1. Introduction
Foresight College of Commerce, Pune ("the College," "we," "us," or "our") is steadfast in its commitment to safeguarding the privacy, confidentiality, and security of your personal information. This comprehensive Privacy Policy governs the collection, processing, storage, and sharing of personal data acquired through our official website, admissions portals, campus management systems, and related institutional platforms. We aim to ensure maximum transparency and adherence to applicable data protection frameworks in all our academic and administrative operations.
2. Consent and Withdrawal of Consent
By accessing our website, applying for admissions, or utilizing our digital platforms, you explicitly consent to the collection, processing, and storage of your personal data as outlined in this policy.
Withdrawal of Consent: You retain the right to withdraw your consent at any time by writing to our Grievance Officer. Please note that withdrawing consent may limit or restrict our ability to provide you with certain educational services, administrative support, or portal access.
3. Categories of Information Collected
In the course of providing our educational services, we collect precisely defined categories of data from various stakeholders:
Prospective & Current Students: Full legal names, contact information (residential address, mobile numbers), email addresses, dates of birth, comprehensive academic records (transcripts, certificates), standardised test scores, government-issued identification numbers, extracurricular achievements, and medical/emergency contact details (where voluntarily provided for health and safety on campus).
Parents & Guardians: Full names, contact information, occupation, financial information (for fee payment verification), relationship to the student, and primary emergency contact designations.
Faculty & Staff: Resumes, employment history, academic qualifications, permanent contact details, tax identification numbers (PAN), and banking information required exclusively for payroll and benefits administration.
Alumni: Updated professional contact details, current employment status, graduation cohorts, and philanthropic contributions to the College.
Website Visitors: IP addresses, browser specifications, device operating systems, time-stamped browsing behaviour on our domain, and aggregated analytics data.
4. Purposes of Data Processing
We process personal data strictly for legitimate institutional purposes, which include:
Admissions and Academic Administration: Evaluating student applications, processing enrolment, managing course registrations, grading, issuing transcripts, and providing access to academic resources.
Automated Processing: Some initial application sorting or plagiarism detection may utilise automated software. Users have the right to request human review of any automated decisions that significantly impact their academic standing.
Financial Administration: Securely processing tuition fees, managing scholarships, handling refunds, and issuing financial receipts.
Institutional Communication: Disseminating critical academic updates, campus event notifications, emergency alerts, newsletters, and responding to direct inquiries.
Platform Enhancement: Conducting statistical analyses of website traffic to troubleshoot technical issues, improve user interface, and ensure robust cybersecurity.
5. Data Storage, Cybersecurity Protocols, and Breach Notification
The College employs rigorous technical and organisational security measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access, accidental loss, alteration, or unlawful destruction. All sensitive data is stored on secure, access-restricted institutional servers or verified enterprise cloud environments utilising end-to-end encryption in transit (via SSL/TLS protocols), strict role-based access control (RBAC), and firewall defences.
Data Breach Notification: In the highly unlikely event of a data breach compromising your personal data, the College will promptly notify affected individuals and the relevant regulatory authorities (such as CERT-In) within the legally mandated timeframes, detailing the nature of the breach and the mitigation steps taken.
6. Third-Party Sharing and Legal Disclosures
Foresight College of Commerce does not sell, trade, or unlawfully monetize personal data. Data is shared with third parties only under strict legal or operational necessity:
Statutory and Regulatory Bodies: Disclosing necessary academic records to the University Grants Commission (UGC), affiliated universities, and the Ministry of Education to fulfil mandatory educational compliance.
Authorised Service Providers: Engaging trusted third-party vendors who process data exclusively on our behalf, governed by stringent Data Processing Agreements.
Payment Processors: Facilitating secure transactions through PCI-DSS compliant banking partners. The College does not locally store complete credit card or UPI details.
Law Enforcement and Legal Mandates: Releasing information when explicitly compelled by law, court order, or authorised government agencies to protect the rights, property, or safety of the College community.
7. External Links Disclaimer
Our website may contain links to third-party external websites (e.g., national scholarship portals, payment gateways, or affiliated educational platforms). The College is not responsible for the privacy practices, content, security, or data collection policies of these external websites. We encourage users to read the privacy policies of any linked sites they visit.
8. User Rights and Control Over Data
Aligned with progressive data protection standards, users retain significant control over their personal information:
Right to Access: Request a comprehensive copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to Rectification: Request immediate correction of any inaccurate or outdated information in our records.
Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten): Request the deletion of your data once it is no longer required for its original purpose, subject to overarching legal retention mandates.
Right to Restrict Processing: Request a temporary halt in the processing of your data under specific dispute circumstances.
Right to Data Portability: Request your data in a structured, commonly used machine-readable format.
9. Cookie Policy
Our digital platforms employ cookies to optimise functionality. These include Essential Cookies (necessary for core site navigation), Performance Cookies (to aggregate anonymised traffic analytics), and Functionality Cookies (to remember regional preferences). Visitors can configure their browser settings to decline non-essential cookies, though this may limit certain customised features on our website.
10. Data Retention Framework
Personal data is retained only for the duration strictly necessary to fulfil the purposes delineated in this policy or as mandated by Indian law. Permanent academic records (transcripts, degree certificates) are kept indefinitely for verification purposes. Financial transaction records are retained for a minimum of eight (8) years to comply with tax and audit regulations. Unused application data and routine communication logs are periodically purged according to our internal data lifecycle schedule.
11. Children's Privacy Protections
The College's services are directed towards individuals seeking higher education. We do not intentionally solicit or collect personal information from minors (under 18 years of age) without explicit, verifiable consent from a parent or legal guardian. Should we discover inadvertent collection of such data without appropriate authorisation, immediate deletion protocols will be initiated.
12. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
This Privacy Policy shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India. Any legal disputes or claims arising out of or in connection with this Privacy Policy shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts located in Pune, Maharashtra.
13. Legal Disclosures and Amendments
This Privacy Policy is executed in compliance with the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, and the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 of India. We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy at any time. Material modifications will be prominently communicated via our official website homepage.