Privacy Policy

Nextskilledge ("Nextskilledge", "we", "our", or "us") is committed to safeguarding your privacy and protecting your personal data. This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, how and why we use it, how we share and protect it, and the rights and choices you have.

It applies to the Nextskilledge website, enquiry and application forms, checkout and payment pages, learner accounts, and any related services, programs and communications (together, the "Services"). The information we collect is used strictly to deliver and improve our Services and to enhance your learning experience.

By using our Services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. Where the law requires your consent for a particular use of your data, we will ask for it separately and you may withdraw it at any time.

Information you provide directly. This includes your name, email address, phone number (with country code), country, address and location details, educational qualifications, current profession and professional background, employer or company details (if applicable), the program and specialization you are interested in, any goals or messages you share with us, and your login credentials and account information.

Learning and account data. This includes program enrollment and participation details, course progress, assessments and certifications, and any feedback, reviews or survey responses you share.

Payment and transaction data. When you pay a fee, we collect your billing name, billing address, contact details, the program and amount paid, the currency, the payment method type, and transaction identifiers, status and timestamps returned by the payment gateway. We do not collect or store your full card number, CVV/CVC, card PIN, UPI PIN, or net-banking credentials; these are entered directly on the secure pages of the payment gateway or your bank (see Section 6).

Technical and usage data. When you use our website we automatically collect your IP address, device information, browser type and version, operating system, language preference, time zone, referring pages, pages visited, session duration and clickstream data, collected through cookies and similar technologies (see Section 10).

Communications. If you email, call, message or chat with us (including via WhatsApp), we keep a record of that correspondence so that we can respond and improve our support.

Anonymised and aggregated data. We may derive non-personal data, such as aggregate usage patterns, which cannot reasonably identify you and which we may use for any lawful purpose.

Providing some information is optional, but certain details (for example, your name, email address and phone number) are required for us to respond to an enquiry, process an application or complete a payment. If you choose not to provide them, we may be unable to provide the related Service.

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

• Delivering our Services: processing enquiries and applications, providing access to courses, content and certifications, and managing enrollments and user accounts.
• Processing payments: creating and confirming transactions, issuing receipts and invoices, handling refunds, chargebacks and disputes, and reconciling payments with our payment partners.
• Communicating with you: sending important updates, confirmations, notifications, support responses and program-related information, including by email, phone, SMS and messaging apps.
• Sales and admissions follow-up: using a customer relationship management (CRM) system so that our admissions team can contact you about the program you enquired about.
• Personalisation: tailoring course recommendations and your overall experience.
• Marketing: with your consent where required, sending newsletters, offers and updates about new programs, and measuring the performance of our advertising.
• Analytics and improvement: understanding user behaviour to enhance our platform’s content, functionality and performance.
• Security, fraud prevention and compliance: preventing fraud, misuse and unauthorised access, enforcing our terms, maintaining tax and accounting records, and complying with legal and regulatory obligations.

We will not use your personal data for a purpose that is materially different from those above without informing you and, where required, obtaining your consent.

Where applicable data protection laws require a legal basis, we process your personal data on the basis of:

• Your consent, for example when you submit an enquiry form, subscribe to marketing, or accept non-essential cookies.
• Contractual necessity, such as processing your application, enrollment or payment.
• Compliance with legal obligations, such as tax, accounting, anti-fraud and regulatory requirements.
• Our legitimate business interests, including service improvement, security, fraud prevention and responding to enquiries, balanced against your rights and interests.

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

We may share your information only as needed and only with:

• Academic and institutional partners, where necessary to process your enrollment and deliver your program.
• Payment gateways and payment processors, to authorise, process, confirm and reconcile your payments (see Section 6).
• Service providers acting on our behalf, such as cloud hosting and database providers, customer relationship management and communication tools, analytics and marketing platforms, and customer support tools. They may process your data only on our instructions and for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
• Professional advisers, auditors and insurers, where reasonably necessary.
• Legal and regulatory authorities, courts and law-enforcement agencies, where required by law or to protect our rights, your safety or the safety of others.
• A successor entity, in connection with a merger, acquisition, restructuring or sale of assets, subject to this Privacy Policy continuing to protect your data.

We do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties, and we do not share it with third parties for their own independent marketing.

As a global platform, your personal data may be transferred to, stored and processed in countries outside your own, including countries where our service providers and payment partners operate. These countries may have data protection laws different from those in your jurisdiction.

Where required, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as contractual protections, and we take reasonable steps to require our providers to protect your data in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes in this Privacy Policy, including to provide our Services, maintain academic and transactional records, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and comply with legal and regulatory requirements.

• Enquiry and lead data is retained while we are actively engaging with you and for a reasonable period afterwards, unless you ask us to delete it sooner.
• Enrollment, academic and certification records are retained for as long as needed to verify your credentials and meet institutional requirements.
• Payment, invoice and tax records are retained for the minimum period required by applicable law.
• Technical and analytics data is retained for the periods set by the relevant tools, after which it is deleted or aggregated.

Once data is no longer required, it is securely deleted or anonymised. Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis.

Depending on your location and applicable law (including India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the EU and UK GDPR, and applicable US state privacy laws), you may have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you and obtain a copy.
• Correct or update inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Request deletion of your data, subject to records we must keep by law.
• Restrict or object to certain processing, including direct marketing.
• Withdraw consent at any time.
• Request data portability, where applicable.
• Nominate another person to exercise your rights on your behalf in the event of death or incapacity, where the law provides for it.
• Lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe your rights have been infringed.

How to exercise your rights. Email us at info@nextskilledge.com from the address linked to your account or enquiry, stating your request. We may need to verify your identity before acting. We will respond within the time required by applicable law (generally within 30 days) and will tell you if we cannot fully comply and why.

Marketing opt-out. You can unsubscribe from marketing emails using the link in any message, or by contacting us. Service-related messages (such as payment confirmations) will continue because they are necessary to deliver the Services. We do not discriminate against anyone for exercising their privacy rights.

We use cookies and similar technologies, such as local storage and pixels, for the following purposes:

• Essential: to make the website work, keep you signed in, and secure checkout and payment flows.
• Analytics: to understand how visitors use our website (for example, through Google Analytics for Firebase) so that we can improve it.
• Advertising and measurement: to measure and improve the performance of our campaigns, which may involve advertising partners such as Meta.
• Preferences: to remember your choices.

You can manage or disable cookies through your browser settings; blocking essential cookies may stop parts of the website, including checkout, from working properly. Where required by law, we will request your consent before using non-essential cookies. Some browsers also support "Do Not Track" or Global Privacy Control signals, which we honour where technically feasible.

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including encryption of data in transit (HTTPS), secure cloud infrastructure, role-based access controls and authentication for our team, restricted access to administrative tools, and regular reviews of our security practices.

Payment processing is delegated to PCI DSS-compliant gateways so that sensitive card data does not pass through or rest on our systems.

While we strive to protect your data, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure. You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential. If you become aware of any suspected unauthorised access, please contact us immediately at info@nextskilledge.com. In the event of a personal data breach, we will notify affected individuals and the relevant authorities as required by applicable law.

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, payment pages, social platforms or messaging services (such as WhatsApp). Nextskilledge is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of those third parties, and we encourage you to review their policies before sharing any personal data with them.

Our Services are intended for individuals aged 18 and above. We do not knowingly collect personal data from minors. If you believe a minor has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

By submitting an enquiry or using our Services, you consent to receiving communications from Nextskilledge via email, phone, SMS, WhatsApp or other channels regarding your enquiry, account, programs, payments and relevant updates, even if your number is registered on a Do Not Disturb (DND) or similar registry, to the extent permitted by law. You may opt out of promotional communications at any time as described in Section 9.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect legal, technical, payment-partner or business changes. Updates will be posted on this page with a revised "Last updated" date. If a change is material, we will take reasonable steps to notify you, for example by email or a notice on our website. Your continued use of the Services after an update means you accept the revised policy, except where the law requires fresh consent.

If you have any questions, concerns, requests or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy or the handling of your personal data, please contact us:

• Email: info@nextskilledge.com
• Website: https://www.nextskilledge.com

We will acknowledge and respond to your request within the timeframe required by applicable law. By accessing or using Nextskilledge’s Services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to this Privacy Policy.