Privacy Policy

Introduction

We, at Pratidhi online Counselling("Pratidhi/ We/ Our") understand and appreciate the trust and information you entrust upon us, and seek to protect your information to the best extent possible. We collect your information as it is essential to the provision of our Services (defined below) to you. We take your privacy seriously and will only collect, protect, use and share your information in the manner specified in this privacy policy ("Privacy Policy").

 

The Privacy Policy should be read along with and is also subject to the Terms of Service (defined below), and comes into effect from the date and time a user ("User" or "You") registers with Pratidhi. By using the Website and the Services, you have agreed to allow us to collect, store, and use the Personal Information (defined below) you provide (including any changes provided by you) in order to avail of the Services. If you are not agreeable to this, please do not use this Website or Services.

 

We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time. Any such modification will become effective immediately upon Pratidhi posting it on the Website and your continued use of the Website will constitute your consent to such modifications. You agree to periodically review the current version of the Privacy Policy posted by Pratidhi.

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1. Definitions

   1. "Affiliate" shall have the meaning attributed to it in Clause 9.1 of this Privacy Policy.

   2. "Application" means the Pratidhi Online Counselling application that runs on the Website.

   3. "Confidential Information" shall have the meaning attributed to in Clause 8.1 of this Privacy Policy.

   4. "Consent Form" shall have the meaning attributed to it in Clause 2.1 of this Privacy Policy.

   5. "Dispute" shall have the meaning attributed to it in Clause 13.1 of this Privacy Policy.

   6. "Experts" means the experts who provide counselling services, which form part of the Services.

   7. "Intellectual Property Rights" shall mean any and all copyright, trademark (whether or not registered), design rights (whether or not registered), moral rights, patents, performance rights, database rights, WAP and other new media rights, names, logos and codes, publicity rights, and any and all other intellectual property and proprietary rights of any nature whatsoever that subsist, or may subsist, or be capable of registration, in the User.

   8. "IP Content" shall have the meaning attributed to it in Clause 6.1 of this Privacy Policy.

   9. "IP License" shall have the meaning attributed to it in Clause 6.1 of this Privacy Policy.

   10. "Linked Sites" shall have the meaning attributed to it in Clause 11.1 of this Privacy Policy.

   11. "Minor" shall mean a person under the age of 18 years.

   12. "Personal Information" means any information that relates to a natural person, which, either directly or indirectly, in combination with other information available or likely to be available with a body corporate, is capable of identifying such person.

   13. "Red Flags" shall have the meaning attributed to it in Clause 8.2.1 of this Privacy Policy.

   14. "Sensitive Personal Information" means Personal Information which consists of information relating to (i) password; (ii) financial information and payment instrument details; (iii) physical, physiological and mental health conditions; (iv) sexual orientation; (v) medical records and history; and (vi) biometric information.

   15. "Services" shall have the meaning attributed to in the Terms of Service.

   16. "Terms of Service" shall mean the Pratidhi terms of service available at https://PratidhiCounselling.com/termsofservice

   17. "User Account" shall have the meaning attributed to it in Clause 3.1 of this Privacy Policy.

   18. "User Credentials" shall have the meaning attributed to it in Clause 10.2 of this Privacy Policy.

   19. "User Data" shall mean all data and information provided by the User to Pratidhi for availing the Services.

   20. "Website" shall mean the Pratidhi website accessible at https://pratidhicounselling.com/.

2. Minor's use of the Services

   1. We do not knowingly collect or solicit Personal Information from Minors or knowingly allow Minors to register for the Services, without prior consent of the Minor's legal guardian or parent. If you are a Minor, we will only allow you to register for the Services with a duly filled in consent form signed by your legal guardian or parent ("Consent Form"). In the event that we are informed that we have collected Personal Information from a Minor without a Consent Form, we will verify such information internally and delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any Personal Information from or about a Minor (without due consent), please contact us at teampratidhi@gmail.com.

3. What information do we collect?

   1. In the course of providing the Services to you, Pratidhi may collect the following information from you:

      1. Information collected at the time of registration: When you register for a Pratidhi Online Counselling account ("User Account"), we will collect Personal Information such as your username, password, e-mail address and phone number. We also collect information such as age, gender, educational qualifications and occupation from you when you register for a User Account.

      2. Information collected through automated means: When you use the Website, our servers may automatically record certain information that your device sends whenever you visit any website and use certain apps using cookies. Cookies are widely used in order to make a website work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the website. These server logs may include information such as your web or app request, Internet Protocol ("IP") address, device location, browser type, browser language, referring/exit pages and URLs, platform type, number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed and the order of those pages, the amount of time spent on particular pages, the date and time of your request, and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser. We may use third party cookies, such as buttons to track visitor behaviour which may include, but not be limited to: (a) Buttons clicked; (b) scroll distance on a page; (c) number of visits for each page etc. to tailor the experience of the User wherever possible. If you disable cookies on your browser, we will not be able to collect such information and that may affect the quality of our Services.

      3. We may also collect information about your activity on the Website, such as information about your account usage, as well as information about how you interact with the Application (collectively, "User Data"). We may combine this automatically-gathered information with other information, including Personal Information we have collected about you to enhance the quality of Services.

      4. Other information: Any other information shared by you on the Website while availing the Services.

   2. If you choose not to share the above information with us, you may not be able to register with us or avail of our Services.

4. How do we collect your information?

   1. We collect your information in the following ways:

      1. You may provide Personal Information when you: (i) access the Website, (ii) request, purchase and use the Services, (iii) communicate with us via phone calls, chat, email, web forms, social media and other methods of communication, and (iv) subscribe to our marketing material.

      2. We may receive certain information that's stored or processed by third parties, about you via cookies, web beacons and other similar technologies.

      3. We may collect certain Personal Information about you from your employers, educational institutions or other entities that provide you access to our Services.

      4. We may collect your Personal Information through your interactions with our Experts.

      5. Each time you visit the Website, we may automatically collect information about you through automated means.

      6. We may collect your Personal Information when you interact with us through social media platforms.

5. How do we use your information?

   1. Pratidhi Online Counselling may use information collected under Clause 3 above for the following purposes:

      1. In order to provide a personalised browsing experience, Pratidhi may use your Personal Information to improve its marketing and promotional efforts, to analyze usage, improve the content of Pratidhi, product offerings, and to customise Pratidhi's content, layout, and services, in order to improve Pratidhi with a view to optimise Pratidhi for you and better tailor it to meet your needs.

      2. Pratidhi may track the IP address of your device and save certain User Data on your device in the form of cookies. Pratidhi uses this data only to deliver web pages to you upon request, to customize the Website to your interests and to measure traffic within the Application. Please note that Sensitive Personal Information provided by you to  Pratidhi will not be provided to third parties without your consent. User data of a general nature such as information relating to user demographics may however be revealed to third parties.

      3. With your express consent, we may share information regarding your geographical location to third-party advertisers to display more relevant advertisements to you on the Website.

      4. To ensure a seamless experience at the Website for you and to ensure your maximum benefit and comfort, we use or may use the data collected through cookies, log file, device identifiers, location data and clear gifs information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the site; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information, including relevant advertising; (c) provide and monitor the effectiveness of our Services; (d) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, usage, and demographic patterns on our website and our Services; (e) diagnose or fix technology problems on the Application; and (f) otherwise to plan for and enhance our Services.

      5. We use certain third-party analytics tools to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the Services. These tools collect information, which is not personal or sensitive in nature sent by your device or our Services, including the web pages you visit, add-ons, and other information that assists us in improving the Services. We collect and use this analytics information with analytics information from other Users in the form of anonymised logs, so that it cannot reasonably be used to identify any particular individual user.

      6. We use certain information provided by you in order to facilitate communications between you and other Pratidhi users.

      7. We may anonymize your Personal Information (including Sensitive Personal Information) so that you cannot be individually identified, and provide that information to our partners. We may combine this information with content received from our other users, for research and development purposes in order to enhance the quality of our Services.

      8. We will maintain written transcripts and audio recordings of your interaction with the Experts to provide our Services, which may contain your Personal Information. This information shall only be accessible by the Experts and specific employees of Pratidhi in the process of providing the Services.

6. What rights do you grant to us?

   1. For any content that you share on our Website's discussion forum or through other communications with us, that contain Intellectual Property Rights, like photos and videos ("IP Content"), you specifically grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license ("IP License") to use such User Content for the purpose of providing the Services to you. This IP License will end when you delete such IP Content or your User Account. This Clause does not apply to images, videos or other content containing Intellectual Property Rights, shared only with your Expert while availing the Services.

   2. When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be made available to others).

7. Why do we retain your information?

   1. Subject to applicable law, all information (and copies thereof) collected by Pratidhi, including without limitation Personal Information, User Data, and other information related to your access and use of the Services, may be retained by Pratidhi at least for a period of 7 (seven) years from the date of disclosure by you, including but not limited to, for purposes such as compliance with statutory or legal obligations, tax laws and potential evidentiary purposes in accordance with applicable law and for other reasonable purposes such as to implement, administer, and manage your access and use of our Services, or resolution of any disputes.

8. How do we collect, protect and share information you provide during a consultation?

   1. Any information shared by you during personal consultation ("Confidential Information") shall be excluded from the definition of Personal Information and shall not be collected/used in the same manner as Personal Information as mentioned in clause 3 and 5 above.

   2. Your Confidential Information shall not be disclosed or shared by Pratidhi, its employees, its agents or any third party contractors, including Experts with any third party, either orally or in writing, except in the following circumstances:

      1. If Pratidhi believes that there is a significant/ real/ imminent threat or risk to your health, safety or life or to the health, safety or life of any other person or the public ("Red Flags");

      2. If Pratidhi is required to share such Confidential Information to any authority by law; and

      3. If you have claimed a health care insurance and such Confidential Information is required by the insurer.

   3. In case of Red Flags, Pratidhi may share your Confidential Information and Personal Information with your employer, institution or other entity enabling you to access our Services.

9. Will we share any of the information we receive?

   1. We may share Personal Information (including but not limited to, information from cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data, and usage data) with businesses that are legally part of the same group of companies that Pratidhi is part of, or that become part of that group ("Affiliates").Our Affiliates may only use this information to help provide, understand, and improve the Services (including by providing analytics) and Affiliates' own services (including by providing you with better and more relevant experiences).

   2. We also may share your Personal Information as well as information from tools like cookies, log files, and device identifiers and location data, with third-party organizations that help us provide the Services to you. Our service providers will only be given access to your information as is reasonably necessary to provide the Services. All the service providers and third parties engaged by Pratidhi for providing the Services shall be bound by adequate confidentiality terms to protect the Confidential Information (that may be shared with such service provider/third party only to the extent allowed by this Privacy Policy) and the Personal Information of the User so that such information is not used in any manner not specified in this Privacy Policy.

   3. While sharing any information with any third party for purposes other than providing the Services to you, we will remove parts of data that can identify you and share only anonymized data with other parties. We may also combine your information with other information in a way that it is no longer associated with you and share that anonymised aggregated information which cannot be traced back to you.

   4. Please note that only Personal Information or content that you voluntarily disclose and consent to posting to the Website, or post to any social media account owned and operated by Pratidhi, will become available to the public. No other information provided by you is shared with the public. Once you have shared such information or made it public, the same may be re-shared by others, re-posted by Pratidhi, or used by Pratidhi for the purposes of promotion, analysis, research or studies.

   5. We may share information about you with your employer, institution or other entity that enables your access to our Services, after ensuring that such information has been anonymised to ensure that your identity cannot be determined. We will not share your Personal Information or Confidential Information with your employer, educational institution or other entity that enables your access to our Services, except in circumstances identified in Clause 8.2.1.

   6. Pratidhi shall not ordinarily share the Sensitive Personal Information of a User to a third party without their prior consent. You agree that Pratidhi may disclose your Sensitive Personal Information without obtaining your prior consent in the following limited circumstances:

      1. To a court, governmental agency or authority, when it is requested or required by law or by such court or governmental agency or authority, for the purpose of verification of identity, or for the prevention, detection, investigation including cyber incidents, or for prosecution and punishment of offences. These disclosures are made in good faith and belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary for enforcing the Terms of Service, this Privacy Policy, or for complying with the applicable laws and regulations.

      2. To its Affiliates, officers and employees of such Affiliates, for the purpose of processing such Sensitive Personal Information on its behalf. Pratidhi also ensures that the recipients of such information agree to process such information based on our instructions and in compliance with this Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

10. Is Personal Information about you secure?

    1. Please make sure that you maintain the secrecy of your account information. For the safety and security of your information, we have implemented procedures to help protect the information that you provide to us. We restrict access to information about you to those Pratidhi employees who need to know that information as part of their job responsibilities. We also educate our employees about the importance of confidentiality and customer privacy through standard operating protocols. However, no method of transmitting or storing electronic data is ever completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that such information will never be accessed, used, or released in a manner that is inconsistent with this policy. We expressly disclaim any representation or warranty, whether express or implied, with respect to ensuring, guaranteeing, or otherwise offering any definitive promise of security in connection with your Information. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your account information at all times.

    2. You are solely responsible for maintaining confidentiality of your password and user identification to access your User Account ("User Credentials"). You shall be solely responsible for all activities and transmission performed by you through your User Credentials. Pratidhi assumes no responsibility or liability for your improper use of your Credentials or information contained in your User Account.

11. Third-party sites

    1. The Website may contain links to other websites ("Linked Sites"). The Linked Sites are not under the control of Pratidhi. We are not responsible for the content of any Linked Site, including, without limitation to, any link contained in a Linked Site, or any changes or updates to a Linked Site.

    2. Pratidhi does not intend the Linked Sites to be referrals to, endorsements of, or affiliations with the linked entities.

    3. On accessing the Linked Sites, you shall be governed by the terms of use, privacy policy and such other additional policies of the Linked Sites. You further acknowledge and agree that Pratidhi shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any such content, advertising, products, services or other materials available on or through any Linked Sites or for any errors, defamatory content, libel, slander, omissions, falsehoods, obscene content, pornographic material, or any profanity contained therein.

12. What rights do you have?

    1. Updating and deleting your information: You may request access to your Personal Information and request its updation by writing to us at teampratidhi@gmail.com and we will respond within a reasonable time. If granted by applicable law, you may have the right to seek deletion of your Personal Information in our possession by writing to us. However, if you request deletion of your Personal Information, we will not be able to provide you the Services, as we require access to your information in order to provide you the Services.

    2. When you update information, however, we may maintain a copy of the unrevised information in our records. Please note that some information may remain in our private records after your deletion of such information from your User Account. We may use any aggregated data derived from or incorporating your Personal Information after you update or delete it, but not in a manner that would identify you personally.

13. Dispute resolution

    1. In the event of any dispute, controversy or claim arising out of or relating to this Privacy Policy or any subsequent amendments to this Privacy Policy including, without limitation, the breach of the terms hereunder, termination, validity or invalidity thereof, or any non-contractual issues relating to this Privacy Policy (each, a "Dispute"), each of the parties will appoint a designated officer to meet for the purpose of endeavouring to resolve such Dispute amicably or to negotiate for an adjustment to such provision.

    2. All Disputes, which are not settled pursuant to the issue resolution procedures set forth in Clause 13.1 above, will be referred and settled by final and binding arbitration by a sole arbitrator mutually appointed by the parties in accordance with the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 as amended from time to time, and the seat of arbitration shall be at Bengaluru.

14. Governing law and jurisdiction

    1. This Privacy Policy shall be governed by and constructed in accordance with the laws of India, without reference to conflict of laws principles. Subject to Clause 13.2 above, the courts in Bengaluru shall have exclusive jurisdiction to determine any disputes arising in relation to, or under, the terms of this Privacy Policy