Welcome to “GuruAid” Privacy Policy

Hi there, we’re "GuruAid" (Division of Lester inc.) located at 100 South Shore Drive, Suite 175, East Haven, Connecticut, USA(“to”) and welcome to our privacy policy. This policy sets out how we handle your personal information if you’re the user or visitor to our site.

When we say ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘to’ it’s because that’s who we are and we own and run GuruAid.

If we say ‘policy’ we’re talking about this privacy policy. If we say ‘user terms’ we’re talking about the rules for using our service which is mentioned in detail on our website.

a)  The type of personal information we collect:

1)   We collect certain personal information about visitors and users of our Sites.

2)  We may ask you to provide personal information when you

i)  Use our websites
ii)  Request services or support
iii)  Subscribe to newsletters, GuruAid services, promotional emails or other materials
iv)  Contact us

3)  Personal Information we request may include your email address, name, home address and telephone number. If you make a purchase, we may ask for your credit card number and billing information, however we do not store any card details except for the last 4 digits, as it is required to credit any amount that needs to be returned to the subscriber for unused service.

4)  We may also collect demographic information, such as your business or company information.

5)  Forms that you choose to complete will indicate whether information requested is mandatory or voluntary.

6)  The most common types of information we collect include things like: member names, email addresses, IP addresses, other contact details, survey responses.

b)  How we collect personal information:

1)  As a general rule, when acting as a data controller, we do not collect any personal data, that is, information that identifies you as an individual other than that which you choose to provide to us such as the data (including Contact Details and Registration Data) you provide when registering with our site, when contacting us with enquiries relating to our services, any newsletters as may be issued by us from time to time.

2)  We only collect personal data from only you that we need to be able to provide you with the services you request from us

3)  We collect only the data that is legally required to collect/use and to keep for a predetermined period of time.

4)  We believe this data to be necessary for our legitimate business interests

c)  What information we collect from your interaction:

General Customers (Non Paid), who visit our website:

We use cookies on our website. However, we do not collect or store personal data via the cookies used. When someone visits our website we collect standard internet log information. We collect information in a way which does not identify anyone.

We’re talking about the following kinds of details:

i)  Your IP address or proxy server IP address.
ii)  The date and time of your visit to the website.
iii)  The length of your session.
iv)  The pages which you have accessed.
v)  The number of times you access our site within any month.
vi)  The website which referred you to our Sites.
vii)  The operating system which your computer uses.

You can adjust the settings on your computer to prevent cookies being stored on your computer without your explicit consent. This can easily be done by disabling the cookies in the browser on your computer.
For more information about how we use cookies and similar technologies see our cookie policy here and for more general information on cookies, see http://www.guruaid.uk.com/cookie_policy.php

Subscription or Paid Service Information:

When you chose any subscription or paid service, we or our payment gateway provider may collect your purchase. We collect following information:

i)  Full Name
ii)  Postal address or billing information
iii)  Phone Number
iv)  Credit card number and expiration date etc.
v)  Bank Details (If you are opting for Echeck)

d)  Personal information we collect about you from others:

1)  We do not collect any information about you from any other source.

2)  We do not mine any data from social media sites about you or your preferences.

3)  We do not track your browsing history nor do we try to analyze any such data when you avail our services.

e)  How we use personal information:

We will use your personal information: to fulfill a contract, or take steps linked to a contract: in particular to providing you with services that you have subscribed for.

1)  Verifying your identity when you are availing our services.

2)  Responding to support tickets and helping facilitate the resolution of any disputes.

3)  Managing our relationship with you, e.g. by responding to your comments or queries submitted to us on the Sites or asking for your feedback or whether you want to participate in a survey.

4)  Training to staff about how to best serve our user community.

5)  Improving our services by analyzing your interactions, responses or comments.

6)  GuruAid reserves the right to monitor on-line and off-line sessions between user and a Technical Support Executive for quality control of the Service provided to the Customer by Technical Support Executive. In addition, we may record on-line and off-line sessions conducted on the Web site for user reference and to assist in resolution of disputes and/or potential complaints. The session records will also be used to improve the Service, build a support knowledge base, and/or conduct internal market research. Session record data will not be correlated with personally identifiable data about individual customers.

f)  When we disclose your personal information:

We will disclose personal information to the following recipients:

1)  To our employees while servicing your requests for verification and to check previous transaction status.

2)  Our professional advisers (lawyers, accountants, financial advisers etc.) which are located in USA, UK, Australia, Canada and India.

3)  Regulators and government authorities in connection with our compliance procedures and obligations.

4)  A purchaser or prospective purchaser of all or part of our assets or our business, and their professional advisers, in connection with the purchase.

5)  A third party to respond to requests relating to a criminal investigation or alleged or suspected illegal activity.

6)  A third party, in order to enforce or defend our rights, or to address financial or reputational risks.

7)  A rights holder in relation to an allegation of intellectual property infringement or any other infringement.

8)  Other recipients where we are authorized or required by law to do so.

g)  How we keep your personal information secure:

We store personal information on secure servers that are managed by us and our service providers. We work in a paper free environment, so no hard copies are maintained in any of our secure locations in India or the US. Personal information that we store or transmit is protected by security and access controls, including username and password authentication, two-factor authentication, and data encryption where appropriate.

GuruAid takes all reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference and loss, as well as unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. The ways we do this include:

1)  Using encryption when collecting or transferring sensitive information, such as credit card details.

2)  Limiting physical access to our premises.

3)  Limiting access to the information we collect about you.

4)  Ensuring that we have appropriate security safeguards to keep personal information secure.

5)  As required by law.

We encourage you to keep any passwords you use confidential and to be careful to avoid “phishing” scams where someone may send you an email that appears to be from Guruaid asking for your personal information. Guruaid will not request your ID or password or any personal information through email.

h)  How you can access your personal information:

You also have the right to make a request to access other personal information we hold about you and to request corrections of any errors in that data. You can also close the account you have with us for any of our subscriptions at any time. To make an access or correction request, contact our Grievance Officer using the contact details at the end of this policy.

i)  Marketing choices regarding your personal information:

1)  Where we have your consent to do so (e.g. if you have subscribed to one of our e-mail lists or have indicated that you are interested in receiving offers or information from us), we send you marketing communications by email about products and services that we feel may be of interest to you. You can ‘opt-out’ of such communications if you would prefer not to receive them in the future by using the “unsubscribe” facility provided in the communication itself. Customers may prevent their information from being used for purposes other than those for which it was originally collected by emailing us at customerservice@guruaid.com

2)  You also have choices about cookies, as described below. By modifying your browser preferences, you have the choice to accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set, or to reject all cookies. If you choose to reject cookies some parts of our Sites may not work properly in your case.

j)  Information about children:

1)  Our Sites are suitable for children, however if you are under 16 we ask that you do not use our Sites or give us your personal information (if you are a young tech wiz, please direct your nearest responsible adult to use the Sites for you!). If you are from 16 to 18 years, you can browse the Sites but you’ll need the supervision of a parent or guardian to become a registered user. It’s the responsibility of parents or guardians to monitor their children’s use of our Sites.

2)  GuruAid takes children’s privacy seriously. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children through our websites. If you are a child as understood by laws of your country, please do not submit any Personal Information without the consent and participation of a parent or guardian.

k)  Information you make public or give to others:

If you make your personal information available to other people, we can’t control or accept responsibility for the way they will use or manage that data. There are lots of ways that you can find yourself providing information to other people, like when you post a public message on a forum thread, share information via social media, or make contact with another user (such as a third party Author) whether via our Sites or directly via email. Before making your information publicly available or giving your information to anyone else, think carefully. If giving information to another user, ask them how they will handle your information. If you’re sharing information via another website, check the privacy policy for that site to understand its information management practices as this privacy policy will not apply.

l)  How long we keep your personal information:

We retain your personal information for as long as is necessary to provide the services to you and others, and to comply with our legal obligations. If you no longer want us to use your personal information or to provide you with the services, you can request that we erase your personal information and close your account. Please note that if you request the erasure of your personal information we will retain information from deleted accounts as necessary for our legitimate business interests, to comply with the law, prevent fraud, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with investigations, enforce the terms of service and take other actions permitted by law. The information we retain will be handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

m)  When we need to update this policy:

We will need to change this policy from time to time in order to make sure it stays up to date with the latest legal requirements and any changes to our privacy management practices.

When we do change the policy, we’ll make sure to notify you about such changes, where required. A copy of the latest version of this policy will always be available on this page.

n)  How you can contact us:

If you have any questions about our privacy practices or the way in which we have been managing your personal information, any complaints, abuse or concerns with regards to the processing of information provided by you or breach of these terms shall be immediately informed to the designated Grievance Officer as mentioned below via in writing or through email signed with the electronic signature to ombudsman@guruaid.com

Ms. Sarah Hughes
Grievance Officer (GuruAid.com)
100 South Shore Drive,
Suite 175,
East Haven,
Connecticut, 06512
USA

We request you to please provide the following information in your complaint:

A)  Identification of the information provided by you;

B)  Clear statement as to whether the information is personal information or sensitive personal information.

C)  Your address, telephone number or e-mail address;

D)  A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the information has been processed incorrectly or disclosed without authorization, as the case may be;

E)  A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate, and that the information being complained about belongs to you;

F)  You may also contact us in case you have any questions / suggestions about the Privacy Policy using the contact information mentioned above.

G)  The company shall not be responsible for any communication, if addressed, to any non-designated person in this regard.

We’re really glad you made it to the end of the privacy policy, because knowing this stuff is the best way to understand how your personal information is used and how to best manage it!

If you’re a user or visitor in the European Economic Area these rights also apply to you:

For the purposes of applicable EU data protection law (including the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”), we are a ‘data controller’ of your personal information.

Both personal information and personal data have the same meaning in the context of this Privacy Policy.

Privacy Policy V1, effective date 25 May 2018