Privacy Policy

Consent

By using our website and booking forms, you consent to this Privacy Policy and agree to its terms.

Information We Collect

The personal information you're asked to provide, and the reasons you're asked to provide it, will be made clear at the point we ask for it.

If you contact us directly - by phone, email, WhatsApp, or our contact form - we may receive additional information about you, such as your name, email address, phone number, the contents of your message, and any attachments or details you choose to share (for example, your travel dates, group size, or hotel).

If you make a booking, we may ask for contact and booking information including your name, email address, telephone number, and payment details processed securely through our payment partner, Razorpay.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect in various ways, including to:

• Provide, operate, and maintain our website and booking services
• Confirm and manage your tour, walk, or boat ride bookings
• Improve, personalise, and expand our website and offerings
• Understand and analyse how visitors use our website
• Communicate with you about your booking, including via WhatsApp and email
• Send updates about offers, seasonal tours, and festival dates (only if you've opted in)
• Detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent transactions

Log Files

Like most websites, varanasiguru.com follows a standard procedure of using log files. These files log visitors when they visit our site and are a standard part of hosting analytics. The information collected includes IP addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date and time stamps, referring/exit pages, and click data. None of this information is linked to anything personally identifiable. It is used to analyse trends, administer the site, track visitor movement, and gather demographic information.

Cookies & Web Beacons

Like any other website, varanasiguru.com uses cookies to store information such as visitors' preferences and the pages they accessed. This helps us optimise your experience by customising our content based on your browser type and other information.

For more general information on cookies, please read "What Are Cookies". You can choose to disable cookies through your individual browser settings; details on how to do this can be found on your browser's support pages.

Third-Party Services & Advertising

We use a small number of trusted third-party services to operate this site and process payments:

• Razorpay - for secure payment processing on bookings. Razorpay has its own privacy and security policies governing how payment data is handled.
• Google - including Google Analytics and Google Ads, which may use cookies (such as DART cookies) to understand site usage and serve relevant ads based on your visits to this and other sites. You can opt out of personalised advertising via the Google Ads Settings & Privacy Policy.
• WhatsApp - if you message us via WhatsApp, that conversation is also subject to WhatsApp's own privacy policy.

These third parties may use cookies, JavaScript, or web beacons in their own services, and varanasiguru.com has no access to or control over these technologies. We recommend reviewing the respective privacy policies of these third parties for more detailed information, including how to opt out of certain data collection.

CCPA Privacy Rights (Do Not Sell My Personal Information)

Under the CCPA, California consumers have the right to:

• Request that a business disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal data it has collected about them
• Request that a business delete any personal data it has collected about them
• Request that a business that sells personal data not sell that consumer's personal data

If you make such a request, we have one month to respond. To exercise any of these rights, please contact us.

GDPR Data Protection Rights

We want to make sure you're fully aware of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:

• The right to access - request copies of your personal data (a small fee may apply)
• The right to rectification - request correction of any inaccurate or incomplete information
• The right to erasure - request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions
• The right to restrict processing - request that we restrict processing of your data, under certain conditions
• The right to object to processing - object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions
• The right to data portability - request that we transfer your data to another organisation, or directly to you, under certain conditions

If you make a request, we have one month to respond. To exercise any of these rights, please contact us.

Children's Information

Protecting children online is important to us. We encourage parents and guardians to observe, participate in, and monitor their children's online activity.

Varanasi Guru does not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If you believe your child has provided this kind of information on our website, please contact us immediately and we will promptly remove such information from our records.

Contact Us

If you have additional questions or require more information about this Privacy Policy, please don't hesitate to reach out at hello@varanasiguru.com or via our contact page.