Privacy Policy

Who we are

We at TaxGuru provide free updates to Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, Tax Professional, Cost Accountants and other Account Professional on Amendments in Income Tax, Wealth Tax, MVAT, DVAT, PVAT, Company Law, Service Tax, ICAI Regulation, FEMA, RBI, Custom Duty, Excise, DGFT, SEZ, ICSI Regulation, CMA Regulation, Labour laws, Corporate Law , Goods and Service Tax etc. We update our reader with the latest News on these which includes recent Circular, Notification, Amendments, and Case Laws etc.

 

TaxGuru wants you to understand that we apply our long term commitment to protecting privacy to the online and internet activities. We hold the privacy of every user in high esteem. This Privacy Policy contains the details about the information TaxGuru will collect and how we will make use of the said information in terms of Information Technology Act 2000 and rules thereunder.

 

TaxGuru wants you to make a note of when and how personal information is collected, used, disclosed and protected. Most importantly, you agree and consent to the fact that TaxGuru may collect, use and disclose your Personal Information in accordance with this Policy. If you do not agree with these terms, you are requested not to provide any personal information to us.

 

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

We collect personal information when you subscribe or register with us at TaxGuru platform or otherwise use our services, which information includes your name, designation, company name, email, mobile and other details i.e. the information that you provide us at the time of signup at our platform. And other information that you may enter during the use of the platform and/or registration for services, that may remain stored in our database and form part of your profile or otherwise.

In particular, when visitors leave comments on the platform, we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. Moreover, visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

 

TaxGuru collects and treats the sensitive information in terms of Information Technology Act, 2000 read with the rules thereunder, as under:

(i) Login Password: The registration may require you to create a password for accessing TaxGuru services, which is confidential and sensitive information, collected and retained within TaxGuru database. But the said sensitive information is just used by you as a TaxGuru user for gaining access to the services and is not used or otherwise can be accessed by TaxGuru or its affiliates / partners in any way.

 

(ii) Financial Information: In case of payment made by a secured Payment Gateway at TaxGuru, the information is processed at the Payment Gateway, who are PCI Compliant and do not retain the sensitive information for the period more than required. The said online payments are additionally subject to an independent agreement with the payment gateway provider.

 

Otherwise, the Bank Details may be visible on the cheques couriered to us for payment of any services, but the complete bank account details are never noted down or processed for any reasons whatsoever at TaxGuru. Though we recommend direct deposit of payments in our Bank Account either electronic transfer or by drop of cheque.

Further, TaxGuru also collects other basic information by your use of our services, known as log files, which may be the result of the analytics software or otherwise. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and a number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site/app, track user’s movement around the platform, and gather demographic information. IP addresses and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

 

What uses we make

TaxGuru uses the personal information (other than sensitive information) for fulfilling your needs and requests for products and services, improving user experience, sending transactional emails or notifications you have opted for, for displaying relevant advertisements according to your location, products/services rendered, etc.

 

Who we share your data with

TaxGuru do not rent, sell, or share personal information (other than sensitive information) about you with any third parties, except when we have specifically obtained your consent at the time of collection of the information online at TaxGuru or otherwise offline, and / or to provide products or services you’ve requested, or under the following circumstances:

 

1. We provide the information, other than sensitive information to trusted partners who work on our behalf or with us under confidentiality agreements for the purpose of creating / modifying / maintaining the platform. However, these companies do not have any independent right to share / use this information for any other purpose, except for that specifically authorised by us.

   The Credit Card or otherwise Financial Information is collected by the Payment Gateway for processing of payment and deleted soon thereafter, as declared above. Otherwise, no outside agency has been authorized for the use of any sensitive information till now but as and when any such authorization is made in the near future, the details would be posted here as to the same.

 

2. TaxGuru’s administrator may be required to login to the admin panel for troubleshooting, as a result can get access to the personal data, but which purely can only be for administration and troubleshooting purposes.

 

3. TaxGuru believe it is necessary to share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of User Agreement, or as otherwise required by law;

 

4. TaxGuru responds to court orders, or legal process, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims including intellectual property rights;

 

5. TaxGuru transfers information about you if our platform is acquired by or merged with another company. In this event, we will notify you before information about you are transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy;

 

TaxGuru never uses or shares the personally identifiable information provided to us online in ways or for reasons unrelated to the ones described above.

 

The User shall be deemed to have consented to disclosure of Personal Information (other than sensitive information) by TaxGuru to its affiliates and business partners by providing such Personal information to TaxGuru in the course of TaxGuru’s performance of the Services.

 

Communication

TaxGuru reserves the right to send you a newsletter, if you are subscribed to our daily news and updates or otherwise send you certain communications relating to our services or sponsored advertisements, administrative messages and updates, that are considered part of your registered account, with an option for you to stop receiving them. We shall also send you emails which shall contain information about our existing or new services or features.

 

Use of Cookies

If you leave a comment on our platform you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Articles on this platform may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Further, some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons at TaxGuru platform. Our advertising partners include Online Advertisement Agencies such as Google Adsense and corporates from India and abroad which includes top Companies of India from Taxation, Insurance, Banking, Finance and Real Estate Sector. These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on the TaxGuru platform. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and/or to personalise the advertising content that you see.

 

DoubleClick DART Cookie

.:: Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on the TaxGuru platform.

.:: Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to the TaxGuru platform and other sites on the Internet.

.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL – http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

 

TaxGuru has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers. You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. TaxGuru’s privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers’ respective websites.

 

How we protect your data

Personal information, especially sensitive information about users that is maintained on TaxGuru systems and is protected using industry standard security measures. We maintain a variety of physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to guard your personal information.

You should be aware that TaxGuru has no control over the security of other sites on the Internet you might visit, interact with, or from which you buy products or services which may be linked from here. You should keep your user name, password or other access information safe and confidential to protect against unauthorized access to your account information and services.

 

What rights you have over your data

TaxGuru serves as a data processor under the GDPR, and adheres to the principles and rules of the GDPR. Specifically, TaxGuru implements privacy by design and default principles, ensures limited data retention protocols, adheres to incident response norms, allows for appropriate third party audits, ensures data is only transferred internationally with a lawful basis, only contracts with sub processors with adequate written commitments to data processing, respects data subject rights, does not process sensitive personal data, and provides data processing agreements to all appropriate clients and partners.

If you have an account on this platform, or have left comments, you may also request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. You can request that TaxGuru may delete your Personal Information from the system and records. Additionally, you may delete / remove your account anytime at your own free will.

This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes. That is, due to technical constraints and the fact that we backup our systems at regular intervals. Personal Information may continue to reside in our systems after deletion for some limited time.

 

How long we retain your data

TaxGuru holding sensitive/ personal data or information of providers of information, shall not retain such information for longer than is required for the purposes for which the information may lawfully be used or is otherwise required under the User Agreement or any other law for the time being in force or unless ordered to the contrary by any order of court of law. The information collected shall be used for the purpose for which it has been collected.

The logs and user data would be retained as a backup in our server for at least 180 days from the date of its creation. And otherwise also, we may retain such information in our systems but for a limited period, which may help not only in complying with the laws of the land but also to make sure that we maintain enough backup of user accounts, which may either be required to be restored to the server in unforeseen circumstances or to make available the information to the enforcement agencies, in case of any specific requests received in accordance with the law of the land.

For users that register on our platform (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username and/or email). Administrators can also see and edit that information.

 

Data Location

The information is collected and retained by TaxGuru on it’s server located in India.

 

Changes to Privacy Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We may notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the primary email address specified in your registered account or by placing a notice on our site for a reasonable period of time. Your continued use of our Services after we publish or send a notice about our changes to this Privacy Policy shall constitute your consent to the updated Privacy Policy.

 

Questions About This Privacy Policy ?

If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that a TaxGuru client or TaxGuru has not addressed satisfactorily, please contact us below.

 

Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy or would like more information on our privacy practices, please contact us at info [@] taxguru.in.