PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes how we, IIEC Education Private Limited (referred to as “IIEC” or “we” or “us”), collect, use and share information about our users (“you”) through our Platform. Please review our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy (collectively referred to as the “Terms”) that govern the use of the Platform and the Programs. This Privacy Policy shall form a part of the Terms by way of reference. All capitalised terms not defined in this Privacy Policy have the respective meanings set forth in the Terms of Use. This Privacy Policy applies only to the part of the Platform provided by IIEC, and we are not responsible for the practices of persons, companies, institutions or websites that IIEC does not control, manage or employ.

Please understand that by using our Platform or submitting any Personally Identifiable Information (defined below) to us, you consent and agree that we may collect, use, disclose and retain your information (including but not limited to your Personally Identifiable Information) in accordance with this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, and as permitted or required by law. IIEC reserves the right to share the information collected hereunder with its own affiliates. In the event of sale or transfer of all or a portion of our business assets, consumer information may be one of the business assets that are transferred as part of the transaction. If you do not agree with these Terms, then please do not provide any Personally Identifiable Information to us. If you refuse or withdraw your consent, or if you choose not to provide us with any required Personally Identifiable Information, we may not be able to provide you with the services that can be offered on our Platform.

1. INFORMATION COVERED BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY

Some of our Platform’s functionality may be used without revealing any personal information, though for features or services related to the Programs, personal information is required. If you do not use these specific features or services on the Platform, then the only information we collect will be “Non-Personal Information” (i.e., information that cannot be used to identify you). Non-Personal Information includes information like the web pages that you have viewed. In order to access certain features and benefits on our Platform, you may need to submit “Personally Identifiable Information” (i.e., information that can be used to identify you). Personally Identifiable Information can include, but not be limited to, information such as your name, email address, contact number (cellular and landline), educational qualification(s), Aadhaar number, PAN, social security and tax identification numbers, and post-qualification or work experience among other things. You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the Personally Identifiable Information you submit to IIEC. Inaccurate information may affect your ability to use the Platform, the information you receive when using the Platform, and our ability to contact you. For example, your email address should be kept valid because it is one of the primary channels through which we communicate with you.

2. INFORMATION COLLECTION

NON-PERSONAL INFORMATION

When you come to our Platform, we may track, collect and aggregate Non-Personal Information indicating, among other things, which pages of our Platform were visited, the order in which they were visited, when they were visited, and which hyperlinks were “clicked.” We also collect information from the URLs through which you connected with our Platform. Collecting such information may involve logging the IP address, operating system and browser software used by each user of the Platform. Although such information may not be considered Personally Identifiable Information, based on local laws, we may be able to determine a user’s Internet Service Provider and the geographic location of his or her point of connectivity from an IP address. We collect Non-Personally Identifiable Information from the Platform visitors to track the total of number of visitors on the Platform in aggregate form and to identify the type of Internet web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer®) and operating system (e.g., Windows®) used by them. This information allows us to continuously improve our Platform and services.

PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION

We collect through our Platform, or through third-party platforms being used by us, the information that you provide to us when you sign up for information updates or Programs, participate in our public forums, avail our chat room services, send you emails, call you, participate in online or offline events, and/or receive other services on or through our Platform or through any of IIEC’s or its Educational Partners’ offline activities. This information may include, among other things, your name, postal address, email address, contact number, social security or tax identification numbers, login credentials (in the case of registered users), educational qualification(s), salary information, working goals, post-qualification experience, and photographs. We collect demographic information such as your gender, socio-economic status, and other similar personal information. In the case of scholarships, refunds or referrals, we will collect your bank account information. Other than this, we do not collect any of your financial information, and all payments are processed by third-party payment gateway providers.

IIEC, or its Educational Partners and third-party service providers, may, for instance, collect certain information from you in conjunction with assignments, exams and other assessments related to the online course. For example, as part of a proctored exam for a course, IIEC (or its third-party service providers) may collect certain Personally Identifiable Information from you in order to (a) verify or authenticate your identity or submissions made by you, such as a signature for a test or an assignment log, a photograph or a recording of you (e.g., using a webcam) or information included on a photo identification card or document, or (b) monitor your performance during an exam to confirm that you are abiding by the applicable test rules or requirements (e.g., confirming that you are not using prohibited resources). IIEC may also collect information from you or about your performance or your accomplishments, such as quiz/exam scores, grades, project evaluations, teacher evaluations and other evaluations of your performance or accomplishments.

Should you need any financial assistance, IIEC may recommend certain third-party credit facility providers. Should you opt to sign up with such credit facility providers, any information you provide to them will be governed by their terms of use and policies, as you would be their direct customer. Please note, IIEC does not control, manage or regulate such third-party providers.

OTHER INFORMATION

Other forms of information that we may collect from you or about you are as follows:

Information about your interactions with customer service and maintenance interactions with us
User-generated content you upload or post to public forums through the Platform
Information needed in order to comply with any procedures, laws, and regulations which apply to us where it is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of others
Recordings of calls with students or users showing interest in our programs
Any other information you choose to directly provide to us in connection with your use of the Platform and Programs

THIRD-PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS

We may receive your information when you access or log in to a third-party site, e.g., Facebook, WhatsApp from our Platforms or when you respond to our Ads on such third-party platforms. This may include the text and/or images of your Personally Identifiable Information available from the third-party site. Please be aware that the information we obtain from such third-party platforms is often dependent on their privacy policies and/or on your settings regarding what information you have consented to share with them.

We enter into arrangements with third parties to serve Ads on our behalf across the Internet, social networking sites and blogs. They may collect or store information about your visits to our Platform and your interaction with our products and services. They may also use information about your visits to this Platform and to other websites to target advertisements for goods and services or for any other purpose. This information is collected through the use of a pixel tag, which is an industry standard technology used by most major websites. Such third parties are not permitted by IIEC to sell or share your Personally Identifiable Information as part of this process. If such third parties sell or share the Personally Identifiable Information as part of the process, IIEC’s liability shall be limited to providing you with reasonable assistance in any action you may choose to take against such third parties, at your sole cost and expense.

We have third-party sales and marketing affiliates who may collect your information through one of the various channels owned by them and share this information with us, based on your interest in our Programs. For example, an affiliate may hold an event and share the details of the attendees with IIEC.

INFORMATION WE RECEIVE FROM OTHER SOURCES

We may receive information about you if you use any of the other platforms we operate or the other services we provide. In this case, the data may be shared internally and combined with the data collected on the Platform. We are also working closely with third parties (including, for example, Educational Partners, scholarship providers, marketing partners, sales affiliates, subcontractors in technical/advertising networks, analytics providers, and search information providers) and may receive information about you from such sources. We may also receive your information from your employers, educational institution or scholarship providers, where your Program is partly or fully sponsored by such a third-party. The third-party sponsoring your participation in the Programs may provide us your information, subject to our agreement with them and, therefore, the third-party sponsor may be the controller with respect to such data. In cases where you have been referred under any referral scheme, we will receive your information from the referrer.

USE OF INFORMATION

We may use the information we collect to provide you with information relating to our Program and/or other IIEC services, to respond to your questions or interest shown in our Programs, and to send you updates about the Programs, other IIEC events, platform maintenance or new services provided by IIEC, among other things, through itself or through third parties, via email, SMS, phone call or any other medium.

You authorise IIEC, its authorised representatives and affiliates to connect with you via email, SMS, phone call or any other medium in connection with information relating to our Program and/or IIEC services, irrespective of you being registered with the National Do Not Call Registry, which you agree to de-register from, if required.

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 Personally Identifiable Information to administer exams, projects, and other assessments for the Program. For example, as part of an exam, IIEC 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.

We may use your Personally Identifiable Information in order to provide such services to you and for quality control purposes, and we may also archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you. For example, IIEC may make available to you chat room services that allow you to communicate with IIEC’s staff members or your peers in the same cohort, and we may use and share your Personally Identifiable Information to provide these services to you. In another example, IIEC’s staff members may create groups on WhatsApp (or similar service providers) with other students and make you a member of such a group. These groups may be used to provide services in conjunction with the Programs, including, but not limited to, updates related to the Programs, details of potential employers, etc. Please be aware that the information disclosed on a third-party service provider’s platform will be dependent and subject to such third-party’s privacy policies and/or on your settings regarding what information you have consented to share with them. IIEC and/or its associates shall have no liability in this regard whatsoever.

IIEC may use certain companies that enable you to establish a membership to participate in digital wallets, payment services or rewards programs. If you elect to do so, we will disclose to such companies your information that is necessary to make their programs work and support your membership with them. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of the companies sponsoring these membership programs, and we suggest you review the individual privacy policies of each company with whom you establish such memberships. Billing information may be archived by us or our providers. We may archive Personally Identifiable Information other than billing information and/or use it for future communications with you.

IIEC may use and share your information to improve its services and offerings. For example, we, through our service providers (like auditors or surveyors), may approach you to understand the impact of our Programs on your careers. For this purpose, we may connect with you via a phone call, email you questionnaires, or request you to attend workshops.

To the extent any Personally Identifiable Information collected by us contains images of you, you grant IIEC a limited, non-exclusive right to use, reproduce, distribute, or prepare derivative works of or publicly display such images and/or your likeness in relation to the Program or for marketing purposes. We may use your photograph along with employer information, transition information, designation change, etc., for Ads/and or social media posts to highlight our learners’ achievements.

We use Non-Personal Information in aggregate form to build higher-quality, more useful services by performing statistical analysis of the collective characteristics and behaviour of our Users and by measuring demographics and interests regarding specific areas of our Platform.

3. SHARING YOUR INFORMATION

In addition to the examples provided above, we will share your information in the following manner:

Educational Partners

We may share the information that we collect from you with the particular Educational Partner (e.g., a university or a company) that developed or offered the Program you are taking; the instructor(s) who taught, managed or otherwise oversaw the Program; external graders who will be assessing your performance; or mentors who will be supporting students. For example, if you are taking a Program through a university, we may share Personally Identifiable Information about you and your performance with the university to report on your progress in the Program and to enable them to issue a certificate to you on completion of the Program. Information shared with our Educational Partners will be subject to the privacy policies and procedures of such partners. Also, we may archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you.

Employers, Sponsors and Scholarship Providers

If you are taking a Program that is sponsored or paid for by your employer or a sponsor, or if you have availed a scholarship from a third-party scholarship provider, we may share your Personally Identifiable Information and grades, evaluations or progress in the Program with your employer/sponsor/scholarship provider. This information may be shared at any time during the Program or afterwards.

Service Providers

We provide access to or share your information with operations and maintenance contractors and other third parties who perform services on our behalf. They have access to perform these services but are prohibited from using your information for other purposes. They provide a variety of services to us, including billing, sales, marketing, test proctoring, couriers, mentoring, recruitment consulting, product content and features, advertising, analytics, research, customer service, data storage, security, fraud prevention, credit facilities, payment processing and legal services. Moreover, in certain circumstances, we may share certain Personally Identifiable Information and materials with third parties including, but not limited to, service providers such as Facebook or WhatsApp in order to provide you services that you have requested or services that IIEC provides in conjunction with the Programs. Also, we use certain third-party platforms to collect your information (such as Typeform or Google Forms), as a consequence of which, your information may be stored on their servers.

Recruitment Services

If you have opted for any of our recruitment services or if you participate in any of our recruitment activities, we will be sharing your information with recruiters and potential employers. For example, if you participate in a recruitment drive jointly organised by IIEC and a recruitment agency, we will share your information with the recruitment agency and with potential employers who wish to consider you for employment. In this case, such a recruitment agency or an employer may directly contact you to schedule interviews, etc. Please note that any information you share with the recruitment agency or employer will be governed by their policies.

IIEC offers public sharing features as part of its career services, which, among other features, makes your careers profile as well as your details and information public, including your progress in the Program to others outside of IIEC. By electing to participate in any of these services, you acknowledge that any information or materials you include in your profile can be viewed by other persons accessing the Platform, including potential or existing employers, recruiters, peers, as well as others on the applicable third-party websites. You also acknowledge that the information shared may remain accessible on third-party websites and/or to those you have shared the information with, in the event you make your profile private after having made it public and/or ceasing to share your information. You also acknowledge that IIEC has no control over the access of or use of information provided to third parties via this mode outside its website.

Alumni Portal and Networking Services

We may collaborate with certain third-party service providers to arrange and provide networking activities to previous, current or potential students of IIEC. For this purpose, IIEC may share certain basic information such as your name, email address and cohort details with such third-party service providers in order to enable them to invite you to connect. Should you agree to sign up to their services, please note that any information you provide will be governed by their policies. In certain cases, in order to facilitate communication between students, we may share your information with other students on chat forums such as WhatsApp and Facebook.

Government and Regulatory Disclosure

IIEC may share your Information with various government authorities in response to court orders or other legal processes to establish or exercise our legal rights or to protect our property; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases, we reserve the right to raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us. We may also share your information when we believe it is appropriate to investigate, prevent or take appropriate action regarding illegal or suspected illegal activities; to protect and defend the rights, property, or safety of IIEC, the Platform, our users, customers, or others; and in connection with our Terms and other agreements.

Associates and Business Transfers

IIEC may share your Personally Identifiable Information with any Associate. The term “Associate” includes, with respect to any person, any entity that is controlled by such person, or any entity that controls such person, or any entity that is under common control with such person, whether directly or indirectly, or, in the case of a natural person, any Relative (as such a term is defined in the Companies Act, 1956, and Companies Act, 2013, to the extent applicable) of such a person.

IIEC may disclose and/or transfer your Personally Identifiable Information to an acquirer, assignee or other successor entity in connection with a sale, merger, or reorganisation of all or substantially all of the equity, business or assets of IIEC to which your Personally Identifiable Information relates.

Business Partners

With your consent, IIEC may share information that can be used to directly contact you with third-party business partners, such as companies that may be offering products or services or other opportunities that may be of interest to you.

PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION

Any Personally Identifiable Information that is voluntarily displayed by you on the Platform may be used by third parties for unsolicited purposes. Please note that IIEC shall not be liable for such unsolicited use by third parties of your Personally Identifiable Information that has been voluntarily displayed by you.

4. AGGREGATED DATA

“Aggregated Data” means records that have been stripped of Personally Identifying Information and that have been manipulated or combined to provide generalised, anonymous information. Your identity and personal information are not available in Aggregated Data. We may combine your personal information 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.

5. PROTECTION OF INFORMATION

CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECURITY

IIEC takes all reasonable precautions to protect your Personally Identifiable Information both online and offline, in order to avoid any unauthorised access or breach. In addition, we participate in cooperative database services. These services help us direct newsletters, mailings and other marketing initiatives to appropriate purchasers and website visitors. Names and mailing addresses may be shared between participating parties in the co-operative database services.

NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES

We may update this Privacy Policy at any time, and it will be posted on this Platform as and when it is updated, so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and the circumstances under which we may disclose it. Unless stated otherwise, our current privacy policy applies to all information that IIEC has about You and Your account, even if it was collected in the past.

YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND MOBILE NUMBER

We may store the email addresses/mobile numbers of those who communicate with us via email/mobile or who have shown interest in our Programs and add them to our mailing/SMS/call list when you sign up to receive special promotions and updates. By electing to receive emails/SMS/calls from us, we would be able to send you exclusive information and special offers, which you may otherwise not learn about from our Platform. If you are a registered user and wish to change your preferences, or if you prefer to opt out of regular mail/SMS/calls, you may mail us at support@ecomfranchise.com to notify us of your request.

Once you have submitted your opt-out request, you may assume that it has been successfully received and is being processed. Please allow us 14 business days from when the request was received to complete the removal, as some of our promotions may already have been in process before you submitted your request.

THIRD-PARTY LINKS

Our Platform may contain links to other sites. The linked sites are not under the control of IIEC. Please be aware that IIEC is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. IIEC advises you to read the privacy policies of each and every website that collects your information, including Personally Identifiable Information. If you decide to access any of the third-party sites linked to the Platform, you do so entirely at your own risk. Any links to any partner of the Platform should be the responsibility of the linking party, and IIEC shall not be responsible for notifying you of any change in the name or location of any information on the Platform.

RETENTION OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION

If you reside or are located in the European Union, we keep your Personally Identifiable Information for no longer than necessary for the purposes for which the Personally Identifiable Information is processed. The length of time we retain Personally Identifiable Information depends on the purposes for which we collect and use it and/or as required to comply with applicable laws and to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights.

6. SERVERS

IIEC and its Indian service providers store information about you on servers located in India, whereas our international service providers may store your information on servers located in other countries. By using our services, you consent to the storage of your information within India or such other countries. If you are using the services from outside India, please know the information you submit will be transferred to and stored in our servers in India or such other countries. The data protection and other laws of India and/or other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. By submitting your data and/or using our services, you acknowledge the transfer, storage and processing of your information in and to India.

As described above, IIEC also may subcontract the processing of your data to, or otherwise share your data with, service providers and others in countries other than your country of residence, including India, in accordance with the applicable law. Such third parties may be engaged in, among other things, the provision of services to you, the processing of transactions and/or the provision of support services. By providing us with your information, you acknowledge any such transfer, storage or use.

With respect to subjects of the European Union, if we provide any information about you to any such Non-European Union entities, we will take appropriate measures to ensure that such companies comply with the applicable data protection laws. If applicable, you may make a complaint to the data protection supervisory authority in the country where you are based. Alternatively, you may seek a remedy through local courts if you believe your rights have been breached. Should you require any further information on the processes followed, please connect with the Grievance Officer (details mentioned below).

7. CHILDREN’S AND MINORS’ PRIVACY

IIEC strongly encourages parents and guardians to supervise the online activities of their minor children and consider using parental control tools available from online services and software manufacturers to help provide a child-friendly online environment. These tools can also prevent minors from disclosing their name, address and other Personally Identifiable Information online without parental permission. Although the Platform is not intended for use by minors, IIEC respects the privacy of minors who may inadvertently use the Platform, and shall delete their information upon intimation.

8. COOKIES AND WEB BEACONS

Cookies are small pieces of information saved by your browser onto your computer/mobile. Cookies are used to record various aspects of your visit and to assist IIEC to provide you with uninterrupted service. Web beacons are small graphic files linked to our servers that allow us to track your use of our Platform and related functionalities.

We also use or may use cookies and/or web beacons to help us determine and identify repeat visitors, the type of content and sites to which a user of our Platform links, the length of time each user spends at any particular area of our Platform, and the specific functionalities that users choose to use. Cookies and web beacons allow IIEC to serve you better and more efficiently, and to personalise your experience at our Platform. Cookies and web beacons are not used to retain Personally Identifiable Information. From time to time, we may also use additional methods of collecting data.

We may allow third-party companies, including 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.

These cookies also allow us and third parties to know whether you’ve seen an Ad or a type of Ad, and how long it has been since you’ve last seen it. This information is used for frequency capping purposes, to help tailor the Ads you see and to measure their effectiveness.

You should be able to control how and whether cookies will be accepted by your web browser. Most browsers offer instructions on how to reset the browser to reject cookies in the “Help” section of the toolbar. If you reject our cookies, many functions and conveniences of this Platform may not work properly.

9. DATA PROTECTION OFFICER

In accordance with the Information Technology Act, 2000, EU GDPR, and all applicable rules made thereunder, the Data Protection Officer appointed by IIEC for this Privacy Policy is Mr. Binoy Cherian, who can be reached at support@ecomfranchise.com

10. UPDATING PERSONAL INFORMATION

You may update or modify your contact information and user preferences by emailing us at support@ecomfranchise.com

11. SECURITY STATEMENT

IIEC has put in place various physical, electronic and managerial procedures to try to safeguard and secure the information we collect. For example, we provide strong encryptions to store certain information and have stringent managerial checks and password change policies in place. The information we collect is stored with third-party data centres that have a holistic security model with seven levels of security. Please note that the Company shall not be liable for any misuse or loss of information carried out by such third-party data centres. Furthermore, we also rely on your cell phones’ strong security model to ensure that there is no information or security leak, unless intentionally processed for authentication.

However, please note that while we implement many security measures on this site, 100% security cannot be guaranteed.

12. ADDRESS FOR PRIVACY QUESTIONS

Should you have questions about this policy or IIEC’s process for information collection, use and disclosure practices, feel free to contact us at support@ecomfranchise.com or support@ecomfranchise.com. We will use reasonable efforts to respond promptly to requests, questions or concerns you may have regarding our use of your information. Except where required by law, IIEC cannot ensure a response to questions or comments regarding topics unrelated to this policy or IIEC’s privacy practices.

13. CHANGING OUR PRIVACY POLICY

Please note that we review and may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective immediately upon being posted on this page. By accessing the Platform, you indicate your agreement to the modified Privacy Policy and all the changes. Be sure to return to this page periodically to ensure familiarity with the most current version of this Privacy Policy.

14. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

The miscellaneous provisions provided in our Terms of Use shall apply to this Privacy Policy as well.

Quora recognizes that your privacy is very important, and we take it seriously. This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes our policies and procedures on the collection, use, disclosure, and sharing of your personal information when you use the Quora Platform.

This Privacy Policy applies to activities by Quora, Inc. and its affiliates and subsidiaries (collectively “Quora,” “we” or “us”). Capitalized terms that are not defined in this Privacy Policy have the meaning given to them in our Terms of Service.

The Information We Collect

We collect information directly from individuals, from third parties, and automatically through the Quora Platform.

Account and Profile Information: When you create an account and profile on the Quora Platform, we collect your name, contact information (including your telephone number), demographic information, and other information you provide, such as topics that you know about or find interesting. Your name, photo, and any other information that you choose to add to your public-facing profile will be available for viewing by the public and other users of the Quora Platform. Once you create a profile, others will be able to see in your profile certain information about your activity on the Quora Platform, such as the questions and answers you post, your followers and who you follow, topics of interest to you, the information you list as credentials, and your edits to your content. For more information about your choices for publicly displayed information, see the section below about Your Choices.

Your Content: We collect the information and content that you post to the Quora Platform, including your questions, answers, photos, and comments. Unless you have posted certain content anonymously, your content, date and time stamps, and all associated comments are publicly viewable on the Quora Platform, along with your name. This also may be indexed by search engines and be republished elsewhere on the Internet in accordance with our Terms of Service. For more information about what you can change, see the below section on Your Choices.

Communications. Your contact information will be used to communicate with you (via email, phone, text message, through the Quora Platform or otherwise). When you communicate with us (via email, phone, text message, through the Quora Platform, or otherwise), we may maintain a record of your communication. By disclosing your contact information to Quora, you consent to our use of your contact information to communicate with you.

Integrated Service Provider and Linked Networks. You can connect your existing Quora account with certain third-party networks like Twitter or Google, for example (each a “Linked Network”). You can also elect to sign in or sign up to the Quora Platform through a Linked Network. If you elect to sign up through or connect a Linked Network, we receive certain profile and account information about you from the Linked Network. These Linked Networks may also appear in your profile, so that people can find you on these Linked Networks. The specific information provided to us by Linked Networks is determined by you and these third parties, and may vary by network. In all cases, the permissions page for the Linked Network will describe the information being shared. You should consult their respective privacy policies for information about their practices. You may elect to use information from the Linked Network to populate your profile on the Quora Platform and help you find and follow your contacts on the Quora Platform. For information on your choices, including how to disconnect a Linked Network from your Quora profile, see the Your Choices section below. You may also elect to connect and make and receive payments to and from use through third-party networks (“Integrated Service Provider”); if you do so, you will be allowing us to pass to and receive from the Integrated Service Provider your login information and other user data for payment purposes.

Automatically Collected Information About Your Activity. We use cookies, log files, pixel tags, local storage objects, and other tracking technologies to automatically collect information about your activities, such as your searches, page views, date and time of your visit, and other information about your use of the Quora Platform. We also collect information that your computer or mobile device provides to us in connection with your use of the Quora Platform such as your browser type, type of computer or mobile device, browser language, IP address, mobile carrier, unique device identifier, location, and requested and referring URLs. We also receive information when you view content on or otherwise interact with the Quora Platform, even if you have not created an account. For more information, see the “Cookies, Pixels and Tracking” section below and our Cookie Policy.

Engagement. We collect browsing information – such as IP address and location, date and time stamp, user agent, Quora cookie ID (if applicable), URL, unique advertising or content identifiers (if applicable) and time zone, and other information about user activities on the Quora Platform, as well as on third-party sites and services that have embedded our Quora pixels (“Pixels”), widgets, plug-ins, buttons, or related services. See the section below about Quora Ads and Personalization for more detailed information about how our Pixels may be used by publishers or users of our advertising services (“Ad Services”) on the Quora Platform to enable personalization, as well as your choices related to advertising and personalization. We may also receive information about you from third parties, such as other users, partners (including ad partners), or our affiliated companies.

How We Use Your Information

We do not sell your personal information – such as your name and contact information – to third parties to use for their own marketing purposes. Quora uses the information we collect for the following purposes:

Provide our Services. To provide you the services we offer on the Quora Platform and make the Quora Platform available to the public, communicate with you about your use of the Quora Platform, respond to your inquiries, provide troubleshooting, and for other customer service purposes.
Personalization. To tailor the content and information that we may send or display to you in the Quora Platform, to suggest followers and content, to offer location customization, and personalized help and instructions, and to otherwise personalize your experiences while using the Quora Platform.
Advertising. To display interest-based advertising to you in the Quora Platform, to improve our advertising and measurement systems so we can show you relevant ads, to pre-fill forms in ads, and to measure the effectiveness and reach of ads and services. For more information, see the Ad Services section below about Quora Ads and Personalization.
Marketing and Promotions. For marketing and promotional purposes, such as to send you news and newsletters, special offers, and promotions, or to otherwise contact you about products or information we think may interest you, including information about third-party products and services.
Analytics. To gather metrics to better understand how users access and use the Quora Platform; to evaluate and improve the Quora Platform, including the Ad Services and personalization, and to develop new products and services.
Comply with Law. To comply with legal obligations, as part of our general business operations, and for other business administration purposes.
Prevent Misuse. Where we believe necessary to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person or violations of our Terms of Service or this Privacy Policy.

How We Share Your Information

We share information as set forth below, and where individuals have otherwise consented:

Service Providers. We may share your information with third-party service providers who use this information to perform services for us, such as payment processors, hosting providers, auditors, advisors, consultants, customer service and support providers, as well as those who assist us in providing the Ad Services.

Affiliates. The information collected about you may be accessed by or shared with subsidiaries and affiliates of Quora, Inc., whose use and disclosure of your personal information is subject to this Privacy Policy.

Business Transfers. We may disclose or transfer information, including personal information, as part of any merger, sale, and transfer of our assets, acquisition or restructuring of all or part of our business, bankruptcy, or similar event.

Legally Required. We may disclose your information if we are required to do so by law.

Protection of Rights. We may disclose information where we believe it necessary to respond to claims asserted against us or, comply with legal process (e.g., subpoenas or warrants), enforce or administer our agreements and terms, for fraud prevention, risk assessment, investigation, and protect the rights, property or safety of Quora, its users, or others.

Your Content and Public Information. Your content, including your name, profile picture, profile information, and certain associated activity information is available to other users of the Quora Platform and may be viewed publicly. Public viewing includes availability to non-registered visitors and can occur when users share your content across other sites or services. In addition, your content may be indexed by search engines. In some cases, we may charge for access to your content and public information on the Quora Platform. See the section below about Your Choices for information about how you may change how certain information is shared or viewed by others.

Metrics. We may share with our advertisers or publishers aggregate statistics, metrics and other reports about the performance of their ads or content in the Quora Platform such as the number of unique user views, demographics about the users who saw their ads or content, conversion rates, and date and time information. We do not share IP addresses or personal information, but certain features may allow you to share your personal information with advertisers on our platform if you choose to do so. We may also allow our advertisers or publishers to use Pixels on the Quora Platform in order to collect information about the performance of their ads or content.

Anonymized and Aggregated Data. We may share aggregated or de-identified information with third parties for research, marketing, analytics and other purposes, provided such information does not identify a particular individual.

Cookies, Pixels and Tracking

We and our third-party providers use cookies, clear GIFs/pixel tags, JavaScript, local storage, log files, and other mechanisms to automatically collect and record information about your usage and browsing activities on the Quora Platform and across third-party sites or online services. We may combine this information with other information we collect about users. Below, we provide a brief summary of these activities. For more detailed information about these mechanisms and how we collect activity information, see our Cookie Policy.

Cookies. These are small files with a unique identifier that are transferred to your browser through our websites. They allow us to remember users who are logged in, to understand how users navigate through and use the Quora Platform, and to display personalized content and targeted ads (including on third-party sites and applications).
Pixels, web beacons, clear GIFs. These are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, which we use to track the online movements of users of the Quora Platform and the web pages of users of our Ad Services, and to personalize content. We also use these in our emails to let us know when they have been opened or forwarded, so we can gauge the effectiveness of our communications.
Analytics Tools. We may use internal and third-party analytics tools, including Google Analytics. The third-party analytics companies we work with may combine the information collected with other information they have independently collected from other websites and/or other online products and services. Their collection and use of information is subject to their own privacy policies.

Do-Not-Track Signals. Please note we do not change system behavior within the Quora Platform in response to browser requests not to be tracked. You may, however, disable certain tracking by third parties as discussed in the Quora Ads and Personalization section below. You may also opt out of tracking by Quora Pixels, as described below in Quora Ads and Personalization.

Quora Ads and Personalization

We may display personalized content (including from third-party content publishers) and personalized ads (including sponsored content), based on information that we have collected via the Quora Platform, and through our Pixels, widgets, and buttons embedded on third-party sites. We also may report aggregated or de-identified information about the number of users that saw a particular ad or content and related audience engagement information to users of our Ad Services and to publishers of content on the Quora Platform. See Quora’s Pixel Privacy Terms for more information about how our Pixels are used, and also see the Your Choices section below for information about opting out of tracking by our Pixels.

Advertisers who use our Ad Services may also provide us with information as part of their ad campaigns, including customer information (e.g., email addresses, phone numbers, or other contact information, demographic or interest data) in order to create custom audiences for personalizing their ad campaigns or for measuring the effectiveness of their ads; we only use this information to facilitate the particular advertiser’s campaign (including ad metrics and reporting to that advertiser); and we do not disclose this information to third parties (other than our service providers) unless required by law. We also do not disclose to the advertisers who use our Ad Services the names or contact information of their customers that were successfully reached as part of such campaigns without those customers’ consent.

Third-Party Ads on Quora

As described in our Cookie Policy, we may also work with third parties such as network advertisers to serve ads on the Quora Platform and on third-party websites or other media (e.g., social networking platforms), such as Google AdSense (more info here) and Facebook Audience Network (more info here). These third parties may use cookies, JavaScript, web beacons (including clear GIFs), Flash LSOs and other tracking technologies to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content to you.

In addition to opting out of tracking across sites by our Pixels (see Your Choices section below), you also may opt out of much interest-based advertising on third-party sites and through third-party ad networks (including Facebook Audience Network and Google AdSense). See Your Choices section below for more information about opting out of third-party ad networks.

How We Protect Your Information

The security of your information is important to us. Quora has implemented safeguards to protect the information we collect. However, no website or Internet transmission is completely secure. We urge you to take steps to keep your personal information safe, such as choosing a strong password and keeping it private, as well as logging out of your user account, and closing your web browser when finished using the Quora Platform on a shared or unsecured device.

Access and Amend Your Information

You may update or correct your account information at any time by logging in to your account. You may also make a number of other adjustments to settings or the display of information about you as described in more detail in the following section about Your Choices.

Your Choices

You may, of course, decline to submit information through the Quora Platform, in which case we may not be able to provide certain services to you. You may also control the types of notifications and communications we send, limit the information shared within the Quora Platform about you, and otherwise amend certain privacy settings. Here is some further information about some of your choices:

Anonymous Posts. You may post certain content anonymously, including questions and answers. In such event, your name is not displayed along with the content, and Quora does not associate such content with your user ID and other profile data. For further information see how anonymity works on Quora.

Your Content. You may edit or delete the answers that you post at any time. Any questions you have posted may remain on the Quora Platform and be edited by other users. Any deleted content will be removed from third-party sites from which it has been shared via Quora’s standard sharing features; however we have no control over deletions or changes to your content if it has been shared manually by others. When you make edits to your content, other users will be able to see the history of those edits in your profile activity and on content edit logs.

Adult Content. In your profile’s privacy settings, you can elect whether to receive adult content.

Emails, Text Messages, and Communications. When you join the Quora Platform by signing up for an account or creating a profile, as part of the service, you will receive the Quora digest containing content that we believe may match your interests. As permitted by law, you are also opting to receive other emails and text messages from us that may be of interest to you as a user of the Quora Platform. You can manage your email, text messages, and notice preferences in your account profile settings, under your Emails and Notifications settings, but note that you cannot opt out of receiving certain administrative or legal notices from us. If you opt-out of receiving emails and text messages about recommendations or other information we think may interest you, we may still send you transactional e-mails and text messages about your account or any services you have requested or received from us.

Third parties may comment on your postings within the Quora Platform. In your profile, under your Privacy Settings, you can adjust whether to allow people to comment on your answers and posts. You can also adjust permissions about who you allow to send you messages on the Quora Platform.

Followers. You can block the ability of another Quora user to follow you by selecting the setting for this in the other user’s profile. You can change whether or not you follow other users.

Topics. You can change topics that you follow or that your profile lists as areas that you know about.

Credentials. You can change your credentials that are displayed in your profile or in connection with a specific answer.

Indexed Search. In your privacy settings, you can control whether your profile and name is indexed by search engines. Changes to privacy settings may only apply on a going-forward basis; for example, your name (e.g., answers and profile) that has already been indexed by search engines may remain indexed for a period of time even after you have turned off indexing, as implementing this change is outside of our control.

Deleted or Deactivated Account. If you choose “Delete Account” in your profile’s “Privacy Settings,” then all of your content will be removed from public visibility on the Quora Platform, and it may not be restored by us, even if you change your mind. If you choose “Deactivate Account,” then you will no longer receive any communications from us, and users will not be able to interact with you; however your content will remain on the Quora Platform. Once you deactivate your account, you can reactivate it any time by choosing to log in.

Pixels. To opt out of tracking via the Quora Pixels, please visit this page. Opting out of Pixels tracking may impact our ability to personalize ads and content tailored to your interests. This setting is tied to your cookies, and, unless you are logged in to the Quora Platform, will only be effective on the browser for which you have performed the opt-out.