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PRIVACY POLICY & COOKIES

1. Introduction
AcharyaramG 2020, Kathmandu, Nepal ("AcharyaramG", "we", "us", or "our") provides the services rendered to you through the AcharyaramG website available at https://www.acharyaramg.com.np, and through any of its web pages and associated applications which may be available on multiple devices, including mobile applications ("Service").
This Privacy Policy sets forth the collection and use practices of AcharyaramG for personal data we process in the course of providing the Service.
Our mission is to connect the world of science and make a platform open to all. Connections can only be established when potential connections and commonalities are known and connecting lines can be drawn. Openness can only be achieved with comprehensive accessibility. Our Service takes your work and activities on the Service into account to help connect you with other individuals who are relevant to you and recommend relevant content. We also gather information from external sources, in order to disseminate as much relevant scientific content as possible to drive science forward. Any natural or legal person who, as a recipient of the Service, accesses or uses the Service for any purpose is a User ("User", "you"). Our registered Users ("Members") share their professional identities and credentials, display their academic publications, engage and collaborate with their networks, exchange knowledge and professional insights, post and view relevant content, and discover business and career opportunities. Some content is also visible to unregistered or logged-out Users ("Visitors"). A User could be a Member or a Visitor. An Author ("Author") is a natural person who, for the purpose of our Service, is a member of the scientific community by for example being an author/editor of a publication, being an advisor or recipient of scientific funding. An Author is not necessarily a User or Member of our Service.
AcharyaramG reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, in particular, to reflect changes in market conditions affecting ResearchGate’s activities, changes in technology, changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements, and changes in AcharyaramG’s system capabilities. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we may notify Members by email or other reasonable means, including through notifications on our Service. If you object to any new version, you should stop using our Service and/or close your account. If you continue to use our Service after having been provided with such notice you will be deemed to have acknowledged the Privacy Policy.

2. Information we process and how we process it

Basic data processed

  1. Certain data will be processed when you access the Service, to resolve the technical request of your device, display the site and maintain the safety and security of our systems. This data is stored in so-called logs and comprise the following:
    1. IP addresses and your mobile device's Identifier for Advertising (IDFA);
    2. the type of computer or mobile device you are using including operating system and version;
    3. the types of browser you are using, the language, and your country;
    4. referring and exit pages and URLs;
    5. platform type;
    6. the number of clicks on a page or feature, pages viewed and the order of those pages, the amount of time spent on particular pages or parts of pages;
    7. domain names and;
    8. information collected for performance purposes (e.g. average load, render time of pages, etc.).
    Even though IP addresses and mobile identifiers are generally considered personal data, we can not derive any direct conclusions about your identity from such data.
    Our legal basis for processing this personal data is Article 6 (1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The data processed is very basic data, and does not contain directly identifiable information about you. We have a legitimate interest in being able to provide a functioning, reliable and accessible website and resolve your server-request in an appropriate manner.
    All of our pages are secured using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology, which encrypts data transmitted between our servers and your end devices. We also apply other suitable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data.
  2. Personal data we process
    In order to provide you with functionalities, we need to process certain data and/or information relating to you:
    • Registration and maintenance of your Member account
      If you choose to create a Member account on our Service, you will be required, during the registration process, to provide your first and last name, an email address, and a password. You will receive a confirmation email. Your Member account will be confirmed after you have clicked on the respective link in the account activation email. You may also be invited to associate certain information we present to you with your account, such as articles, institutional affiliation, and biographical information.
    • Other personal data
      During the registration process or when updating your profile, you can choose to provide other information that can be used to identify and/or contact you, including for example, a profile picture, your Twitter account handle or your city of residence. You may also be invited or required to provide information about you, including, for example, demographic information, such as occupation, and research vita, education, authorship of articles, academic or research expertise or interests, conferences you have attended, groups of which you are a member, information regarding your professional and academic career, academic degree, your previous roles and jobs.
    • Third-party connectors
      You can choose to create an account using your Facebook, LinkedIn or Google account and subsequently use that third-party platform’s credentials to log in to your ResearchGate account. Using this option means that you are allowing ResearchGate to request and use certain data from the third-party account. For Google, this involves us processing your email address. For LinkedIn, we will process your email address, first and last name, and profile picture. For Facebook, we will process your email address and public profile information. The third-party platform might ask for your consent to share this data with ResearchGate. As the personal data we might process was originally collected by the third-party platform, the initial data processing and sharing of the data with ResearchGate are governed by the privacy policy of such third-party platform. Please refer to the relevant third-party platform and/or its settings, if you want to deactivate the connection between ResearchGate and the third-party platform.
    • Communications with us
      When you communicate with us, you may provide us with your name, contact details, and other personal data as part of your communication, as well as the content of your message itself. Similarly, when we communicate with you, we will process your personal information, such as your email address. For some of our emails, we also process information indicating whether you have opened the email.
    • Communications through the Service
      Many communications that you initiate through our Service (e.g. invitation sent to a non-Member) will list your name in the header of the message. Other communications that you initiate through the Service, like a request for a full-text, will list your name as the initiator but will not include your personal email address. Once you have mutually connected with an individual, contact information you choose to include in your researcher profile will be shared with that individual.
    • Recommendations
      In order to provide our recommendation features, we process contact and bibliographical data, information pertaining to your work, usage frequency, type of devices you use to use the Service, including browser, operating system and mobile device, research items you consulted, interaction with particular pages or parts of pages, and number of clicks on a page or feature, in order to provide the Service in a way that is tailored to your interests. Also, based on the personal data you provide, statistical evaluations, mathematic operations, and predictions may help us infer other information about you and support our recommendation features. For example, if you were to add several research items to the Service over the course of several years, we may infer that you are not a junior researcher anymore.
    • Third party providers
      When you choose to benefit from a service or offer presented by ResearchGate on behalf of a third party, you may share personal data with ResearchGate to enable us to pass it on to the third party. The nature of personal data will depend on the particular service or offer, but might include your name, email address and affiliation. We do not share any of this personal data with any third party unless you explicitly allow us to do so.
    • Payment data
      If you choose to purchase a premium product or service from ResearchGate that is subject to a fee, we will process the personal data that you provide in order to complete your order, such as your billing address. ResearchGate does not process any credit card information itself, however we do retain your name and address so we may generate and send you an invoice. Credit card information is collected and processed by a third-party provider, namely Stripe. Stripe processes this data as an independent controller to process the payment. For details about the data processing undertaken by Stripe, please see its Privacy Policy.
    • Security
      We process the number of profile pages users view to detect and prevent data harvesting. We also process your IP address to filter out suspicious requests. If you are a Member, we store your full IP address in connection with your account registration request and your current last login. Otherwise, your login activities are only stored in connection with your truncated IP addresses. Also, we process information about the device, its operating system and the browser you are using for your current session.
    • Statistics
      We use activity data, such as number of read publications, projects and number of citations, to generate statistics, which pertain to reading behavior or achievements. For example, we may use such activity data in order to calculate and display a read count on an individual publication page.

3. How we use data we collect about you

The following explanations will provide you with information about how we use the personal data that we collect about you, and our legal basis for doing so under the GDPR. Generally speaking, we may, pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR use your data based on our legitimate interests
  1. to provide and improve our Service;
  2. to perform internal quality checks;
  3. to prevent, detect, process and investigate malfunctions, incidents, fraudulent or other illegal activities, or mitigate the risk of occurrence of the aforementioned events;
  4. to ensure network and information security;
  5. to create statistics on access channels and the use of our Service;
  6. to contact you, if requested by you or if necessary to fulfil the contract or permitted by law;
  7. enforcing obligations owed to us, and contractual terms and conditions and;
  8. accounting, risk management and record keeping
Also, pursuant to Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR we may use your data to comply with legal obligations, e.g. to observe retention periods required by trade or tax law or to comply with obligations to disclose data based on a legally binding court decision or official order.
More specifically, we may use your data for the following purposes.
  • Communications
    Depending on the way you are communicating with us, we may use your name, email address, telephone number, and the content of your previous correspondence to respond to you and provide assistance.
    • Our legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 (1)(b) or (f) GDPR. As a public-facing company, we have a legitimate interest in being able to receive, process, and respond to enquiries.
  • Transactional emails
    Provided you have not opted out from receiving transactional emails from us, we will use your email address to send you emails about relevant developments on the Service concerning for example, your network, new features, publications, projects, updates from the Q&A section, and emails regarding your professional career.
    You can opt out from receiving transactional emails at any time by clicking the "unsubscribe" link within an email or by visiting your account settings.
    • Legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR.
  • Sponsored emails
    Where you have provided your prior consent to receiving sponsored emails, we will use your email address to send you such emails. Where legally allowed, we will also use your email address to send you sponsored emails without your prior consent.
    In any case, you can opt out from receiving sponsored emails at any time by clicking the "unsubscribe" link within an email or visiting the "notification settings" in your account.
    • Our legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 (1)(a) or (f) GDPR. Whenever we rely on our legitimate interest to process your email address for sending sponsored emails, we do so as it is in our best interest to make the Service as helpful and meaningful to you as possible, which may also mean that third-party content will be taken into consideration. In addition, these email campaigns help us in monetizing our Service, so we can keep offering it to you.
  • Offer Members tailored content
    Using our recommendation technology, we process your personal data or infer information in order to provide the Service in a way that is tailored to your interests. This enables us to customize the features and offerings AcharyaramG provides to you through the Service. For example, we provide dynamic web pages that are individually adapted to you. We may present content recommendations such as research items that are "Suggested for you" and/or recommendations regarding other individuals such as "Who to follow" or "Related researchers" (other Members) you can follow. In the same way that you benefit from content and individuals recommended to you, you and your content might be recommended to other Members and therefore might appear in their experience, for example in their home feed. We derive learnings from Members’ interactions with tailored content and suggestions and subsequently take them into account to improve any further offerings of tailored content.
    • Our legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 (1)(b) or (f) GDPR. We have a legitimate interest in providing the best user experience based on the individual needs. This processing does not conflict with your interests as it corresponds with a person’s reasonable expectations when signing up for an account. The processing has no negative impact for our Members but is in their interests as it allows ResearchGate to provide them a tailored service.
  • Candidate search
    A limited amount of your profile information (including only some information from the overview and research tabs) will be visible for recruiters with a Recruiter Account on the Service. If the information on your profile matches the search criteria entered by a recruiter in our candidate search feature, this limited version of your profile may show up in their search results. Recruiters may choose to contact you through the messaging functionality provided within the feature. Your inclusion in candidate search, including being contacted by recruiters, is fully under your control. You can choose to block specific recruiters, or opt out from being included in candidate search and contacted by any recruiters by changing your privacy settings at any time.
    • Legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR.
  • Ensure the security of your personal data
    We process your personal data in order to avoid its accidental or unlawful destruction, as well as its loss, alteration, or unauthorized disclosure. For example, we process the number of profile pages you and others view so as to detect and prevent data harvesting. Likewise, we truncate the last octet of your IP address to prevent you from being identified.
    • Our legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 (1)(c) and (f) GDPR. We are legally obliged to secure data from unauthorized loss and alteration and it is also in our mutual interest to ensure data security. As this primarily serves the purpose of protecting your data there are no overriding interests on your part.
  • Generate statistics
    We use your personal data to generate statistics which pertain to reading/search behavior and achievements. We also generate statistics for internal purposes in order to constantly improve the Service and its features. We also conduct research and development to maintain quality and improve our Service and the User experience.
    • Our legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. We have a legitimate interest to assess and evaluate the traffic on our site to improve our Service. Such improvement is also in the interest of our Users as it allows them to always benefit from the best Service we can offer.
4. How we use relevant publicly available data
We also process personal data relating to Authors that is publicly available and relevant for our Service.
We may obtain a variety of information about Authors from publicly available sources, such as information regarding previous research published, the publication itself (including personal data too) and other functions or references of an Author related to a publication. We may also process information related to an Author, to create a record of their body of scientific contributions, or that might help understand professional connections between Authors and Members. Where an Author's scientific work was publicly or privately funded, we may also process this publicly available information.
When we collect publicly available materials we do not have a way to ensure that personal data in such materials has been processed in accordance with the applicable laws. However, if you notify us that your personal data contained in such materials is inaccurate or has been processed in violation of applicable data protection laws, we may delete it upon verification of your identity.
The public data processed may be associated with an account when an Author chooses to become a Member.
  • Our legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. The data processed is publicly available data. Also, the data processed has to be processed to provide a correct and complete scientific picture. Our legitimate interest is to provide a comprehensive and accurate repository of scientific work, contributions and success. Without processing additional public data, we could not achieve these aims. Furthermore, since we offer the possibility to connect this data with an account, we provide Members a convenient way to establish an account that is as complete as possible, without the effort of manually adding the information themselves.

5. Information we process when using technologies like cookies and pixels

We and service providers acting on our behalf store log files and use tracking technologies such as cookies, web beacons, tracking pixels, and local shared objects, also known as flash cookies, to collect information relating to you and your use of the Service.

  1. Basics
    "Cookies" are small files that enable us to store and collect specific information related to you and your use of the Service on your computer or other end devices. They help us to analyze the number of people who use the Service, usage frequency, User behavior and advertising effectiveness, to increase security and to tailor our Service and advertisements to your needs and preferences.
    1. This website uses so-called "session cookies" which after your session on the website session ends, will automatically be deleted.
    2. This website also uses "persistent cookies" to record information about repeat Users of the Service. Persistent cookies are designed to help us continually improve the products and services we offer you and to ensure the quality of our services. "Persistent cookies" remain for a certain pre-defined period of time and are recognized by us when you return to the Service (or one of our partner sites).
    3. You can edit the settings of your browser to prevent cookies from being stored, to limit the storage of cookies to certain websites, or such that your browser informs you every time a cookie is sent. You can also delete cookies at any time. However, please note that if cookies are deactivated you will not be able to take advantage of some of ResearchGate’s features. For specific help on how to delete Cookies with the help of your browser, please consult respective help sections, such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Safari.
  2. Other technology
    In addition to cookies, this website uses so-called pixels, web beacons, clear GIFs, and other similar mechanisms ("Pixels"). A Pixel is an image file or link to an image file added to the website code but not sent to your end device. Pixels are largely used for the same reasons as cookies, i.e. to analyze the number of people who use our Service or, if the User's email program allows HTML, to determine whether and when an email was opened. Pixels help us to check and optimize the effectiveness of our Service and offers as well as advertising campaigns served on ResearchGate. Pixels do not provide us with personal data. Pixels are usually used in conjunction with cookies. If you have deactivated the use of cookies in your browser, then Pixels will only report an anonymous website visit.
    We also use Pixel-based and cookie-based conversion tracking technologies to, for example, measure the success of advertising campaigns served on the Service. To this end we use technologies provided by Google (see below section Google Services)
    We display advertisements on our Service so we can continue to offer many of our features for free. We generate revenue by disseminating advertisements. We allow selected partners to advertise their products, content, jobs and more, on our Service.
    1. Basics
      When advertisers or ad networks place advertisements on our Service, they may collect or we may share the following types of information from within our Service:
      1. performance data (such as the number of clicks on an advertisement);
      2. aggregated and/or de-identified information about you and other Users collectively that is not intended to specifically identify you (such as Users who are located in Berlin);
      3. certain technical information (for example, IP addresses, cookie IDs, non-persistent device identifiers such as Identifiers for Advertising (IDFAs); and
      4. other contextual data about our dissemination and your potential perception of advertisements.
      Advertisers or ad networks may collect this information through the use of tracking technologies like browser cookies and web beacons (see explanations above), and they may use a single tracking technology or multiple tracking technologies at the same time.
      The information collected may be used to:
      1. measure how effective advertisements are;
      2. offer you targeted advertising in order to personalize your experience by showing you advertisements that are more relevant to you; and/or
      3. undertake web analytics to analyze traffic and other User activity to improve your experience.
      After clicking on a third-party advertisement, you may no longer be on a site hosted by ResearchGate. ResearchGate is not responsible for any third party, or its affiliates or agents, failing to use your personal data in accordance with such third party's privacy policy, or any contractual or other legal obligations to which such third party, its affiliates or agents, may be subject.
6. Advertisements on AcharyaramG
We display advertisements on our Service so we can continue to offer many of our features for free. We generate revenue by disseminating advertisements. We allow selected partners to advertise their products, content, jobs and more, on our Service.
  1. Basics
    When advertisers or ad networks place advertisements on our Service, they may collect or we may share the following types of information from within our Service:
    1. performance data (such as the number of clicks on an advertisement);
    2. aggregated and/or de-identified information about you and other Users collectively that is not intended to specifically identify you (such as Users who are located in Berlin);
    3. certain technical information (for example, IP addresses, cookieIDs, non-persistent device identifiers such as Identifiers for Advertising (IDFAs); and
    4. other contextual data about our dissemination and your potential perception of advertisements.
    Advertisers or ad networks may collect this information through the use of tracking technologies like browser cookies and web beacons (see explanations above), and they may use a single tracking technology or multiple tracking technologies at the same time.
    The information collected may be used to:
    1. measure how effective advertisements are;
    2. offer you targeted advertising in order to personalize your experience by showing you advertisements that are more relevant to you; and/or
    3. undertake web analytics to analyze traffic and other User activity to improve your experience.
    After clicking on a third-party advertisement, you may no longer be on a site hosted by ResearchGate. ResearchGate is not responsible for any third party, or its affiliates or agents, failing to use your personal data in accordance with such third party's privacy policy, or any contractual or other legal obligations to which such third party, its affiliates or agents, may be subject.
7. Recipients and safeguards
  1. Recipients
    ResearchGate does not sell any of your personal data.
    The personal data that ResearchGate collects from you and that you provide to ResearchGate is processed in Canada and stored on servers in Canada. Canada is one of the few countries for which the EU has adopted an adequacy decision in which it decided that Canada ensures an adequate level of protection according to EU standards.
    Some of your personal data is accessible to other Users of our platform who may, for example, visit your publication pages or profile.
    Your personal data may also be transferred to third parties as described in this Privacy Policy and where applicable to those third parties listed in our consent modal. These parties might be advertisers or companies that help us disseminate advertisements, measure the performance of our advertisements and/or analyze your use of the Service. These third parties will not receive data that directly personally identifies you. The data shared is limited to identifiers such as IP addresses and cookie IDs. Your name, email address, and other directly identifying data will only be shared with third parties if you explicitly allow us to share this data.
    We may also disclose personal data in response to legal process or when the law requires it (for example, in response to a court order) or, to the extent permitted by applicable law, to protect the rights, property, or safety of ResearchGate, the Service, Users of the Service (including you), and others.
    We may use third party service providers, in particular for technical and business services, tax advisors and legal counsel. These service providers receive personal data solely for the performance of their services for us on our behalf. They are contractually obliged not to use personal data for other purposes.
  2. Safeguards
    Some of the third parties with whom your personal data will be shared are located outside of the European Economic Area, in countries whose data protection laws may not be as extensive as those which apply to us.
    If we transfer your personal data to countries outside of the European Economic Area or which do not offer adequate and similar protection, we will ensure that we do this in accordance with applicable data protection regulations (for example, by putting in place an appropriate data transfer instrument such as the European Standard Contractual Clauses).

    We will do this with a view to ensuring that the level of protection applied to the processing of your personal data in these countries is similar to that applied within the European Economic Area.
11. Data subject rights
In addition to your rights to withdraw any consent you may have granted or exercise any opt out option we provide, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights:
  1. Right of access by the data subject in accordance with Art. 15 GDPR. In particular, you can obtain information about the purposes of processing, categories of personal data, categories of recipients to whom your data has been or will be disclosed, planned storage period, and origin of your data if it was not collected directly from you.
  2. Right to correct inaccurate personal data or complete incomplete data according to Art. 16 GDPR.
  3. Right to obtain deletion of your personal data stored with us in accordance with Art. 17 GDPR, subject to legal or contractual retention periods or other legal obligations or rights which must be observed.
  4. Right to restrict the processing of your personal data in accordance with Art. 18 GDPR in the event that: you contest the accuracy of the data; the processing is unlawful but you oppose its deletion; we no longer need the personal data for the purposes of the processing but you need it for your assertion; it may be relevant to the exercise or defense of legal claims; or you have lodged an objection to the processing in accordance with Art. 21 GDPR.
  5. Right to data portability in accordance with Art. 20 GDPR, to receive the stored personal data concerning you in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format or request the transfer of this data to another responsible party.
  6. Right to lodge a complaint with your competent supervisory authority. Your competent authority is the authority at your usual place of residence or the authority competent for us.
You have the right to object to all types of processing that are based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interests), based on grounds relating to your particular situation, Art. 21(1) GDPR. To the extent we process your personal data pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR for direct marketing purposes, you can object to such processing at any time without giving a particular reason.
You may (i) exercise the rights referred to above or (ii) pose any questions or (iii) make any complaints regarding data processing by contacting us.