1. Overview
This Privacy Policy describes how SheetGauge.com ("we", "us", "our", "the Site") collects, uses, stores, shares and protects information when you visit sheetgauge.com and its subdomains (collectively, "the Website").
By using our Website, you agree to the practices described in this Policy. If you do not agree with any part of this Policy, please discontinue use of the Website.
This Policy applies to all visitors, users and others who access the Website, whether from India, the European Union, the United Kingdom, or any other country. It is compliant with the Information Technology Act 2000, the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act 2023 (India), and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) where applicable to EU/UK users.
2. Who We Are
SheetGauge.com is an independent website providing free sheet metal weight calculators, gauge conversion charts, material reference guides and fabrication information for engineers, fabricators and procurement professionals — primarily serving the Indian market.
The Website is operated as an independent web property. For data protection purposes, the Website operator acts as the Data Controller in respect of personal data collected through this Website.
3. Data We Collect
We collect two categories of data: automatically collected data (when you visit the Website) and voluntarily provided data (when you contact us).
3.1 Automatically Collected Data
| Data Type | What Is Collected | Why | Personal? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Log Data | IP address (anonymised), browser type, OS, referring URL, pages visited, time/date, session duration | Security monitoring, error diagnosis | Pseudonymous |
| Analytics Data | Page views, bounce rate, traffic source, device type, screen resolution, geographic region (country/city level) | Understanding how visitors use the site to improve content | Anonymised |
| Ad Data | Cookies set by Google AdSense for ad personalisation, frequency capping and fraud prevention | Serving relevant advertisements to fund the free service | May be personal (Google) |
| Calculator Inputs | None — all calculator computations run locally in your browser using JavaScript. No inputs are transmitted to or stored on our servers. | N/A | No |
| Search Console Data | Aggregate query data in Google Search Console (no individual user data) | SEO performance monitoring | No |
3.2 Voluntarily Provided Data
If you contact us via a contact form, email or social media, you may provide:
- Name — to address your enquiry
- Email address — to respond to your message
- Message content — the subject of your enquiry
- Company/organisation (optional) — for context
We do not collect payment information, government ID numbers, sensitive personal data (health, biometric, financial records) or any special category data as defined under GDPR or the India DPDP Act 2023.
3.3 Data We Do NOT Collect
- We do not require account registration or store user profiles
- We do not collect or store calculator inputs entered on any page
- We do not collect Aadhaar, PAN, passport or any government ID
- We do not collect financial or payment information
- We do not build individual user profiles from analytics data
4. How We Use Your Data
| Purpose | Data Used | Legal Basis (GDPR) | Legal Basis (DPDP India) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivering the Website and calculators | Log data, session data | Legitimate interests | Legitimate use |
| Analytics — improving content and user experience | Anonymised analytics data | Legitimate interests | Legitimate use |
| Serving advertisements (Google AdSense) | Cookies, ad identifiers | Consent (cookie banner) | Consent |
| Responding to contact form enquiries | Name, email, message | Contract / Legitimate interests | Consent / Legitimate use |
| Security monitoring and fraud prevention | IP address (anonymised), log data | Legitimate interests | Legitimate use |
| Compliance with legal obligations | Any data if required by law | Legal obligation | Legal obligation |
We do not use your data for automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or significant effects on you. We do not sell, rent or trade personal data to third parties for their own marketing purposes.
5. Legal Basis for Processing
Where the GDPR applies (EU/UK visitors), we rely on the following legal bases for processing personal data:
- Consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR): For non-essential cookies and personalised advertising — you can withdraw consent at any time via the cookie settings link in our website footer.
- Legitimate Interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR): For website operation, security monitoring and aggregate analytics — we have assessed that these interests are not overridden by your data protection rights.
- Legal Obligation (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR): Where we are required to process data to comply with applicable law.
Under the India Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act 2023, we process personal data on the basis of consent (for advertising cookies) and legitimate use (for website operation and security). As a Data Fiduciary under the DPDP Act, we provide a clear and accessible privacy notice and honour all data principal rights as described in Section 10 below.
6. Cookies & Tracking Technologies
We use cookies and similar technologies (local storage, pixels) to operate the Website and serve advertising. A cookie is a small text file stored on your device by your browser when you visit a website.
6.1 Types of Cookies We Use
6.2 Managing Cookies
You can control cookies through:
- Our cookie consent banner — shown on your first visit. You can accept or decline non-essential cookies.
- Browser settings — all major browsers allow you to block, delete or restrict cookies. Note: blocking essential cookies may affect Website functionality.
- Google Ad Settings — opt out of personalised Google advertising at adssettings.google.com
- Google Analytics opt-out — install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on
- NAI opt-out — Network Advertising Initiative opt-out at optout.networkadvertising.org
7. Third-Party Services & Data Sharing
We use the following third-party services that may collect data from Website visitors. Each has its own Privacy Policy governing their data use:
| Service | Provider | Purpose | Data Transferred | Privacy Policy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics | Google LLC (USA) | Website analytics | Anonymised usage data, device info | policies.google.com |
| Google AdSense | Google LLC (USA) | Display advertising | IP address, cookies, ad interactions | policies.google.com |
| Google Search Console | Google LLC (USA) | SEO monitoring | Aggregate search query data only | policies.google.com |
| Font Awesome CDN | Fonticons, Inc. (USA) | Icon fonts | IP address (CDN request log) | fontawesome.com/privacy |
| Hosting Provider | Varies | Web hosting & CDN | Server log data (IP, request headers) | Per hosting provider policy |
We do not share personal data with any third parties for their own marketing or advertising purposes. We do not disclose personal data to government authorities except where required by applicable law or a valid legal order.
If our Website is ever acquired, merged or transferred, user data held by us would be transferred as part of that transaction — we would notify users via a prominent notice on the Website before any such transfer.
8. International Data Transfers
Our Website is operated primarily for the Indian market. However, third-party services we use (Google Analytics, Google AdSense) process data on servers located outside India — primarily in the United States and the European Union.
For EU/UK visitors, transfers to the USA via Google are conducted under Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) as approved by the European Commission, and Google LLC participates in the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. These mechanisms provide appropriate safeguards for your personal data under GDPR Article 46.
For Indian users, under the DPDP Act 2023, cross-border data transfers are permitted to countries approved by the Indian Government. We will comply with any restrictions on cross-border data transfer notified under Section 16 of the DPDP Act 2023 as and when they come into force.
The limited data we directly hold (contact form submissions) is stored on Indian or European servers with our hosting provider. We do not transfer contact data internationally without your explicit consent.
9. Data Retention
| Data Type | Retention Period | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Server log data (IP, request logs) | 30 days, then deleted/anonymised | Security monitoring and error diagnosis only |
| Google Analytics data | 14 months (Google default, set to minimum) | Aggregate trend analysis — anonymised, no individual tracking |
| Contact form submissions | 12 months from last correspondence, then deleted | Responding to and following up on enquiries |
| Cookie consent records | 12 months | Compliance evidence — not required to consent repeatedly |
| Calculator inputs | Not retained — zero retention | All calculations run client-side in browser only |
| Ad cookies (Google AdSense) | Up to 13 months (set by Google) | Ad frequency capping and personalisation (Google controlled) |
When data is no longer required for the purpose for which it was collected, we securely delete or anonymise it. You may request earlier deletion at any time — see Section 10 for your rights.
10. Your Data Protection Rights
Depending on your location, you have the following rights regarding your personal data. We will respond to all rights requests within 30 days (extendable to 60 days for complex requests with notice to you).
Right to Access
Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you and information about how we use it.
Right to Rectification
Request correction of any inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.
Right to Erasure
Request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten") where there is no legitimate reason for continued processing.
Right to Restrict
Request that we restrict processing of your data while a complaint or accuracy dispute is being resolved.
Right to Portability
Receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format (GDPR users).
Right to Object
Object to processing based on legitimate interests. You can also withdraw consent for cookies at any time.
India DPDP Rights
Under the DPDP Act 2023: right to access, correction, erasure, grievance redressal and nominating a representative.
Right to Complain
Lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority — Data Protection Board of India or EU/UK supervisory authority as applicable.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the details in Section 15. We will verify your identity before processing any rights request and will not charge a fee unless the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.
11. Children's Privacy
SheetGauge.com is a professional engineering and fabrication reference website intended for use by adults — primarily engineers, fabricators, procurement professionals and students aged 18 and above.
We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under the age of 18 years. Under the DPDP Act 2023 (India), we treat any user under 18 as a child and do not process their personal data without verifiable parental consent. Under GDPR, we do not collect data from children under 16 without parental consent.
If you believe that a child under 18 has provided personal data to us without appropriate parental consent, please contact us immediately at the details in Section 15 and we will delete that data promptly.
Our Website does not contain content targeted at children, does not use child-directed advertising, and is not designed to attract children as users.
12. Security
We implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration or destruction. These measures include:
- HTTPS / TLS encryption — all data transmitted between your browser and our Website is encrypted in transit via SSL/TLS (look for the padlock in your browser address bar)
- Minimal data collection — we do not collect data we do not need. Calculator inputs are never transmitted to our servers.
- Access controls — administrative access to Website systems is restricted to authorised personnel with strong authentication
- Third-party security — we use reputable, security-audited hosting and CDN providers
- Regular updates — Website software, plugins and dependencies are kept updated to address known vulnerabilities
In the event of a personal data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify affected individuals and the relevant supervisory authority within the timeframes required by applicable law (72 hours under GDPR; as specified under the DPDP Act 2023).
13. India Law – DPDP Act 2023 & IT Act 2000
This section specifically addresses our obligations under Indian law for Indian users and residents.
13.1 Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act 2023
The DPDP Act 2023 received Presidential assent on 11 August 2023 and represents India's comprehensive personal data protection legislation. As a Data Fiduciary under the Act, SheetGauge.com commits to:
- Processing personal data only for lawful purposes with consent or legitimate use
- Collecting only the minimum necessary data (data minimisation)
- Maintaining accuracy of personal data
- Implementing appropriate security safeguards
- Deleting personal data when the purpose for collection is fulfilled
- Responding to Data Principal (user) rights requests
- Appointing a Grievance Officer for Indian users (see Section 15)
13.2 Information Technology (IT) Act 2000 and Rules
We comply with the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011 ("SPDI Rules") issued under the IT Act 2000. Specifically:
- We publish this Privacy Policy as required under Rule 4
- We do not collect sensitive personal data or information (SPDI) as defined under Rule 3 — this includes passwords, financial information, health data, biometric data and similar — without consent where such data is incidentally collected
- We implement reasonable security practices under Rule 8
- We provide a grievance redressal mechanism under Rule 5(9)
13.3 Grievance Redressal (India)
In accordance with Rule 5(9) of the SPDI Rules and the DPDP Act 2023, any grievance regarding this Privacy Policy or our data processing practices must be acknowledged within 24 hours and resolved within 30 days of receipt. Contact details for our Grievance Officer are provided in Section 15.
14. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements or for other operational reasons. When we make changes, we will:
- Update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this Policy
- Post the revised Policy on this page
- For material changes that significantly affect how we use personal data, we will display a prominent notice on the Website homepage for at least 30 days
- Where required by applicable law, seek fresh consent from affected users
We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically. Your continued use of the Website after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised Policy. If you disagree with the changes, please discontinue use of the Website and contact us to request deletion of any personal data we hold about you.
Previous Policy Versions
Previous versions of this Privacy Policy are available on request by contacting us at the details in Section 15. We retain previous versions for at least 3 years.
15. Contact Us & Grievance Officer
For any questions, concerns or requests regarding this Privacy Policy, your personal data, or to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us:
Grievance: acknowledged 24 hrs, resolved 30 days
If you are located in the European Union or United Kingdom and are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your national data protection supervisory authority — for example, the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) or your EU Member State DPA.
For Indian users unsatisfied with our grievance response, you may escalate to the Data Protection Board of India once constituted under the DPDP Act 2023, or seek remedies under the IT Act 2000.