Published on 14th April, 2022
We value the trust you repose in the ‘AdvocateUpdate’. We treat privacy of our visitors including yours with utmost respect and we are fully committed to protect your privacy in all respects because we understand you’re your privacy is very important to you. Therefore, before proceeding further, you are requested to read thoroughly this Privacy Policy and its contents contained hereinafter.
This Privacy Policy categorically states and explains as to what kind of information and personal data belonging to you is collected, stored, used and shared by us when you access, use, visit, browse our website and it also lays out the reasons for collecting the aforementioned information and how it is used by us. This Privacy Policy also informs about your rights and options with regard to aforementioned use and sharing of information and data provided by you while accessing, using, visiting, browsing our website.
APPLICABILITY OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY
If while accessing, using, visiting, browsing our website, you are residing in California, USA or a user subject based in Europe, please read more declarations about it in the last section of this Privacy Policy.
As internet is ever evolving, so we also keep improving, updating and growing our services. Accordingly, this Privacy Policy may incorporate some changes, therefore, you are advised to peruse it intermittently.
Please note, our Privacy Policy is applicable only to our online activities in ‘AdvocateUpdate’ and is valid for visitors to our website with regards to the information/personal data that they share and/or we collect in AdvocateUpdate. This privacy policy does not apply to any other information/personal data collected by us offline or through mediums other than this website.
USAGE OF MOBILE APPLICATION
This policy shall be applicable to our mobile application as well. You are advised to update to the most current version of our mobile application. For any damage or loss due to collection, storage and processing of any of your information/personal data while using outdated version of these application and/or accessing discontinued services by you, we may not be assume any responsibility/liability.
If you have more queries or need further information about our Privacy Policy, please do not hesitate to contact us by going to ‘Contact Us’ section of this website.
USER CONSENT
By using services of our website, you agree and give consent to our collection, use, storage and sharing of your information/personal data as detailed in this policy. However, if you do not agree and do not want to give consent to the system and procedures outlined hereinafter, you are requested to stop using this website.
COLLECTION OF INFORMATION:
‘Information or Personal Data’ mentioned hereinbefore, denotes the personally identifiable information that is associated (whether directly or indirectly) with a particular person and can be used to identify (whether directly or indirectly) that particular person.
While visiting our website, if you are asked to give your information/personal data, we shall make it clear to you at that very point, the kind of information asked as well as the reasons for asking.
This information/personal data that may be collected by us includes but is not limited to, name, postal address, e-mail address and information about the particular individual/natural person including their/your interests in and use of various services provided by us.
When you access, use, visit, browse our website, we will collect only that much information which you voluntarily submit. You have absolute discretion to provide whatever information you feel proper. However, not providing certain information may affect or limit your capacity to use our website partially or completely. And when you provide your personal information to us, you give your express consent to us for processing your personal information in conformity with the terms of this privacy policy.
If you choose to contact us directly, (for instance, at the time of registration for an account with us or for a newsletter from us), you may be asked by us to give additional information about you such as your name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone/mobile number, year of birth (to comply with children related policies), gender, education, job, industry etc, the contents of the message and/or attachments which you may send us. In case, there is financial transaction requested by you, then in order to process the same, our payment gateway provider i.e. third-party payment processor may collect your personal information including your credit/debit card number and expiry date etc wherever necessary.
Sometimes while visiting our website, you may opt to voluntarily submit information which we have not requested from you, in such circumstances, responsibility for such information lies solely with you only.
Information Automatically Collected and Stored:
Log File Information
Our website follows a standard procedure of using log files to collect information. These log files are used by all hosting companies and it is part of their hosting services’ analytics. Certain kind of information about your use of our website or your electronic device may be got automatically collected by us when you access, visit, use, browse our website without registering with it. This information does not and cannot identify you as a person. However, it may include but not limited to your device information like IP address, type of browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome etc.), operating system (e.g. Windows, Mac OS etc.) device hardware, software and its settings etc., Internet Service Provider, timings, time spent on device and type of content/articles you use, read, your locational data etc. This aforementioned information may be collected by using cookies, web beacons and other tracking technologies by us and our service providers.
Cookies
Our website uses Cookies and similar other technologies. These cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer/device when you visit our website or most other websites, apps. These cookies are used in order to provide better experience to our visitors. The cookies are essential for our website to function in proper and efficient manner. More details about how cookies functions on our website, please see last section of this Privacy Policy about standard WordPress policies of WordPress Content Management System which we follow.
For further general information about cookies, please read “Cookie” at https://www.aboutcookies.org.uk/cookies.
Web Beacons (“clear GIFs”)
We may use Web Beacons also referred to as “clear GIFs” are bits of information that are used to check the online usage behavior of our visitors. This is such a kind of technology which helps us count the number of visitors who visits a website or its page. We may use this technology to improve functionality, efficiency of our website. We may also use the Web Beacons to inform advertisers about number of customers who clicked on their advertisements and where they are located geographically. However, this information through Web Beacons is gathered in an aggregated manner without personally identifying the visitors to our website.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics (https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites), among others, to track and report website traffic and the user behaviour on our website. Google Analytics specifically has been enabled towards helping us access and assess our users’ demographics and interests and also to support show advertisements on our website. The reports are anonymous and does not disclose any individual personally identifiable information that you may have shared with us. You have the option to opt out of Google Analytics for display advertising and customize the Google Display Network ads using the Ads Settings options provided by Google here (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout ).
Google DoubleClick DART Cookie
Like many other websites, our website may associate with Google to show advertisements to our visitors. Google may use cookies for a number of purposes inter alia to show advertisements that are likely to be more relevant i.e. based on websites you have visited on the internet. Google uses cookies, known as DART cookies, to serve advertisements to the visitors of our website. However, visitors have the option to decline the use of DART cookies by visiting the Google ad and content network Privacy Policy at the following URL – https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads
Information Collection by Third-Party Websites/ Other Web-platforms:
Please be notified that when you give your information to us on a third-party website or some other web-platform (such as, through our applications like social media login, the information which we collect through those third-party websites linked with our applications come within purview of this privacy policy. However, any information which the third-party website or some other web-platform gathers or may gather from you is governed by the privacy policies of only those third-party website or web-platform. And when you make privacy options on those third-party website or web-platform, those options will not be applicable to us when we use the information which we have collected directly through our applications.
Please be aware that our website and applications may contain links to other websites which are governed by their own privacy policies which may be different from our privacy policies and over which we have no access to or control in any manner. Thus, we are not liable or responsible for the privacy policies and procedures of those websites in any manner. Nevertheless, we suggest you and call upon you to read the privacy policies of other websites that may collect your personal information at the time when you leave our website or applications.
Information Collection by Third-Party Advertisers/Sponsors
We allow trusted third-party advertisers to place advertisements on our website. These third-party advertisers in order to show advertisements, use Cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons and they may seek your permission to place or identify a unique “cookie” on your browser and may use your non-personally identifiable information such as about your visits to websites, including our website, so that they can show you relevant advertisements about goods and services matching to your interests.
Please be notified (as mentioned hereinbefore) that we have no access to or control over these cookies employed by the aforementioned third-party advertisers. However, you can opt to disable cookies through your individual browser settings. To get more information in detail about cookie management with specific web browsers, please visit your browsers’ respective websites.
HOW LONG WE RETAIN YOUR INFORMATION/ERASURE
We store your data/personal information as long as needed by us to provide services to you or allowed as per applicable law(s) to collect in the first place for the reasons we collected or required by applicable laws to retain the information or for our legal purposes. However, if you no longer want us to use your information then you can request as per applicable law(s) for erasure of your data/personal information by writing to our designated Grievance Officer, either by writing letter or through email signed with the electronic signature. If you have a number of accounts with us, please note that you will have to make distinct request for each of the accounts, along with the corresponding email IDs or phone numbers.
HOW WE USE/PROCESS INFORMATION
The information/data as tendered by the users to us on our website helps us to provide, manage and improve our services and give you a better and personalised experience on our website so as to enable you to post comments/feedback, register account with us, processing subscription, sending e-newsletter, notifications and updates, and for developing new services. We may also use personally identifiable information to deliver and assess advertisements and promotions (including personalised advertisements) from our advertisers, commercial or marketing messages about our Services and/or such additional updates and features about third parties’ products and services with an option to subscribe/unsubscribe (where feasible).
We may also use the above said information for understanding and resolving technical issues, complying with legal procedures, contractual obligations, regulatory requirements, legal dispute resolution fora, monitoring and preventing illegal acts such fraud, cyberattacks etc.
It is made clear that 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 like any comments, messages, blogs, scribbles available on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Any information posted/uploaded/conveyed/communicated by users on the public sections of the websites becomes published content and is not considered personally identifiable information and thus not covered by this Privacy Policy.
If you opt to decline to furnish personally identifiable information on the website, it may impact our ability to serve you fully on our website. Regarding this limitation, we will reasonably try to inform you at the time when you register with us. Nevertheless, no liability or responsibility can be fastened upon us for denial of certain services to you for your failure to furnish the necessary personal information.
SHARING OF INFORMATION
We may share your information with any third party(ies) including but not limited to our service providers such as database management system providers, email service providers, web analytic, payment processors etc. We may share your information with our affiliates, for inter alia commercial purposes, including for customer support, marketing, and technical operations. We may also pass on information (aggregate statistics on various pages of our website and not any personal information) to our advertisers and third parties to assist them understand our audience and assess the value of advertising on our website. We can share personal information to meet the requirements of law as well as public authorities as applicable in order to protect and defend rights, property, life, health, safety of ours as well as our users or general public when we have bona fide reasons to believe that someone may cause interference or disruption with our services intentionally or otherwise and which may cause harm to others.
Links to Third-Party Contents and Advertisers
Our website may contain links to some content/s of any third-party websites/applications/social media platforms or may also show links to our advertisers which are governed by their own respective privacy policies for which we claim no liability or responsibility in any manner.
YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING INFORMATION
You can unsubscribe from email newsletter by following the “unsubscribe” link at the end of the email. With regard to Push Notifications, you can opt out any time by adjusting your device settings, or uninstalling our app.
Accessing, updating, deleting, changing or other rights regarding personal information
We make bona fide efforts as and when requested by you to provide access to your personal information, to change, modify, amend, delete or update your personal information which we have. However, our such efforts to comply with your request would be subject to any requirement of law as applicable or business purpose to retain that information or extreme practical difficulties. While asking for change, modify, amend, delete or update your personal information, please identify yourself and be specific about the portion of information requested.
CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS / CCPA
This part of our Privacy Policy is applicable only to individuals who are residents of State of California, USA. California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (hereinafter referred to as “CCPA”) provides you (if you are a California resident) more control over the personal information in addition to the rights mentioned hereinbefore. CCPA also requires us to give you more information in addition to the information presented hereinbefore.
Under the provisions of CCPA, as a California resident you can ask us to supply specific information falling in certain categories inter alia such as “Identifiers” including but not limited to your name, postal address, email address, device ID, IP address, “Financial Data/Commercial Data” including but not limited to purchases history, Credit card/Debit Card information , “Geolocation Data” including but not limited to Geolocation information such as WiFi, “Internet Data” including but not limited to browsing history, app usage, “Inferences” including but not limited to preferences, favorites, behavior, attitude, “Demographic Data” including but not limited to gender, year of birth. For more details about information collection by us as well as Category of Sources of Information, please see COLLECTION OF INFORMATION in the above part of this Privacy Policy.
We collect and use the abovementioned categories of information for business/commercial purpose with your consent is to inter alia improve and manage our services, to deliver advertisements. For more information on use of such information please see HOW WE USE/PROCESS INFORMATION in the above part of this Privacy Policy.
Our website does not collect or use or process the personal information relating to consumers who are under 18 years of age.
We may share your information as detailed in any of the abovementioned categories of information with categories of third-parties inter alia third-party websites/web platforms, our business partners, third-party affiliates, third-party advertisers, service providers, government and law enforcement authorities etc. For more information on how and what information we share with categories of third-parties, please see SHARING OF INFORMATION in the above part of this Privacy Policy.
In normal meaning of the term “sell”, we do not consider sharing information with others to mean selling information. However, as the term “sale and/or sell and/or selling” has been defined under the CCPA in such a manner which may cause sharing of data with third-party advertisers or for web-analytics to be interpreted in some inexplicable circumstances as “sale and/or sell and/or selling”. Thus, in order to comply with such provisions of the applicable law, we declare that we share following categories of information with third-parties inter alia third-party websites/web platforms, our business partners, third-party affiliates, third-party advertisers, service providers for commercial business purposes and/or for providing better services to our users: “Identifiers”, “Financial Data/Commercial Data”, “Geolocation Data”, “Internet Data”, “Inferences”, “Demographic Data”. For more information on how and what information we share with categories of third-parties, please see SHARING OF INFORMATION in the above part of this Privacy Policy and other foregoing paragraphs.
PRIVACY RIGHTS OF CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS
Right to Know: If you are a California resident, the CCPA empowers you to with right to know the categories of specific personal information relating to them that we collect, store and share; the categories of sources from which the aforementioned information was gathered; the categories of aforementioned personal information we collected, shared or sold for business or commercial purpose; and the categories of third parties with whom we share such aforementioned personal information.
Right to access: As a California resident, you can demand access to and/or get of copy of your personal information collected/stored, if any, by us.
Right to delete: As a California resident, you can ask in written for deletion of your personal information collected/stored, if any, by us.
To know more about your rights under CCPA, as a California resident and also to exercise any of aforementioned rights, please sent a written request via email at [email protected] specifying therein the right you want to exercise. We will make reasonable efforts to verify your identity and request for which we need 30 day to respond to you. If your identity cannot be verified, we will be unable to accept your request to know or delete the information as requested by you. Please be notified that we may also decline your request regarding certain information which may be exempt under the applicable and relevant laws from disclosure or deletion on the grounds of legal compliance requirements or securing our businesses.
Right Not-to-be Discriminated: Under the CCPA, you have further rights as not-to-be discriminated against for exercising any of your aforementioned rights.
Right to Opt-out (Do Not Sell My Personal Information): In so far as our sharing of personal information with third-parties for advertisements, commercial etc. purposes is considered as “selling” within the definitional terms of CCPA, you have the right under CCPA to opt-out of the “sale” of your personal information by writing email to us at [email protected]. We shall provide in due course a dedicated online form as well for exercising such right. Please note that as a California resident you can file your requests for exercise of your aforementioned rights through an Authorized Agent appointed by you through Authority Letter signed by you. However, we will verify the credentials of the Written Authority Letter before processing such request through Authorized Agent.
GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (GDPR)
As a user in European Union and European Economic Area, you have certain privacy rights which inter alia are as following:
The right to be informed – We will make all reasonable efforts to make you aware of your privacy rights and data protection rights in relation to use of our services.
The right of access – You have the right to demand copies of your personal information that we hold by your consent.
The right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to correct any inaccurate information or personal data belonging to you. You also have the right to get your personal information details or data complete if you believe that it was incomplete. For that rectification or completion of your data, we may request you to furnish supplementary statement of information.
The right to erasure (Right to be forgotten) – As a data subject in European Union, you have right to demand erasure of your personal information/data from our storage under certain circumstances except in case of complying with legal obligation.
The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request for restriction of processing of your personal information/data under specified circumstances.
The right to data portability – You have the right to request us to transmit your personal information/data in a readable format either to you or any other organization of your preference, subject to certain conditions.
The right to object – You have the right to object on grounds particular to you at the time of processing of your data/personal information by us under certain circumstances subject to exception of reasons of public interest.
Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling – You have the right to decline to be bound by a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling without your explicit consent.
POLICY REGARDING CHILDREN’S PRIVACY RIGHTS
We accord great importance to children’s privacy in an online world connected by internet. Our services are not directed at children below 16 years of age. We do not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13 years without parents’ consent. However, if you being a parent or guardian of such a child have reasons to believe that your child has submitted on our website certain personally identifiable information/data not permitted under the applicable laws, please contact us at [email protected] and we will take all reasonable steps to delete such data from our records to the extent not permitted by applicable laws.
Please also note that our website uses WordPress as its content management system, therefore our personal data collection system is also in accordance with standard policies and system employed by WordPress with regard to information/personal data given by the users/visitors of website.
The standard WordPress policies include the following:
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
Where we send your data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
The abovementioned standard WordPress policies relating to privacy is not in derogation but complement to the overall Privacy Policy and would prevail over any other in case of conflict.
Contact information
For further details, please contact us at here [email protected]
CONSENT:
By using our website, your hereby agree and give consent to our Privacy Policy as well as our terms and conditions regarding our system of collection, use, storage and sharing of your personal information and data as laid hereinbefore in this Privacy Policy.
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Queries / Grievances Redressals Mechanism
Grievances Redressal Mechanism: If you have any further questions or grievances with regard to processing of your personal information by us, please contact us by writing a letter or an email to [email protected] as mandated under the IT Rules, 2021 of the Information Technology Act of India. Presently, Grievance Officer for any handling any complaint at AdvocateUpdate is Mr. Ashok Jindal.
You can also send written communication in non-electronic format such as paper documents to us at our postal address in the name of :
Ashok Jindal, Grievance Officer, (AdvocateUpdate.com)
105, Sector-33, Chandigarh
PIN – 160020
While sending complaint, please don’t forget to attach following details:
1. Your complete name along with postal residential address, email id and mobile number
2. Copy of photo-identity card issued by Governmental authority
3. Title & date / link of news report, article or content which is the subject matter of the complaint
Any communication, in this regard, not addressed to the designated person will not be responded to.