This policy explains what information we collect when you access India Development Review’s (IDR) website and IDR Answers, and consume its content (collectively, IDR Platform). It also has information about how we process that information. IDR is registered as Forum for Knowledge and Social Impact, a Section 8 company registered under the Indian Companies Act 2013, having its office at 401A Mon Repos, Bandstand, Bandra West, Mumbai – 400050.
Our aim is not just to comply with privacy law. It’s to earn your trust.
Before using the IDR Platform, please take a moment to read and understand this Privacy Policy (Privacy Policy). The terms ‘you’, ‘your’ refer to anyone who accesses or uses the IDR Platform. The terms ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’ refer to IDR.
By selecting the checkbox which says ‘By signing in you are accepting to our Terms and conditions and the Privacy Policy’ while using IDR Answers and/or by accessing the IDR Platform, you agree to abide by this Privacy Policy, as may be amended from time to time. This Privacy Policy along with the IDR Terms of Use and IDR Answers Terms of Use (as applicable) will form a legally binding agreement between you and us. All terms defined in the IDR Answers Terms of Use will have the same meaning here. If you do not agree with any part of the policy, please refrain from using IDR Platform and discontinue any existing access or use of IDR Platform.
Information we collect and how we use it
We don’t make money from ads. So, we don’t collect data in order to advertise to you. The tracking we do is to make our product work as well as possible.
In order to give you the best possible experience on the IDR Platform, we collect information from your interactions with our website. The information we collect is based on the actions you take while using the IDR Platform. Some of this information, you actively tell us (such as your email address, which we use to communicate with you or track your account or in cases where you make a donation to us). Other information, we automatically collect, such as what pages you access and your interactions with our product features (like social media sharing). This information includes records of those interactions, your Internet Protocol address, cookies, and information about your device (such as device or browser type).
When you donate using our website, we collect information such as your: (1) address, (2) name, (3) email address, (4) PAN Card number, and (5) phone number. Separately, when you create your IDR Answers account, and authenticate with a third-party service (like LinkedIn, Facebook or Google) we may collect, store, and periodically update information associated with that third-party account, such as your credentials, name, email address, profile picture, language preference, lists of friends or followers. We will never publish through your third-party account without your permission. We may also, as a part of IDR Answers capture queries asked by you (Inputs), and Outputs provided by the portal.
We use this information for the following purposes:
- provide, test, improve, and personalise the IDR Platform;
- fight spam and other forms of abuse;
- generate aggregate, non-identifying information about how people use the IDR Platform;
- help us understand user requirements and design better content; and
- build a strong knowledge-driven ecosystem.
Information disclosure
We won’t transfer information about you to third parties for the purpose of providing or facilitating third-party advertising to you. We won’t sell information about you.
We may share your account information with third parties in some circumstances, including: (1) when we have a good faith belief it is required by law, such as pursuant to a legal process; and (2) when we have a good faith belief that doing so will help prevent imminent harm to someone.
If we are going to share your information in response to legal process, we’ll give you notice so you can challenge it (for example by seeking court intervention), unless we’re prohibited by law or believe doing so may endanger others. We will object to requests for information about users of our services that we believe are improper.
Further, with regards to IDR Answers, our employees, contractors, subcontractors, vendors or service providers, may have access to your Inputs, including providers of hosting services, cloud services, and other information technology services providers, and web analytics services, among others. Pursuant to our instructions, these parties will access, process, or store your information only in the course of performing their duties to us.
Third-party embeds
Some of the content that you see displayed on the IDR Platform is not hosted by us. These ‘embeds’ are hosted by a third-party and embedded in the IDR Platform. For example: YouTube or Vimeo videos, Imgur or Giphy gifs, SoundCloud audio files, Twitter tweets, or Scribd documents that appear within an article. These files send data to the hosted site just as if you were visiting that site directly (for example, when you load an IDR’s article page with a YouTube video embedded in it, YouTube receives data about your activity). We do not control what data third parties collect in cases like this, or what they will do with it. So, third-party embeds on our website are not covered by this privacy policy. They are covered by the privacy policy of the third-party service. We encourage you to be aware of and read the privacy policy of each of these third parties.
Some embeds may ask you for personal information, such as your email address, through a form. We do our best to keep bad actors off of the IDR Platform. However, if you choose to submit your information to a third party this way, we don’t know what they may do with it. As explained above, their actions are not covered by this Privacy Policy. We suggest that you do not submit personal information to any third-party through an embedded form.
Tracking & cookies
We use browser cookies and similar technologies to recognise you when you return to the IDR Platform. We may use them in various ways, for example to log you in and personalise content. We don’t track you across the Internet. We track only your interactions on the IDR Platform.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by online service providers in order to (for example) make their websites or services work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information.
Cookies set by the website owner or service provider (in this case, us) are called ‘first party cookies’. Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called ‘third party cookies’. Third party cookies enable third party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website or service you are using (such as interactive content and analytics). The third parties that set these third-party cookies can recognise your computer both when it visits the website or service in question and also when it visits certain other websites or services.
Some third-party services that we use, such as Google Analytics, may place their own cookies in your browser. This Privacy Policy covers use of cookies by us only and not the use of cookies by third parties.
Data security
We use encryption (HTTPS/TLS) to protect data transmitted to and from our site. However, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, so we can’t guarantee security. You use the service at your own risk, and you’re responsible for taking reasonable measures to secure your account.
Further, we will implement reasonable and appropriate security measures in accordance with industry best practices, such as ISO/IEC 27001 (Information Security Management System), and the regulations prescribed by the relevant Indian authorities, including but not limited to the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, to safeguard your access to and usage of the IDR Platform. In the event that any vulnerabilities or breaches related to the IDR Platform’s usage are discovered, you are obligated to promptly inform us and provide detailed information about the vulnerability or breach.
Your rights
- Where your consent has been obtained and used as the basis for processing your personal data, you may, at any point, withdraw your consent by writing to our grievance redressal officer, whose details are provided below.
Your responsibilities
- Where required, please ensure that you provide us with complete, accurate, verifiable, and up-to-date personal data and update such data promptly when it changes.
- As a part of your Inputs into IDR Answers, ensure no personal data is being transmitted. This would include any data about an individual who is identifiable by or in relation to such data.
- The IDR Platform is not directed to children and are intended for use by adults only. We do not knowingly collect information from individuals under 18 years of age. If you are under the age of 18, please do not engage with the IDR Platform.
Email from IDR
When you create an account with us (through IDR Answers), or when you donate to us, we may send you emails about your account (where applicable), transaction updates, service changes or new policies. You can’t opt out of this type of ‘transactional’ email (unless you delete your account). But, you can opt out of non-administrative emails such as digests, newsletters, and activity notifications.
When you interact with an email sent from IDR (such as opening an email or clicking on a particular link in an email), we may receive information about that interaction. We won’t email you to ask for your password or other account information.
Changes to this policy
We may periodically update this policy. We’ll notify you about significant changes to it.
Questions
You may seek to review the data we’ve collected from you and request the correction or amendment of any discrepancies. If you have any queries or grievances about our processing of your data, you may contact us at writetous@idronline.org for time-bound and speedy redressal. We also welcome feedback about this policy at writetous@idronline.org.