This privacy policy describes EliteColumn’s policy regarding the collection, use, disclosure, destruction and transfer of your information by EliteColumn and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliate(s) (collectively referred to as the EliteColumn), which operates websites and other services including but not limited to delivery of information and content via any mobile or internet connected device or otherwise (collectively the “services”). This privacy policy forms part and parcel of the terms of use for the services.
By accessing the website you consent to collection, storage, and use of the personal information you provide (including any changes there to as provided by you) for any of the services that we offer.
EliteColumn respects the privacy of the users of the services and is committed to reasonably protect it in all respects. The information about the user as collected by EliteColumn is: (a) information supplied by users and (b) information automatically tracked while navigation (c) information collected from any other source (collectively referred to as Information).
We may update, improve and develop the services which will lead to changes in the policy. You are recommended to refer back to it periodically.
1. Information Supplied By Users
The Information as supplied by the users enables us to develop the services and provide you the most user-friendly experience.
All required information is service dependent and EliteColumn may use user information to, maintain, protect, and improve the services and for developing new services. We may use your email address to send commercial or marketing messages without your consent [with an option to subscribe / unsubscribe (where feasible)]. We may, however, use your email address without further consent for non-marketing or administrative purposes (such as notifying you of major changes, for customer service purposes, etc.).
Any personally identifiable information provided by you will not be considered as sensitive if it is freely available and / or accessible in the public domain. Further, any comments, messages, blogs, scribbles etc.
Any posted/uploaded/conveyed/communicated by users on the public sections becomes published content and is not considered personally identifiable information subject to this privacy policy.
In case you choose to decline to submit personally identifiable information on the website, we may not be able to provide certain services. In any case, we will not be liable and or responsible for the denial of certain services to you for lack of you providing the necessary personal information.
2. Information Automatically Tracked While Navigation
a) Cookies To improve the responsiveness of the website for our users, we may use “cookies”, or similar electronic tools to collect information to assign each visitor a unique, random number as a User Identification (User ID) to understand the user’s individual interests using the identified computer. The only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply. A cookie cannot read data off your hard drive. We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us via website through your computer/laptop/netbook or mobile/tablet/pad/handheld device etc.
b) Log File Information Our web servers automatically collect limited information about your computer’s connection to the Internet, mobile number, including your IP address, when you visit our site. Your IP address is a number that lets computers attached to the Internet know where to send you data — such as pages you view. We automatically receive and log information from your browser, including your IP address, your computer’s name, your operating system, browser type and version, CPU speed, and connection speed. We may also collect log information from your device, including your location, IP address, your device’s name, device’s serial number or unique identification number (e.g.. UDiD on your iOS device), your device operating system, browser type and version, CPU speed, and connection speed etc.
c) Clear GIFs We may use “clear GIFs” (Web Beacons) to track the online usage patterns of our users in an anonymous manner, without personally identifying the user. We may also use clear GIFs in HTML-based emails sent to our users to track which emails are opened by recipients. We use this information to inter-alia deliver our web pages to you upon request, to tailor our site to the interests of our users, to measure traffic, to improve the website quality, functionality and interactivity and let advertisers know the geographic locations from where our visitors come.
d) Information From Other Sources: We may receive information about you from other sources, add it to our account information and treat it in accordance with this policy. We may obtain updated contact information from third parties in order to correct our records and fulfil the services or to communicate with you
e) Demographic And Purchase Information: We may reference other sources of demographic and other information in order to provide you with more targeted communications and promotions. We use google analytics, among others, to track the user behavior on our website. Google analytics specifically has been enabled to support display advertising towards helping us gain understanding of our user’s demographics and interests. The reports are anonymous and cannot be associated with any individual personally identifiable information that you may have shared with us. You can opt-out from displaying advertisements and customize google display network ads using the advertisement settings options provided by google.
3. Links To Third Party Sites / Ad – Servers
The website may include links to other websites or applications. Such websites or applications are governed by their respective privacy policies, which are beyond our control. Once you leave our servers (you can tell where you are by checking the URL in the location bar on your browser), use of any information you provide is governed by the privacy policy of the operator of the application you are visiting. That policy may differ from ours. If you cannot find the privacy policy of any of these sites via a link from the application’s homepage, you should contact the application owners directly for more information.
When we present information to our advertisers — to help them understand our audience and confirm the value of advertising on our websites or applications — it is usually in the form of aggregated statistics on traffic to various pages / content within our websites or applications.
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our websites. These companies may use information (not including email address or other personally identifiable information) about your visits to this and other websites or application, in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.
We do not provide any personally identifiable information to third party websites / advertisers / ad-servers without your consent.
4. Information Sharing
EliteColumn shares sensitive personal information with any third party without obtaining the prior consent of the user in the following limited circumstances:
a) When it is requested or required by law or by any court or governmental agency or authority to disclose, 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 these terms or for complying with the applicable laws and regulations.
b) EliteColumn proposes to share such information within its group companies and officers and employees of such group companies for the purpose of processing personal information on its behalf. We also ensure that these 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.
c) EliteColumn may present information to our advertisers – to help them understand our audience and confirm the value of advertising on our websites – however it is usually in the form of aggregated statistics on traffic to various pages within our site.
d) EliteColumn may share your information regarding your activities on websites with third party social websites to populate your social wall that is visible to other people however you will have an option to set your privacy settings, where you can decide what you would like to share or not to share with others.
5. Information Security
We take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. These include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, including appropriate encryption and physical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to systems where we store personal data. All information gathered on TWL is securely stored within the company controlled database. The database is stored on servers secured behind a firewall; access to the servers is password-protected and is strictly limited. However, as effective as our security measures are, no security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our database, nor can we guarantee that information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet. And, of course, any information you include in a posting to the discussion areas is available to anyone with Internet access.
6. Updates / Changes
The internet is an ever evolving medium. We may alter our privacy policy from time to time to incorporate necessary changes in technology, applicable law or any other variant. In any case, we reserve the right to change (at any point of time) the terms of this privacy policy or the terms of use. Any changes we make will be effective immediately on notice, which we may give by posting the new policy on the website. Your use of services after such notice will be deemed acceptance of such changes. We may also make reasonable efforts to inform you via electronic mail. In any case, you are advised to review this privacy policy periodically to ensure that you are aware of the latest version.