Questions people ask

If your question is not here, write to us — the answer will probably end up on this page.

Can anyone find out that I reported this?

Your name is optional and is never shown publicly. We do not ask for your phone number, email, Aadhaar, PAN or address, and we do not store your IP address with your report. Your browser keeps one random cookie that stops the same device from flooding the site; it holds no information about you and is never attached to your report. The site also uses Google Analytics to count visits (which pages are opened, and roughly which country, device and browser they come from); it never receives anything you type into the report form.

Is this a complaint? Will the officer be punished?

No. This is not a complaint service and nothing you write here is forwarded to any authority. The site exists to count what is happening, not to prosecute anyone. For a formal complaint, approach the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), Tamil Nadu — that is a separate process, and you can do both.

Then why ask for the officer’s name and designation at all?

Both are optional. They help a moderator recognise when several reports describe the same office, which is the difference between one complaint and a pattern. They are stored privately, are never published, and there is no public search by officer name and no leaderboard.

What happens after I submit?

Your report is saved as "pending" and is invisible to everyone except moderators. A moderator reads it and either approves it, rejects it, or marks it as a possible duplicate. Only approved reports are ever counted, and only the anonymous parts — district, taluk, area type, department, date, amount, service — are used.

I was asked for money but I refused to pay. Should I still report it?

Yes, please do. Demands that were refused are counted separately from money actually paid, and they are just as important: they show how often people are asked in the first place. There is a "Requested but not paid" option on the form.

It happened two years ago. Is it too late?

No. You can pick any date from 2000 onwards. Older reports still count towards the pattern for that district and department; only future dates are refused.

Who runs this and who pays for it?

It is a small, non-commercial, volunteer effort. There is no funding from any government body, political party or company, and no advertising. The source code is open so anyone can check what the site does with a report.

Why do I sometimes not see any totals on the site?

Publishing figures is a deliberate decision, not an automatic one. While the totals are switched off, the site is only a reporting form and the server will not hand out any figures at all. Reports keep being collected and moderated exactly the same way in the meantime.

Can I get my report removed?

Yes. Write to us from the Contact page with your reference number — the TNBC-… code shown after you submit — and ask for it to be deleted. Keep that number somewhere safe; it is the only way to point to your report, and it does not identify you.

Is it safe to open this site on my phone?

The site works over an encrypted connection and asks for no permissions, no app install and no login. Nothing is saved to your phone except your language choice, the anti-spam cookie and the visit-counting cookies of Google Analytics. If you share a phone with someone else, open it in a private window and it will leave nothing behind.