Privacy notice

nadu.lk is the controller of the personal data described here — we decide why and how it is used.

The way to reach us about anything in this notice, including a privacy request, is the corrections form. Say that your message is a privacy request and leave an email address so we can reply.

Why we publish this information

nadu.lk is public-interest accountability journalism. We compile what is already on the public record about politicians and others involved in legal proceedings so that citizens can understand, in one place, where a case stands and what happens next.

What we hold

• Names, photographs, public roles and offices held, and political party affiliation (current and past).
• Information about legal proceedings — investigations, arrests, remand, bail, charges, indictments, trials, convictions, sentences, appeals, acquittals, dismissals and pardons — including hearing dates and outcomes.
• Statements made publicly by or about the person, and summaries of published news reporting.

Data about criminal proceedings and about political opinions or affiliation is treated as especially sensitive under data protection law. We only publish it where it is already a matter of public record and is relevant to the person's public role or to the case being tracked.

Where it comes from

Court records and court reporting, official statements and publications (for example from the police, CIABOC and government bodies), Parliament's Hansard, and news reports by established publishers. Every entry cites its sources, so you can check each detail against the original.

Our legal basis

We rely on our legitimate interest, and the wider public interest, in reporting on how people in public life are dealt with by the justice system, and on the protections data protection law gives to journalism and freedom of expression. We weigh that interest against the rights of the people featured: we stick to the public record, we keep the distinction between allegation and proven fact, and we do not publish private details (home addresses, family members who are not public figures, and the like) that the public-interest purpose does not need.

Accuracy

Each record shows when it was last verified. Arrests, investigations, allegations and remand orders do not establish guilt, and we describe each stage of a case separately rather than inferring one from another. When a case moves on — bail, acquittal, dismissal, a successful appeal — we update the record. If something is wrong or out of date, please send a correction.

How long we keep it

For as long as it remains of public interest. Court proceedings are part of the historical record, so we generally keep a record after a case ends — and where a case ended in acquittal, dismissal or discharge, we show that outcome clearly. Dated Nadu Updates are kept as a record of what was reported at the time. We review objections to continued publication case by case (see your rights).

You can read nadu.lk without an account. We do not offer accounts, newsletters or comments, and we do not sell or share visitor data for advertising.

Visit statistics (always on)

We use Vercel Web Analytics to count page views. It does not use cookies, it reports only aggregated statistics, and it does not let us identify individual visitors.

Google Analytics 4 (only if you accept)

With your consent, we also use Google Analytics 4 to understand which pages are read and which share and social links are used. Google Analytics sets cookies (named _ga and _ga_…) and sends usage data, including device and approximate location information, to Google. It is not loaded at all unless you click Accept in the cookie banner, and you can change your mind at any time:

Cookie settings

Our legal basis for Google Analytics is your consent. Withdrawing it stops future collection; it does not affect what was collected before.

Storage in your browser

The site stores a few small values in your own browser. They never leave your device.

• nadu.consent.analytics (localStorage) — remembers whether you accepted or declined Google Analytics.
• nadu.news.lastVisit (localStorage) — the time of your last visit to the news section, so we can mark stories that are new since then.
• nadu.news.sessionSince (sessionStorage) — keeps that “new since” marker steady while you browse; it is cleared when you close the tab.

These are strictly necessary for features you use, so they do not need consent. You can clear them in your browser settings at any time.

The corrections form

If you use the corrections form, we receive your message, your email address if you choose to give one, and up to three images you attach. These are stored in Airtable. We use them only to check and act on your report and, if you left an email, to reply. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in keeping the record accurate (and, for a privacy request, our legal obligation to respond). We keep submissions only as long as needed to deal with them and to keep a record of what we changed and why.

Server logs

Like any website, our hosting provider, Vercel, automatically records technical request logs (such as IP address, browser type and the page requested) to run the service and protect it from abuse. These are kept for a short period under Vercel's own policies.

Embedded images

Some pages show YouTube video thumbnails, which your browser loads directly from Google's servers. As with any image loaded from another site, Google receives your IP address and browser details when it serves them.

We use the following providers to run nadu.lk. They process data on our behalf, and several are based in, or store data in, the United States or other countries outside Sri Lanka, the EU and the UK.

• Vercel (United States) — hosting, server logs and cookieless visit statistics.
• Neon — the Postgres database that stores the news section's collected headlines, excerpts and summaries.
• OpenAI — writes some news summaries from published headlines and short excerpts, which can include the names of people in the news. No visitor data is sent to OpenAI.
• Airtable — stores corrections-form submissions.
• Google — Google Analytics 4 (only if you accept) and YouTube thumbnails.

Where personal data is transferred across borders, we rely on these providers' contractual data protection commitments (such as data processing terms and standard contractual clauses) and on the safeguards permitted by the laws that apply.

Whether you are featured on the site or simply visit it, you can ask us to:

• Access — tell you what personal data we hold about you and give you a copy.
• Correct — fix data that is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.
• Object — stop using your data on the basis of our legitimate interest, where your circumstances outweigh that interest.
• Erase — delete data we no longer have a good reason to keep.
• Withdraw consent — for Google Analytics, using Cookie settings.

To make a request, use the corrections form, say what you are asking for, and include an email address so we can reply. We may need to confirm who you are before acting. We aim to reply within one month.

Some rights are limited where the data is part of public-interest reporting. For example, we may decline to remove an accurate, sourced record of court proceedings involving a public figure — but we will always correct errors, bring outdated records up to date, and explain our decision.

Please contact us first so we can try to put things right. You also have the right to complain to the Data Protection Authority of Sri Lanka (dpa.gov.lk). If you are in the EU or UK, you can also complain to your local data protection authority — in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office.

We will update this notice when the way we handle personal data changes, and change the “last updated” date at the top. See also our terms of use.