PRIVACY POLICY – WiseOwlEdu
1. Introduction
WiseOwl Edu is an Education Assistance company under the registered Proprietorship firm called WiseOwl Marketrix (together with its subsidiaries, and international affiliates, hereinafter “WiseOwlEdu ,” “us,” “we,” or “our” or “the Company”) is committed to security and management of personal data, to function effectively and successfully for the benefit of our stakeholders, customers and for the community. In doing so, it is essential that people’s privacy is protected through the lawful and appropriate means for handling the 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 our organization. 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 visits, uses, deals 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 WiseOwlEdu 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.WiseOwlEdu.com/ (hereinafter the “website”). This policy is also designed to provide information on how WiseOwlEdu ensures data security, conducts data transfers and process requests from data subjects.
This policy control applies to all systems, people and processes that constitute the organization’s information systems, including board members, directors, employees and other third parties who have access to Personal Data available within WiseOwlEdu.
The company is also committed to ensure that its employees conduct themselves in line with this, and other related, policies. Where third parties process data on behalf of WiseOwlEdu, the Company endeavours to obtain assurances from such third parties that your Personal Data will be safeguarded consistently.
WiseOwlEdu 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 (on servers in India or other countries) of WiseOwlEdu. The following types of Personal Data may be held by the Company, as appropriate, on relevant individuals:
A. Personal Identification Data
First Name, Last name
Job title & Company
Signature
Photographs
B. Identification Data
Social security or tax identification numbers
Aadhar number and PAN
C. Financial Data
Bank Account information
Salary Information
Payment gateway account details
E-wallet account details
D. Personal Characteristics
Age
Gender
Date of Birth
Marital Status
Nationality
E. Contact Data
Postal address
Email address
Phone number
F. Education and Recruitment Data
Educational qualification(s)
Working goals
Post-qualification experience
G. 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
County of accessing website
Language of the browser being used
Words searched for
Pixel tags
H. 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.
I. 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
J. Marketing Data
Your preferences in receiving marketing information from us
Your communication preferences
K. Behavioural Data
Data inferred or assumed information relating to your behaviour and interests based on your online activity on our sites
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.
Should we specifically require “special” or “sensitive” Personal Data in connection with one or more of the uses described below, we will request your explicit consent to use the data in accordance with this policy and/or in the ways described at the point where you were asked to disclose the data.
Other legal basis for our processing of special category data may include, as permitted by applicable law, for scientific research, for employment, social security or social protection law, for reasons of substantial public interest, or as necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. If you voluntarily share with us or post/upload any “special” or “sensitive” Personal Data to this website for any other reason, you consent that we may use such data in accordance with applicable law and this policy. You can contact our DPO for more information about our processing of your 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 sites.
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?
WiseOwlEdu 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.
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 WiseOwlEdu, 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 WiseOwlEdu relies upon to justify a particular processing activity may differ from the lawful basis used to justify a different processing activity.
WiseOwlEdu 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, WiseOwlEdu 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 WiseOwlEdu 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, WiseOwlEdu 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 WiseOwlEdu events, platform maintenance or new services provided by WiseOwlEdu, 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 recognised and adhered to by us.
15. Disclosure of Personal Data
WiseOwlEdu is a global company and may share the personal information collected or provide such access to other companies within the WiseOwlEdu group.
Examples of third parties with whom WiseOwlEdu may share Personal Data includes:
With government bodies, including tax and social security authorities, to comply with applicable laws (including employment and tax laws), to obtain licenses or approvals, and upon request during an audit or assessment;
With suppliers, subcontractors and service providers, to maintain an efficient and commercially viable business, including technology, telecom, internet providers;
With professional advisers, consultants, and employment and recruitment agencies, to conduct background verification and reference checks, administer benefits and payroll, deal with disciplinary and grievance issues and maintain emergency contact details;
With our legal advisors and external auditors for legal advice and to conduct business audits;
With service providers for business continuity management and contingency planning in the event of business disruptions.
With certain companies in order to establish a membership to participate in digital wallets, payment services or rewards programme
We require all third parties to respect the security of your Personal Data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your Personal Data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your Personal Data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.