Privacy Policy

Please note that the capitalized terms not defined herein shall have the meanings ascribed to them in the Terms of Use available at www.treetle.com/terms.

We receive a variety of information (including Personal Information) about you when you visit the Treetle Website or avail of Treetle Services, either as a general User or as a Member, Administrator, Co-administrator, Organizer or Co-organizer of a Club or Event on Treetle.

Information that we collect from you will vary depending upon the activity you seek to engage in and may include (but not be limited to) your name, email address, mobile number, date of birth, and location and shall constitute your Personal Information. In addition, we may collect demographic information such as gender, information about your computer, hardware, software, platform, media, Internet Protocol (IP) address and connection, information about online activity such as feature usage and click paths, and other data that you may provide in surveys or online profiles. We may combine demographic information with Personal Information to tailor our offerings or web pages to your preferences or interests.

We may use your contact information to update you of our Services from time to time in addition to posting relevant advertisements so as to ensure that you have a more useful and positive experience.

We collect your Personal Information in the following ways:

1. Registration:

When you create an account with Treetle you will be required to provide us with your e-mail address, first and last name, gender, location, date of birth and a password. To become a "Verified User", you will be required to provide us with your mobile number.

We assure you that your password, which constitutes the most sensitive Personal Information, will be secure and no third party shall have access to it except you and Treetle. Additionally, for the benefit of the Treetle community, certain user information will constitute "Public Information" (i.e., information which is always in the public domain and includes the information you choose to make public) for the purposes of this Policy and will be displayed on your profile page at all times and shall also appear in search results.These include, your first and last name, gender, profile picture, city, activities and interests, friend list, and club memberships.

2. Content provided by you:

You may choose to provide other information (including Personal Information) on your Treetle profile, or in the course of any Club activities or through the use of any other Services, including but not limited to, name, e-mail address, physical address, pictures, interests/hobbies, skills and abilities, educational qualifications, vocational experiences, objectives, etc. We may use this information to make appropriate suggestions and recommendations with regard to Clubs, Events, other activities, site applications, and other features that best suit your interests and likings and also deliver targeted advertisements so that you can make the most of Treetle's Services. This additional information over and above what is essentially required for you to be able to utilize Treetle's Services is entirely optional and Treetle shall not be held responsible for such information. You may access your Treetle account and use our Services even without providing such additional information; however, it is then possible that you may not be able to avail of certain Services and functionalities of Treetle.

3. Using the Treetle Website and its features and/or applications:

We receive information when you use our site to make posts, share information and other data, create Clubs, search for and browse Clubs and Events, join Clubs, upload pictures, post comments, participate in surveys/polls, send messages to other Users, log in on third party websites through your Treetle account and use other interactive Services. We use this information for the purpose of improving our Services and providing more personalised and customized services to you. This use is in conformity with the particulars set out in this Privacy Policy regarding use of information.

4. URLs, IP addresses and other information about your computer and other devices used to access Treetle:

We automatically receive certain data and information when you visit our Website or use any of our Services. This information includes the URL of the site you came from and the site you will be going to when you leave Treetle, the Internet Protocol ("IP") address of your computer or the proxy server you use to access the Internet. Treetle also receives information about your browser and computer operating system. In addition to the above, if you use Treetle Services from your mobile device, Treetle obtains information and details about your mobile device, your mobile operating systems and mobile carrier. If your mobile device is GPS configured we may also receive specific information about your location and whereabouts.

In addition when you click on any advertisement or any third party links on the Treetle Website such advertisers and third parties also receive the URL of the webpage you were on before you clicked on the said advertisement or link.

The use of this information however is consistent with the guidelines laid out in this document. We reiterate that we maintain complete User privacy and your Personal Information is not shared with our advertising partners and/or third parties without your express consent, or except as specified in this document.

5. Cookies:

When you access your Treetle account, we implant one or more cookies on your computer or any other device you use to interact with the Website. A cookie is nothing but a data file (extremely small in size) that gets stored on the system and allows us to determine and recognize you when you log in to the Website on another occasion from the same computer, mobile or other device. The cookie facilitates your use and access of the Treetle Website and it also helps us in collecting information about your activity on Treetle such as the nature of your search activities, the pages you visit, the Clubs and Events you browse, the Events you follow, etc. Most computer systems are configured to allow cookies, however, you may delete or block these cookies by modifying your browser settings. In addition you may also customize the browser settings and instruct your systems to prompt you before accepting a cookie sent to your computer. However, please note that if you choose to disable these cookies, it may affect or impact your ability to use Treetle. Treetle may use both "persistent" and "session" cookies to track the trend and pattern of usage of our Website, to improve the nature and quality of our Services and features, and to provide more personalized services.

6. Information collected by Third Parties/Advertisement companies/Ad Networks:

In order to support our business, we allow companies and service providers to display their advertisements and promotional messages on our Website. In addition to the general advertisements that are exhibited on our Website we also direct certain advertisements towards specific Users on the basis of their User profiles and other information provided (such as hobbies, vocation, gender, demographics, nationality, etc.). These advertising companies may use tracking tools in the form of cookies and web beacons to collect information and conduct a survey about Users who view or interact with their advertisements. This information assists the companies to gauge their standing in the market and also enables them to evaluate the effectiveness and the progress of their advertisements. In addition it also allows these companies to select their target advertising audience they can direct their product commercials at.

In addition Treetle also makes available a variety of services that are hosted by third parties or platform/service developers in the form of blogs, polls, contests, competitions, games, etc., to provide you with a unique social experience. These services may place cookies on your computer and collect information such as your IP address, browser details, etc.

We do not however, provide these companies or service providers with your Personal Information.

We are also not responsible or liable for usage of Personal Information or any other information you voluntarily provide to a third party. We recommend that you exercise utmost caution in not only the nature but also the extent of information you share with third parties.

7. Contacts Information

The Services offered by Treetle enable you to not only connect and network with existing Users and Members of the site but also facilitates your objective of expanding your existing network by inviting friends and other people you may know who are not existing Users or Members, to join Treetle. You may send an invitation using Treetle's Services to the email addresses of people who are not registered with Treetle. Treetle will use the names and email addresses of people you wish to invite to send invitations and a maximum number of 3 (three) reminders. In addition Treetle may also send the names and profile pictures of the User's contacts/friends and other people who the person receiving the invitation might know on Treetle along with information that has been made available by User and the User's contacts/friends to be viewed by friends or everyone.

Please note that when you send an invitation to an existing User or a Member, such Users will have access to your name and profile picture, as well as other information that Treetle construes as Public Information, or other information made available by you to be viewed by your contacts/friends, as the invitation request will contain these details.

8. Customer Queries and Requests

We also receive your Personal Information when you post inquiries and requests on our Website and use it to write back to you with our response. In addition we also receive your information if any other User or Member lodges a complaint against you for anything posted or shared by you on our Website or for any offensive or lewd behaviour and other unauthorised use of our Services. This information is collected and used by us to curb such indecent activities and to ensure our Users a clean environment.

Treetle uses the information collected about and from you to determine usage trends and patterns of its Users/Members that would enable us to upgrade and improve the Website and Services and also to provide more customized Services to you. By creating an account on Treetle you expressly agree to the use of your information by Treetle as detailed in this document or as required by law.

We use the information received and collected by us in the following manner:

1. Your activity and interaction on the Treetle Website:

The main objective of Treetle is to provide you a platform where you can share or distribute information and other data, by creating Clubs and Events, sending invitations to Users to join Clubs and Events, posting comments and opinions on the public areas of the Website and through other applications and Services. The nature of the Website and its Services is to share information disclosed by the Users, to garner more utility for the Users. Thus by using the Services offered by Treetle you acknowledge that the information you share on the Website will be deemed Public Information and will always be available for viewing on your Treetle account or other public areas of the Website if such information is posted/shared therein.

2. Treetle's communications with its Users/Members

Treetle may use various options available to communicate with you whether it is to inform you about new features or Services, and to answer your queries and complaints or for other purposes. Treetle may interact with you through e-mails, notice broadcasts on the Treetle Website, messages sent to your Treetle inbox, mobile text messages and other means of communication. In addition, shortly after signing in you may receive emails from Treetle containing details of the features offered by Treetle and a basic guide on how the same can be used. We may also either directly or through our service providers/vendors send you service related messages, updates and information. You cannot opt out of receiving these service related message and updates.

3. Communications with other Users and Club Members:

Many correspondences and conversations you initiate through Treetle will feature some of your information such as name/username, email address, profile picture, information regarding the number of contacts in your personal network, name and certain details about the Clubs and/or Events you have initiated or organised, name and details of Clubs that you are a member of, the Events you have participated in and may also provide other aggregate information about your network. These details will also appear when any User/Member conducts a general search on the Website if the key words used correspond to your account information. Treetle allows you to regulate the amount of information you want displayed in the search results by editing your account settings. However, your Public Information will always appear in these results. In addition all the contributions made by you on the Treetle Website in the form of information, data, pictures, comments, opinions posted/shared on the Treetle Website will be deemed to be Public Information and the same can be viewed by Treetle Users. In addition other Club Members and other Users can view all posts and other interactions by you as a Member of a Club or as a participant at an Event whether or not they feature in your list of personal contacts.

4. Other Services from Treetle

We will also use your information to provide customized Services to you to enhance your User experience. For this purpose, we may display the details of contacts you have recently added to your network, upcoming Events you may want to be a part of and Clubs that cater to your interests.

5. Sharing Information with third parties

Treetle does not sell, rent or otherwise provide Personal Information of its Users/Members to third parties except as expressly provided in this document, or if the Users/Members have given us their consent and permission.

Since Treetle allows you to access your Treetle account using login details from other websites, i.e., Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter and Yahoo, and also sends updates, responses to User inquiries, relevant advertisements and suggestions in connection with new/improved Services or applications to the email address provided by you at the time of registration and from time to time, some User information may be collected by these websites. The use of such information by these websites will be governed by the policies laid down in the respective website's privacy policy.

In addition your contributions in the form of comments, opinions, views and discussions on any page on Treetle, which are open to all Users for discussion, may appear along with your User name in search engine results.

The information provided by you on Treetle be it profile information or the information you post, share on the public areas of the Treetle Website or through the use of our Services, including applications and other features may be accessible and made public through syndication programs and by search engines using spider and other crawlers, metasearch tools, metacrawlers and other similar programs and software.

6. Treetle Service Developers and Vendors

Treetle allows third parties and vendors to develop and offer services, features and functionalities on the Treetle Website in conjunction with Treetle. These Services may be provided by third parties, vendors, service developers in the form of hosting Clubs and other Services on the Treetle Website to promote or propagate their products or services or advertise their brand in general or in the form of providing unique services in the form of applications, games and other features to ensure you have a fulfilling networking experience.

We provide these third parties/vendors/service developers with Users' Personal Information but only to the extent necessary to perform these functions and provide the Services, and the use by third parties, of such information is subject to and regulated/governed by the principles laid down in this document. However, in the event these third parties have a policy for the use of Personal Information that is not in conformity with Treetle's policy or alternatively not approved by Treetle, you may be asked to confirm your acceptance to the privacy policy of the third party/service developer before you use such third party services. It is up to you to then decide if they wish to use such Services or not, and in the event you do, the third party's privacy policy and not the Treetle Privacy Policy governs the usage of information you provide the third parties either directly or through your Treetle account.

However, Treetle is not responsible for the Personal Information and other data provided by you during Events/meetings/gatherings/get-together/conferences/conventions organised by third parties/vendors and the User consequently releases Treetle of any obligation with respect to such information.

7. Third-Party Links and Websites

There are various links and features on the Treetle Website which give you access to other websites when you click on them. These may be in the nature of advertisements, etc. These third party websites may collect information, including Personal Information, from you when you access their website and sometimes provide Treetle information about your interaction with their website for the purpose of compiling and aggregating User information. We suggest that you read and familiarize yourselves with the privacy policy of these websites, as Treetle has no control or authority over them and the manner in which they use and share User information.

8. Search

As a part of the Services, Treetle offers a search option (the Search Box) which helps you find information and details about other Users, Clubs, Events, Club Members, Club organizers, Co-organizers, etc. This search option enables you to locate Users, Clubs and discover Treetle Services that best suit your interests. The main objective of the Treetle search is to ensure adequate and productive use of the Treetle Website. We track and log the information you search in order to provide you with personalised services in the form of relevant advertisements, friends/contacts, Club and Event suggestions, etc. We use the information you provide on your profile, your contributions to Clubs, Club activities and Events, to reply to search queries and also refine our search service.

9. Compliance with the legal process

We may be required to disclose and share your information including Personal Information to comply with legal processes, in response to legal notices and inquiries including but not limited to civil and criminal proceedings, court orders, and other compulsory disclosures when we in good faith believe that the information is required by the law or in order to assist government/legal enforcement agencies in their investigation and preventive actions against any suspected or actual illegal or unlawful activity or conduct. We may also use your Personal Information to enforce the terms of this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use, respond to customer service requests and queries and safeguard the rights, interests, property, personal safety of Treetle, its Users and the public in general.

10. Usage of non-identifiable data and information

We compile your non-identifiable information and data to provide you better personalized services. Hence when you join a Club or Club Events or activities, or regularly use particular applications, or interact and visit certain websites through the links provided on the Treetle Website, or respond to certain types of advertisement or to an advertisement of a particular brand or company, we record and put together this data along with other information we already have about you. This data is then aggregated and we use the same to make suggestions about the applications, Clubs, Events and other Services which suit your need and interests. We also provide this aggregated data to third parties and vendors who host Clubs on the Treetle Website, developers of services and applications, advertisers and investors for the purpose of conducting general business study and analysis. This data acts as feedback for these third parties as they can then evaluate User response to their Services and product advertisements which enables them to make improvements in their marketing and advertising strategies. Treetle assures you that this data is supplied to the third parties only after removing any Personal Information or by merging the data with that of others in a manner that is no longer associated with an individual User.

11. Disclosures of Information to Others as a Result of a Change in Control or Sale of Treetle's assets.

Your Personal Information and other information may be sold or transferred to a third party in the event that Treetle is involved in a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization or a sale of assets, or as a result of change in management and control of the company. However, this Privacy Policy with all its promises and covenants will apply to your information as transferred to the new entity. The new/reorganised company shall have the right to access your information (including Personal Information) and shall use and dispose of the same in the manner provided in this Privacy Policy.

We may memorialize the account of deceased Users and restrict the account access to allow only family or personal friends/contacts to view their profiles and other Personal Information as well as write posts on the deceased's personal/profile page in their remembrance. We may also make certain features and functionalities of the account defunct, for instance messaging and mailing, access to various Clubs, ability to send or receive invitations to Clubs or Events and other features we may deem appropriate in the given context. To inform Treetle of the demise of any User, please e-mail us at support@treetle.com. We may also delete the deceased person's User account from Treetle on receiving a formal application/request from the User's next of kin or on receiving legal instructions from any legal/quasi legal authority.

Treetle allows you to make changes and modifications, add and delete certain information provided by you and associated with your account/profile. The Treetle Website makes available various tools that can be utilised by you to make changes/amendments and updates/revisions to your profile information.

You can choose to temporarily deactivate your account on Treetle. If you choose to deactivate your account, your profile will no longer be available for viewing by the other Users or Members but all your information including Personal Information will remain in Treetles. It is our suggestion that if wish to discontinue using our Services only temporarily you deactivate your account instead of deleting it as you can always reactivate it as and when you desire to resume using our Services.

You may also exercise the option to permanently terminate/close your account on Treetle. If you do, Treetle will forthwith remove your profile from the Website and the same will no longer be available for viewing by other Users or Members. You will not be able to use the previously registered email or any verified alternate emails to sign up for a new account. To permanently terminate/close your account, please send an email to support@treetle.com with "Deactivate My Account" as subject. However, please note that Treetle reserves the right to retain, on the Website, such information shared by you in the course of interaction with other Users and Members, and participation in Club activities, as is reasonably required for Treetle to continue providing its Services to other Users. For example, all User interactions including mails and messages sent by you to other Users, or your contributions to polls and surveys on the Website, comments and messages posted by you on Club discussion pages or public forums/public areas of the Website may be available on the Website even after you have deleted your account. Further, Treetle may retain and preserve User information and data including Personal Information (in an aggregated form or otherwise) in its logs, databases, etc., if it considers the same to be essential for the purposes of enforcing and implementing the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, resolving disputes including defending claims raised against it with respect to the Website or Services, business analysis and development, compliance with the law and its processes, etc. Treetle, disclaims any and all liability or obligation in relation to the retention or deletion of such information.In addition, the information shared by you on the Website and copied by others may be available to such Users and/or non-users. Treetle does not undertake any responsibility or liability for the use and exploitation of such information by other Users and/or non-users. We strongly recommend our Users to exercise care and caution while sharing and providing sensitive and other information on the Website or while using any of the Services.

You agree that you have the following obligations towards other Users with respect to your on-site conduct. We expect you to observe these to ensure a healthy and harmonious use of Treetle's Services. Some of these obligations are a result of legal requirements whereas some are practices adopted by other like-minded communities and sites:

1. You must, at all times, abide by the terms and conditions of the present version of the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. This includes respecting all intellectual property rights belonging to third parties.

2. You must at all times respect the person and property of other Treetle Users and must not download or otherwise distribute/share/publish any information on the website that may be deemed to be licentious, defamatory, injurious, violent, offensive, racist or xenophobic, or which may otherwise violate the spirit of Treetle and its community of Users.

3. You should refrain from publishing or sharing on the Treetle Website any information which in your opinion or belief might adversely affect or have a detrimental impact on the personal, professional or social status of any User.

4. You must safeguard your password and other login details and Treetle is not responsible if the same reaches the hands of any third party or unauthorised person due to any recklessness or fault on your part. We recommend that you do not share your User name and password with any third party. However, if you do, you agree to do it at your own risk.

Any violation or non-observance of these obligations may lead to the restriction, suspension or termination of your account at the sole discretion of Treetle.

Treetle does not allow the use of its Services by children under the age of 18 nor does it deliberately or knowingly collect or solicit Personal Information from children under the said age. If Treetle becomes aware that a child under the specified age has provided us with Personal Information whether sensitive or non-sensitive, identifiable or non-identifiable, Treetle will take all necessary and immediate steps to deactivate his/her profile.

We may update/revise this Privacy Policy at any time by displaying a prominent notice on the Privacy Policy page of the Treetle Website or sending you an email on the email address provided by you at the time of registration or sending you a message in your Treetle inbox, to enable you to review the modified terms prior to continuing to use the Treetle Website. If you object to any of the changes to the Privacy Policy, you may express your objections by writing in to us at support@treetle.com. However the final decision rests with Treetle and we may or may not incorporate your suggestions. In that case if you continue to remain dissatisfied with the change in policy and you no longer wish to use Treetle, you may delete your Treetle account. However, continuing to remain a User and/or using Treetle Services after a description of the changes has been sent to you or published on our Website will constitute implied consent to the revised terms and you shall be bound by the new Privacy Policy.

In order to protect your Personal Information and keep it secure, access to your User account on Treetle is password-protected, and sensitive data (such as credit card information) is protected by SSL encryption when it is exchanged between your web browser and the Treetle Website. However, it is your absolute duty and responsibility to secure the protection of your login information. Treetle also undertakes all reasonable and appropriate technical and administrative safeguards to ensure the security of your Personal Information. For this purpose, Treetle examines and appraises its system for possible vulnerabilities/weaknesses, system loopholes and attacks on a regular basis. However, Treetle cannot provide a 100% warranty or security of the Personal information you post/share on our Website as the Internet does not provide the safest of environments and suffers from numerous vulnerabilities. There is no guarantee that information you provide may not be accessed, disclosed, modified, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or organisational measures. We also recommend and advise you to refrain from sharing any confidential, classified and private information through e-mails, instant messaging, and like means of communication with other Users of Treetle as these forms of communication are not encrypted.