Privacy policy

1. Who we are

The 5S Certification Portal is run by the National Productivity Council (NPC), an autonomous body under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. NPC decides why and how the personal data described here is used, under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

2. What we collect

• Organisations applying for certification: name, designation, email and mobile of the contact persons; the unit's address and zones; documents uploaded for the application (work order, permission letters).
• During the audit: scores, remarks, and photos and videos of the workplace taken by NPC auditors, with the time and place they were taken.
• NPC officers, auditors and facilitators: name, designation, office, email and mobile, and a record of what each did on a case.
• Contact us and poster orders: the name, email, mobile, address and message you send.
• Every visit: a session cookie to keep you logged in and your language choice; the server log keeps the internet address for security.

3. Why we use it

Only to process 5S certification (application, quotation, audit, report, certificate and surveillance audits), to pay facilitation fees, to reply to your messages and deliver poster orders, and to keep the portal secure. Certificate details (unit name, place, category, validity) are public so that anyone can verify a certificate; a unit appears in the list of certified units only if it agreed to be listed.

4. Who sees it

NPC officers and auditors working on the case, the organisation's own users, and government bodies where the law requires. NPC does not sell personal data. The portal and its data are hosted in India; no foreign service receives personal data.

5. How long we keep it

Case records and audit evidence: for the validity of the certificate plus five years. Contact us messages: two years. Login and change records: as required for audit and security.

6. Your rights

You may ask to see, correct or erase your personal data, withdraw a consent you gave (for example, to be listed among certified units), or raise a grievance. Write to NPC through Contact us with the subject "Personal data". If NPC's reply does not satisfy you, you may approach the Data Protection Board of India.

7. Security

Passwords are stored only in protected (hashed) form, every page is sent over an encrypted connection, uploaded files are checked to be real PDF, JPG or PNG files (and scanned for viruses while NPC's scanner is switched on), and each change to a case is recorded with who made it.

8. Changes

When this policy changes, the new version is published on this page with its date.