1. Your Right to Erasure (DPDP Act 2023)
Under Section 12(1) of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act), you have the right to request the erasure of your personal data that is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected or processed. CrestSow provides a dedicated, direct channel for data principals to request the deletion or anonymization of their eligible personal information.
2. Eligible Data Categories for Immediate Deletion
Upon receiving a verified deletion request, CrestSow will permanently delete or anonymize:
- LMS student account profile, password hashes, and personal avatar/profile photos.
- Student study notes, bookmarks, flashcard sets, and scratchpad records.
- General contact form inquiries, support tickets, and communication logs.
- Device access request logs, temporary login tokens, and active session histories.
3. Legal & Operational Retention Exceptions
In compliance with the DPDP Act 2023, certain categories of records must be retained and cannot be erased upon request:
- Official Issued Certificates & Verification Registry: Issued certificates and their cryptographic QR verification hashes (e.g.
CS-INT-XXXX) are retained permanently on our central credential register at crestsow.com/verify. Permanently deleting a valid certificate record would invalidate the credential and prevent hiring managers, university registrars, and recruiters from verifying the student's genuine academic achievements. - Tax & Financial Transaction Records: Invoices, payment transaction IDs, and order logs processed via Razorpay must be retained for seven (7) years under Section 44AA of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1961, and Indian corporate statutory compliance rules.
- Security & Anti-Fraud Audit Trails: Logs documenting proctoring violations, examination misconduct, or unauthorized intrusion attempts are retained as necessary to prevent platform abuse and comply with legal processes.
4. How to Submit a Data Deletion Request
To ensure that account deletion requests are genuine and prevent unauthorized deletion of another person's educational history, please follow our standard verification protocol:
Send an email directly from the email address registered with your CrestSow account to:
founder@crestsow.com
Use the exact subject line: [Data Deletion Request] - Your Full Name
Include your Full Legal Name, Registered College/University, and specify whether you are requesting total LMS account closure or deletion of specific non-certificate records.
5. Response & Processing Timeline
Our privacy desk will acknowledge your request within forty-eight (48) hours and confirm identity verification.
Eligible records will be purged, sanitized, and anonymized from active databases within thirty (30) days as mandated by DPDP Act standards.