Privacy Policy

Welcome to htsmartcast.com (“Website”), a site owned and operated by HT Media Ltd (hereinafter referred to as the “Company”/ “HTML”).

This Privacy Policy forms part and parcel of the HTML’s Terms of Use and applies when you visit our Website. Capitalized terms which have been used here but not defined shall have the same meaning as attributed to them in the Terms of Use. We recognize the importance of maintaining the privacy of every user who visits our Website. This Privacy Policy explains our policy regarding the collection, use, disclosure and transfer of your information by HTML.

By accessing and/or using our website, you agree to this Privacy Policy and give your consent to collect, store and use of the personal information you provide while accessing/using our Website and its services. We strongly recommend you to read this Privacy Policy so that you understand our approach towards the use of your personal data, If you don’t agree, please don’t use our Website.

We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time as in required with or without any prior intimation to you. Your continued use of the Website after changes to the Terms means you agree to be legally bound by these Terms as updated and/or amended.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We collect information directly from user(s), from third-parties and automatically through our Website.

Registration for the services may require that you supply certain personal information such as name, age, sex, contact number, email address and demographic information (area, location, IP address etc) to register. To aid convenience, users can sign up on any of our sites, and we extend the same login credentials to sign in to any of the other sites. You may also register or link your account through third party accounts such as Facebook, Google etc.

We collect limited information about your computer’s connection to the Internet, including your IP address, when you visit our Website. Your IP address does not identify you personally. We also collect and may store information that your computer or mobile device provides to us in connection with your use of our Website such as your browser type, type of computer or mobile device, browser language, IP address, mobile carrier, unique device identifier, location, and requested and referring URLs. We also receive information when you view Content on or otherwise interact with our Website, even if you have not created an account. We use this information to deliver our web page(s) to you upon request, to tailor our site to the interests of our users, to measure traffic on the Website. This information may also be used by our advertisers/third party companies to personalize Content, ads etc.

HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION

1. We collect information directly from you when you register with us.
2. We collect information (whether you are registered or not registered with us) when you browse our Website,
3. When you post a comment on our Website or raise a query/question to us through phone or email.
4. We collect information from you when you register with us by linking your social media or third party accounts. By doing this, you are authorizing them to share with us certain information from such accounts, and authorizing us to collect, store, and use this in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
5. We collect information from you using third party tools, browser cookies and web beacons in order to improve user experience.
6. Device Information: We may collect non-personal information about the computer, mobile device or other device you use to access the service, such as IP address, geo-location information, unique device identifiers, browser type, browser language and other information for the purpose of providing customized information on the browser.
7. Location Information: Our Website may capture your current location if you choose to enable GPS feature in the browser.

HOW WE USE THE INFORMATION

We will collect and use your personal information solely with the objective of fulfilling those purposes specified by us and for other compatible purposes, unless we obtain the consent of the individual concerned or as required by law. Information we collect from you might be used:

• To verify your identity when you return to the Website;
• To provide you with services;
• To gather analysis or other information to improve our Website and its services
• For marketing purposes;
• To personalize ads you see when you visit the Website;
• To respond to your messages and queries;
• To provide customer support;
• To detect, prevent, and address technical issues;
• To send you technical notices;

Legal Basis for Collecting and Processing Personal Data:Our legal basis for collecting and using the personal data described in this Privacy Policy depends on the personal data we collect and the specific context in which we collect the information:-

• We need to perform a contract with you.
• You have given us permission to do so.
• Processing your personal data is in our legitimate interests.
• We need to comply with the law.

Please be aware that if you do not provide personal data we may be unable to provide some Services to you.

HOW WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION:

The following provides information about entities with which we may share information. Our practices vary depending on the type of information:

1. Logging In Through Social Media Services: If you log into the Services with a social media service or if you connect a social media account with the services, we may share your information with that social media service. The social media services’ use of the shared information will be governed by the social media services’ privacy policy and your social media account settings. If you do not want your information shared in this way, do not connect your social media service account with your Services.
2. Business Partners: We may also share your information with business partners to provide you with services that you request.
3. Service Providers: We may share information with vendors providing contractual services to us, such as hosting vendors, advertising service providers, and list managers. We also may share your information, including your payment information (if applicable), as appropriate to process your payments for the services or complete a transaction.
4. Other Parties When Required by Law or As Necessary to Protect Our Users and Services: We may share your personal information as we believe is necessary or appropriate to protect, enforce, or defend the legal rights, privacy, safety, or property of the Content and services provided to you, our employees or agents or users or to comply with applicable law or legal process, including responding to requests from public and government authorities.
5. Affiliates: We may share information within our family of affiliated companies and business associates.
6. Third Parties that Provide Content, Advertising, or Functionality : When you use our Website and its services, third parties may collect or receive certain information about you and/or your use of the services (e.g., hashed data, click stream information, browser type, time and date, information about your interactions with advertisements and other content), including through the use of cookies, beacons, mobile ad identifiers, and similar technologies, in order to provide Content, advertising, or functionality or to measure and analyze ad performance, on our Website or other websites or platforms. This information may be combined with information collected across different websites, online services, and other linked or associated devices. These third parties may use your information to improve their own services and consistent with their own privacy policies.
7. Other Parties in Connection With a Corporate Transaction : We reserve the right to transfer any information we have about you in the event that we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets to a third party, such as in the event of a merger, acquisition, or in connection with a bankruptcy reorganization.
8. Otherwise With Your Consent or At Your Direction: In addition to the sharing described in this Privacy Policy, we may share information about you with third parties whenever you consent to or direct such sharing.
9. We also may share other information with third parties in a manner that does not identify particular users, including, for example, aggregated data about how users are using our Website.

COOKIE POLICY, PIXELS AND TRACKING

Cookies are small text files which contain a small amount of information that is downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. When you visit the website again, or visit partner website which recognizes that cookie, your device is able to communicate with our Website and the website can read the information held in that cookie.

We use Cookies to help you efficiently browse our Website and to save you time by not having to re-enter your details/preferences each time you visit. Cookies allow us to provide you with information and show you content relevant to you. We also use Cookies to analyse how our user interact with our Website so we can improve the user journey.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies in your browser settings. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to reject cookies if you prefer. You may find more help about managing cookies in your browser: Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox & Safari. This may prevent you from having complete website experience by affecting the access to some of the links, services or features. Information collected by cookies and web beacons is not personally identifiable.

LINKS TO THIRD-PARTY SITES:

Our Website may contain links to other websites operated by third parties. HTML is not responsible for the privacy practices or policies of such third-party websites. Any information that you provide to a third-party website is directly provided to the owner of the website and subject to that party’s privacy policy. To protect your information, we recommend that you carefully review the privacy policies of other websites that you access.

ACCESS TO PERSONAL INFORMATION

You may access or modify your personal information by signing on to the Website. We will not modify the information provided by you. However, you must update your personal information as soon as such changes are necessitated.

Upon your request, we will close your account and remove your personal information from view as soon as reasonably possible, based on your account activity and in accordance with applicable law(s). However, we will retain the required personal information from closed accounts to comply with law, Avoid/check illegal and/or potentially prohibited activities and to enforce User Agreements; Investigate deliberate damage to the Website, its services or its legitimate operation; Detect, prevent, or otherwise address security and/or technical issues; Respond to Claims of third parties; and take such other actions as may be permitted by law.

CHILDREN’S PERSONAL DATA

We do not aim any of our products or services directly at children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal data about children under 13. Some of our services may have a higher age restriction and this will be shown at the point of registration. If you are a minor i.e. under the age of 18 years, you may use our products or services only with the involvement of a parent or guardian.

TRANSFER OF PERSONAL DATA

Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to and maintained on computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction. We maintain servers around the world and your information may be processed on servers located outside of the country. Please note that we transfer the data, including personal data, to India, Japan and Singapore and process it there. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your personal data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.

HOW LONG DO WE STORE YOUR INFORMATION:

We will retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy and Terms of Use..

Where we do not need your information in order to provide the service to you, we retain it only as long as we have a legitimate business purpose in keeping such data or where we are subject to a legal obligation to retain the data. We will also retain your data if necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims

HOW DO WE PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION:

We use Site-appropriate physical, electronic, and other procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect. However, please be aware that the Internet is an inherently unsafe environment, and that hackers are constantly working to defeat security measures.

Thus, we cannot guarantee that your information will not be accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed, and you accept this risk. In addition to this, we urge you to take steps to keep your personal information safe by not sharing it with others or posting it online.

DELETING YOUR INFORMATION

You may submit a request to access or delete the information we have collected about you by sending your request to us at podcasts@hindustantimes.com. We will respond to your request consistent with applicable law and subject to proper verification.

REACH OUT TO US

If you have questions about our Privacy Policy, please contact us at: podcasts@hindustantimes.com