Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

We collect personal information exclusively when you voluntarily provide it through our public interaction features, or through standard technical access logs:

• Public Article Submissions: Author name, email address, article title, summary, text, category, and optional featured image link.
• Comments & Feedback: Author name, email address, comment or review text, and star rating.
• Automated Cybersecurity Logs: Client IP address, browser user agent, and timestamp recorded strictly for rate limiting, DDoS prevention, and brute-force mitigation.

2. How We Use Your Information

Your information is used strictly for platform operational and editorial purposes:

• To evaluate, verify, and format articles and travel guides in our admin moderation queue before publishing.
• To display author bylines alongside approved articles, comments, and ratings.
• To prevent robotic spam, automated flooding, and abuse through IP-based rate limiting.
• To communicate with contributors regarding the editorial status of their submissions if necessary.

3. Cookies & Local Storage

pkpoint.com utilizes minimal, security-centric cookies:

• Session Cookie (PKPOINT_SESSID): An encrypted session identifier used to maintain CSRF security tokens, Math CAPTCHA verification states, and administrative logins. Configured with httponly, samesite=Lax, and secure HTTPS flags.
• Local Storage (pkpoint_theme): Stores your personal visual preference (Dark Mode or Light Mode) locally on your device for seamless browsing.
• Cloudflare Security Cookies: Utilized by Cloudflare Turnstile to provide anti-bot protection and verify authentic human requests without capturing personal identifying records.

4. Third-Party Advertising & Google AdSense Disclosure

pkpoint.com displays advertisements provided by authorized third-party advertising vendors, including Google AdSense. In strict compliance with Google Publisher Policies, we disclose the following practices:

• Advertising Cookies: Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies (including the DoubleClick cookie) to serve advertisements based on a visitor's prior visits to pkpoint.com and other websites across the Internet.
• Personalized Advertising: Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its network partners to serve relevant ads to our visitors based on their visit to our sites and/or other websites on the Internet.
• Consumer Opt-Out Controls: Visitors may opt out of personalized advertising at any time by visiting Google Ads Settings. Alternatively, users may opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance Choices (aboutads.info) or Your Online Choices.
• No Transmission of Personal Data: pkpoint.com does not share personally identifiable information (PII) such as full names, phone numbers, or email addresses with third-party advertisers.

5. Anti-Spam & Cybersecurity Safeguards

To safeguard the community from malicious scripts and automated botnets, pkpoint.com employs:

• Dynamic Math CAPTCHA: Single-use arithmetic challenges solved server-side before submissions are accepted.
• Invisible Honeypot Traps: Fields invisible to human users but detected by automated bots, resulting in immediate rejection.
• Database Rate Limiting: Enforces maximum submission frequencies per IP address to eliminate flood spam.
• Output HTML Sanitization: Strict filtering stripping script injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) vectors.

6. Outbound Links to Official Portals

Our portal contains links to external official websites (such as nadra.gov.pk, fbr.gov.pk, and sbp.org.pk). When you click an external link, you leave pkpoint.com. We have no control over the privacy practices, tracking cookies, or policies of third-party domains. We urge you to review the privacy statement of each external website you visit.

7. Your Rights & Data Removal Requests

As a contributor or commenter, you have the right to request:

• Correction or updating of any published article submitted under your name.
• Permanent deletion of a comment or review you previously posted.
• Anonymization of your author attribution.

To exercise any of these rights, email our data desk at [email protected] with verification of your original submission email.