Safeguarding & DPDP

Our role

RookiGuru is a zero-PII content provider. We supply learning content and receive only anonymized, aggregate outcomes — for example, how many learners completed a course — never a learner's personal details.

We do not decide why or how any learner's personal data is processed. Where a learner enrolls through a partner organization, that organization is the data fiduciary under India's Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, and RookiGuru handles no identifiable learner data.

For under-18 learners

RookiGuru's flagship course serves learners aged 16–25. For learners aged 16 or 17:

• The partner organization obtains verifiable parental or guardian consent before any minor's data is processed, using DPDP Rule 10 mechanisms — for example, identity and age details the organization already reliably holds, details voluntarily provided by the parent, or a virtual token mapped to those details and issued by a government-authorised entity, including via a DigiLocker service provider.
• The partner organization runs enrollment.
• RookiGuru never collects minor-identifying data, never tracks, profiles, or targets advertising to minors, and receives aggregate outcomes only.

On the "educational institution" exemption

The DPDP Act's Fourth Schedule includes an exemption for educational institutions that expressly covers vocational education. This exemption is narrow: it relaxes certain restrictions on tracking or behavioral monitoring for an institution's educational activities or child-safety purposes. It does not waive the requirement for verifiable parental consent, and it does not remove the broader notice-and-consent obligations under the Act.

RookiGuru does not rely on this exemption to bypass parental consent. Partner organizations should confirm with their own counsel how this exemption applies to their specific program.

Timing

India's DPDP Rules 2025 were notified on 13 November 2025 (Gazette G.S.R. 846(E)). The children's-data obligations under Rule 10 become enforceable from 13 May 2027. Partner organizations have some runway before enforcement begins, but we build our safeguarding posture — and expect diligence questions from partners — ahead of that date, not at it.

Read more

For how RookiGuru handles data on this website more broadly, see our full Privacy & Child Safety policy.