Data deletion

What you can delete

There are three levels. You can disconnect Instagram and keep your account; you can delete your whole 26Ritual account; or, if you never had an account and only commented on a creator's post, you can ask us to delete the comment data we hold about you. Each is explained below, and none of them requires you to contact Meta.

Disconnect Instagram in the app

Open the creator app, go to Settings, then Connected accounts, and choose Disconnect next to Instagram. Disconnecting revokes the access token immediately, stops all automated messages, and deletes the Instagram data we hold for your account (media list, comments, message threads and follower counts) within 30 days. Your links, codes, campaigns and earnings remain.

You can also remove 26Ritual from Instagram itself: in the Instagram app go to Settings, then Website permissions or Apps and websites, and remove 26Ritual. Meta notifies us and we treat it exactly like a disconnect made in our app.

Delete your account in the app

Open the creator app, go to Settings, then Account, and choose Delete account. You will be asked to confirm. Deletion disconnects Instagram, stops all automation, cancels any pending campaign assignment and removes your personal data as described below.

If you have confirmed commission that has not been paid yet, the app shows the amount and lets you receive the final payout first. A payout cannot be made after your bank details are deleted.

Request deletion by email

If you cannot access the app, or you are an audience member without an account, write to hello@26ritual.com with the subject "Delete my data". Write from the email address on your account or, if you only commented, tell us your Instagram username. We verify that the request is yours, usually by replying to the same address or asking you to confirm from the Instagram account, then process it and confirm by email when it is done.

What is deleted

When your account is deleted, we remove:

• Your profile: name, phone number, email address, city, categories, profile picture and application answers.
• Instagram data: access tokens, account ids, media list, comments, message threads, follower counts and automation rules.
• Payout details: bank account, IFSC, UPI id and the encrypted PAN, once the final payout and the tax filings for the current financial year are complete.
• Links and coupon codes (which stop attributing), your storefront, notifications, device tokens and support history.
• For audience members: the Instagram-scoped id, username and comment text we hold, and any contact details you shared for alerts.

What is retained

Indian tax and company law requires us to keep financial records for a set period (currently eight years from the end of the financial year). We therefore keep the commission ledger, payout records, payout statements and TDS filings for that period. On those records your personal identifiers are replaced with a tombstone: your name becomes a deleted-user marker, your PAN survives only in the TDS filing already made to the tax authority, and nothing else about you stays attached. Aggregate statistics that cannot identify you, such as orders per campaign, are also kept.

We also keep a minimal record that a deletion request was made and completed, so we can show that we honoured it.

Timeline

Disconnecting Instagram revokes access immediately. Account deletion and email requests are completed within 30 days of the request, and usually within a few days. Backups are rotated on a fixed schedule so deleted data leaves them within a further 35 days. You receive a confirmation email when deletion is complete, with a reference number you can quote if you have questions.

Requests that arrive through Meta

If you remove 26Ritual from your Instagram account, or ask Meta to delete your data through Facebook or Instagram settings, Meta sends a signed data deletion request to 26Ritual's callback URL. We honour those requests exactly the same way as a request made in the app or by email, on the same timeline, and we return a status URL and confirmation code to Meta so you can check progress from Meta's side.

Questions

Write to hello@26ritual.com or, if you are an approved creator, message the team on WhatsApp from inside the app. Our privacy policy explains what we collect and why.