1. Introduction

Meritshot is committed to protection and management of personal data for efficient functioning to ensure the benefit of our stakeholders, customers and for the community. Thus it is imperative that people’s privacy is safeguarded through lawful and appropriate means for handling personal data. Therefore, we have implemented this privacy policy (hereinafter referred to as ‘‘policy’’).

2. Aim

This policy aims to protect personal data of the various stakeholders connected to Meritshot. This policy is aimed at providing individuals notice of the basic principles by which the company processes the personal data of individuals (“Personal Data”) who visit, use, deal with and/or transacts through the website and includes a guest user and browser (hereinafter ‘you’, ‘user’).

3. Purpose and Scope

The purpose of this policy is to describe how Meritshot collects, uses, and shares information about you through our online interfaces (e.g., websites and mobile applications) owned and controlled by us, including but not limited to https://www.meritshot.com/ (hereinafter the “website”). This policy is also designed to provide information on how Meritshot ensures data security, conducts data transfers and process requests from data subjects.

This policy control applies to all systems, people and processes that comprise the Meritshot’s information systems, including board members, directors, employees and other third parties who have access to Personal Data available within Meritshot .

The company is also committed to ensure that its employees conduct themselves in line with this, and other related, policies. 

Meritshot offers curated and specially designed higher education and industry-relevant certification programs online (“hereinafter individually or collectively referred to as Program”). This Privacy Policy applies to all our services unless specified otherwise.

4. Types of Personal Data collected

The Personal Data that we collect about you depends on the context of your interactions with us, the products, services and features that you use, your location, and the applicable laws.

Personal Data is stored in personnel files or within the electronic records of Meritshot . The following types of Personal Data may be held by the Company, as appropriate, on relevant individuals:

1. Personal Identification Data

• First Name, Last name
• Job title & Company
• Signature
• Photograph
  

1. Identification Data

• Social security or tax identification numbers
• Aadhar number and PAN
  

1. Financial Data

• Bank Account information
• Salary Information
• Payment gateway account details
• E-wallet account details
  

1. Personal Characteristics

• Age
• Gender
• Date of Birth
• Marital Status
• Nationality
  

1. Contact Data

• Postal address
• Email address
• Phone number
   

1. Education and Recruitment Data

• Educational qualification(s)
• Working goals
• Post-qualification experience
  

1. Electronic Identification Data

• Login credentials (If you are a registered user)
• Visitors IP Data
• Date and time of website visit
• Pages visited and navigation on the website
• Browser being used
• Country of accessing website
• Language of the browser being used
• Words searched for
• Pixel tags
  

1. Inquiries

• Personal Data stated in the form – for example: Name, address, phone number, country
• Subject of Inquiry
• Personal details (Name on the card, billing address)
• Payment details (card numbers, card type)
• Recordings of calls with students and users showing interest in our Program.
• Information about your interactions with customer service and maintenance interactions with us.
   

1. User Generated Data

• Projects and Assignments submitted
• Peer feedback and grading
• Program performance data
• Response to quizzes, standalone quizzes, exams, and surveys
• Web Cam Recordings (during assessments related to online courses)
• Posts made to public forums through our platform
• Any other information necessary to ensure conformity with test/ assessment rules, area of interests
   

1. Marketing Data

• Your preferences in receiving marketing information from us
• Your communication preferences
  

1. Behavioural Data

• Data inferred or assumed information relating to your behaviour and interests based on your online activity on our site
   We do not collect any payments information processed by third-party payment gateway providers.

5. Special Categories of Personal Data

Special Category of Personal Data includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade unions memberships, information about your health and genetic and biometric data.

We do not collect or process any special or sensitive Personal Data.

6. Sources of data collection

The data collected by the company is derived directly from the data provided by the user or by use of our site.

Data Collected when You:

• Register for various seminars, webinars or any other outreach initiatives made available by us or Educational Partner’s offline activities
• Request a quote for the various products and services offered by us
• Place a feedback, complete any customer surveys circulated or interact with our customer services online
• View our services or visit our website pages on the internet
• Browse our website
• When you appear for assignments, exams or any other assessments in relation to online course
• When you avail scholarships, refunds and referrals

Data Collected from third parties

We receive Personal Data such as access or login details, profile picture or any other text / image in relation to your Personal Data which may be available with such third parties.

We also receive information about your visits to this platform and to other websites using pixel tags.

Third parties from whom we receive your Personal Data include, our service providers, other networks connected to our service, our advertising partners, our marketing and advertising affiliates, our educational partners, scholarship providers, analytics providers, recruiters and such other third-party sources.

7. Cookies

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard Internet log information and visitor behaviour information. When you visit our websites, we may collect information from you automatically through cookies or similar technology.

Furthermore, we may allow third-party advertising companies (such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Quora and Bing) to place cookies on our website. These cookies enable such companies to track your activity across various sites where they display Ads and record your activities, so they can show Ads that they consider relevant to you as you browse the Internet. These cookies store information about the content you are browsing, together with an identifier linked to your device or IP address.

How do we use cookies?

Meritshoy uses cookies in a range of ways to improve your experience on our website, including:

• To recognize our website user and to enhance user experience when interacting with our website
• We moreover use cookies to help us to analyse the use and performance of our website and services
• We also use cookies to improve the delivery and value of various services and products offered by us.
   

What types of cookies do we use?

There are a few different types of cookies, however, our website uses:

• Persistent Cookies. We use persistent Cookies to improve your experience of using the Sites. This includes recording your acceptance of our Cookie Policy to remove the cookie message which first appears when you use the Sites.
• Session Cookies. Session Cookies are temporary and deleted from your machine when your web browser closes. We use session Cookies to help us track internet usage as described above.
• Analytical/Performance Cookies. Analytical cookies allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and see how many visitors move around our website while they are using it. This helps us improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring the users find what they are looking for.
• Functionality Cookies. Functionality Cookies recognise when you return to the website. This enables the company to create greater content for you and remember your likes and dislikes and other preferences.
• Targeting Cookies. Targeting Cookies records the visit to our website, the pages navigated to and the links clicked upon. It helps to formulate information relevant to the user’s area of interests.

How to manage cookies?

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. Disabling some cookies form the website, may have a negative impact and may result in some non-availability of some features.

If you want to remove previously stored Cookies, you can manually delete the Cookies at any time. However, this will not prevent the Sites from placing further Cookies on your device unless and until you adjust your Internet browser setting as described above.

You can however obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:

• https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647 (Chrome)
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences (Firefox)
• https://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/security/cookies/ (Opera)
• https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies (Internet Explorer)
• https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411 (Safari)
   

These opt-out mechanisms rely on cookies to remember your choices. If you delete your cookies, use another computer or device, or change browsers, you will need to repeat this process. In addition, opting out of interest-based ads will not opt you out of all ads, but rather only those ads that are personalized to your interests.

8. Data Analytics

We use Analytics tools and search information providers to measure how visitors interact with content on our website. We also use Facebook Custom Audiences to ask Facebook to show you ads that are customized based on your interaction with our websites or our Facebook applications and to measure how you interact with those ads. Additional information on how these services use such technologies can be found on Google’s website, Adobe’s website and Facebook’s website.

If you do not wish to have data relating to your visits to our websites collected through Google Analytics, you may opt-out by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. You may opt-out of Facebook Custom Audiences by visiting Facebook’s opt-out page.

9. Aggregated Data

“Aggregated Data” means records that have been stripped of Personal Data and has been manipulated or combined to provide generalised, anonymous information. Your identity and personal information are not available in Aggregated Data. We combine your Personal Data on an anonymous basis with other information to generate Aggregated Data for internal and commercial use and for sharing with affiliates, subsidiaries and business partners for planning and marketing purposes.

10. Data protection principles

Where third parties process data on behalf of Meritshot, we endeavour to obtain assurances from such third parties that your Personal Data will be safeguarded consistently. We understand that it will be accountable for the processing, management and regulation, and storage and retention of all Personal Data held in the form of manual records and on computers.

All Personal Data obtained and held by the Company will:

• be processed fairly, lawfully and in a transparent manner
• be collected for specific, explicit, and legitimate purposes
• be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purposes of processing
• be kept accurate and up to date. Every reasonable effort will be made to ensure that inaccurate data is rectified or erased without delay
• not be kept for longer than is necessary for its given purpose
• be processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of Personal Data including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage by using appropriate technical or organisation measures
• comply with the relevant laws and procedures for international transferring of Personal Data applicable to us.
  

11. Legal basis for processing your Personal Data

Certain jurisdictions require that we have a lawful basis to justify our processing of your Personal Data.

Where applicable, the lawful basis that Meritshot relies upon to justify a particular processing activity may differ from the lawful basis used to justify a different processing activity.

Meritshot relies on the following lawful basis to process Personal Data, as permitted under applicable law:

• Processing necessary for the negotiation, execution, or performance of contracts
• Processing to comply with legal and regulatory obligations
• Processing in furtherance of our legitimate interests, including our interests to conduct legitimate business activities (such as improving our products and services, to communicate with you, to secure our systems, among other legitimate interests)
• Processing necessary to protect vital interest of a user or any other natural person
• Processing necessary for public interest
• Processing based on your consent 

12. Consent

We may obtain your consent to collect and use certain types of Personal Data when we are required to do so by law.

Once consent is obtained from the individual to use his or her information for those purposes, upGrad has the individual’s implied consent to collect or receive any supplementary information that is necessary to fulfil the same purposes. Express consent will also be obtained if, or when, a new use is identified.

Consent may also be implied where a user is given notice and a reasonable opportunity to opt-out of his or her personal information being used for mail-outs, the marketing of new services or products, and the client, customer, member does not opt-out.

Subject to certain exceptions (e.g., the personal information is necessary to provide the service or product, or the withdrawal of consent would frustrate the performance of a legal obligation), individuals can withhold or withdraw their consent for Meritshot to use their personal information in certain ways.

Further, by using this website/ acknowledging this privacy policy / by voluntarily providing us with your Personal Data, you consent to collection, storage, and processing of your Personal Data in accordance with this privacy policy and our Terms of Service.

If you refuse or withdraw your consent, or if you choose not to provide us with any required Personal Data, we may not be able to provide you the services that can be offered on our Platform.

13. Purpose of collecting Personal Data

We collect your Personal Data for the following purposes

• To fulfil or meet the reason you provided the information;
• We use your information for managing and processing purposes, including, but not limited to, tracking attendance, progress and completion of a Program. As part of our management and processing of the Program, we will use certain Personal Data to administer exams, projects, and other assessments for the Program. For example, as part of an exam, Meritshot may use certain information collected from you in order to verify your identity or to monitor your performance during the exam to confirm that you are abiding by the applicable testing rules or requirements;
• To send you updates about the Programs, other upGrad events, platform maintenance or new services provided by upGrad, among other things, through itself or through third parties, via WhatsApp, email, SMS, phone call or any other medium;
• Provide Chat Room services;
• To enhance the quality of our content and product offerings;
• Compliance with security and other mandatory policies and building access;
• Providing information to relevant external authorities for tax, social security and other purposes as legally required;
• Conducting surveys to assess your satisfaction, including but not limited to its processes or policies;
• Setting up and maintaining accounts and subscriptions with third parties that provide information and research services or communication services;
• Making decisions about your continued engagement, employment, or membership;
• Dealing with legal or regulatory disputes or investigations involving you, our work, or other partners, employees, workers, and contractors, including accidents at work, potential and actual negligence claims, and professional discipline matters;
• To monitor use of our information and communication systems to ensure compliance with our IT and document management policies;
• To ensure network and information security, including preventing unauthorized access to our computer and electronic communications systems and preventing malicious software distribution;
• Business management and planning, including accounting, auditing, and insuring;
• Planning or reviewing options in relation to the operation or management;
• Keeping registers required by law or regulation;
• Communicating with you, for example, to respond to inquiries;
• Enhancing the safety and security of the services and preventing fraud, or protecting our or our customers’, or your rights or property;
• Enforcing applicable terms and conditions and other applicable policies;
   

14. Advertising and Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain Personal Data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or if you provided us with your details and expressly consented to receiving that marketing.

We may use your Personal Identification, Identity, Contact, Electronic and User generated Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which services and offers may be relevant for you.

We also enter into agreements with third parties to serve Ads on our behalf across the internet, social networking sites and blogs. These third parties may collect Personal Data about your visits to our platform and your interactions with our products and use this information to target advertisements for goods and services.

Where electronic direct marketing communications are being sent, you have the option to opt-out in each communication sent, and this choice will be recognized and adhered to by us.

15. Data subject rights

Some jurisdictions have provided individuals with certain rights in relation to the processing of their Personal Data. These rights are not available to everyone, and they do not necessarily apply in all contexts. Depending on applicable law, you may have the right to:

• Request access to your Personal Data.
• Request correction of your Personal Data (should your Personal Data be inaccurate, incomplete, or obsolete).
• Request deletion of your Personal Data
• Withdraw your consent to processing (where we processed Personal Data on the basis of your consent). Please note that withdrawing your consent applies only to future processing activities.
• Object to the processing of your Personal Data.
• Request restrictions on the processing of your Personal Data.
• Request the transfer of your Personal Data to you or a third party.
• Opt-out of certain transfers to third parties.
• Request to opt out of automated decision making.
   

16. Our Policy on Children’s Data

Children’s data privacy is important to us. Our Sites are not intended for children Age to constitute a user as children is different for different jurisdictions. The age (for valid consent) of children varies across jurisdictions. For example, under GDPR child is a person aged 16 years or below, and in United Kingdom, children is someone who is aged 13 , in case of Singapore and Qatar the valid age for providing consent is 18 years.

As a general policy, our company does not engage in the collection, processing, storage, use, dissemination, and transfer of Personal Data of children.

In case such a collection becomes necessary for the performance of our contractual obligations, or when required under the concerned law, we shall notify you in a time-bound and appropriate manner, informing the purposes and reasons for such collection and seek your explicit consent, and where applicable, parental authorization, prior to the processing of such data.

We will take appropriate steps to delete any Personal Data of children’s that has been collected on our website without verified parental consent upon learning of the existence of such Personal Data, subject to conditions stipulated in the laws of applicable jurisdiction.

17. Data Security

Meritshot will ensure that appropriate technical and organizational measures are in place, supported by privacy impact and risk assessments, to ensure a high level of security for Personal Data, and secure environment for information held both manually and electronically.

Meritshot implements appropriate security measures designed to prevent unlawful or unauthorized processing of personal information and accidental loss of or damage to personal information. Meritshot maintains written security management policies and procedures designed to prevent, detect, contain, and correct violations of measures taken to protect the confidentiality, integrity, availability, or security of your Personal Information. These policies and procedures assign specific data security responsibilities and accountabilities to specific individuals, include a risk management program that includes periodic risk assessment and provide an adequate framework of controls that safeguard your personal information.

In addition, as part of its organizational security measures, employees at Meritshot must:

• ensure that all files or written information of a confidential nature are stored in a secure manner and are only accessed by people who have a need and a right to access them
• ensure that all files or written information of a confidential nature are not left where they can be read by unauthorised people
• check regularly on the accuracy of data being entered into computers
• always use the passwords provided to access the computer system cautiously and such access should not be circulated, unless absolutely necessary
• use computer screen blanking to ensure that Personal Data is not left on screen when not in use.
   

Personal Data should not be kept or transported on laptops, USB sticks, or similar devices, unless authorised by [insert details]. Where Personal Data is recorded on any such device it should be protected by:

• ensuring that data is recorded on such devices only where absolutely necessary
• using an encrypted system — a folder should be created to store the files that need extra protection and all files created or moved to this folder should be automatically encrypted
• ensuring that laptops or USB drives are not left lying around where they can be stolen.
   

Failure to follow the Company’s rules on data security may be dealt with via the Company’s disciplinary procedure. Appropriate sanctions include dismissal with or without notice dependent on the severity of the failure.

We also take steps to ensure that our service providers, contractors and other third parties maintain similar level of data protection measures when processing your Personal Data. While we strive to secure your Personal Data, please note that 100% security of Personal Data cannot be guaranteed and that upGrad shall not be liable for any misuse or loss of Personal Data carried out by third party cloud service provider.

18. Records management

Records management refers to a set of activities required for systematically controlling the creation, distribution, use, maintenance, and disposition of recorded information maintained as evidence of business activities and transactions. It is impossible to be compliant with information law without robust records management policies and practises. Good records management practices ensure not only record quality, but that Personal Data is only kept for as long as necessary for its original purpose and help support data minimization.

19. Conflicts of Law

This Policy is intended to comply with the laws and regulations in the place of establishment and of the countries in which company operates. In the event of any conflict between this Policy and applicable laws and regulations, the latter shall prevail.

20. Retention of Personal Data

We retain your Personal Data, not longer than necessary for the purposes for which it was collected. The length of time to retain Personal Data depends on the purposes for which we collect and use it and/or as may be required to comply with applicable laws, to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights.

The users can exercise their rights enumerated herein. Also, if in case required to extend the period of retention of such data, we shall obtain your consent for the same. Further, we may also dispose the data prior to completion of the period of retention, if the purpose for which it was collected is exhausted. 

21. External Links on our website

For your convenience, we may provide links to sites operated by organizations other than Meritshot (“Third Party Sites”) that we believe may be of interest to you. We do not disclose your Personal Data to these Third-Party Sites unless we have a lawful basis on which to do so. We do not endorse and are not responsible for the privacy practices of these Third-Party Sites. If you choose to click on a link to one of these Third-Party Sites, you should review the privacy policy posted on the other websites to understand how that Third-Party website collects and uses your Personal Data.

Meritshot uses YouTube API Services to play YouTube videos. When a YouTube video is played, the app communicates directly with the content provider (YouTube) and not with Meritshot . Users of the app should be aware of the Google Privacy Policy available at https://policies.google.com/privacy, which states how YouTube treats user data. Meritshot does not have any record of the videos watched or any other user related YouTube API data.

We take no responsibility for the content or practices of any third-party services in the Third Party Sites. 

We encourage you to carefully review the terms of services/use of any third-party services or Third Party Sites you access.

Meritshot does not engage in selling of Personal Data (as defined under CCPA). In case of advertising technology activities used, such as those disclosed in the Advertising and Marketing & Data Analytics section, we will comply with applicable law as to such activity. 

We use and partner with different types of entities to assist with our daily operations and manage our platforms. Please review the section Disclosure of your Personal Data for more detail about the parties we have shared your Personal Data with.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. We may choose in the future to offer you certain financial incentives permitted by the CCPA that can result in different prices, rates, or quality levels. Any CCPA-permitted financial incentive we offer will reasonably relate to your Personal Data’s value and contain written terms that describe the Program’s material aspects.

24. Use of this website and our Terms of Service

This website is the property of Meritshot . Our Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy collectively govern the use of the Platform and the Programs offered by Meritshot . This Privacy Policy shall form a part of the Terms by way of reference. By using this website and the information offered herein, you indicate your acceptance of these Terms of Use.

25. Updates to this policy:

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will take reasonable steps to inform all Meritshot Customers, Business Partners, and other data subjects affected by the revisions by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and/or via email.

26. Data Controller/ Company Details

The “Data Controller” (i.e., Meritshot ) means the entity that will make the decisions about how your data is used and that is responsible for deciding how it holds personal information about you.