We have prepared this Privacy Policy to explain to you how we collect, use, and share information and Personal Data (as defined under applicable law) we obtain through your use of the Internet sites, applications and online services (“Services”) that are operated by, controlled by or affiliated with TechTipTricks. This Privacy Policy only covers information collected through the Services and via direct communications between you and TechTipTricks, and does not cover any information collected at any other website, application or otherwise by us (unless specifically stated), including when you call us, write to us, or communicate with us in any manner other than through the Services. By using the Services, you consent to such collection, use and sharing of your information and Personal Data and agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. We will only process your Personal Data in accordance with applicable data protection and privacy laws.

Information We Automatically Collect

Categories of Information. categories of information. We and our third-party service providers (such as third-party content, advertising, and analytics providers) automatically collect certain information from your device or web browser when you use the Services. This information helps us understand how our users use the Services and allows us to show you ads that are more relevant to you. This information is called “Usage Data.” For example, each time you visit the Services we and our third-party service providers automatically collect your location, IP address, mobile device identifier or other unique identifier, browser and computer type, Internet service provider used, clickstream information, access time, the Web page you came from, the URL you go to next, the Web page(s) that you access during your visit and your interaction with content or advertising on the Services. We may contract with third parties to collect this information on our behalf for analytics purposes. These include companies such as MGID and Google.

Purposes For This Information. We and our third-party service providers use such Usage Data for a variety of purposes including to diagnose problems with our servers and software, to administer the Services, to gather demographic information and to target advertising to you on the Services and elsewhere online. Accordingly, our third-party advertising networks and ad servers will also provide us with information, including reports that will tell us how many ads were presented and clicked on the Services in a manner that does not identify personally any specific individual. The Usage Data we collect is generally non-identifying, but if we associate it with you as a specific and identifiable person, we will treat it as Personal Data.

Cookies/Tracking Technologies

We use tracking technologies, such as cookies, local storage, and pixel tags.

Cookies and Local Storage

Cookies and local storage may be set and accessed on your computer. Upon your first visit to the Services, a cookie or local storage will be sent to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. “Cookies” and local storage are small files containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer’s browser and stored on your device when you visit a website. Many major Web services use cookies to provide useful features for their users. Each Web site can send its own cookie to your browser. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent; however, if you reject cookies, you will not be able to sign in to the Services or take full advantage of our Services. Additionally, if you clear all cookies on your browser at any point after setting your browser to refuse all cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent, you will have to again reset your browser to refuse all cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent.

Pixel Tags

We also use “pixel tags,” which are small graphic files that allow us and third parties to monitor the use of the Services and collect Usage Data. A pixel tag can collect information such as the IP address of the computer that downloaded the page on which the tag appears; the URL of the page on which the pixel tag appears; the time (and length of time) the page containing the pixel tag was viewed; the type of browser that retrieved the pixel tag; and the identification number of any cookie previously placed by that server on your computer.

We use pixel tags, either provided by us or by our third-party advertisers, service providers and ad networks, to collect information about your visit, including the pages you view, the links you click and other actions taken in connection with our sites and Services and use them in combination with our cookies to provide offers and information of interest to you. Pixel tags also enable ad networks to serve targeted advertisements to you when you visit the Services or other websites.

Log Files

A log file is a file that records events that occur in connection with your use of the Service, such as your service use data.

Location-Identifying Technologies

GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and other location-aware technologies may be used to collect precise location data when you enable location-based services through your device. Location data may be used for purposes such as verifying your device’s location and delivering or restricting relevant content and advertising based on that location.

In addition, we use a variety of other technologies that collect similar information for security and fraud detection purposes essential to the operation of our sites and business.

Information You Choose To Submit

You can visit the Services without telling us who you are or revealing any information by which someone could identify you as a specific, identifiable individual (which we will refer to in this Privacy Policy collectively as “Personal Data”). If, however, you wish to register to become a member of the Services, you are required to provide certain Personal Data (for example, your name and email address), and you must also provide a username and password. We use your Personal Data to fulfill your requests for products and services, to improve our Services, to contact you from time to time, with your consent, about us and our products and services, and as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy.

We refer collectively to all information we collect that is not Personal Data, including Usage Data, demographic data and de-identified Personal Data, as “Non-Personal Data”. If we combine Non-Personal Data with Personal Data, we will treat the combined information as Personal Data under this Privacy Policy.

Personal Data, Non-Personal Data, and User Submissions are referred to in this Privacy Policy collectively as “User Information.”

You may choose to enter contests, sweepstakes, competitions, participate in surveys, subscribe to newsletters, comment articles, use message boards, chat rooms, reader photo upload areas, reader ratings and reviews, save articles or other content on our Sites, reader-created content upload areas, contact us and customer support areas, and areas that allow you to register for SMS text messaging and mobile alerts, or otherwise interact with us in similar ways (“Interactive Areas”). These Interactive Areas may require that you provide Personal Data corresponding with the activities. You understand and agree that the Interactive Areas are voluntary and that your providing Personal Data for those activities will be collected and used by us to identify and communicate with you. In certain circumstances, we may share that Personal Information with sponsors, advertisers, affiliates or other partners. If you have questions about a specific Interactive Area, please contact us and reference that specific Interactive Area.

In addition, you are required to provide certain Personal Data when you submit a job application and supporting materials. Where you submit a job application on behalf of another person, you confirm that you have made that person aware of how we collect, use and share their Personal Data, the reason you have provided it, how they can contact us, the terms of this Privacy Policy and related policies and that they have consented to such collection, use and sharing. You can also choose to submit or we may collect additional information about yourself, such as demographic information (for example your gender, birth date, or zip code) and information about your preferences and interests. Failure to provide any required Personal Data will prevent us from being able to provide the Services you request (e.g., member registration or submission of job application) or otherwise inhibit our ability to provide the Services.

Information We Receive From Other Sources

We may supplement the information we collect with outside records in order to learn more about our users, to better tailor the content and offers we show you, and for other purposes. We may receive this information about you from public sources or third parties, including without limitation consumer data resellers, social networks, and advertisers that demonstrate collection complaint with applicable privacy laws. We may combine the information we receive from those other sources with information we collect through the Services. In those cases, we will apply this Privacy Policy to the combined information.

Information Use

We use the information we collect, including Personal Data and Usage Data:

to provide you with information, products, or services that we otherwise believe will interest you, including special opportunities from us and our third-party partners;
to tailor content, recommendations, and advertisements we and third parties display to you, both on the Services and elsewhere online;
for internal business purposes, such as to improve our Services and content;
to provide you with information, products, or services that you have requested;
to provide mobile alerts via WhatsApp or SMS message for specific purposes;
to offer an “Email This” feature that allows visitors to email a link to another person to inform them about an article or feature on the Sites. We do not retain telephone numbers or email addresses collected for these purposes after sending the SMS text message or email;
to administer and process contests, sweepstakes, promotions, conferences and special events (collectively “Events”). Information collected through our Sites in conjunction with such Events is also used for marketing additional products, services and events by us and/or by our advertisers, sponsors, and marketing partners. Please see the rules of each individual Event and any applicable privacy policies for those Events for additional information on the choices you may exercise with respect to the use of your personal information collected in connection with that Event. To the extent there is a conflict between this Privacy Policy and the rules or policies applicable to an Event, the rules and policies associated with the Event shall govern.;
to contact you with administrative communications and, in our discretion, changes to our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, or any of our other policies;
to comply with regulatory and legal obligations; and
for purposes as disclosed at the time you provide your information and as further described in this Privacy Policy.

Social Network and Platform Integration

The Services contain integration with social networks and other platforms in which information is shared between us and such platforms. For example, if you create or log into your account through a third-party social media site, we may have access to certain information from that site, such as your name, email address, account information, photo and friends lists, and other information in accordance with the authorization procedures determined by such social media site. If you don’t want a social network to collect the information about you as described above, or you don’t want a social network to share it with us, please review the Privacy Policy, privacy settings and instructions of the applicable social network before you visit and use our Services.

Our Information Sharing Practice

Generally

We share Non-Personal Data, including Usage Data, de-identified Personal Data and aggregated user statistics, with third parties in our discretion. Information collected via the Sites is shared among our affiliates. For example, we may share your information with our related entities including our parent and sister companies for customer support, marketing, and technical operations. We share User Information, including Personal Data, as otherwise described in this Policy, and under the following circumstances.

Service Providers

From time to time, we enter into relationships with third parties who provide services to us (for example, analytics and research companies, advertisers and ad agencies, data management and storage services, credit card processing services, merchandise sales facilitators, sweepstakes or contest prize fulfillment). We share your information with third parties for the purposes of facilitating your requests (such as when you choose to share information with a social network about your activities on the Sites) and in connection with tailoring advertisements, measuring and improving our Sites and advertising effectiveness, and other enabling enhancements. We share aggregate information about our visitors with our advertisers, sponsors, and promotional partners, such as how many persons visited a particular page or activity, the average age of our visitors on the Site(s) or page(s), or the likes and dislikes of our visitors, but this information is not specific to any individual visitor. We obtain geographic information such as zip code clustering from other sources, but this aggregate information will not reveal the precise location of a specific visitor. We also obtain other demographic information from third parties to improve our products and services, for marketing purposes or to display more relevant advertising. In those circumstances, we disclose User Information so that such service providers perform those services. These service providers are only permitted to use your Personal Data to the extent necessary to enable them to provide their services to us. They are required to follow our express instructions and to comply with appropriate security measures to protect your Personal Data. And our sites use certain Google analytics and other services, and certain pages use the Google AMP Client ID API, each of which enable collection and sharing of your information (including Personal Data) with Google for further use. For specific information on Google usage and how to control it, please see How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps and Google’s Privacy Policy.

Operational Providers

For your convenience, we may provide the opportunity to purchase certain goods, merchandise and services through the Sites (including, without limitation, retail purchases, print and digital magazine subscriptions and special event tickets). Companies other than TechTipTricks, its parents, partners, affiliates or subsidiaries may process these transactions. We call these companies that conduct our e-commerce operations, order and contest fulfillment and/or contract services “operational providers.” They are third parties that perform services on our behalf. If you choose to use these optional services, our operational providers will request your personal information to fulfill your order or request. The voluntary submission of your personal information to these operational providers, including your order or request, will be governed by the specific provider’s terms of use and privacy policies. To facilitate an order or request from you, we may share your personal information with the provider. The operational provider may also share your personal information and information about your purchases with us. We may store this information in our membership database. In most instances, we request that our operational providers adhere to the provisions in our Privacy Policy and that such providers only share visitors’ personal information with us, unless necessary to complete a visitor’s request or order. Operational providers are only permitted to use any personal information for the purpose of conducting the sale or fulfilling your requested service or order. However, you must read an operational provider’s Privacy Policy to determine the extent of use and disclosure of your personal information collected online. We are not responsible for the collection, use and disclosure practices of operational providers, nor are we responsible or liable for their services.

Third-Party Direct Marketing

We may share your information with third parties for our own direct marketing purposes (for example, email blasts, special offers, discounts, etc.). If you have not opted out of us sharing your information with third parties for marketing purposes, we may also share your information (including Personal Data) with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes. Please note, messages delivered from a third-party will subject you to the third-party’s Privacy Policy. We may also match your email address with third parties and use such match to deliver custom offers or emails to you on the Services and off the Services.

Third Party Features

We may allow you to connect our Sites to a third party service or offer our Sites through a third party service (“Third Party Features”). If you use a Third Party Feature, both we and the applicable third party may have access to and use information associated with your use of the Third Party Feature, and you should carefully review the third party’s Privacy Policy and terms of use. Some examples of Third Party Features include the following:

Logging-In. You may choose to log in, create an account or enhance your profile on the Sites through the Facebook Login feature. By doing this, you are asking Facebook to send us certain information from your Facebook profile, and you authorize us to collect, store, and use in accordance with this Privacy Policy any and all information available to us through the Facebook interface.

Brand Pages. We offer our content on social networks such as a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Any information you provide to us when you engage with our content (such as through our brand page) is treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Also, if you publicly reference our Sites on a third party service (e.g., by using a hashtag associated with us in a tweet or post), we may use your reference on or in connection with our Service.

Change of Control

In the event we go through a business transition (such as a merger, acquisition by another company, bankruptcy, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, including, without limitation, during the course of any due diligence process), your Personal Data will likely be among the assets transferred. By providing your Personal Data, you agree that we can transfer such information in those circumstances without your further consent. Should such a business transition occur, we will make reasonable efforts to request that the new owner or combined entity (as applicable) follow this Privacy Policy with respect to your Personal Data. If your Personal Data would be used contrary to this Privacy Policy, we will request that you receive prior notice.

Other Disclosure Scenarios

We reserve the right, and you hereby expressly authorize us, to share User Information: (i) in response to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, or to establish, protect, or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims; (ii) if we believe it is necessary in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, fraud, or situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person or property; (iii) if we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding significant abuse of the Services infrastructure or the Internet in general (such as voluminous spamming, denial of service attacks, or attempts to compromise the security of information); (iv) to protect and defend our legal rights or property, our services or their users, or any other party, and to protect the health and safety of our users or the general public; and (v) to our parent company, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control with us (in which case we will require such entities to honor this Privacy Policy).

Anonymous Data

When we use the term “anonymous data,” we are referring to data and information that does not permit you to be identified or identifiable, either alone or when combined with any other information available to a third-party. We may create anonymous data from the Personal Data we receive about you and other individuals whose Personal Data we collect. Anonymous data will include analytics information and information collected by us using cookies. We make Personal Data into anonymous data by excluding information (such as your name or other personal identifiers) that makes the data personally identifiable to you. We use this anonymous data to analyze usage patterns in order to make improvements to our Services.

Public Information

If you identify any User Information as public, you are authorizing us to share such information publicly. For example, you can elect to make certain of your User Submissions (such as your alias, bio, email or photos) publicly available. Also, there are areas of the Services (for example, message boards, discussion rooms, and other online forums) in which you are able to post information that automatically will be available to all other users of the Services. By choosing to use these areas, you understand and agree that anyone can access, use, and disclose any information that you post to those areas.

Advertising

Generally

We use other companies under agreements with us to serve third-party advertisements when you visit and use the Services. These companies collect and use click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over during your visits to the Services and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use tracking technologies to collect this information. Other companies’ use of their tracking technologies is subject to their own privacy policies, not this one. In addition, we share with these third parties any personal information you voluntarily provide, such as an email address, in response to an advertisement or sponsored content link.

Targeted Advertising

In order to serve offers and advertisements that may be of interest to our users, we display targeted advertisements on the Services, or other digital properties or applications in conjunction with our content, based on information provided to us by our users and information provided to us by third parties that they have independently collected.

Your Ad Choices

Some of the third-party services providers and/or Advertisers may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) or the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising.

If you are accessing the Services through an application (i.e., mobile phone or tablet) you can download the AppChoices application from your device’s application store (i.e., Google Play, Apple App Store, and Amazon Store). This DAA application allows participating companies to offer an opt-out of customized advertisements that are based on predictions about your interests generated from your application usage.

Please note opting out through these mechanisms does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads while online or on your device.

Mobile

We may from time to time offer certain location or pinpoint based services, such as location assisted navigation instruction. If you elect to use such location-based services, we must periodically receive your location in order to provide such location-based services to you. By using the location-based services, you authorize us to: (i) locate your hardware; (ii) record, compile and display your location; and (iii) publish your location to third parties designated by you by means of location publication controls available within the applications (for example, settings, user preferences). As part of the location-based services, we also collect and store certain information about the users who elect to use such location-based services, such as a device id. This information will be used to provide you the location-based services. We use third-party providers to help provide location-based services through mobile systems (unless you opt out of such location-based services with such providers) and we provide the information to such providers to enable them to provide their location-based services, provided that such providers use the information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Choice/Opt-Out From Communications

We offer you the opportunity to manage your communications from us. Even after subscribing to one or more newsletters and/or opting in to one or more offers to receive marketing and/or promotional communications from us or our third-party partners, users may elect to modify their preferences by following the “Communications Preferences” and/or “Unsubscribe” link provided in an email or communication received. You may also be able to change your preferences by updating your profile or account, depending on which of our Services you are using. Please be aware that if you wish to remove yourself from a newsletter and/or other marketing emails from third parties that you consented to through the Services, you must do so by contacting the relevant third-party. Even if you do opt-out of marketing emails, we reserve the right to send you transactional and administrative emails including those related to the Services, service announcements, notices of changes to this Privacy Policy or other Services policies, and to contact you regarding any goods or services you have ordered.

Retaining, Modifying and Deleting Your Personal Data

You may request access to the information you have provided to us. If you wish to make a request, please contact us using the details in the Contact Us section below. If you would like to update, correct, modify or delete from our database any Personal Data you previously submitted to us, please let us know by logging in and updating your profile. If you delete certain information you may not be able to order services in the future without re-submitting such information. We will comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. Also, please note that we will maintain Personal Data in our database whenever we are required to do so by law, for necessary operational reasons, or to maintain uniform business practices.

Please note that we need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes and/or to complete any transactions that you began prior to requesting such change or deletion (for example, when you enter a promotion, you may not be able to change or delete the Personal Data provided until after the completion of such promotion). We will retain your Personal Data for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

Security

We have implemented commercially reasonable and appropriate technical and organizational security measures to help protect your Personal Data from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, misuse, or unauthorized access or disclosure; unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your User Information, we cannot guarantee its security. You use the Services and provide us with information at your own initiative and risk. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure (for example, if you feel that the security of any account you have with us has been compromised), please immediately notify us of the problem by contacting us using the details in the Contact Us section below.

Links

The Services contain links to other websites that we do not control, and the Services contain videos, advertising and other content hosted and served by third parties. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third-party. We may also integrate with third parties who will interact with you under their terms of service. One such third party is YouTube. We use YouTube API Services and by using the Sites or Services, you agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service located here.
http://www.youtube.com/t/terms

Children’s Privacy

The Services are intended for a general audience and are not intended for and should not be used by children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 16 and we do not target the Services to children under the age of 16. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with information without their consent, he or she should contact us using the details in the Contact Us section below. We will delete such information from our files as soon as reasonably practicable.

Sensitive Personal Data

Subject to the following paragraph, we ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any sensitive Personal Data as this term is defined under applicable data protection and privacy laws (for example, social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, criminal background or trade union membership) on or through the Services or otherwise to us.

If you send or disclose any sensitive Personal Data to us or the public through the Services, you consent to our processing and use of such sensitive personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not consent to our processing and use of such sensitive Personal Data, you must not submit such content to our Services, and you must contact us to make us aware immediately.

Changes

We update this Privacy Policy from time to time in our discretion and will notify you of any material changes to the way in which we treat Personal Data by posting a notice on relevant areas of the Services. We will also provide notice to you in other ways in our discretion, such as through contact information you have provided. Any updated version of this Privacy Policy will be effective immediately upon the posting of the revised Privacy Policy unless otherwise specified. Your continued use of the Services after the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy (or such other act specified at that time) will constitute your consent to those changes. However, we will not, without your consent, use your Personal Data in a manner materially different than what was stated at the time your Personal Data was collected.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us by email at: [email protected]