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R16 CONNECTS
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Privacy Policy

Last Updated: June 1, 2025

Effective date: June 1, 2025

R16 CONNECTS ("us", "we", or "our") operates the R16 CONNECTS mobile application and website (the "Service"). This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you use our Service and the choices you have associated with that data.

1. Information We Collect

We collect several different types of information for various purposes to provide and improve our Service to you.

Personal Data

While using our Service, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you ("Personal Data"). Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:

  • Email address
  • First name and last name
  • Phone number
  • College/University name
  • Educational details (course, year of study)
  • Startup/Entrepreneurial details (if applicable)
  • Payment information (processed securely via Razorpay)
  • Cookies and Usage Data

Note: We only collect payment information necessary to process your ₹25 one-time membership fee, which is handled securely by our payment processor and not stored on our servers.

Usage Data

We may also collect information how the Service is accessed and used ("Usage Data"). This Usage Data may include information such as your device's Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

2. How We Use Your Information

R16 CONNECTS uses the collected data for various purposes:

  • To provide and maintain our Service
  • To notify you about changes to our Service
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Service when you choose to do so
  • To provide customer support
  • To gather analysis or valuable information so that we can improve our Service
  • To monitor the usage of our Service
  • To detect, prevent and address technical issues
  • To connect you with other students, entrepreneurs, and investors within the Tamil Nadu ecosystem
  • To notify you about relevant events, opportunities, and networking activities

Community Purpose: Your basic profile information (name, educational institution, and interests) may be visible to other verified members of the R16 CONNECTS community to facilitate networking, as this is the core purpose of our platform.

3. Data Sharing and Disclosure

R16 CONNECTS may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

  • Comply with a legal obligation
  • Protect and defend the rights or property of R16 CONNECTS
  • Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
  • Protect the personal safety of users of the Service or the public
  • Protect against legal liability

Service Providers

We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service ("Service Providers"), to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analyzing how our Service is used. These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.

Analytics

We may use third-party Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service, such as Google Analytics.

4. Data Security

The security of your data is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Our Security Measures: We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information, including encryption, access controls, and regular security assessments. Your ₹25 payment is processed through PCI-DSS compliant payment processors and we do not store your full payment information.

5. Your Data Protection Rights

Depending on your location, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information:

  • Access: You can request copies of your personal data.
  • Rectification: You can request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate.
  • Erasure: You can request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • Restrict Processing: You can request that we restrict the processing of your personal data.
  • Object to Processing: You can object to our processing of your personal data.
  • Data Portability: You can request that we transfer the data we have collected to another organization, or directly to you.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at privacy@r16connects.com.

Account Deletion: You may delete your R16 CONNECTS account at any time through the app settings. This will remove your personal data from our active databases, though some information may remain in our backups for a limited period as required by law.

6. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our Service and hold certain information.

Cookies are files with small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Tracking technologies also used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze our Service.

You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Service.

7. Children's Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 13 ("Children").

We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Children has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.

8. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the "effective date" at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us: