Privacy Policy

Grapevine, is an application and website published by M/s. Watercooler Chat Private Limited and / or its affiliates (collectively referred to “Grapevine”, “Platform”, “Watercooler Chat”, “us”, “we” or “our”) that provides end users (“end users” or “you”) a pseudonymous social network, including but not limited to an online platform allowing users to upload, view and compare data on salaries and compensation across a range of job titles and employers. Grapevine also houses different communities relevant to working professionals and students available on the Google Playstore or Apple Appstore.

We respect your privacy, and we are committed to protecting it.  This Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand how we collect, use, process, and share your personal information and to help you understand and exercise your privacy rights. This Policy will be applicable to you when you use Grapevine. Users are offered choices about the data that is collected, used, and shared, as stated in the Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy, together with our Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern the collection, disclosure and processing of your data and is applicable to all the information collected through the Platforms, upon the use of such Platforms, any related services, marketing, events and/or any other locations that are in any way linked to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Services”). Please read this Policy and our Terms carefully. By accessing our Platforms, you consent to the information collection and use practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, you should immediately cease to continue the use of the Services. This privacy policy is in accordance with the statutory mandate under Rule 4 of the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, and other applicable rules, regulations and laws.

Table of contents

Data we collect

Our servers may automatically log standard data provided by your device upon the use of Grapevine, such as browser type, device type, and version, Internet Protocol (IP) address, geolocation data, username and email. The User acknowledges that it is their duty to inform us of rectification or amendment pertaining to any changes to their personal data.

Your consent to use your personal information may be required in certain circumstances and the same may be withdrawn at any time by reaching out to us via the contact details provided in this Privacy Policy. We shall get in touch with you whenever consent to process any data is required.

In addition to this, data we collect includes the following:

How do we use your data?

We use your information for a variety of business purposes, including to provide our Services, for administrative purposes, and to market our products and Services, as described below. We collect, store, use and process your information in order to provide you with a personalized experience on Grapevine that is in line with your interests and preferences, in accordance with our Terms.

Additionally, Grapevine stores, uses, and processes your information for the following purposes:

1. Managing your information and accounts, providing access to certain areas, functionalities, content, and features of our Services;

2. To tailor our services (such as posts on your feed) for you. Such decisions may be taken by automated algorithms.

3. Answering requests for customer or technical support communicating with you about your account, activities on our Services, application updates / upgrades as applicable, and policy changes;

4. Complying with regulatory and legal obligations;

5. Exercising or defending any legal rights;

6. Communicating with you or managing any request;

7. Processing applications if you apply for a job we post on our Services; and allowing you to register for events;

Administrative

We also use your information in our legitimate interest, including, in the following manner:

1. Network and information security and fraud prevention, detecting security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity;

2. Verifying your identity, authenticating your account, and defending against fraud, unauthorized use, and illegal activity;

3. Complying with regulatory and legal obligations;

4. Market & user research, measuring interest and engagement in our Services;

5. Product or service- development (including new products), upgrades and enhancements;

6. For internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, and research;

7. To create statistical data and poll results that do not identify you individually, which we can commercialize, based on aggregate trends and usage statistics;

8. Ensuring internal quality control and safety; Debugging to identify and repair errors with our Services;

9. Auditing relating to interactions, transactions, and other compliance activities;

10. Sharing information with third parties as needed to provide the Services;

11. Enforcing our agreements and policies;

12. Other uses as required to comply with our legal obligations;

13. Identify IT or other technical issues related to Grapevine that may be affecting users adversely;

14. Identify any undesirable usage of Grapevine.

Marketing and Advertising our Products and Services

We may use our data for the following purposes:

1. Tailor and provide you with content and advertisements;

2. Improve our marketing and advertising efforts

3. Market to you content and advertisements through email campaigns, custom audiences advertising, and "interest-based" or "personalised advertising," including through cross-device tracking.

4. See if new features or products are functioning properly.

5. Troubleshoot and fix features and products on Grapevine.

With your consent

We may use personal information for other purposes that are clearly disclosed to you at the time you provide personal information or with your consent.

The information collected herein shall not be stored for longer than is required for the purposes for which the information may lawfully be used or is otherwise required under any other law for the time being in force.

We do not anticipate the use of your information apart from business purposes. Such purposes include, but are not limited to:

• Performing services requested by you such as responding to your comments, questions, and requests, and providing information support; operating and managing the Services;

• Detecting, preventing, and addressing fraud, breach of Terms, and threats, or harm;

• Sending you technical notices, updates, security alerts, information regarding changes to our policies, and support and administrative messages; and compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

• Protecting the security and integrity of the Services;

• Improving the Services; and/or fulfilling any other business purpose, with your consent.

Notwithstanding the above, we may use information that does not identify you (including information that has been anonymised, aggregated, or de-identified) for any purpose except as prohibited by applicable law.

How do we share your data?

We only disclose your personal information to third parties as follows:

To provide you our services

We only share your information where absolutely necessary to provide and maintain our services. Our trusted partners helps us deliver our services to you subject to strict data agreements.

For the purpose of this policy, “policy partners” means any entity that directly or indirectly, processing customer data on behalf of grapevine for helping us provide end customers services now or in the future. We do not sell any of your information to anyone. We also require policy partners and third parties to follow rules about how they can and cannot use and disclose the information provided to them by Grapevine.

Please check Data we collect in this document to better understand data mentioned in the above table.

Link to the privacy policy of third-party service providers used by the app

• Google Play Services

• Google Analytics for Firebase

• Firebase Crashlytics

• Sentry

• Mixpanel

To protect us or others in good faith

We will disclose data If we believe in good faith such disclosure is necessary in order to:

1. Comply with relevant laws or to respond to subpoenas or warrants or legal process served on us. We reserve the right to take action on behalf of our users and their possible right to anonymity when we believe there is a legitimate basis to do so;

2. To promote safety, security and integrity of Grapevine, users, employees, property and the public;

3. Prevent physical harm or financial loss, or in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity;

4. Act in a manner we otherwise deem necessary and is permitted by applicable laws to protect and defend the rights or property of us, the users of our services, or third parties; or

5. Act as permitted under applicable laws to meet public, national security and similar requirements;

6. We may share information with related entities and/or our affiliates, including but not limited to when they act as our service providers;

7. We may share your information with you at your request or direction;

8. We may share information for audits and legal compliance with our professional advisors;

9. Information stored by us may be shared with public officials for legal compliance enforcement and authorized security concerns or on request by Government agencies under Rule 6(1) of the Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011;

10. We may share information with third-party service providers for business purposes, including fraud detection and prevention, security threat detection, technology, payment processing, customer support, data analytics, information storage, and transaction monitoring. All service providers we engage are restricted to only utilizing the information on our behalf and following our instructions. However, such information may be shared with third parties by an order under the law for the time being in force;

In case of change of control

If we sell or otherwise transfer part or all of Watercooler chat private limited or our assets to another entity (e.g., in the course of a transaction such as a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution or liquidation), your information, such as username and hashed phone numbers, email address, Content and any other information collected through the Service may be among the items sold or transferred. You will continue to own your User Content. The purchaser or transferee will be required to honour the commitments we have made in this Privacy Policy.

Policy pertaining to children’s data

Grapevine is meant to be a platform for working professionals and students above the age of consent established by data privacy laws in their local jurisdiction.

1. We do not knowingly collect, solicit any information and provide our services to anyone under the age of consent.

2. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from anyone under the age of consent established by the data protection law of their applicable country, we will take all commercially reasonable steps to erase such information as quickly as possible upon the same being brought to our notice.

3. If you are a parent or guardian who has reason to believe that Grapevine may possess any personal information pertaining to a child below the age of consent, please contact us. Upon being made aware, Grapevine will take all commercially reasonable steps to erase such information as quickly as possible upon the same.

Choices regarding your personal information

All Grapevine users have the following rights with regard to any information that Grapevine may collect, store, use, process or share:

1. Users have the right to access their personal information stored with us, how we use it, and who we share it with.

2. Users have the right to correct any inaccurate or wrong personal information.

3. Users have the right to require Grapevine to stop processing the personal information we hold about you, other than for storage purposes, subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

4. Wherever Grapevine relies upon on consent of the user to process personal information, users may withdraw such consent at any time. However, in circumstances where it may be lawful for Grapevine to continue processing without consent, Grapevine may do so, provided there is a legitimate reason for doing so.

5. Users have a right to a copy of their personal identifiable information or correction or deletion of their personal identifiable information.

Please note that Grapevine is only available to download only in India and we are not under legal obligation to fulfil CCPA or GDPR requests. We do, however, intend to help users of our Services with additional rights pertaining to processing and retention of personally identifiable information.

If you want us to stop collecting any further data, you stop accessing the platform. Additionally, we do not discriminate against users of our Services based on whether they have exercised their rights under any privacy laws.

Any grievances regarding the collection, usage, transfer, or processing of the User’s personal data may be raised before the Grievance Redressal Officer, accessible at [email protected]. Furthermore, please note that the said rights are not absolute and may be limited by the applicable law in force at time.

Security safeguards

1. We shall ensure that your personal information collected by us is subject to appropriate industry-standard security measures. The nature of the internet or electronic transmission, however, cannot be completely risk-free thus we cannot guarantee the absolute security of the same.

2. We shall not be responsible for any interruption or interception of any communications through the internet or for changes to or losses of data. You are responsible for maintaining the security of any password, user ID, or any other form of authentication involved in obtaining access to secure areas of any of our Services.

How long do we keep your personal information?

We store the personal information we collect as described in this Privacy Policy for as long as you use our Services, or as necessary to fulfil the purpose(s) for which it was collected, provide our Services, resolve disputes, establish legal defences, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes, enforce our agreements, and comply with applicable laws.

Cookie policy

This Cookie Policy applies to any Grapevine platforms that you may use. By continuing to use Grapevine and our services, you agree to the use of cookies and any similar technologies for the purposes as described herein. We use cookies and similar technologies to collect and use data in line with our Privacy Policy.

What is a cookie?

Cookies are files or small pieces of text used to store information on web browsers and enables Grapevine’s functionality and features. They are essentially used to store and receive information on computers, phones and any other devices. Other technologies, including data that we store on your device, identifiers associated with your device and other software, are used for similar purposes. All such things are referred to as “cookies”.

Cookies enable Grapevine to offer its services and platforms, while also helping us understand the information that we receive about you. This policy explains how we use cookies and the choices you have. Except as otherwise stated in this policy, they will apply to our processing of the data that we collect via cookies.

Please note that while you may refuse all cookies or be notified when a cookie is being sent and instruct your device to refuse the cookie, in certain situations if cookies are not accepted, you may not be able to use certain portions of Grapevine.

What technologies are used by Grapevine?

What technologies used for?

Third party use of these technologies

Third parties, including users, policy partners and service providers may use cookies in connection with services rendered by Grapevine. Third parties may use cookies to help us to provide our Services. We may also work with third parties for our own marketing purposes and to enable us to analyse and research our Services.

Security Of Information

Grapevine shall ensure that any personal information collected by us is subject to appropriate industry-standard security measures. The nature of the internet or electronic transmission cannot be completely risk-free and therefore, Grapevine cannot guarantee the absolute security of the same.

Grapevine will not be responsible for any interruption or interception of any communications through the internet or for changes to or losses of data. The user is responsible for maintaining the security of any password, user ID, or any other form of authentication involved in obtaining access to secure areas of any of our Services.

Rights Reserved

Grapevine reserves the right to modify, update and/or change the Privacy Policy contained herein from time to time. Such changes shall be reflected in the Privacy Policy, which may be updated from time to time, and continuing usage shall imply acceptance of the new Privacy Policy.

Updates to our privacy policy

We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time in our sole discretion. If there are any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you as required by applicable law. You understand and agree that you will be deemed to have accepted the updated Privacy Policy if you continue to use our Services after the new Privacy Policy takes effect.

Contact us For any queries related to the application and your privacy please contact [email protected]

Additional Links that maybe helpful Grapevine privacy policy | Terms & Conditions | Community guidelines