Effective Date: 2022-05-24
1A. What is a Privacy Policy?
This Privacy Policy explains how AskNepal (“AskNepal,” “we”, “our”, or “us”) collects, uses, shares, and stores your information when you use the AskNepal mobile applications that link to this Privacy Policy.
1B. Why do I need to read and accept it?
When you use our Services, you are agreeing to our rules and policies, including this Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and you consent to our collecting, processing and storing your information as described below. You must not access or use the Services if you do not agree with our Privacy Policy. You should also read our Terms of Use because they also apply to your use of the Services. When during signup you tick the box to say you agree with this Privacy Policy, we keep a record of that consent.
1C. What company owns AskNepal?
AskNepal is an I.T. Novus Private Limited liability company with registration number 288353/078/079 and a registered office at Ground Floor, Bahiti Marg, Bafal-13, Kathmandu, Nepal.
1D. What privacy law applies to AskNepal?
The personal information you provide to us that is collected through our Services is controlled by AskNepal in accordance with the laws of the country in which you live, meaning that not all parts of this policy will be relevant depending on where you live.
1E. How old do I have to be to consent to you using my data?
You can’t use AskNepal if you are younger than 13. In almost all countries, if you are 13 and over, you can allow us to use your data.
But, since the law changed in Europe, in some European countries, we need to ask for your parent’s or guardian’s consent before we let you create an account if you are between 13 and 16 years old.
This is called the “age of consent”, and it means that if you are under a certain age, we need to get a parental consent. The age varies across different European countries, so it depends on where you live.
If you live in the UK, Ireland, Nepal, India, China, Latvia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland, Spain or Sweden, we won’t need to ask for that extra consent from grownups.
If you live in Slovakia, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg or Netherlands and are aged under 16, you confirm that you have your parent’s consent to sign up to AskNepal and we will take all reasonable steps to verify this.
If you live in France and are aged under 15, you confirm that you have your parent’s consent to sign up to AskNepal and we will take all reasonable steps to verify this.
If you live in Austria and are aged under 14, you confirm that you have your parent’s consent to sign up to AskNepal and we will take all reasonable steps to verify this.
How we collect, process and store information depend in part on how you use the Services. You may register to use the Services (“Registered User”). You can use some of the Services without creating an account (“Guest User”) or providing any information other than information that is automatically collected as explained below. The different categories of information we collect from you are described below.
We may collect information from you during your use of the Services, including your name, username, password, e-mail address, country of residence, mobile phone number, gender, birth year, and other information you provide or post on our Services or allow us to access when you do certain things, such as:
We may automatically collect certain information about the computer or devices (including mobile devices) you use to access the Services, and about your use of the Services, even if you use the Services as a Guest User. We may collect information such as (a) IP addresses, unique device identifiers (e.g. IDFA or other device IDs on Apple devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch), and other information about your mobile phone or other mobile device(s) browser types, browser language, operating system, the state or country from which you accessed the Services; and (b) information related to the ways in which you interact with the Services, such as: referring and exit pages and URLs, platform type, the number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed and the order of those pages, the amount of time spent on particular pages, the date and time you used the Services, error logs, and other similar information. As described further below, we may use third party analytics providers and technologies, including cookies and similar tools, to assist us in understanding how our Services are used. Such tools may collect and use your data, after we have depersonalized it, with other AskNepal users’ data.
We may collect general information (e.g. IP address, zip code) about your location, and may use that information to customize the Services with location-based information, advertising, and features that need to know your location to work properly. By accessing and using the Services, you consent to this collection and processing of location information. If you choose to turn off location services on your device, some features may not be available to you.
When you use the Services, we use persistent and session cookies and other similar technologies to: (a) store your username and password; (b) analyze the usage of our sites and Services by collecting the information discussed above; (c) customize the Services to your preferences; and (d) display advertising on the Services. We may also use other Internet technologies, such as web beacons or pixel tags and other similar technologies, to deliver or communicate with cookies and analyze your use of the Services. We also may include web beacons in e-mail messages or newsletters to determine whether the message has been opened and for other analytics. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can modify your browser setting to decline cookies by visiting your browser’s help page. If you choose to decline cookies, please note that you may not be able to sign in, customize, or use some features of the Services. By using our Services with your browser set to accept cookies you are consenting to our use of cookies in the manner described above and in our Cookie Policy.
We may collect, process and store:
Sometimes we may anonymize and/or de-identify information collected through the Services or via other means, including via the use of third-party web analytic tools so that the information no longer relates to you. Where we have appropriately anonymized and/or de-identified information it no longer constitutes your personal information (also known as personal data). As a result, our use and disclosure of aggregated and/or de-identified information is not subject to this Privacy Policy and may be disclosed to others on such basis.
The fact that you can send messages without other people knowing who you are is part of what makes AskNepal unique and so much fun. It means that you can ask things that you might be too embarrassed or shy to say if anyone knew it was you. People may often be more honest when they are anonymous, whether they’re asking a question anonymously, or answering a question where they don’t know who has asked it. You have the ability to decide whether to ask a question anonymously or on a named basis each time you submit a question to another user. However, this also means that when you receive questions or comments, you may not know who they come from either! Remember, as a Registered User, that even if you ask a question anonymously, our Service will still have a record of the fact that you asked the question (even if we keep this private). If you are a Guest User, we may not know who you are.
In certain countries we allow unregistered users to ask questions. If you are not a registered user and ask a question, you must accept our terms of use and privacy policy prior to asking your question. We collect information such as your IP address. In certain countries you may be permitted to receive questions from unregistered users. If you have chosen to allow anonymous questions, you will be able to also receive questions from unregistered users by default, although you always have the option to change this in your settings. If you have chosen to not allow anonymous questions, you will have to edit your settings in order to receive questions from unregistered users, if this feature is available in your country. The ability to ask and receive unregistered questions is not available in all countries. Any abuse of the unregistered user feature will result in a ban on such users, entirely at our discretion. As a user, you can also choose to temporarily ban unregistered users, or report to us for a longer term ban to be imposed. You should exercise caution when allowing yourself to receive unregistered questions and immediately report any concerns to us. We may assist the police or other law enforcement agencies with their requests, or produce information in response to legal process where we, in good faith, believe that such disclosure is required by law, or to protect our rights and property, or the safety of individual users or the public, or where otherwise permitted by this Privacy Policy.
We may assist the police or other law enforcement agencies with their requests, or produce information in response to legal process where we, in good faith, believe that such disclosure is required by law, or to protect our rights and property, or the safety of individual users or the public, or where otherwise permitted by this Privacy Policy.
We use the information we receive from and about you for the following purposes:
13A. Sharing your profile information
If you are a Registered User, only the developers of AskNepal and Admins (verified users who answer your posted questions) will be able to see your profile information. While you have the ability to delete posted questions and answers on your profile at any time by simply swiping left on your question/answer, you should be careful to only include information in your profile, including any questions and answers, that you would not mind sharing.
13B. Can other people see my location?
Your location data is used for some user features like Shoutouts, to target your questions to people within a geographic range but we do not disclose your exact location to any other user.
13C. How can I protect myself?
In general, please be careful and responsible whenever you are online. Any information you provide during registration or while posting a question will only be visible to the verified Admins and App handlers , so none of your private information like mobile number , email , password etc. shall be made public or can neither be viewed by any other user.
14A. When and why we share your information with third parties
We don’t sell or share any personal information about you with third parties, except as provided in this Privacy Policy. We may share your information in the following circumstances:
14B. Do you use any other companies to help AskNepal provide the services to me?
For some elements of the Service we get technical assistance from other companies, and we may need to share your information with them so that we can provide those Services to you.
We might use third parties to provide technical functionality for some of the Features of the Services (like stickers and multimedia posts). We call those Feature Tools. If you choose to use the Feature Tools, we may collect and store non-personally identifiable anonymous statistical data if you use that feature tool, where such tool is operated by a third party. We do not cooperate with Feature Tool providers that sell or otherwise transfer any of your data to third parties without your consent.
14C. Do you use my questions and answers for research?
We or third parties we use may analyze your questions and answers for research purposes. When we use a third party to do this, we do not share any personal information with that party, we only provide anonymized questions and answer content and other non-personalized statistical data for analysis purposes.
14D. Tell me more about sharing my data for advertising purposes
(a) Anonymous Data
In order to understand our audience better and improve our service, such anonymous information is provided to third parties for their business purposes, including the creation of reports, market research, and trend analysis. This information does not contain information from which users can be identified and we will not provide additional information to such third parties that enable such third parties to identify you. Notwithstanding any other provision, we may also engage a third-party partner for the purpose of identifying users and delivering to them interest-based content and advertisements. We may share information about you with our partners such as your name, country, e-mail, or other identifier and may do so in non-human readable format to ensure the security of your information.
(b) Sometimes it’s personal data
Our partners also may collect information directly from your device, such as your IP address, device ID (which in some countries is considered as personal data) or similar information regarding the location of your mobile device; may combine our personal and non-personal information about you with information from other sources; and may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. If we are sharing ANY data that is considered to be personal data by the appropriate laws of the country in which you live, we will always ask your consent before we use your data in this way (and you can ask us to stop at any time).
14E. I live in Europe, what does “profiling” mean and why do you need me to consent to it?
Profiling means we analyze your information and content (like your interests) so that we can tailor our advertising to you and what you’d like to see. Since the law changed in Europe in May 2018, we now need to ask your consent before we profile your information. That’s why, before we use your information in this way, you are asked to tick a box to allow us to profile your information and use it for tailored advertising.
14F. What is tailored advertising?
Third parties whose products or services are accessible or advertised via the Services may also use cookies or similar technologies to collect information about your use of the Services. This is done in order to help them (i) inform, optimize, and serve ads based on past visits to our website and other sites and (ii) report how our ad impressions, other uses of ad services, and interactions with these ad impressions and ad services are related to visits to our website. We also allow other third parties (e.g., ad networks/ad exchanges and ad servers such as Google Analytics, DoubleClick and others) to serve tailored ads to you on the Services, and to access their own cookies or similar technologies on your computer, mobile phone, or other device you use to access the Services. We neither have access to, nor does this Privacy Policy govern, the use of cookies or other tracking technologies that may be placed on your computer, mobile phone, or other device you use to access the Services by non-affiliated third-party ad technology, ad servers, ad networks, ad exchanges, or any other non-affiliated third parties. Those parties that use these technologies may permit you to opt out of ad targeting as described below. You may receive tailored advertising on your computer through a web browser. To opt out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising or customize Google Display Network ads, you can visit the Google Ads Settings page. Please note that to the extent advertising technology is integrated into the Services, you may still receive advertisements even if you opt out of tailored advertising. In that case, the ads will just not be tailored to your interests. Also, we do not control any of the above opt-out links and are not responsible for any choices you make using these mechanisms or the continued availability or accuracy of these mechanisms.
When accessing the Services from a mobile application you may also receive tailored in-application advertisements. Each operating system: iOS, Android and Windows Phone provides its own instructions on how to prevent the delivery of tailored in-application advertisements. You may review the support materials and/or the privacy settings for the respective operating systems in order to opt out of tailored in-application advertisements. For any other devices and/or operating systems, please visit the privacy settings for the applicable device or operating system or contact the applicable platform operator.
To help us better understand your use of the Services, we may use third-party web analytics on our Services, such as Google Analytics or Flurry. These service providers use the sort of technology that we’ve explained above for data that is automatically collected about your device, for example. The information collected by this technology will be disclosed to or collected directly by these service providers, who use the information to evaluate AskNepal users’ use of the Services. We also use Google Analytics as described more below. To prevent Google Analytics from collecting or using your information, you may install the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on.
We keep your information and store it safely as long as you are using the Services. After you close your account we still keep some or all of your information for up to 12 months. It is important that we retain your data for this short period after cancellation to ensure that we can answer any queries, or provide information to third parties in line with our disclosure provisions outlined in this policy, e.g., assisting police investigations. Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may still be viewable and/or accessed on the Internet to the extent such information has been previously shared with others, or copied or stored by other users or to the extent such information has been shared with search engines. We cannot control this, nor do we accept any liability for this. If you have given third party applications or websites access to your personal information, they may retain such information to the extent permitted under their terms of service or privacy policies. We also keep a record of some of your information like your IP address or e-mail address if you’ve broken the rules and we’ve added you to our block list: this helps to keep everyone safe on the Services.
We are committed to providing you with meaningful choices about the information collected on our Services for third-party purposes, and that is why we provide the above links to the NAI “Consumer Opt-out”, DAA opt-out, and Google opt-out. However, we do not currently recognize or respond to browser-initiated Do Not Track signals, as the Internet industry is still working on Do Not Track standards, implementations and solutions.
We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access to your information and to maintain data security. These safeguards take into account the sensitivity of the information that we collect, process and store and the current state of technology. Although we take appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, the internet and the Services are not 100% secure so we cannot assure you that personal information we collect or store will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy. We strongly urge you to take steps to keep your personal information safe (including your password) and to log out of your account after use. You should not tell anyone (other than your parents or guardian, if you are a minor) your password. If you lose your password or give it out to someone, your personal information will be at risk. If that happens, you should report it to us immediately. You must also change your password immediately via your “Settings” page. We are not responsible for your failure to keep your password secure and failure to do so may breach our Terms of Use. We also strongly recommend that you change your password from time to time.
You also have the right (in certain cases) to modify or delete the personal information we hold about you. You can simply go to your Profile section and modify any information you wish to. However, you can also contact us by simply dropping us an email at contact@itnovus.net, if you wish to modify information that cannot be amended or deleted through the Service.
You can deactivate your profile by signing in to the Services with your password and opting to deactivate your profile. This option is available from your Profile page. By deactivating your account, it will no longer be visible to other users of the Services. Your profile information will be retained in case you later decide to restore your account. Many members deactivate their accounts for temporary reasons and in doing so expect us to maintain their information until they return to AskNepal. You should ordinarily be able to restore your account and the whole of your profile within 12 months of deactivating it, but we cannot guarantee that this will always be the case.
22A. Your rights if you live in Europe
Because you control your profile, you can see the personal information you’ve provided to us by accessing your “Profile” page, which gives you the option to correct or update your information at any time by just logging into the Services. Once you register, you will be able to change most of your personal information, including: your name; your country; your contact e-mail address; your profile picture; and your password. You will also have the option to delete questions and answers posted to your profile at any time. You have a right to request a copy of the information we hold about you. Such a request must be in writing. You can do this via our contact form. We will contact you to let you know what else we need from you before we send you a copy of your personal information. By law, in Europe we must respond to you within 30 days. You also have the right to be “forgotten” — that means, if you close your account and ask us to delete all your information, we need to do that. Although we are allowed to keep some of the information for security purposes in case we ever need to help the police with any criminal investigations.
22B. Your rights if you live in California, USA
This section only applies to individuals who are residents of California under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”). We act in compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This Privacy Policy clearly sets out above the types of personal information we collect , store and process and the purposes for which we do this.
If you reside in California, the CCPA gives you the following rights:
22C. Your rights if you live elsewhere
While the Service is provided from Nepal, it is a global website that operates and provides Services in various countries around the world. By giving us any personal information or by using the applications available on the Services, you agree that your personal information may be transferred to and stored and processed in our and our third-party vendors’ facilities in various countries around the globe, including the United States. These countries may have privacy laws that differ from the laws in your country or the laws of Nepal.
The Services may contain links to third-party websites, including other social media services. Your use of these features may result in the collection, processing or sharing of information about you by a third party, depending on the feature. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of other websites or services which may be linked to the Services. We do not endorse or make any representations about third-party websites or services. The personal information you choose to provide to or that is collected by these third parties is not covered by our Privacy Policy. We strongly encourage you to read such third parties’ privacy statements.
We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time to reflect changes in the law, our data collection and use practices, the features of our Services, or advances in technology. Please check this page periodically for changes. If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post the updated Privacy Policy here and notify our Registered Users by e-mail or by means of a notice on the Services. Please review the changes carefully. Your continued use of the Services following the posting of changes to this policy will mean you consent to and accept those changes. If you do not consent to such changes, you can delete your account by following the process described in the “Deactivating Your Profile” section of this Privacy Policy.
You can simply drop us an email at contact@itnovus.net and our representative will get in touch with you.