Indian Academy of Competitive Exams

How IACE short links use your data

IACE shortens some of the web addresses it sends you, so a link is short enough to print on a poster, put inside an SMS or turn into a QR code. Opening one sends you on to the page it was made for, and records that the visit happened. This page says what is recorded, what each entry is for, and how long it is kept.

Last updated 20 September 2026

What a visit records

None of it is typed in by you, and none of it carries your name, phone number or email address. Each entry is here because it either decides where the link sends you or counts how the link is doing.

Time
When the link was opened. Visits are counted by the day they happened, and a link can be set to send people somewhere different at particular hours or on particular days.
Which link
The link, and the exact address used to reach it. This is what a link's visit count is counted from.
How it was opened
A tap on a link, a scan of a QR code, or an SMS address. It shows which of the three is bringing people in.
Device, system and browser
Phone, tablet or computer; Android or iOS; Chrome or Safari. A link can be set to send each of them somewhere different, and the counts are grouped the same way.
What your browser says about itself
The line every browser sends describing itself, kept as it was sent. The three entries above are worked out from it.
The app you were in
Whether the link opened inside WhatsApp, Instagram or another app's built-in browser. Some of those browsers cannot sign you in or download a file, so the page offers you a way out into your own browser.
Roughly where you are
Country, region and city, as our hosting provider reports them from the network. A link can be set to send people in different places to different pages. Never a position taken from your phone.
The page that sent you
The address of the page that carried the link, when your browser passes it on. It shows where a link is being shared.
Which destination you were given
Which of a link's conditions matched, or which version of a split test you were shown, so the versions can be compared afterwards.
Whether a passcode was used
Whether a passcode let this visit through, which separates those visits from ordinary ones.
Which printed code was scanned
When a QR code carries a code of its own, the poster, card or sign it was printed on - so we can tell which one is working. It identifies the printed thing, not the person holding it.
Person or preview
Whether the visit looked like a person or an automatic preview, such as the picture WhatsApp shows under a link. Previews are recorded but left out of the counts.

Your network address

We do not store your IP address. We keep a one-way code made from it, and that code changes with every calendar month, so visits can be counted as one visitor within a month and cannot be joined up across months.

Cookies

We set one cookie, and only when you enter a passcode on a link that remembers it, so this device is not asked again. It says which link and when, and nothing about you. A link that does not track never sets it.

QR codes and printed codes

A QR code we publish carries a marker, so a scan is recorded as a scan rather than a tap. A printed code can carry a short code of its own, which tells us which poster, card or sign was scanned.

Links with a passcode

When a link asks for a passcode, each attempt is recorded: the link, the monthly code for the address it came from, and whether the passcode was right. It is what stops someone guessing a passcode by trying again and again. These attempts are deleted after 24 hours.

Links we do not track

Some links - those meant for students in particular - are set to record nothing about the visitor. They keep only the time, which link was opened, how it was opened, whether a passcode was used, and whether the visit looked like a person or a preview. No device, place, browser, referring page, printed code or visitor code is kept, and nothing is added to the address you are sent to.

Where the link sends you

A link can carry campaign tags, the usual utm ones. We add them to the web address you are sent to, so the page at the other end can see which campaign brought you. On a link where IACE measures what happened next, the address also carries a one-time code for that visit.

What the other page reports back

A page IACE runs can use that one-time code to tell us the visit led somewhere - that a form was submitted, for instance. Only pages IACE runs can do this. A link to somebody else's website records the visit and nothing more.

How long it is kept

Detailed visit records are deleted after 180 days. What stays is daily totals - how many visits a link had on a day, grouped by device, place, browser and the like - which hold nothing about a single visit.

Where it is kept, and who sees it

The records are kept in IACE's own database, in India (Mumbai). The only other companies involved are the ones that host this service and store that database for us. Nothing is sold, and no advertising network or analytics company is given any of it.

Questions or requests

Write to us with any question about this notice, or about what a link you were sent records.

A visit record holds no name, phone number, email address or IP address, only the monthly code described above, so it usually cannot be traced back to one person. Telling us which link you opened, and roughly when, is what helps most.

smanubolu@iace.co.in