Privacy Policy

Medical Information Disclaimer and Legal Agreement
The Vandrevala foundation operates the website www.vandrevalafoundation.com, and provides its services through the website, phone, the app, other online and offline platforms. This Policy applies to all visitors who use the online information and awareness service on mental health and well-being, guided-group meditation services and population/analytics dashboard services, WhatsApp-based business service and web-based or application services (the "Services") provided by the Vandrevala Foundation.
This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal data when you use our Services. Please read terms& conditions entirely and carefully before using our Services . Use of the Service is governed by the terms and conditions of this Agreement and it is understood that you have read and agreed and bound by the terms and conditions herein. Our Services are very diverse, so sometimes additional terms or product requirements (including age requirements) may apply.
1. General Disclaimer
a) The Services provided on this Website are here to inform the reader on health care and medical issues that may affect ones daily lives. This is not intended to be a replacement for face-to-face psychotherapy or to provide a diagnosis, treatment or cure for a disease or condition. This Website and the Services are not intended to pass any form of judgment of a health care or mental health care professional. If you suspect that you are facing mental-health related problems, you are strongly encouraged to seek such professional help.

(b) The Services are not intended to diagnose health problems or to take the place of professional medical care. The information contained herein is neither intended to dictate what constitutes reasonable, appropriate or best care for any given health issue, nor it is intended to be used as a substitute for the independent judgment of a physician for any given health issue. The Services are not intended for use in crisis or emergencies or severe mental health conditions. The Services cannot and will not offer medical or clinical advice. It can only suggest that the user seek medical help.

(c) The information contained herein is to provide information to you so that you are able to become knowledgeable participants in your disease management plan or the disease management plan of your family and friends. The primary responsibility of your disease management plan is with your treating physicians and you should only follow your treating physician’s advice. It is our appeal to you, DO NOT change/modify your disease management plan on your own without consulting your treating physicians. This Website does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the Website.

(d) Self-help information and information available from the internet is useful, but it is not a substitute for professional advice. The Website advises all of you to seek immediate professional help, If you have severe mental health conditions or in a crisis, suicidal thoughts; If you are gravely disabled (unable to care for yourself or those in your care); If you are abusing substances or have an addiction; If you or someone else is in any danger of harm;  If you have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder or suspect you have one;  If you or a loved one are in need of an intervention.

(e) The Website and/or the Services may not be appropriate for all health issues, particularly those of an urgent nature, and the Website makes no guarantee of any particular response time to any inquiry you may make. Accordingly, if you are experiencing a medical emergency, you should not rely on this Website for assistance, but should instead seek appropriate emergency medical assistance.
2. Type of data collected
Any such personal data about a natural person, which consists of information relating to:

1) password, financial information such as bank account or credit card or debit card or other payment instrument details, physical, physiological and mental health condition, sexual orientation, medical records and history, biometric information, any detail relating to the above clauses as provided to us for providing services and any of the information received under any of the above clauses by us for processing, storing or processing under lawful contract or otherwise; and

2) any information that is freely available or accessible in public domain or furnished under the Right to Information Act, 2005 or any other law for the time being in force shall not be regarded as Sensitive Personal Data for the purposes of this Policy.
3. Reason for data collection
We collect the data to:
1) to provide emotional wellbeing professional service;
2) to perform consent-based research and analytics;
3) to improve product and service quality and customer experience
4) to detect context and ensure continuity in conversation;
5) to detect medical or emergency terms to ensure safe conversations.
6) to detect any SOS or self-harm triggers in messages and to signpost to safety resources;
7) to improve product and service quality and customer experience; and
8) to anonymise the data.
4. How we use information we collect
We use the information we collect from all of our Services to provide, maintain, protect and improve them, to develop new ones, and to protect ourselves and our users. We also use this information to offer you tailored content like giving you more relevant search results and ads. We may use the name you provide for your profile across all of the Services we offer that require an account. In addition, we may replace past names associated with your account so that you are represented consistently across all our services. When you contact us, we may keep a record of your communication to help solve any issues you might be facing. We may use your email address to inform you about our Services, such as letting you know about upcoming programs. We use information collected from cookies and other technologies, like pixel tags, to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our Services. For example, by saving your language preferences, we will be able to provide our Services in the language you prefer. When showing you tailored ads, we will not associate a cookie or anonymous identifier with sensitive categories, such as those based on race, religion, sexual orientation or health. We may combine personal data from one service with information, including personal data, from other services for example to make it easier to share things with people you know. We will not combine double-click cookie information with personally identifiable information unless we have your opt-in consent. We will ask for your consent before using information for a purpose other than those that are setout in our Policy. We may process your personal data on a server located outside the country where you live. You may also set your browser to block all cookies, including cookies associated with our services, or to indicate when a cookie is being set by us. However, it's important to remember that many of our Services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. For example, we may not remember your language preferences. Where we can provide information access and correction, we will do so for free, except where it would require a disproportionate effort. We aim to maintain our Services in a manner that protects information from accidental or malicious destruction. Because of this, after you delete information from our Services, we may not immediately delete residual copies from our active servers and may not remove information from our backup systems.
5. Information we share
To provide you with our services, we use third-party service providers to help store and process your data. We assess the service provider’s security and privacy practices. We strictly require that they comply with confidentiality and non-disclosure obligations and applicable laws and regulations including relevant data protection laws. We also require that they or their providers (fourth parties) access your data only to the extent necessary to perform tasks on our behalf.

We do not share personal data with companies, organizations and individuals outside of our organisation unless we receive your consent, however, his doesn’t apply to non-personal data or anonymised/pseudonymized data.

We may share your personal data with our affiliates or other trusted businesses or persons to process it for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. In each case, we will ensure that these third parties have agreed not to use or disclose your personal data except to help us provide the Services. We may share consolidated, non-personally identifiable information publicly and with our partners like publishers, advertisers or connected sites. We may provide third parties with aggregate statistics about our visitors, traffic patterns and related site information. These data reflect site-usage patterns gathered during visits to our website each month.

We may be required to process your personal data in our legitimate interests. We will always weigh your rights and freedom before we process any such requests for purposes of legitimate interest. This processing includes:
1) For enforcing our policies or contractual obligations with your Institution;
2) For uses and disclosures required by law;
3) For disclosures for judicial and administrative proceedings such as court order or subpoena;
4) For disclosures for law enforcement purposes or national security requests;
5) For disclosure and assistance with an investigation or prosecution of suspected or actual illegal activity;
6) For uses and disclosures for public health reporting purposes;
7) For uses and disclosures to prevent serious threat to health or safety;
8) For uses and disclosures for minimal research and analytics purposes to study how users use our products and services;
9) For uses and disclosures for minimal research and analytics purposes to study how users use our products and services;
10) For uses and disclosures to protect your, our and others data protection rights, property and safety;

In the future, if we are involved in any merger, acquisition, sale of assets, business reorganization, bankruptcy, we may transfer or otherwise share some or all of our assets which may include your data. We will take reasonable steps to inform you about this.
6. Using our Services
(a) The Services and the information made available on this Website is derived in whole or in part from various sources and due care and caution has been exercised in compilation of data, however we do not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any information and shall not be responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information. This Website permits you to use the Services/information/content on the Website solely for your personal, non-commercial use.

(b) The information available on the Website must not be reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted or otherwise distributed in any way, without our prior written permission. Modification of any of the information or use of the information for any other purpose will be violation of copyright and other intellectual property rights. Graphics and images on the Website are protected by copyright and should not be reproduced or appropriated in any manner without our written permission.

(c) In the event any information/content on or from the Website infringe the copyright of any person/s party/ies, such information shall be removed from the Website on receipt of a written intimation with documentary support thereof.
7. Use of Message Boards, Chat Rooms, Blogs and other communication Forums
a) This Website contains the functionality of message/bulletin boards, chat rooms, or other message or communication facilities (collectively, "Forums"). By posting any comments, posts or other material on such Forums, you agree that you shall use the Website entirely at your risk and whilst using a Forum, you will not do any of the following:

(i) Post material that is unlawful, abusive, harassing, threatening or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others, as determined by the Website in its sole and absolute discretion;
(ii) Publish, post, distribute or disseminate any defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent or unlawful material or information;
(iii) Post advertisements or solicitations of business;
(iv) Upload files that contain software or other material protected by intellectual property laws (or by rights of privacy of publicity) unless you own or control the rights thereto or have received all necessary consents;
(v) Upload files that contain viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another’s computer.
(vi) Conduct or forward surveys, contests, or chain letters.
(vii) Download any file posted by another user of a Forum that you know, or reasonably should know, cannot be legally distributed in such manner.

(b) All Forums are public and not private communications. Chats, postings, conferences, and other communications by other users are not endorsed by us, and such communications will not be considered reviewed, screened, or approved by us.

(c) The Website reserves the right for any reason to remove, without notice, any communications that are abusive, illegal or disruptive, or that otherwise fail to conform with these terms and conditions and/or terminate a user's access to the blog feature upon any breach of these terms and conditions and/or edit or delete any communications posted on the blog feature, regardless of whether such communications violate these terms and conditions.

(d) In case, if any one writes derogatory statement, or writes irrelevant, obnoxious, etc. whereby the name of the foundation is tarnished for which, we reserve our right to initiate appropriate criminal and / or civil proceedings against such act/s.
8. Online Conduct
(a) All site users represent and warrant that they are at least 18 years of age and that they possess the legal right and ability to agree to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

(b) Users agree to use the Services/Website only for lawful purposes and are prohibited from posting on the Website any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory or obscene material of any kind, including, but not limited to, any material which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law. This applies to any posting that could be termed as Sexual Harassment and /or racial Discrimination. Although in the absence of a specific complaint the postings are not monitored for compliance with this provision, however on receipt of complaints in this regard, such content shall be forthwith removed from the Website. All the articles, comments, posts on the Website are views, opinions of the of contributors/authors only, and neither the Website or its founders/contributors/employees or its affiliated organizations nor anyone else involved in creating or maintaining this Website shall be responsible or liable in respect thereof.

(c) Users further agree that you will not use this Website as a means to distribute advertising or other unsolicited material to any third party. Users will not in any manner whatsoever attempt to disable, "hack" or otherwise interfere with the proper functioning of this Website and the Services.

(d) Users will not hold us or any of our affiliates, subsidiaries or parent company liable for damages including (but not limited to) loss of wages, revenue or business because of any services related to or provided by this Website. The sole and exclusive remedy for dissatisfaction with the services of this site will be to stop using the Service.
9. Privacy
(a) We take all reasonable steps to protect your personal data, however we shall not be liable for disclosures of your personal data due to unauthorized acts of third parties.

(b) This Website is not intended or designed to attract persons under the age of 18 years.

(c) To protect your privacy, you are advised not to submit any content that contains personal identifiable information (like name, phone number, email address or Website URL) in the Forms or otherwise, whilst submitting your articles, views, posts, opinions etc.

(d) If you send any personal data to us via email, or by filling out a form on the Website, that information is used to respond to your message and to provide you with information requested. Third party contractors may have access to this information in order to provide a response to your question/s or comment/s. These contractors are held to strict policies to safeguard the information and provide the same level of privacy protection as endeavored by this Website.

(e) Our Privacy Policies explain how we treat your personal data and protect your privacy when you use our Services. By using our Services, you agree that we can use such data in accordance with our Privacy Policies.
10. How long do we retain your data including personal data?
We may retain copy of your data even after you terminate using our Services if it is reasonably necessary. This could be in the following situations:
a) to comply with applicable legal and statutory requirements;
b) at the request of a returning subscriber;
c) to respond to your requests; or
d) to fulfill processing that is in our legitimate interest.
Where not specified we retain your data for a maximum of 10 years since the last update and as per our internal information retention policies.
11. No Warranties
(a) While using this Website please use a reasonable level of skill and care. But there are certain things that we don't promise about our content. Other than as expressly set out in these terms and conditions or additional terms, we do not make any specific promises about the content on the Website. For e.g. we don't make any commitments about the content or the specific functions of the Services, or their reliability, availability, or ability to meet your needs. We provide the Information as is.

(b) While the Website endeavors to keep the information up to date and correct, it makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the content or the information or related graphics (collectively information) contained on the Website for any purpose. The information on the Website is provided on an "as is" basis, any reliance you place on the Website and such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.

(c) With respect to the articles, opinions, stories, posts submitted by any of the users/visitors, the Website shall endeavor to credit the authors of the same and source thereof(as applicable).
(d) We make no warranty or guarantee that the Services will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free. We, and our content providers, cannot and do not guarantee or warrant against errors, commissions, omissions, delays, interruptions or losses, including loss of data. Users of this site are responsible for maintaining a means external to the Website for the reconstruction of any lost data.

(e) We are not liable to any user or anyone else for any decision made or action taken by based on reliance upon the information contained on or provided through the Service.
12. Link Disclaimer
This Website contains links or references to third-party websites, whose content are maintained by independent third parties either directly or through links and this Website is not the main content provider. Hence, we do not have control over the content of linked external websites. We shall also not be responsible for any action or decision taken in reliance on the information provided by the external websites. For avoidance of doubt, the inclusion of any links does not imply a recommendation or endorsement of the views expressed within those third-party websites.
13. Disclaimer of Endorsement.
Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by us. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the Website/Vandrevala Foundation, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.
14. No Liability
You assume all responsibility and risk for the use of the Services. In no event, we and/or our founders/contributors/employees or affiliated organizations or anyone else involved in creating or maintaining this Website will be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, direct, indirect, special, consequential or loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use or inability to use this Website and/or any other websites which are linked to this Website or as a result of reliance on the information on this Website or that result directly or indirectly from mistakes, omissions, interruptions, deletion of files, viruses, errors, defects, or any failure of performance, communications failure, theft, destruction or unauthorized access.
15. Availability
Every effort is made to keep the Services up and running smoothly. However, we do not and cannot warrant that the information or any functions associated with the Services will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that defects will be corrected or that the Website and the Website server are and will be free of all viruses and/or other harmful elements. The Website takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the Services being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control. We reserve the right to modify, discontinue, temporarily or permanently, this Website/Services, or any part thereof, at any time, with or without notice. In addition, your access to the Website/Services may be discontinued at any time if you violate the terms and conditions of this Agreement or if we determine, for any other reason, that it is no longer appropriate for you to have access to the Services.
16. Indemnity
Users will indemnify us and any of our parent or subsidiary companies or organizations, and any of our successors, assigns or licensees and suppliers, together with any of their respective officers, directors and employees, against any claims, demands, damages, losses, liabilities, judgments, costs or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees and costs) arising out of a claim by a third party relating to use of the Service, or any breach or violation of this Agreement.
17. Modify/Update Information/Policies
We may modify these terms and conditions or any additional terms that apply, for example, reflect changes to the law or changes to our content. You should look at the terms and conditions regularly. We shall post notice(s) of modifications to term and conditions of use of the Website on this page. We shall also post notice(s) of the modified additional terms and conditions to the applicable content. Changes will not apply retroactively and will become effective no sooner than fourteen days after they are posted. However, changes addressing new content or changes made for legal reasons shall be effective immediately. If you do not agree to the modified terms, you should discontinue your use of the Website. If there is a conflict between the terms and conditions of use of the Website and the additional terms, the additional terms will control for that conflict. These terms and conditions control our relationship. They do not create any third party beneficiary rights. If you do not comply with these terms and conditions, and we don't take action right away, this doesn't mean that we have waived our rights that we may have (such as taking action in the future). If it turns out that any particular term or condition hereof is not enforceable, this will not affect any of the other terms and conditions hereof. For information about how to contact us, please visit our contact page. We respect the right to privacy of all users/ visitors. We do not collect information that would personally identify you unless you choose to provide it. We have taken reasonable steps to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of personally identifiable information that you may provide. You should understand, however, that electronic transmissions via the Internet are not necessarily secure from interception, and so we cannot absolutely guarantee the security or confidentiality of such transmissions.
18. Enforcement
We regularly review our compliance with our Privacy Policies. We also adhere to several self-regulatory frameworks. When we receive formal written complaints, we will contact the person who made the complaint to follow up. We work with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of personal data that we cannot resolve with our users directly.
19. Changes
We may amend this privacy notice from time to time to keep it up to date. Please regularly check these pages for the latest version of this notice.
We have refined our Privacy Policy.