Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

PeopleGrove Inc. (“PeopleGrove”, “us”, “we”, or “our”) operates the PeopleGrove platform and the mobile application, which includes this website (the “Service”). We operate this site in conjunction with our partners (universities and other organizations) who manage the day to day operation of their respective site (our “Partners”). This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information when you use our Service. We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy. We use your Personal Information for providing and improving the Service. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information under this policy. We encourage you to read the applicable Terms of Service to understand the terms related to the use of the Platform/Service, which is generally accessible at https://www.peoplegrove.com/terms-of-service.

2. Objective and Scope

This policy (“Privacy Policy”) explains how we use and protect the Personal Information (defined below) of the users/customers of our PeopleGrove Platform and mobile application developed by PeopleGrove. This Privacy Policy describes the usage of information provided or collected through sites and applications (including mobile applications), where this Privacy Policy is posted (“Platform”) and affiliate or third-party sites/platforms through which the Platform and/or any of its features and/or services available on the Platform may be provided.  We follow this Privacy Policy under applicable law in the places where we operate. In some cases, we may provide additional Privacy Policies specific to certain features or services. Those notices are to be read in combination with this Privacy Policy. Please also keep in observance that our platform may contain links to other sites not owned or controlled by us and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites.

3. Collection of Personal Information

When we refer to ‘Personal Information’, we mean any information related to a particular living individual who we identify (whether directly or indirectly) a particular individual or natural person. This includes direct identifiers such as your name, postal address, email address, and mobile number, and also includes all other information which is linked to that information such as your profile information, etc.

3.1 Information provided by you

We may ask for and you may choose to provide the below information, which may include Personal Information when you use or register on PeopleGrove Platform/Service and create an account and use any of the features or services available on the Platform or contact us directly:

• Name
• Email Address
• Phone number
• Age or date of birth
• Password
• Education History
• Work History
• Location (Upon provision of access by the mobile application user)
• IP Address
• Your photo and video (if required, as granted by the user)
• Other data fields set up by PeopleGrove or our partners which can be visible on your profile or used for mentor matching (you will have control over which data is visible by visiting your profile)

3.2 Information we collect automatically

We and certain partners/third parties on our behalf may collect information about you and your use of our Platform, your interactions with us, as well as information regarding your computer or other smart/mobile device used to access our service.  The information may be collected using tracking technologies such as cookies, pixels, tags, software development kits, application program interfaces, and Web beacons, etc and may include:

• Your interactions with our emails, communications, messages;
• Your interactions with our customer support such as the date, time, and reason for contacting us, transcripts of any chat conversations, and if you call us, your phone number and call recordings;
• Device and software information such as device id, device model, platform, type of operating system, installed version, time zone setting, mobile carrier, screen resolution, etc., and other unique identifiers;
• We capture information related to the performance of the Platform, such as crash logs, build analytics, and other performance statistics generated when you use the Platform
• In cases where mobile application is used, any data that is collected after seeking consent from the user

Data collected on the PeopleGrove platform is on behalf of our Partners (Clients who use our services), and our Partners retain ownership of the data you provide on this Platform as a hosting service and/or data processor. If you do not agree to give ownership of your data on the PeopleGrove platform to our Partner who is operating this site, please contact support@peoplegrove.com to delete your account and all associated data.

3.3. Information we collect through third party sources

We may obtain your Personal Information from other sources. If you choose to link, connect, or log in to our Platform using a social media platform like Facebook, LinkedIn or Google the social media platform may send us your profile and social information such as Email, Name, and other profile data provided by the social media platform.

3.4 Information we collect via Personal Communication Using the PeopleGrove Platform.

We collect information about you when you send, receive, or engage with messages in connection with our Services. For example, the main purpose of the PeopleGrove platform is to communicate with other individuals on the platform. When connecting with an individual using the Service, you may be exchanging personal information with that individual, such as email or phone numbers. The content of communications on PeopleGrove is stored by PeopleGrove. PeopleGrove and our Partners reserve the right to screen the content of communications on the platform to improve the Service and prevent spam and abuse.

4. Purpose of Processing

We will only collect and process Personal Information about you where we have a lawful basis to do so. Our lawful basis for processing your Personal Information will vary depending on your country, the context in which we collect and use it, and the following examples give you a guide as to which basis we think applies (but if the context changes or other circumstances arise then the lawful basis may also change). Our primary purpose in collecting your information, including Personal Information is to deliver the PeopleGrove Platform/Service and its various features. Please note that should you choose to not provide us consent to collect your information, including Personal Information, we may not be able to perform the contract with you. Where we refer to ‘perform the contract’ we mean the Terms of Service apply to your use of the PeopleGrove Platform/Service, which means that you may either not be able to access certain features of the PeopleGrove Platform/Service or we may not be able to provide you the PeopleGrove Platform/Service in entirety. For example, we use your information where we need the Personal Information to perform the contract with you (for example, to provide the Platform or our services to you) to:

• If the processing of your Personal Information is subject to the EU General Data Protection Regulation, we rely on your consent as a lawful basis for processing personal data to provide you with marketing or promotional communications.
• We process personal data to provide you with services as requested by our Partners or to perform our contract with you as described in this document, including:
  • To enable the Service to function as expected; and
  • To communicate with you in response to customer service inquiries and to deliver non-promotional, service-related emails.
• Additionally, we process personal data based on our “legitimate interests” in providing you the Service as described in this document including:
  • Register you on our PeopleGrove Platform and create an account 
  • Allow you to Sign Up / Log In using social media accounts like Facebook/Google etc
  • To connect users on the platform for mentoring and networking purposes
  • To process event registrations, job applications, and surveys
• In some cases, PeopleGrove may process personal information pursuant to a legal obligation or to protect your vital interests or those of another person.
• Provide you with customer or technical support including addressing support queries related to, but not limited to, data processing, or to diagnose any problems with our servers/systems, etc.

Or, otherwise whenever the law requires us to get your permission or where we have stated we may seek your permission in this Privacy Policy. In some contexts, we use your Personal Information where we have a legal obligation to do so or to protect your vital interests or those of another person:

• Prevent, detect and investigate potentially prohibited or illegal activities, including fraud, and enforcing our terms (such as determining free trial eligibility);
• Confirming your identity if you are exercising legal rights;
• Notify you about changes in the Terms of Service or this Privacy Policy;
• Carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us/our distributor.
• When you access or use the Services or send any data, query, request, or communication to us via our Support email, you understand that you are communicating with us electronically and that we may respond via electronic means from us, such as by email.

5. Information Disclosure/Sharing

We will not share your information with anyone except as described in this section and other sections of this Privacy Policy. Please read it carefully. PeopleGrove operates online platforms on behalf of our Partners (universities or other organizations). When you sign up for a PeopleGrove powered platform, the Partner who has contracted with PeopleGrove to host the platform is explicitly clear. The PeopleGrove Partner for which PeopleGrove is hosting the Platform on behalf of retains ownership of the data collected.

5.1 Service Providers

Service Providers

We provide Personal Information to our contracted vendors and other trusted businesses or persons to process it for us (who are involved in the direct delivery of services to you (such as email or SMS providers), based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

Legal

In the event of any requirement by court order, government, or quasi-government agency to disclose your Personal Information, we will disclose information as may be legally required. We may also disclose your Personal Information if we, in good faith, believe that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to respond to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal processes. In the event PeopleGrove is merged with or acquired by another company or in case of reorganization or restructuring of the business, we and our affiliates may share your Personal Information, wholly or in part, with another business entity. PeopleGrove does not share your data with any third parties for marketing or data mining purposes.

Your rights associated with your personal information

In certain countries (for example in the UK and EU) you may have the right under applicable local law to request access, change or delete certain personal data that we hold in relation to you, or to object to or restrict the processing of certain personal information, receive personal information in a usable electronic format and transmit it to a third party (also known as the right of data portability), and lodge a complaint with a local data protection authority.

We will contact you if we need additional information from you in order to honor your requests.

If you want to update the information that we hold about you or if you no longer desire our Service, you may correct, delete inaccuracies, or modify the information we hold by sending an inquiry to our [email protected]. Given the nature of the services that we provide we may have shared your personal information with employers and other third parties. You may need to make requests to such third parties in accordance with the instructions in their privacy policies if you require them to update the records that they hold about you.

If you want to discuss or exercise any of your rights under this policy, please contact our [email protected] 

Your Controls and Choices

We provide you the ability to exercise certain controls and choices regarding our collection, use, and sharing of your Personal Information. Under applicable law, your controls and choices may include:

Rectification of Inaccurate or Incomplete Information

You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete Personal Information concerning you by sending us an email to our support email address ( [email protected] ).

Data Access and Portability

In some jurisdictions, applicable law may entitle you to request copies of your Personal Information held by us. You may also be entitled to request copies of Personal Information that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and/or request us to transmit this information to another service provider (where technically feasible). You can issue such a request by contacting us via the provided support email ( [email protected] ).

Withdrawing Consent and Restriction of Processing

For data that we collect, and process based on permissions or consent obtained from you, you may withdraw your consent at any time to receive marketing or promotional communications at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” link found within PeopleGrove email updates and changing your contact preferences.  Note there are some emails which you may not unsubscribe from (such as message requests) and you must delete your account to stop these emails. You can also issue such a request by contacting us via the provided support email ( [email protected] ), or by visiting the ‘My Preferences’ section of your account on the Platform.

Data Retention and Erasure

We retain your Personal Information as long as necessary for providing you the services and as per the lawful basis of processing and to comply with our legal obligations. In particular, when determining how long we retain personal data, we take into account how long we need it to:

• Maintain business records for analysis and/or audit purposes;
• Comply with record retention requirements under the law;
• Defend or bring any existing or potential legal claims; and
• Deal with any complaints regarding the Platform/any services provided on the Platform.

If you no longer want us to use your information, then you can request that we erase your Personal Information and close your Platform account. You can ask us to erase or delete all or some of your personal data (e.g., if it is no longer necessary to provide Services to you) by emailing to [email protected]. Please note that if your request for the erasure of your Personal Information:

• We may retain some of your Personal Information as necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud detection and prevention and enhancing safety. For example, if we suspend a Platform account for fraud or safety reasons, we may retain certain information from that account to prevent that user from opening a new account in the future.
• We may retain and use your Personal Information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations. For example, we may keep some of your information for legal reporting and auditing obligations.

Note: Users located within the EEA may contact us at [email protected] with questions or requests regarding their personal information. Please note that PeopleGrove may request additional information from you to verify your identity before we disclose any personal or account information.

Children’s Privacy

We do not knowingly permit any person who is under 13 years of age to register or to provide any other personally-identifying information. Please do not register with us if you are below 13 years of age. If we become aware that any Personal Information of persons less than 13 years of age has been collected on the Platform without verified parental consent, then we will take the appropriate steps to delete any such information.

Data transfer, storage & processing globally

We operate globally and may transfer your Personal Information to PeopleGrove affiliated companies or service providers or third-party recipients to whom we provide services, in locations around the world for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. Accordingly, by consenting to this Privacy Policy, you also provide consent to PeopleGrove to transfer your Personal Information to PeopleGrove affiliated companies or service providers or such third-party recipients in locations around the world. Wherever your Personal Information is transferred, stored, or processed by us or our affiliates or service providers, we will take reasonable steps to safeguard the privacy of your Personal Information. PeopleGrove Partners may request data hosting within a specific region. If a specific region is selected, PeopleGrove stores all data within the region where the Platform is hosted.

Security

We are continuously implementing and updating administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help protect your Personal Information against unauthorized access, loss, destruction, or alteration. Some of the safeguards we use to protect your information are firewalls,data encryption, and information access controls. These measures are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risks of processing your Personal Information. 

If you know or have reason to believe that your account credentials have been lost, stolen, altered, or otherwise compromised or in case of any actual or suspected unauthorized use of your account, please  contact (See Contact Information below). PeopleGrove Platform uses commercially reasonable security practices and procedures industry practices and procedures designed to help keep your Personal Information safe and secure. Unfortunately, the transmission of information over the Internet is not completely secure.  Although we strive to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data while it is being transmitted to our PeopleGrove Platform/Service; any transmission is at your own risk. We will also ensure, on a commercially reasonable efforts basis, that any agent or third party that we employ complies with the same security standards as we do for the protection of your Personal Information.

In cases of Mobile Application usage, any technical or security issue that pertains to the malfunction of device software because of which the application does not behave properly shall not be a part of PeopleGrove’s responsibility. This is because the device is not managed by PeopleGrove and we do not have control over the device in any way,shape or form.

Privacy Notice for California, Nevada, and Delaware Residents (“Privacy Notice”)

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”), and its implementing regulations, as well as Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 603A.300 et seq and Delaware Online and Personal Privacy Protection Act, require us to make certain disclosures regarding our privacy practices.

This Privacy Notice applies to personal information of California and Nevada residents that we collect, use, and disclose on the Site as part of the Service. PeopleGrove employees are subject to a separate privacy policy.

For the purposes of this section only, “personal information” means any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.” “Personal information” does not include publicly available information that is lawfully made available to the general public from federal, state, or local government records.

Collection, Use, and Disclosure of PI

We may hold data on you in our role as a service provider to a client company, and we may hold data about you on our own behalf. We collect, use, and disclose personal information as follows:

Categories of Personal Information We May Collect

Identifiers: name, postal address, online identifier, internet protocol address, email address, phone number.

Commercial information: products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies.

Internet or other electronic network activity information: browsing history, search history, and information regarding a consumer’s interaction with an internet website, application, or advertisement

Audio and Video: if you visit our facilities that employ CCTV, we may capture your likeness on video as you pass through secured areas.

How We Collect Personal Information

We have collected the above categories and types of personal information directly from individuals through our website or during customer support contact, directly from our business customers, and through business documents such as our contracts and other shared documents. We also collect personal information automatically using cookies and similar trackers.

Please refer to our cookie policy for further details.

How We Use Personal Information

We may use your personal information for the following business purposes:

• providing the Service to our business customers.
• fulfilling your requests.
• communicating with you about our Services or the Site;
• conducting business together.
• protecting our legal interests and abiding by our legal obligations.
• protecting the security of our systems and facilities.
• analyzing our business and web site performance; and marketing to you (with your consent, as required by applicable law).

How We Share Personal Information

We may disclose your personal information with third parties for a business purpose. These third parties include analytics providers and other service providers under contract to us. These service providers are prohibited from using your personal information except at our direction. We may also disclose your personal information to government entities or other third parties associated with legal or tax requirements, or in the case of a proposed merger, acquisition, asset sale, or other corporate transaction.

Your Rights as a California Resident

If you are a California resident, you have certain rights (subject to certain limits under California law), such as:

Right to Know and Right to Request Information

You may have the right to request that we disclose what personal information we collect, use, disclose or sell. You have the right to request information about the personal information we’ve collected about you within the last twelve months. You may request to know if we have collected, sold, or shared with third parties for a business purpose the following information:

• The categories of personal information we have collected about you;
• The categories of sources of personal information we collected about you;
• Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling personal information about you;
• The categories of third parties with whom we share personal information;
• The specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you;
• Whether we have sold your personal information and if so the categories of personal information that each category of recipient purchased; and
• Whether we have disclosed your personal information for a business purpose and if so, the categories of personal information that each category of recipient received.

If we find the requests repetitive, excessive or unfounded in a calendar year, we may refuse to act on your request. Hence, it is requested to submit your request consciously. 

Right to Request Deletion

You have the right to request that we delete the personal information we have collected about you. Under certain circumstances we may be unable to delete your personal information; for example, to comply with legal obligations, or for our legitimate business purposes.

Right to Opt-Out of the Sale of Personal Information

The CCPA provides California residents the right to opt out of sales of their personal information to third parties. We do not engage in sales of personal information and have not sold the personal information of California or Nevada residents in the preceding twelve months. We also do not sell the personal information of minors under the age of 16 years of age. This fact notwithstanding, you can submit a request to be opted out of any future data sales by sending a request to [email protected]

Right to Non-Discrimination

You have a right not to receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your privacy rights under the CCPA.

To exercise your rights as a California resident, you may make a request in the following ways:

• Contacting us on [email protected]

When you submit a request, we will verify your request and identity, and we reserve the right to take additional steps necessary for verification. For example, we may seek to establish your identity by requesting additional information from you that we can match with information that we have in our records.

You may designate an authorized agent to make a request to know or a request to delete your personal information by providing the authorized agent written permission to do so; and by verifying your own identity with us directly. We will deny any requests from agents that do not submit proof of authorization. Requests submitted via authorized agents will be subject to similar verification processes as direct requests.

If you wish to exercise your rights pertaining to the personal information we may hold about you as a service provider to a client company, please direct your request(s) to that company.

Change in Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is subject to change from time to time. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify the terms of this Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure compliance with applicable laws or in response to changing regulatory or operational requirements (“Terms of Service”). The Terms of Service shall be effective immediately (unless we state otherwise) and shall supersede the terms of this Privacy Policy. We will notify you of any changes to this Privacy Policy if the changes significantly affect your rights or as may be required by law. Your continued use of the PeopleGrove Platform/Service after any updates will mean you have accepted those changes. If you do not agree to the updates you should stop using the Service.

Cookie Policy

This cookie policy addresses how PeopleGrove (“PeopleGrove”, “we”, “us”, “our”) uses cookies while you are on our sites owned or operated by us at www.peoplegrove.com ,and our platform (the "Site") and in connection with the services provided by us. We collect certain information about you and your device as follows:

What are Cookies?

We use the term 'Cookies' to refer to all technologies which store and access information on the device that you use to access the Site, such as your computer, tablet, or mobile phone. For example, we use http cookies, which are small data files (typically made up of numbers and letters) that are downloaded when you access our Site and allow us to recognize your device. 

We use Cookies to help us to enhance the online experience of our visitors and to better understand how the Site is used. For example, Cookies may tell us whether you have visited the Site before or whether you are a new visitor.

Our Site uses first party cookies (i.e., cookies set directly by us to your device) as well as cookies served by third parties on our behalf for example by data analytics companies. Some of the cookies the Site uses only remain on your device while your browser is open (these cookies are known as 'session cookies'). We use session cookies to make it easier for you to navigate our site. Other cookies on the Site remain for longer periods (these are known as 'permanent cookies'). We set a persistent cookie to store your password, so you don’t have to enter it more than once. Persistent cookies also enable us to enhance your experience on our Site.

How do our sites and platforms/applications use cookies and other tracking technologies?

PeopleGrove uses cookies and other tracking technologies to identify you and your interests, to remember your preferences, and to track your use of our sites/platform. We also use cookies and other tracking technologies to control access to certain content on our sites, protect the sites, and to process any requests that you make to us.

Which cookies do we use and why do we use them?

This site majorly uses some/all of the following cookies

As is true of most web sites and apps, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data.

We send you push notifications from time-to-time to update you about any events or promotions that we may be running. If you no longer wish to receive these types of communications, you may turn them off at the device level. To ensure you receive proper notifications, we will need to collect certain information about your device such as operating system and user identification information.

How can you exercise your Cookies choices?

If you do not want the Site to collect information using cookies you can set your web browser to reject cookies from the Site. Each browser is different, so you should check your browser's "Help", "Tools" or "Edit" menu/facility to learn how to change your cookie preferences (e.g., for “do-not-track-me” functions). For further information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your device and how to manage and delete them, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.eu 

If you reject cookies, you may still use the Site, but the Site may not function as intended. 

If you have any questions about our use of cookies, please contact us at [email protected]

Contact us

If You have any questions about this Privacy and Cookie Policy, the practices of the Platform, or Your dealings with the Website, You can contact us at [email protected] or via the links at the bottom of the page, or you can write and send a letter to us at the below address:- PeopleGrove Inc. Attn: Legal Department / 1101 Wilson Blvd 6th Floor, Arlington, VA 22209 USA. Please do not share any private information in the above-stated email. If you’re not satisfied with our response to any complaint or believe our processing of your information does not comply with data protection law, you can write to our Grievance Officer:  Reilly Davis (CTO) [email protected]  Attn: Grievance Officer, 1101 Wilson Blvd 6th Floor, Arlington, VA 22209 USA.