Last updated: June 12, 2025

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect Your personal information when You use abhavij.com (the “Service”), a global online community and directory for businesses and events. It also describes Your rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA/CPRA) and similar U.S. state laws, Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and other applicable data protection laws, and how You can exercise them.

By using the Service, You acknowledge that You have read and understood this Privacy Policy. Where we rely on consent as the legal basis for processing, we will ask for Your consent separately before processing Your data.

1. Data Controller

The data controller responsible for the processing of Your personal data is:

abhavij (operated as an individual business), Bavaria, Germany
Website: http://www.abhavij.com
Contact email: admin@abhavij.com

For the purposes of the CCPA/CPRA, abhavij is the “business” that collects Your personal information. For the purposes of PIPEDA, abhavij is the “organization” responsible for Your personal information. If You have any questions or wish to exercise Your rights, please contact us using the details above.

2. Interpretation and Definitions

2.1 Interpretation

Words whose initial letter is capitalized have meanings defined under the following conditions. The definitions shall have the same meaning regardless of whether they appear in singular or in plural.

2.2 Definitions

Account: a unique account created for You to access the Service or parts of the Service.
Company (“We”, “Us”, “Our”): refers to abhavij, operated from Bavaria, Germany.
Cookies: small files placed on Your device by a website, containing details of Your browsing activity.
Device: any device that can access the Service, such as a computer, smartphone, or tablet.
Personal Data / Personal Information: any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. Under the CCPA/CPRA, this includes information that identifies, relates to, describes, or could reasonably be linked with a California resident or household. Under PIPEDA, it means information about an identifiable individual.
Processing: any operation performed on Personal Data, such as collection, storage, use, disclosure, or erasure.
Sale / Sharing (CCPA/CPRA): as defined under California law, the disclosure of personal information to a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration (sale) or for cross-context behavioral advertising (sharing).
Service: the website abhavij.com and all related services, including our community directory of businesses and events.
Service Provider / Processor: any natural or legal person who processes Personal Data on Our behalf.
Usage Data: data collected automatically by the Service or its infrastructure.
You: the individual accessing or using the Service. Under the GDPR, You may be referred to as the “data subject”; under the CCPA/CPRA, as a “consumer.”

3. Personal Data We Collect

3.1 Information You Provide Directly

When You register an account, submit a business or event listing, leave a comment, contact us, or otherwise interact with the Service, we may ask You to provide:

Email address
First name and last name (or username)
Phone number
Postal address, city, state/province, ZIP/postal code, country
Business or event information You choose to publish (name, description, opening hours, event dates, location, images, website links)
Any other information You voluntarily provide in messages, reviews, comments, or support requests

3.2 Comments

When visitors leave comments on the Service, we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help with spam detection. An anonymized string created from Your email address (a hash) may be provided to spam detection services to check whether You are using one. After approval of Your comment, Your profile picture or a generated avatar may be visible to the public in the context of Your comment.

3.3 Media

If You upload images to the Service, You should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the Service can download and extract any location data from images posted on the Service. We recommend stripping EXIF data before uploading if You are concerned about Your location being shared.

3.4 Usage Data

Usage Data is collected automatically when You use the Service and may include:

Your Device’s Internet Protocol (IP) address
Browser type and version
Pages You visit, time and date of Your visit, and time spent on those pages
Unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data
Approximate location derived from Your IP address

When You access the Service through a mobile device, we may also collect the type of mobile device, its unique ID, mobile operating system, and mobile browser type.

4. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies (such as web beacons, pixels, tags, and scripts) to track activity on the Service and store certain information. You can instruct Your browser to refuse cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent; however, some parts of the Service may not function properly without cookies.

Where required by law (including under the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive), we use non-essential cookies — such as analytics, advertising, and remarketing cookies — only with Your prior consent, which You provide through our cookie consent banner. You can withdraw or change Your consent at any time through our cookie preferences tool or Your browser settings. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

Comment Cookies

If You leave a comment on our Service You may opt in to saving Your name, email address, and website in cookies. These are for Your convenience so that You do not have to fill in Your details again when You leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

Login and Session Cookies

If You visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if Your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when You close Your browser.

When You log in, we will also set up several cookies to save Your login information and Your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If You select “Remember Me,” Your login will persist for two weeks. If You log out of Your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If You edit or publish an article or listing, an additional cookie will be saved in Your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the item You just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Other Cookie Categories

Necessary / Essential Cookies (Session). Required to operate the Service, authenticate users, and prevent fraudulent use. These cookies do not require consent.
Cookie Consent Cookies (Persistent). Remember whether You have accepted or rejected the use of cookies.
Functionality Cookies (Persistent). Remember choices You make, such as language preferences, to provide a more personalized experience.
Analytics Cookies (Persistent, consent-based). Help us understand how visitors interact with the Service so we can improve it.
Advertising and Remarketing Cookies (Persistent, consent-based). As described in Section 7, we may work with third-party advertising partners who use cookies and similar technologies to deliver and measure advertisements. These cookies are only set after You provide consent.

Technical Storage / Essential Website Functionality

The Service uses browser-based storage mechanisms such as local storage and session storage solely for technical purposes — for example, to detect emoji support or temporarily store interface values. This data does not track users, is not used for analytics or marketing, and does not contain personal data. Because it is strictly necessary for the operation of the website, it does not require consent under applicable data protection laws.

5. Embedded Content from Other Websites

Articles and listings on this Service may include embedded content (e.g., videos, images, articles, maps). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about You, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor Your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking Your interaction if You have an account and are logged in to that website. We have no control over these practices and encourage You to review the privacy policies of those third-party websites.

6. Legal Bases for Processing (GDPR)

Under the GDPR, we process Your Personal Data only where we have a valid legal basis:

Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)): for non-essential cookies, marketing communications, personalized advertising, and similar processing.
Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)): to create and manage Your account, provide directory features, and fulfill our Terms of Service.
Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)): to comply with applicable laws, such as tax, accounting, or responding to lawful requests from public authorities.
Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)): to secure and improve the Service, prevent fraud and abuse, understand how the Service is used, and communicate with You about important service-related matters.
Vital interests (Art. 6(1)(d)): in rare cases where processing is necessary to protect someone’s life or physical safety.

You have the right to withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent, and to object to processing based on legitimate interests (see Section 11).

7. How We Use Your Personal Data

To provide and maintain the Service, including the business and event directory features, and to monitor its use.
To create and manage Your account and allow You to publish listings and comments.
To perform our contract with You and enable You to interact with other users.
To contact You by email, phone, SMS, or push notifications regarding updates, security alerts, or changes to the Service.
To respond to Your inquiries and support requests.
To send You news, special offers, or marketing communications about our Service, where permitted by law and, where required, with Your consent. You can opt out at any time.
To detect spam and abuse on comments and listings.
To display advertising on the Service (see Section 8).
To analyze usage trends, improve the Service, and measure the effectiveness of our features and campaigns.
To detect, prevent, and address technical issues, fraud, or security incidents.
To comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Service.
For business transfers: to evaluate or conduct a merger, acquisition, restructuring, dissolution, or sale of assets.

8. Advertising and Third-Party Ad Services

The Service is currently free to use. In the future, we may display advertisements on the Service provided by third-party advertising networks, ad exchanges, or other advertising partners (collectively, “Advertising Partners”), such as Google AdSense, Google Ad Manager, or similar services.

When ads are enabled, Advertising Partners may use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers, and similar technologies to:

Serve advertisements that may be of interest to You based on Your browsing activity.
Measure the performance of ads and the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
Limit the number of times You see the same advertisement and prevent fraudulent ad activity.
Build profiles about You for personalized (behavioral) advertising.

Where required by the GDPR, the ePrivacy Directive, or similar laws, we will only enable advertising cookies and personalized advertising after obtaining Your explicit consent. You may withdraw consent at any time, in which case we will serve only non-personalized ads or no ads at all, depending on our Advertising Partners’ capabilities.

For California residents, the use of cross-context behavioral advertising may be considered “sharing” of personal information under the CCPA/CPRA. You have the right to opt out of such sharing at any time — see Section 12. We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal as a valid opt-out request.

We encourage You to review the privacy policies of our Advertising Partners. For Google advertising services, see:

https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites

You can also opt out of personalized advertising through industry tools such as:

https://www.youronlinechoices.eu (EU)
https://optout.networkadvertising.org (Network Advertising Initiative, U.S.)
https://www.aboutads.info/choices (Digital Advertising Alliance, U.S.)
https://youradchoices.ca/choices (Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada)

9. How We Share Your Personal Data

With Service Providers: to operate and analyze the Service (e.g., hosting, analytics, email delivery, spam detection, customer support).
With Advertising Partners: as described in Section 8, where You have given consent or where permitted by law.
With other users: when You publish a listing, comment, or other content in public areas, it is visible to all visitors.
With Affiliates and business partners: where applicable and bound by this Privacy Policy.
For business transfers: in connection with a merger, sale, financing, or acquisition.
For legal reasons: to comply with legal obligations, respond to lawful requests, protect our rights or property, or prevent fraud and harm.
With Your consent: for any other purpose disclosed at the time of collection.

If You request a password reset, Your IP address will be included in the reset email.

We do not sell Your Personal Data for monetary consideration. If our use of advertising cookies qualifies as “sharing” under the CCPA/CPRA, You may opt out as described in Section 12.

10. Retention of Your Personal Data

We retain Your Personal Data only for as long as necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, and to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Unless otherwise stated, the periods below are maximum periods.

Comments

If You leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. You may request deletion of Your comments at any time (see Section 11).

Registered Users

For users that register on the Service, we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

Account Information

User accounts: retained for the duration of Your account relationship, plus up to 24 months after account closure to handle post-termination issues and disputes.
Listings (businesses and events): retained while Your account is active; public listings are removed upon deletion of the account or the listing.

Customer Support Data

Support tickets and correspondence: up to 24 months from ticket closure.
Chat transcripts: up to 24 months for quality assurance and training.

Usage Data

Website analytics data (cookies, IP addresses, device identifiers): up to 24 months from collection.
Server logs (IP addresses, access times): up to 24 months for security and troubleshooting.

We may retain Personal Data beyond these periods where necessary to comply with a legal obligation, to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims, at Your explicit request, or due to technical limitations (e.g., encrypted backups). When retention periods expire, we securely delete or anonymize the data.

11. Your Rights Under the GDPR

If You are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, You have the following rights regarding Your Personal Data:

Right of access (Art. 15): to obtain confirmation of whether we process Your Personal Data and receive a copy.
Right to rectification (Art. 16): to have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected.
Right to erasure / “right to be forgotten” (Art. 17): to request deletion of Your Personal Data.
Right to restriction of processing (Art. 18): to limit how we process Your data in certain circumstances.
Right to data portability (Art. 20): to receive Your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
Right to object (Art. 21): to object to processing based on legitimate interests, including profiling and direct marketing.
Rights related to automated decision-making (Art. 22): we do not use automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
Right to withdraw consent: at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
Right to lodge a complaint: with Your local supervisory authority. Our lead supervisory authority is the Bayerisches Landesamt für Datenschutzaufsicht (BayLDA, https://www.lda.bayern.de).

Additionally, if You have an account on this Service, or have left comments, You can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about You, including any data You have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about You. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at admin@abhavij.com. We will respond within one month, as required by the GDPR. We may ask You to verify Your identity.

12. Your Rights Under U.S. State Privacy Laws

This section applies to residents of U.S. states that have adopted comprehensive consumer privacy laws, including California (CCPA/CPRA), Virginia (VCDPA), Colorado (CPA), Connecticut (CTDPA), Utah (UCPA), Texas (TDPSA), Oregon (OCPA), Montana (MCDPA), and other states with similar laws. Depending on Your state of residence, You may have some or all of the following rights:

Right to know / access: to request the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about You, the sources, the purposes, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it.
Right to delete: to request deletion of personal information we have collected from You, subject to certain exceptions.
Right to correct: to request correction of inaccurate personal information.
Right to data portability: to receive a copy of Your personal information in a portable, readily usable format.
Right to opt out of “sale” or “sharing”: to direct us not to sell or share Your personal information, including for purposes of cross-context behavioral advertising.
Right to opt out of targeted advertising and profiling: to opt out of the processing of Your personal information for purposes of targeted advertising or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
Right to limit use of sensitive personal information: to limit our use of sensitive personal information (as defined by California law) to purposes reasonably necessary to provide the Service.
Right to non-discrimination: we will not discriminate against You for exercising any of Your privacy rights.
Right to appeal (Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and others): if we deny Your request, You may appeal our decision by replying to our response.

How to Exercise Your Rights

You may submit a request by emailing admin@abhavij.com with the subject line “U.S. Privacy Rights Request” and specifying which right You wish to exercise. We will verify Your identity by matching information You provide with information we already hold. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on Your behalf; we will require proof of the agent’s authorization.

We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) browser signal as a valid opt-out of “sale” and “sharing” under California law and of targeted advertising under other state laws, where applicable.

California “Shine the Light”

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We do not disclose personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.

Categories of Personal Information Collected (CCPA/CPRA Disclosure)

In the past 12 months, we may have collected the following categories of personal information, as defined by the CCPA/CPRA:

Identifiers (e.g., name, email address, IP address, account username)
Customer records (e.g., phone number, postal address)
Commercial information (e.g., listings created, transactions)
Internet or other electronic network activity (e.g., browsing history on the Service, interactions with content)
Geolocation data (approximate, derived from IP address)
User-generated content (e.g., comments, reviews, uploaded images)
Inferences drawn from the above to create a profile about preferences

We do not knowingly collect or process sensitive personal information for purposes that would require an opt-out under the CCPA/CPRA. We do not sell personal information for monetary consideration and do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of minors under 16.

13. Your Rights Under Canadian Privacy Law (PIPEDA and Provincial Laws)

If You are a resident of Canada, Your personal information is protected by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and, where applicable, provincial laws such as Quebec’s Law 25, British Columbia’s PIPA, and Alberta’s PIPA. You have the following rights:

Right to know: the existence, use, and disclosure of Your personal information.
Right of access: to request access to Your personal information held by us and to be informed of how it has been used and to whom it has been disclosed.
Right to correction: to challenge the accuracy and completeness of Your personal information and have it amended as appropriate.
Right to withdraw consent: to withdraw Your consent to the collection, use, or disclosure of Your personal information at any time, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice.
Right to data portability (Quebec): residents of Quebec have the right to receive their personal information in a structured, commonly used technological format.
Right to deindexing (Quebec): residents of Quebec may request that we cease disseminating their personal information or deindex hyperlinks under certain conditions.

We follow the ten fair information principles set out in Schedule 1 of PIPEDA: accountability, identifying purposes, consent, limiting collection, limiting use/disclosure/retention, accuracy, safeguards, openness, individual access, and challenging compliance.

To exercise Your rights, please contact us at admin@abhavij.com. If You are not satisfied with our response, You have the right to file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (

https://www.priv.gc.ca), or with Your provincial privacy commissioner where applicable.

14. International Transfers of Personal Data

As the Service operates globally, Your Personal Data may be transferred to and processed in countries outside the EEA, the United Kingdom, Canada, or Your country of residence, where data protection laws may differ. Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service, which may be located in another country.

Whenever we transfer Personal Data outside the EEA or the UK, we rely on safeguards permitted under the GDPR, including:

Adequacy decisions of the European Commission (Art. 45 GDPR).
Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the European Commission (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR), with supplementary measures where necessary.
The EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, where the recipient is certified.
Your explicit consent, in specific situations (Art. 49 GDPR).

For transfers involving Canadian residents, we ensure a comparable level of protection through contractual and organizational safeguards as required by PIPEDA. You may request a copy of the safeguards we use by contacting us at admin@abhavij.com.

15. Security of Your Personal Data

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect Your Personal Data against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction, including encryption in transit (TLS/HTTPS), access controls, secure hosting, and regular security reviews. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

In the event of a personal data breach likely to result in a risk to Your rights and freedoms, we will notify the competent supervisory authority within 72 hours as required by GDPR Art. 33, and You directly without undue delay where the breach is likely to result in a high risk. We will also comply with applicable U.S. state breach notification laws and with PIPEDA’s breach reporting requirements where applicable.

16. Third-Party Service Providers

Current third-party services used on the Service include:

OpenStreetMap — used to display maps. Privacy policy: https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy
Font Awesome — used to display icons. Privacy policy: https://fontawesome.com/privacy

We will update this list whenever we add new Service Providers, including any advertising networks once ads are enabled on the Service.

17. Children’s Privacy

The Service is not directed at children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under 16. In the United States, we comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent. Under the CCPA/CPRA, we do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.

If You are a parent or guardian and become aware that Your child has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us so we can take steps to remove that information.

18. Links to Other Websites

The Service may contain links to third-party websites, including listed businesses and event organizers. We do not operate these sites and are not responsible for their content, privacy policies, or practices. We strongly advise You to review their privacy policies.

19. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, the Service, or applicable law. We will post the updated version on this page and update the “Last updated” date at the top. For material changes, we will provide a more prominent notice. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically.

20. Contact Us

If You have any questions, wish to exercise Your rights, or have concerns about how we handle Your Personal Data, please contact us:

By email: admin@abhavij.com
Website: http://www.abhavij.com