1. Who we are
Phani Bharadwaz & Associates ("the Firm", "we", "us") is a Chartered Accountant practice with offices in Bengaluru, Karnataka and Hyderabad, Telangana, India. For the purposes of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 ("DPDP Act"), the Firm is the data fiduciary for personal data collected through this website, phanibharadwaz.com.
2. What this policy covers
This policy covers personal data collected through this website only. Data we receive in the course of professional engagements — audit files, financial records, KYC documents — is governed by our engagement letters, the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949, and the ICAI Code of Ethics, which impose confidentiality obligations stricter than this policy.
3. What we collect, and when
We collect personal data only when you actively submit it. There is no account creation, login, or passive profiling on this site.
| Where | What you provide | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Contact form / Schedule consultation | Name, company, email, phone (optional), service of interest, a brief on your requirement | To respond to your enquiry and schedule a consultation |
| Valuation estimate form | Name, company, email, phone (optional), round details (stage, size, security type, investor profile, tax regime, expected close date) | To prepare and send you a custom fee estimate |
| Whatever you choose to include when writing to us | Correspondence you initiate |
Like most websites, our hosting infrastructure may record standard server logs (IP address, browser type, pages requested) for security and delivery purposes. We do not use these logs to identify or profile visitors.
4. Cookies and tracking
This website sets no analytics cookies, no advertising cookies, and no tracking cookies. We do not use Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, or any comparable tool. We do not serve ads and do not sell or share data with advertisers.
Third-party services we rely on may process limited technical data to deliver the site:
- Netlify (hosting and CDN) — serves the site's pages and may log IP addresses for security and traffic management.
- Google Fonts — typefaces are loaded from Google's servers, which receive your IP address when fonts are fetched.
- FormSubmit.co (form relay) — processes form submissions, applies a CAPTCHA check, and forwards the contents to our email. Submissions transit FormSubmit's servers, which may be located outside India.
5. Why we process your data — and the legal basis
Under the DPDP Act, we process the personal data you submit on the basis of your consent, given when you fill in and submit a form, and for the legitimate purpose of responding to a request you yourself initiated. We use it to reply to your enquiry, prepare any estimate you requested, and follow up on that conversation. We do not use form data for marketing lists, newsletters, or any purpose unrelated to your enquiry.
6. Who we share it with
No one, except the service providers named in section 4 that are technically necessary to receive your submission. We do not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise disclose your personal data to third parties. We may disclose data if required by law, regulation, or a valid order of a court or authority.
7. How long we keep it
Enquiry data lives in our professional email. If your enquiry leads to an engagement, the correspondence becomes part of the engagement record and is retained per applicable professional and statutory retention requirements. If it does not, we retain the correspondence for a reasonable period for follow-up and recordkeeping, and will delete it on request (section 8).
8. Your rights
Under the DPDP Act, you may:
- Access — ask what personal data of yours we hold;
- Correction — ask us to correct or update it;
- Erasure — ask us to delete it, subject to any statutory retention obligation;
- Withdraw consent — at any time, with effect for future processing;
- Grievance redressal — raise a complaint with us, and if unresolved, escalate to the Data Protection Board of India.
To exercise any of these, email cashanmukha@pbas.co.in with the subject line "Data request". We will respond within a reasonable time, and in any case within the timelines prescribed under the DPDP Act and its rules.
9. Security
The site is served over HTTPS. Forms use a CAPTCHA and honeypot to deter automated abuse. Enquiry data is held in access-controlled professional email. No internet transmission is perfectly secure, but we apply reasonable safeguards proportionate to the data we handle.
10. Children
Our services are directed at businesses and professionals. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has submitted data through this site, write to us and we will delete it.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the website or the law evolves. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the current version. Material changes will be visible on this page; we do not maintain mailing lists to notify you individually.
Questions about your data?
Write to us and we'll respond within one business day.
cashanmukha@pbas.co.inNote: This policy is provided for transparency and general information. It does not constitute legal advice to any reader.