account
Eight years comes from section 36 of the CGST Act, which requires six from the due date of the annual return; eight is the practical figure once assessment timelines are accounted for. Section 8(7) of the DPDP Act expressly allows retention where another law requires it, and this is that case.
The DPDP Act gives you the right to access your data, correct it, have it erased, and nominate someone to exercise those rights if you cannot. Ask through the contact page and we respond within 30 days.
If you ask for a copy
You get a machine-readable file containing your profile, addresses, orders, returns and saved builds. It also lists anything withheld and why, so you can see that the answer is complete rather than having to take our word for it.
If you ask for erasure
This is the part most policies are vague about, so here is precisely what happens.
- Your name, email, phone, GSTIN, PAN, company name and any operator notes are removed from your customer record.
- Your name, contact details and address are removed from your past orders, and from the shipment notes, payment records, refund reasons, return comments and order history attached to them.
- Sessions, sign-in codes and saved builds are deleted outright.
- The audit trail of staff actions on your account is redacted too, so erasure does not leave a copy of you inside the record of erasing you.
What survives erasure, and why
The invoice itself is kept: its number, date, amounts and tax. It is a statutory record and we are not permitted to destroy it for eight years. What is kept is the transaction, not the person: after erasure the invoice shows an amount and a tax split, with no name, address or contact detail attached to it.
Erasure is irreversible and it is not reversible by us either. It cannot be undone, and it will not be repeated on a record that has already been erased. If you order again afterwards, that is a new account.
Sign-in is a one-time code to your phone, 6 digits, valid for 5 minutes, with a limit of 5 attempts before the code is burned. There is no password to leak or reuse.
- Everything is served over TLS. There is no unencrypted route in.
- Staff access to customer records is role-based and every change is written to an audit log with the person who made it.
- Staff accounts holding elevated permissions require a second factor.
- Errors reported to our monitoring are scrubbed of phone numbers, email addresses, GSTINs, PANs and tokens before they leave the server.
If a breach occurs that is likely to affect you, we will notify you and the Data Protection Board as the Act requires.
This store is not intended for anyone under 18, and the DPDP Act requires verifiable parental consent for a child’s data. We do not knowingly collect it. If you believe a child has given us data, tell us and we will erase it.
Material changes are notified by email to account holders before they take effect. The date at the top of this page is the last change.
Read alongside the terms of sale. To exercise any right described here, write to store@vortexsystem.org.
