Privacy Policy

This portfolio website at https://www.ashifek.in is operated by Ashif E.K, a Full-Stack Engineer based in Kerala, India. This Privacy Policy describes what information is collected when you visit this portfolio, how it is used, and your rights with respect to that information.

This is a personal portfolio website, not a commercial product. There are no user accounts, no purchases, no subscriptions, and no advertising.

1. Analytics — Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics (GA4) to understand how visitors interact with the portfolio. Google Analytics collects anonymised data including:

• Pages visited and time spent on each page
• Referring website or search engine
• Country and city (derived from IP address, not stored precisely)
• Device type, browser, and operating system

This data is processed by Google LLC and governed by Google's Privacy Policy. No personally identifiable information is transmitted to Google Analytics.

2. Visitor Counter

The portfolio tracks an aggregate visitor session count stored in a Neon PostgreSQL database hosted on secure cloud infrastructure. This counter records only a total count of unique sessions; it does not store IP addresses, usernames, or any personally identifiable information.

3. Contact Form

The correspondence form on this portfolio collects your name, email address, and message. This information is:

• Stored in a private, server-side database to allow me to respond to inquiries
• Never shared with third parties
• Accessible only to me via a password-protected admin interface
• Retained only as long as reasonably necessary to manage correspondence

You may request deletion of your submitted message at any time by emailing ashifek11@gmail.com.

4. Portfolio Assistant (Chatbot)

The portfolio includes an AI-powered assistant that answers questions about my work and experience. Messages you send to this assistant are:

• Sent securely to Google Gemini API for processing (server-side only — your messages never expose your identity to the API)
• Not permanently stored on this server
• Subject to Google's Privacy Policy with regard to API processing

Conversations are limited to a maximum of 10 messages and 500 characters per message to protect against abuse.

5. Images — Cloudinary

Portfolio images are served via Cloudinary, a media management platform. When you view images on this site, your browser makes requests to Cloudinary's CDN servers. Cloudinary may log standard access information (IP address, timestamp, browser). See Cloudinary's Privacy Policy for details.

6. Cookies & Local Storage

This portfolio uses a minimal number of cookies and browser storage mechanisms:

• Theme preference — your light/dark mode choice is saved in local storage to persist across visits
• Admin session cookie — an HTTP-only, secure session cookie is used only when the admin interface is accessed (not relevant to regular visitors)
• Google Analytics cookies — GA4 sets cookies to distinguish sessions and measure engagement (e.g., _ga, _ga_*)

No tracking cookies for advertising or profiling are used.

7. Third-Party Services

The following third-party services are used by this portfolio:

8. Your Rights

You may contact me at ashifek11@gmail.com to:

• Request deletion of any contact form submission you made
• Ask questions about data handling on this portfolio

9. Changes to This Policy

This Privacy Policy may be updated occasionally to reflect changes in the portfolio's functionality or applicable regulations. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will always reflect the most recent revision.

10. Contact

For any privacy-related questions, contact Ashif E.K at ashifek11@gmail.com.