Privacy Policy

Telephone calls and consultations (online or in person) with our team may be recorded and transcribed. These recordings are personal data and are handled with care:

• Purpose: preparing accurate session notes and follow-up materials, internal training and quality review, and analysing and improving our services.
• Access: restricted to Karan Gupta Consulting staff and service providers who process recordings on our behalf under confidentiality obligations. Recordings are never sold or shared for marketing.
• Storage & retention: stored securely and retained only as long as needed for the purposes above, after which they are deleted.
• Your choices: you may ask for a session not to be recorded (tell your counsellor at the start), and you may request access to or deletion of recordings of your sessions by contacting us.

You have the right to:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information
• Deletion: Request deletion of your personal information (subject to legal requirements)
• Opt-out: Unsubscribe from marketing communications at any time
• Data Portability: Receive your data in a structured, commonly used format
• Withdraw Consent: Withdraw consent for data processing where applicable

We keep this short and specific, because we use very little. We do not run advertising pixels, remarketing tags or social-media trackers on this website. We do not currently show a cookie banner. Everything our website stores in your browser, and why, is listed below.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how the website is used: which pages are read, how visitors arrive, how long they stay, and whether the site is fast. Google Analytics sets cookies (named _ga and_ga_*) that assign a random identifier to your browser so that repeat visits can be counted. We look at this data in aggregate. We do not use it to build a profile of you, to show you advertising, or to identify you by name. Google retains the event-level data for no longer than 14 months. Google's own privacy policy describes how it handles this data: policies.google.com/privacy.

How to opt out: install Google's browser add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout, block third-party cookies in your browser settings, or use a content blocker. The website works fully without analytics.

Our Own (First-Party) Cookie

If you reach us through a link that carries campaign tags (for example from a newsletter or a social post), we set one cookie named kgc_utm. It records only the source, medium and campaign of that first visit so that, if you later fill in a form, we know which channel brought you to us. It expires after 90 days, contains no personal details, and is not shared with anyone.

Browser Storage That Makes the Site Work

Some features remember things in your browser's local storage so that you do not have to repeat yourself. These are not sent to third parties:

• Details you entered once for a free tool, so that the next tool does not ask again.
• Whether you have closed or completed the welcome pop-up, so that it does not keep reappearing.
• Your practice streak on the interview-preparation tool.
• A random identifier for your current booking attempt, cleared when you close the tab.

You can clear all of this at any time through your browser's "clear site data" option.

Why There Is No Cookie Banner

India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 governs how we handle your personal data (see Section 12). The only non-essential technology on this site is Google Analytics, which we use for aggregate measurement only, and which you can switch off with the methods above. We have chosen to explain our practices plainly on this page rather than interrupt every visit with a pop-up. We review this position as the law and its rules come into force, and we will change it if required.

Some of our free tools, the website chat widget and parts of our internal counselling workflow use artificial-intelligence services to generate text, summaries and recommendations. When you use one of these features, the information you enter (and, for clients, relevant parts of your counselling record) may be processed by an AI provider acting on our instructions, under contractual confidentiality terms, for the sole purpose of producing that output. We use these services under business terms that do not allow the provider to use your information to train its models. Results from the free tools are generated automatically and are indicative only. Where AI output forms part of the advice we give you as a client, a member of our team reviews it first.

Our website links to universities, testing bodies, payment pages and other external sites. Those sites have their own privacy practices, which we do not control. Payments for consultations are taken on a payment provider's page; we do not see or store your card details.

Many of the students we help are under 18, and Indian law treats anyone under 18 as a child for data-protection purposes. We take this seriously:

• We require the consent of a parent or guardian before a student under 18 becomes a client or completes our registration form, and parents or guardians are copied on key communications about that student.
• We do not show targeted advertising to children, and we do not profile or behaviourally monitor individual visitors of any age. Website analytics is used only in aggregate, as described in Section 7.
• If you believe a child has given us personal information without a parent's or guardian's consent, email us at kgc@karangupta.com and we will delete it.

We keep personal information only as long as it is needed for the purpose it was collected for, or as long as the law requires:

• Client records (registration, documents, session notes, correspondence) are kept for the duration of our engagement and for a period afterwards so that we can support alumni, respond to references and meet legal and accounting obligations. You may ask us to delete them sooner, subject to those obligations.
• Enquiries and tool submissions from people who do not become clients are kept so that we can respond and follow up, and are deleted or anonymised when no longer needed. You may ask us to delete them at any time.
• Call and meeting recordings are handled as described in Section 5.
• Website analytics data is retained by Google for no longer than 14 months. The kgc_utm cookie expires after 90 days.

We are based in Mumbai and process personal data in accordance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the rules made under it, as they come into force. Under that law we act as the "data fiduciary" for the personal data described in this policy. In plain terms this means:

• We collect personal data for the specific purposes stated here and do not use it for unrelated purposes without telling you.
• Where we rely on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time by contacting us. Withdrawal does not affect processing that happened before, and may mean we can no longer provide a service that depends on that data.
• You may ask what personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or update it, ask us to erase it (subject to legal and contractual obligations), and nominate another person to exercise these rights on your behalf.
• You may raise a grievance with us about how your data has been handled. Write to kgc@karangupta.com with "Privacy" in the subject line and we will respond within the period the law allows. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to approach the Data Protection Board of India once it is constituted.

Visitors from outside India: we serve families in India and do not direct our services at residents of other countries. If you contact us from abroad, we will still honour the rights set out above.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, including as India's data-protection rules take effect. We will post the updated policy on this page with a new "Last Updated" date, and we will tell current clients directly about any change that materially affects how we use their information.