Privacy policy

This policy explains what information Punjab Public Guide collects when you use the site, why we collect it, how long we keep it and the choices you have. We collect as little as possible. The site is owned and run by Musa Tariq, an independent publisher in Punjab, Pakistan, who is responsible for the information described here. You can reach him at info@punjabpublicguide.com.

Information we collect

Most visitors only read pages, and we do not ask you to create an account or sign in. We collect information in three situations. When you use the contact form, we receive your name, email address, the topic, an optional link and your message; we use them only to reply and to fix guides, and we store a one-way scrambled code made from your IP address, which changes every day and is used only to block spam, not the IP address itself. When any page loads, our web host may record basic server logs, such as your IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time, to keep the site secure and working. On the contact page only, we set one session cookie that protects the form from abuse; it expires when you close your browser. Google Analytics also sets cookies on every page, as explained under Analytics, fonts and third-party services. We never ask for your CNIC, B-Form, bank details or passwords, and we have no access to any government application system.

How long we keep it, and who sees it

Contact messages are kept for up to 12 months and then deleted, unless we need a message to explain a correction we made, in which case we keep only the relevant part. Server logs are kept for as long as our hosting provider’s default settings allow, which is usually around 30 days. Contact messages are delivered to the editor’s email inbox, which is hosted by our web host and by Google, and only the editor reads them. We do not sell, rent or trade personal information, and we do not share it with any government department, bank or agent. We would disclose information only if the law required us to, for example under a valid court order. If our hosting provider changes, this policy will name the new provider’s role.

Advertising, cookies and our ad partners

The site is paid for by advertising. Ads are served by Google AdSense and may also be served by other advertising networks; we name every network we use on this page before its ads appear. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your previous visits to this website and other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and other sites on the internet. You can opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings, and you can opt out of some third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info. Google explains how it uses information from websites that show its ads on its page How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services. Visitors from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland will see a Google-certified consent message before any personalised-ad cookie is set, and anyone can change their choice at any time. Ads will never be placed to look like official application buttons.

Some guides may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one, the shop may pay us a small commission and may set its own cookie to record the sale; the price you pay does not change. Affiliate links are labelled where they appear, and the shop’s own privacy policy applies to anything you do on its website.

Analytics, fonts and third-party services

We use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and see which guides people find useful. It records the pages you view, how long you stay, how you reached the site, your device and browser type, and your approximate city or country. Google Analytics does not store your full IP address. It sets first-party cookies named _ga and _ga_RDGX85BQZY, which last up to two years and tell repeat visits apart. We look only at total numbers and do not use Analytics to identify you. Google explains how it handles this data on its page How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services. You can opt out on every website by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, or by blocking cookies in your browser.

Our pages load two fonts, Bricolage Grotesque and Noto Sans, from Google Fonts. When a page loads, your browser connects to Google’s servers to fetch them, which shares your IP address and basic browser information with Google; Google explains how it handles this on its Google Fonts privacy page. We use Google Search Console, which reports only how the site appears in Google Search and sets no cookie on your device. Apart from Google Analytics, we do not use other analytics tools, social media pixels or tracking scripts. If we add one, we will name it here, explain what it collects and how to opt out, and update the date at the top of this page before it goes live.

Links to official websites

Our guides link to government portals so that you can apply in the right place. When you click one of these links, you leave our site, and that website’s own privacy policy applies to anything you type there, including your CNIC and documents. We do not control those websites and cannot see what you enter on them. Before you type personal information on any portal, check that the address ends in the official domain named in our guide, such as gov.pk or edu.pk, and that the browser shows a secure connection. If a page that claims to be official asks for a fee or an OTP from your phone, stop and check with the department’s helpline.

Your choices and changes to this policy

You can ask us to show you, correct or delete any message you sent us by emailing info@punjabpublicguide.com from the same address; we will reply within a reasonable time. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings at any time, and the site will still work, except that the contact form needs its session cookie to send. This site is meant for a general audience, including students, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children beyond what a parent or student chooses to send through the contact form. If this policy changes, we update the date at the top of this page, and for important changes we add a short note on the home page.