Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

S.MONK School of Actuaries (“S.MONK,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is an actuarial coaching institute based in Mumbai, India. We operate the website smonk.in, the student learning portal, the S.MONK Actuarial Job Portal, and the S.MONK Scholarship Programme. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, store, and protect personal information when you use any of these services. This policy is governed by 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 Act, 2023 (once notified), as applicable.

2. Information We Collect

We collect information in two ways: directly from you when you provide it, and automatically when you use our website.

2.1 Information you provide directly

• Account registration: Your name, email address, and password when you create a student account.
• Course enrolment: Name, phone number, billing address, and payment information (processed by Razorpay, which means we do not store card numbers on our servers).
• Student profile: Academic background (Class 10 and 12 marks, graduation details), actuarial exam history, work experience, city, and a brief bio. This information is used solely to match you with relevant job listings and to present your profile to employers you choose to apply to.
• Resume: If you upload a resume, the file is stored securely on our servers. The text is processed by an AI service (Anthropic Claude API) only when you explicitly click “Auto-fill from Resume” and only to pre-fill your profile fields. Your resume text is not stored by Anthropic beyond the single API call.
• Job applications: When you apply for a job through the portal, your profile and any cover note you write are shared with the specific employer you apply to.
• Scholarship application: Your academic records, family income declaration, and supporting documents submitted through the scholarship application form.
• Contact forms: Your name, email, phone number, and message when you submit an enquiry.

2.2 Information collected automatically

• Usage data: Pages visited, time spent on pages, and features used, collected via Google Analytics 4 with IP anonymisation enabled.
• Device data: Browser type, operating system, and screen resolution, used only in aggregate to improve the website.
• Cookies: See Section 7 below.

3. How We Use Your Information

• To create and manage your student account and learning portal access
• To process course enrolments and payments
• To deliver course content, materials, and notifications
• To match your profile with relevant actuarial job listings and display a personalised match score
• To forward your profile to employers you explicitly apply to through the job portal
• To assess and process scholarship applications
• To send transactional emails (order confirmations, password resets, application status updates)
• To send course-related communications and study reminders, which you may unsubscribe from at any time
• To improve our website, courses, and services based on aggregated usage patterns
• To comply with legal obligations and resolve disputes

We do not use your personal data for advertising, profiling for purposes unrelated to actuarial education, or automated decision-making that has legal consequences for you.

4. Sharing Your Information

We share your information only in the following circumstances:

• Employers (job portal only): When you apply for a job through smonk.in, your profile (academic background, exams cleared, work experience, about text, resume link, and cover note) is shared with the employer who posted that specific listing. Your contact details are shared only when you apply, not when you browse.
• Payment processor: Razorpay processes all payments. When you check out, you are redirected to Razorpay’s secure payment gateway. We receive a payment confirmation; we do not receive or store your full card details. Razorpay’s privacy policy is available at razorpay.com/privacy.
• AI services (resume & AI Tutor): We use Anthropic’s Claude API for two features. (1) Resume auto-fill: your resume text is sent for a single extraction call when you click “Auto-fill from Resume”. (2) AI Tutor: the questions you type are sent to Anthropic to generate an answer, and your questions and answers are stored in your account so you can see your chat history. To keep answers consistent and reduce cost, the answer to a commonly-asked first question may be reused for other students who ask the same question, so please do not include personal or sensitive information in tutor questions. Anthropic does not use API data to train its models (per their enterprise data policy). You can delete a chat at any time, and all your AI Tutor data is removed when your account is deleted.
• Email service provider: Transactional emails are sent via our hosting provider’s mail server. Your email address is used only to deliver emails you have triggered.
• Analytics: Aggregated, anonymised usage data is shared with Google Analytics. No personally identifiable information is included.
• Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required to do so by law, court order, or government authority under applicable Indian law.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to any third party.

5. Where Your Data Is Stored and Processed

S.MONK is based in India and most of your data stays in India. Some of the services we rely on are operated from outside India, which means limited categories of your personal data are transferred abroad. Section 16 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 permits such transfers except to countries specifically restricted by the Central Government; we do not transfer personal data to any restricted country. The table below is a complete list of who receives your data outside India, what they receive, and why.

Each of these providers is bound by a contract requiring them to protect your data and to use it only to provide the service to us. If you would prefer your data not to be sent to the AI service, simply do not use the resume auto-fill, cover-letter, or AI Tutor features, because every other part of the site works without them. If you have questions about any of these transfers, contact our Grievance Officer using the details in section 12.

6. Data Retention

• Active accounts: Your data is retained for as long as your account is active.
• Closed accounts: If you request account deletion, we delete your personal data within 30 days, except for records required to be retained for legal, tax, or audit purposes (typically 7 years under Indian accounting regulations for payment records).
• Job applications: Application records are retained for up to 5 years after the application date (to support employer hiring records and any related dispute), then deleted unless you have an active account.
• Uploaded resumes: Resume files are retained for as long as you keep your account. You can request deletion at any time.
• AI Tutor questions & answers: Retained in your account while it is active so you can see your chat history; deleted when you delete the chat or your account.
• Enquiry data: Contact form submissions are retained for 2 years for grievance resolution purposes.

7. Cookies

We use the following types of cookies:

• Essential cookies: Required for the student portal to function (session management, login state). These cannot be disabled.
• Analytics cookies: Google Analytics cookies that help us understand how visitors use the website. These are set with IP anonymisation and can be blocked using a browser extension or by declining in the cookie banner.

We do not use advertising cookies, retargeting cookies, or third-party tracking cookies. When you first visit smonk.in, you may choose to accept or decline non-essential cookies.

8. Your Rights

You have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: Update or correct inaccurate information through your profile page or by contacting us.
• Deletion: Request deletion of your account and associated data.
• Portability: Request your profile data in a machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent: Unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time using the link in any email or by writing to us.

To exercise any of these rights, write to admin@smonk.in with the subject line “Data Request, [Your Name].” We will respond within 30 days.

9. Children’s Privacy (Users under 18)

Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, a “child” is a person under 18 years of age. We collect date of birth at registration to identify users under 18. We do not offer our services to, and do not knowingly collect personal data from, children under 13. We do not undertake tracking, behavioural monitoring, or targeted advertising directed at children. If you are a parent or guardian and have concerns about your child’s account, write to grievance@smonk.in and we will assist you.

10. Data Security

We implement reasonable technical and organisational security measures to protect your personal data, including:

• HTTPS (TLS) encryption for all data in transit
• Password hashing using bcrypt with cost factor 12
• Database access restricted to server processes only
• CSRF protection on state-changing actions, hardened file uploads, and server-side input validation

No method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security but we commit to notifying you promptly in the event of a data breach that affects your personal information.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and, where required, notify you by email. Continued use of our services after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

12. Grievance Officer

In accordance with the Information Technology Act, 2000 and applicable rules, the Grievance Officer for S.MONK School of Actuaries is: