The Mettupalayam Forestry Graduates Alumni Association ("MEFGAA", "we", "us") operates the website mefgaa.in and the alumni portal that comes with it. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, and how we keep it safe.
1. Information We Collect
You provide directly
- Identity & contact: Full name, date of birth, mobile number, email address.
- Academic: Year of joining college, course, specialization, enrollment number.
- Professional & location: Organization, designation, current city, addresses, LinkedIn URL.
- Optional: Profile photo, testimonial, suggestion, blood group, marital status, gender.
Collected through your activity
- Login session cookies for authentication.
- Event RSVPs, contributions, payment records.
- Imported SBI Collect transactions linked to you (Bank Reference, MID, amount, payment date).
2. How We Use Your Information
- To create and manage your alumni account and membership.
- To match SBI Collect payments to the correct alumnus and renew memberships automatically.
- To send transactional emails — registration, membership activation, password reset, event RSVPs.
- To enable the alumni directory (visible only to logged-in members).
- To respond to your queries submitted via the contact form.
- To send occasional newsletters about events and initiatives (you can opt out anytime).
3. How We Protect Your Information
- Passwords are stored as one-way bcrypt hashes — never as plain text.
- Authentication uses HTTP-only secure cookies with JSON Web Tokens.
- Site traffic is encrypted end-to-end via HTTPS / TLS.
- Database access is restricted to authorised administrators only.
- All admin actions on user data are recorded in an audit log.
4. Who Can See Your Profile
- Public visitors see only what you choose to publish on the home page (testimonials, if approved).
- Logged-in alumni see your basic directory profile (name, batch, course, city, profession). You can hide your profile from the directory in your settings.
- MEFGAA admins have access to full profile data for verification and association management.
5. Cookies
We use cookies only for essential functions — keeping you logged in. No third-party tracking, advertising, or analytics cookies are deployed without your knowledge.
6. Third Parties
We do not sell or rent your data. Limited data is shared with:
- SBI Collect when you make payments to MEFGAA (handled by SBI under their own privacy policy).
- Email service provider for sending transactional notifications.
- Hosting provider where the portal is deployed.
7. Your Rights
- Access & update — edit your profile any time from your dashboard.
- Hide from directory — toggle in profile settings.
- Delete account — write to info@mefgaa.in and we'll delete your account within 7 days. Payment records may be retained for accounting compliance.
- Stop emails — request opt-out via email (transactional emails like password reset are still sent).
8. Data Retention
We retain profile data for as long as your alumni membership is active. Payment records are retained for at least 7 years for audit and compliance. Upon account deletion, personal identifiers are removed; financial records are anonymised.
9. Children
The MEFGAA portal is intended for forestry graduates of FC&RI Mettupalayam who are 18 years or older. We do not knowingly collect data from minors.
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be notified via email.
11. Contact Us
For privacy questions or requests:
- Email: info@mefgaa.in
- Phone: +91 94893 48933
- Address: 1C Silver Garden, Ramasamy Nagar, Oomapalayam Road, Odanthurai, Mettupalayam, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu — 641301, India