Privacy Policy

Effective from Nov 1, 2023

Overview

Guru.com is firmly committed to the privacy of its members. Guru.com works hard to earn and keep your trust, so it adheres to the following principles to protect your privacy:

  • Guru.com does not rent or sell your personally identifiable information to third parties.

  • Guru.com does not share your contact information with other users or third parties without your consent.

  • Any personally identifiable information that you provide to Guru.com will be secured with industry standard protocols and technology.

Information Collection

Guru.com is an online marketplace that connects businesses with Freelancers. When you visit Guru.com you provide two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected by Guru.com and website use information collected by Guru.com as you interact with the Guru.com website (the "Website").

When you register with Guru.com as a Freelancer or as an Employer, you provide certain personal information, including, your name, your email address and your address. Additionally, when you establish your profile as a Freelancer or as an Employer you will provide information relating to your skills, experience, education level, compensation, work availability, geographic region and self-evaluation. Such information does not identify the specificity of the individual member. Freelancers are not required to, but have the option to display their contact information (i.e. name, address, phone number, email address, etc.) to Employers who conduct searches of the Guru.com database.

When you enter the Website, Guru.com collects your IP address. This information is gathered for all Guru.com visitors. In addition, Guru.com stores certain information from your browser using "cookies." A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user. Guru.com uses session ID cookies to confirm that users are logged in. These cookies terminate once the user closes the browser. By default, Guru.com uses a persistent cookie that stores your login ID (but not your password) to make it easier for you to login when you return to the Website. Guru.com members must have cookies enabled on their browser. Note: Cookie preferences are set within each browser's Internet options/preferences.

If you post a information on a bulletin board, or participate in a public message board, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you choose to provide there can be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. Guru.com is not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums.

Guru.com is the sole owner of the information collected through the Website. Modify your cookie settings.

Information Use

Guru.com will not sell or rent any collected information to third parties. Guru.com will not share your contact information with other users or third parties except in connection with possible employment and with your express consent. All registered Guru.com members click the "I AGREE" checkbox on the registration form to agree to the Guru.com Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Accordingly, all registered users agree that certain profile information is accessible to other registered users.

Guru.com records IP addresses for system administration purposes. This information is used to diagnose server problems, monitor traffic patterns, analyze trends, administer the Website, track member user patterns, and identify the most popular areas of the Website to deliver content most relevant to registered members. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information and are only used to gather broad demographic information for aggregate use, except in the case of fraud.

Guru.com reserves the right to share aggregated demographic information with its partners and/or advertisers, such information will not be linked to personal information that identifies registered users, except in the case of fraud.

About your Information

We want you to be in control of your information, so we have provided you with the following tools:

  • Edit information in your profile at any time, decide whether your profile is available to Guru search or to search engines.

  • Link or unlink your Guru account from other services (like Facebook, Google or Linkedin). For some services (like Facebook), you can also decide whether or not to publish your Guru activity to that service.

  • Delete your account at any time. When you close your account, we’ll deactivate it, remove your activities from Guru and delete your account data. However, certain information will continue to reside with Guru.com even if you close your account as they may be used to support agreements between users, document financial transactions, and in providing protection to other legitimate users of the marketplace. In the case of non-personal data that can be linked with personal data, it will either be erased or otherwise anonymized from the personal data. In addition, we typically will not remove information you posted publicly through or on Guru.com. Neither you nor Guru.com can delete all copies of information that has been previously shared with others on the platform.

    Also, if you delete your account on Guru.com, any associated social data, if present, is also erased immediately.

    If Guru.com initiates a permanent deletion of your account, any associated social data to the account is erased immediately.

We want you to be aware of your privacy rights.

  • Reviewing your information. Applicable privacy laws may give you the right to review the personal information we keep about you (depending on the jurisdiction, this may be called right of access, right of portability or variations of those terms). You can request a copy of your personal information by putting in such a request to our support team.

  • Updating your information. If you believe that the information we hold about you is inaccurate or that we are no longer entitled to use it and want to request its rectification, deletion or object to its processing, please contact our support.

For your protection and the protection of all of our users, we may ask you to provide proof of identity before we can answer the above requests.

We store data for as long as it is necessary to provide products and services to you and others, including those described above. Information associated with your account will be kept until your account is deleted, unless we no longer need the data to provide products and services.

Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Firebase

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of Guru.com. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network. We use Google Analytics tracking to review visitor website activities and information, including page views, source, time spent on our website, demographics, and interests. Additionally, we use the User ID extension for Google Analytics to help associate multiple sessions with a unique ID. The collected information is depersonalized and is displayed as numbers, meaning it cannot be tracked back to individuals. This will help to protect your privacy. Using Google Analytics, we learn how to give you a better visitor experience.

Using Google Ads conversion tracking codes, we can see which web pages help lead to different conversions on Guru.com. This allows us to better use our paid advertising budget.

We use Google Analytics and Google Ads Remarketing features to log when visitors view specific web pages. This allows us to provide targeted advertising in the future.

  • Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve Guru.com ads on third-party websites based on past customers' past visits to Guru.com.

  • Guru.com and third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies and third-party cookies together to inform, optimize, and serve ads based on a user's past visits to Guru.com.

We may also collect information when you access our service via a mobile device ("usage data"). When you access our service via a mobile device, this usage data may include information such as the type of mobile device you use, your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of your mobile device, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile browser you use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data. We collect and use this data in aggregate form to provide and maintain our service, to gather analysis to improve our service, to monitor the usage of our service, and to detect, prevent, and address technical issues.

When you download a Guru app, Guru may use the following services to collect and analyze customer data in an aggregate and non-personalized format: Cloud Functions for Firebase, Firebase Authentication, Firebase Cloud Messaging, Firebase Crash Reporting, Firebase Crashlytics, Google Analytics for Firebase, Firebase Dynamic Links, Firebase Hosting, Firebase Performance Monitoring, Firebase Predictions, Firebase Realtime Database, Firebase, Remote Config, and ML Kit for Firebase.

Learn how Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.

Learn more about privacy and security in Firebase.

Opting Out:

Visitors can opt out of cookie tracking on our website by going to the website footer, selecting "Cookie Settings," and selecting "Reject All."

Visitors can opt out of tracking on a Guru app by not logging in to the app and then deleting/removing the Guru app.

Visitors can opt out of Google's use of cookies by visiting Google Ads Settings.

Visitors can control how Google tracks activity by visiting the My Google Activity page. Additionally, visitors can delete previous Google activity using this page.

Visitors can opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt out page.

Visitors can opt-out of having your activity on Guru.com available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics.

Opt-Out Browser Add-On. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.

For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page.

For more information on the privacy practices of Firebase, please visit the Privacy and Security in Firebase web page.

Links

The Website contains links to other websites and is not responsible for the privacy practices of such websites. Guru.com encourages its members to read the privacy policies of all websites. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by Guru.com.

Security

Guru.com takes industry standard protocols and technology to protect registered user information. Guru.com is a VeriSign Secure Site. Please click the VeriSign logo at the bottom of any page in the website to view our official VeriSign certificate. All transactions performed through Guru.com are conducted in a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) session. The Secure Socket Layer encrypts all transaction data for transmittal in a format that prevents data theft. This process protects all private information from being disclosed to third parties. While on a secure page, the lock icon at the bottom of a Web browser (i.e. Firefox or Chrome) becomes locked.

Guru.com also protects registered user information offline. All registered user information is restricted within our offices. Servers used to store personally identifiable information are housed in a secure, supervised environment. In addition, only Guru.com employees who need specific information to perform a task are granted access to personally identifiable information.

Mandatory Communications

Guru.com sends all newly registered users a welcome email to verify their email addresses. At times, Guru.com sends service announcements to its registered Employers and Freelancers. Registered Users cannot unsubscribe from service announcements that discuss upcoming changes that affect their Guru.com accounts. In addition, we communicate with registered members via personal emails or phone calls to provide requested services.

Optional Communications

Registered users receive monthly e-newsletters containing information on Guru.com products, services and announcements. Occasionally, registered users receive e-postcards that highlight special Guru.com announcements and features. Registered users can opt-out of the above listed communications. Please see our Choice/Opt-out section below.

Choice/Opt-out

Upon registration, users can opt-out of Guru.com's option communications. Additionally, registered users can, at any time, modify their Guru.com email (service announcement) preferences by updating their account information.

Notification of Changes

Guru.com reserves the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. If Guru.com alters its Privacy Policy, it will promptly post all changes in the Employer and Freelancer Announcement areas. By continuing to use Guru.com after changes have been made to this policy, you are consenting to the changes.

Disclaimers

Social Login Disclaimer

Social Logins allow for single sign-up using existing information from social networking sites. Guru.com is approved by Facebook, google+, and LinkedIn for Social Login through making our Privacy Policy publicly available and easily accessible. Our Privacy Policy also gives our users the scope of the data collected and use of that data collected on Guru.com.

By logging in through Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, or any other Social Login we may accept in the future, you consent to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service as well as the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service of Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and etc. Please review the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for the Social Login you may be using to determine the collection and usage of data per the previously mentioned Social Login services you may be using.

Disclosure of All Financial Transactions on User Profiles Disclaimer

Guru.com discloses all of the financial transactions on profiles of both the Employers and Freelancers for the benefit of all users. The disclosure of the financial transactions is for the benefit of all users in making intelligent and informed choices in regards to accepting jobs from Employers and hiring Freelancers.