Privacy Policy

Last updated: 16 June 2026 | Effective date: 16 June 2026

At GeniusFirms we take your privacy seriously. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and share it, how long we keep it, and the rights and choices you have. It applies to your use of our website at https://www.geniusfirms.com and any related pages, products, and services that link to this policy (together, the “Platform”).

Please read this policy together with our:

  1. Terms & Conditions
  2. Review Policy
  3. Content Guidelines

1. Who we are and who controls your personal data

GeniusFirms is an online directory and review platform for software and AI tools. The Platform is operated by Socialbent, a partnership firm constituted in India.

A data controller is the organisation that decides how and why your personal information is used and is responsible for handling it properly; a data processor handles personal information on a controller’s behalf and on its instructions. For the personal information you provide to GeniusFirms — for example when you create an account, write a review, or reply as a vendor — Socialbent is the data controller.

Please note that the software tools, vendors, and other businesses listed on the Platform are independent organisations. If you click through to them or submit information to them directly, they act as separate, independent controllers of that information under their own privacy policies, and this policy does not cover their processing.

You can contact us about any privacy matter at:

  • Socialbent (operator of GeniusFirms)
  • 4719E, Sector 23A, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
  • GSTIN: 06ADWFS4569D1ZI
  • Email: [email protected]

Or use our contact page.

We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer, as we are not required to do so; privacy queries are handled by our team at the address above.

2. Your reviews and profile are public

GeniusFirms is an open platform. When you post a review or rating, that content — together with the display name on your profile and the date of the review — is visible to anyone who visits the Platform. If you reply to a review as a vendor, your reply is also public.

Because the Platform is on the open internet, public content such as reviews may be read, copied, indexed by search engines, and accessed by third parties — including services that automatically crawl web pages to show results or to train artificial-intelligence systems. Please think about what you include in a review and choose a display name that you are comfortable showing publicly. You can edit or remove your reviews, or delete your account, at any time (see “Your privacy rights”).

3. The information we collect

We collect personal information in three ways: information you give us, information we collect automatically when you use the Platform, and information we receive from third parties.

3.1 Information you provide to us

  • Account and registration data — your name, email address, password, and company or business details when you create an account, write a review, or sign in through our login page.
  • Vendor and listing data — business name, contact details, descriptions, logos, and related information submitted when you get listed or claim a profile.
  • Reviews and user-generated content — the reviews, ratings, comments, and any other content you post. As explained above, this content is published publicly.
  • Proof-of-use documentation — where a review appears suspicious, we may ask you to provide evidence that you genuinely used the product, such as an invoice, a receipt, email or other communication records, or a similar document. You provide this only on request. See Section 5 for detail.
  • Contributor and application data — information you submit through Write For Us, Sponsorship, or Career pages.
  • Newsletter and marketing data — your email address and preferences when you subscribe to our newsletter.
  • Payment data — where you pay for a listing, sponsorship, or other paid service, payment is processed by our payment provider, currently PayPal (and any additional payment processors, such as card processors, that we may use in future). We do not store full card numbers; we receive limited confirmation details such as a transaction reference.
  • Support and correspondence — the contents of messages you send us and records of your communications with us.

3.2 Information we collect automatically

When you use the Platform we and our service providers may collect:

  • Device and technical data — IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device identifiers, and language settings.
  • Usage data — pages viewed, links clicked, search terms, referring pages, and the dates and times of your visits.
  • Cookies and similar technologies — see Section 7 for detail and your choices.

3.3 Information we receive from third parties

  • Analytics and advertising partners — aggregated or pseudonymised data about your interactions, collected through Google Analytics and Google Ads where permitted by your cookie choices (see Section 7).
  • Fraud-prevention sources — information used to detect and prevent fake reviews, bots, and other misuse of the Platform.

4. How we use your information and our legal bases

We use your personal information for the purposes below. For users in the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland, we also state the lawful basis under Article 6 GDPR on which we rely.

  • To create and manage your account and provide the Platform — performance of a contract with you, and our legitimate interests in operating the service.
  • To publish and moderate reviews and other content you submit — performance of a contract and our legitimate interests in maintaining a trustworthy review platform.
  • To check the authenticity of reviews and prevent fake reviews and fraud, including by requesting proof-of-use documentation where a review appears suspicious — our legitimate interests in protecting the integrity of the Platform (see Section 5).
  • To respond to your requests and provide support — performance of a contract and our legitimate interests in helping you.
  • To send newsletters and marketing — your consent, which you may withdraw at any time using the unsubscribe link or by contacting us.
  • To personalise content and recommendations — our legitimate interests, and your consent where required for non-essential cookies.
  • To measure and improve the Platform, and for analytics — our legitimate interests, and your consent where required for analytics cookies.
  • To display advertising and manage sponsorships — our legitimate interests, and your consent where required for advertising cookies.
  • To process payments — performance of a contract.
  • To comply with legal obligations, enforce our terms, and protect our rights, our users, and the public — compliance with a legal obligation and our legitimate interests.
  • For corporate transactions (such as a merger, acquisition, or financing) — our legitimate interests, subject to the safeguards in Section 8.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed those interests against your rights and freedoms. You can ask us for more information about that assessment using the contact details above.

5. Keeping reviews genuine (proof of use)

To reduce fake reviews and confirm that reviewers are genuine, we ask the reviewer to provide documentary evidence that they actually used or purchased the product.

  • What we may request: an invoice, receipt, order confirmation, email or other communication records, an account or subscription record, or a similar document showing genuine use of the product.
  • When we request it: only where a review is flagged as suspicious by our checks or reported to us — not as a routine step for every review.
  • Why we collect it: solely to confirm the review is authentic and to prevent fraudulent or fake activity. We do not use it for any other purpose.
  • Legal basis (GDPR): our legitimate interests in maintaining a trustworthy review platform and preventing fraud. If you choose not to provide the requested evidence, the review may not be published or may be removed.
  • How we handle it: proof-of-use documents are reviewed only by authorised team members or service providers acting on our instructions, are not published with your review, and are stored securely as described in Section 16.
  • Retention: we keep proof-of-use documents for up to 12 months after the authenticity check, after which they are deleted, unless we need to retain them longer to resolve a dispute or meet a legal obligation. See Section 9.

6. Automated decision-making and profiling

Some Platform features involve automated processing. In particular, we use automated tools to detect fake or fraudulent reviews, bots, and other misuse, and to personalise content.

We do not make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you based solely on automated processing without human involvement. Where a review is flagged or you contest an outcome, a member of our team reviews it before significant action is taken. If you are in the EEA or UK and believe an automated decision has significantly affected you, you may ask for human review, express your point of view, and contest the decision using the contact details in Section 1.

7. Cookies and similar technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies (such as pixels and local storage) to operate the Platform, remember your preferences, measure performance, and — with your consent — analyse usage and show advertising.

The cookies we use fall into these groups:

  • Strictly necessary cookies, which keep the Platform secure and working. These do not require consent.
  • Analytics cookies set through Google Analytics, which help us understand how the Platform is used. These are set only with your consent.
  • Advertising cookies set through Google Ads, which support advertising and measurement. These are set only with your consent.

When you first visit the Platform we present a cookie-consent banner that lets you accept or reject non-essential cookies. You can change your choices at any time through our Cookie Settings, and you can also control cookies through your browser settings, although blocking some cookies may affect how the Platform works. Because we use Google Analytics and Google Ads, some of this activity may count as “selling” or “sharing” personal information under certain US state laws — see Section 13 for how to opt out.

8. How we share your information

We do not sell your personal information for money. We share it only in the following circumstances:

  • Service providers (processors) who work on our behalf — for example hosting, analytics, email delivery, customer support, and payment processing — under contracts that require them to protect your data and use it only on our instructions.
  • Public display — reviews, ratings, and the display name associated with them are visible to other users and the public by design, and may be accessed by third parties as described in Section 2.
  • Advertising and sponsorship partners — where you have consented, we may share limited data with advertising partners (including Google); sponsored placements are identified in line with our policies.
  • Legal, safety, and compliance — where we believe disclosure is necessary to comply with the law, enforce our terms, respond to lawful requests from authorities, or protect the rights, property, or safety of GeniusFirms, our users, or others.
  • Corporate transactions — in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, in which case we will require the recipient to honour this policy or notify you of any material change.

9. How long we keep your information

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes set out in this policy, after which it is deleted or anonymised. Our retention periods are:

  • Account data — for as long as your account is active, then 90 days after closure.
  • Reviews and public content — for as long as published, unless you remove it or ask us to.
  • Proof-of-use documentation — up to 12 months after the authenticity check, unless needed longer to resolve a dispute or meet a legal obligation; see Section 5.
  • Payment and transaction records — up to 7 years, to meet tax and accounting requirements.
  • Newsletter and marketing data — until you unsubscribe.
  • Technical logs — up to 12 months.

Where the law requires us to keep information for a minimum period, or where we need it to resolve disputes or prevent abuse, we retain it for that period.

10. International data transfers

GeniusFirms is operated from India and serves users in the United States, the EU/EEA, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. This means your personal information may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in countries other than your own — including India, the United States, and the European Economic Area — which may not provide the same level of data protection as your home country.

When we transfer personal information out of the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, or an applicable adequacy decision. You can request a copy of the relevant safeguard using the contact details in Section 1.

11. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the following rights over your personal information:

  • Access — to ask whether we hold information about you and to receive a copy.
  • Rectification / correction — to have inaccurate or incomplete information corrected.
  • Erasure / deletion — to ask us to delete your information in certain circumstances.
  • Restriction — to ask us to limit how we use your information.
  • Objection — to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time.
  • Portability — to receive certain information in a portable, machine-readable format.
  • Withdraw consent — where we rely on consent (such as for marketing), you may withdraw it at any time, without affecting processing already carried out.

You can manage much of your information directly in your account settings, including editing or deleting your reviews. To exercise any other right, contact us at [email protected] or through our contact page. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. We will respond within the time required by law — generally one month under the GDPR / UK GDPR and 45 days under California law, each extendable where permitted. There is normally no charge, and we will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

12. EEA, UK and Switzerland (GDPR / UK GDPR)

If you are in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, the GDPR / UK GDPR applies to our processing of your personal information. The controller is identified in Section 1, the purposes and legal bases are in Section 4, retention is described in Section 9, and transfer safeguards in Section 10.

In addition to the rights in Section 11, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority — in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO); in the EEA, your local data-protection authority. We would, however, appreciate the chance to address your concerns first.

13. United States state privacy rights

This section applies to residents of US states with comprehensive privacy laws, including California (the CCPA as amended by the CPRA), Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, and others, as such laws apply to us.

Notice at collection. We collect the categories of personal information described in Section 3, including identifiers, commercial information, and internet and device activity. We use and disclose this information for the purposes in Section 4 and retain it as described in Section 9.

Your rights. Subject to the applicable law and verification of your request, you may have the right to:

  • Know / access the personal information we have collected about you and how we use and disclose it.
  • Delete personal information we have collected from you.
  • Correct inaccurate personal information.
  • Opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information and of targeted advertising.
  • Non-discrimination — we will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights.

You may use an authorised agent to submit a request on your behalf where the law allows, and you may appeal a decision by contacting us at [email protected].

Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Because we use Google Analytics and Google Ads, some data may be “sold” or “shared” for cross-context behavioural advertising as those terms are defined under US state law. You can opt out by adjusting your choices in our Cookie Settings and by emailing us at [email protected]. We also honour opt-out preference signals, such as the Global Privacy Control (GPC), where required.

14. India (Digital Personal Data Protection Act)

If you are in India, we process your personal data in accordance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the “DPDP Act”). You have the right to access a summary of the personal data we process about you, to seek correction or erasure, to nominate another person to exercise your rights in the event of death or incapacity, and to grievance redressal. To exercise these rights or raise a grievance, contact us at [email protected]. If your grievance is not resolved, you may approach the Data Protection Board of India.

15. Children’s privacy

The Platform is intended for users aged 18 and over and is not directed to children. Consistent with our Terms & Conditions, we do not knowingly allow anyone under 18 to create an account, post a review, or purchase a paid service, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. In particular, we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (the age covered by the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, COPPA). If you believe a child or anyone under 18 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at [email protected] and we will take steps to delete it.

16. How we protect your information

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, or alteration, including encryption in transit (TLS), access controls, and limiting internal access to those who need it. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we work to protect your information and review our measures over time.

Data-breach notification. If a personal-data breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify the relevant supervisory authority and, where required, affected individuals without undue delay and in line with applicable law (for the GDPR, generally within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach).

17. Third-party links and services

The Platform contains links to third-party websites, tools, and services, including those of listed vendors. We are not responsible for their privacy practices, and this policy does not apply to them. We encourage you to read the privacy notices of any third party you interact with.

18. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top. If we make material changes, we will provide a more prominent notice (for example, by email or an on-site notice) before the changes take effect, where required by law. Your continued use of the Platform after the effective date means you have read the updated policy.

19. How to contact us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests about this policy or your personal information, contact us at:

  • Socialbent (operator of GeniusFirms)
  • 4719E, Sector 23A, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
  • GSTIN: 06ADWFS4569D1ZI
  • Email: [email protected]

Or use our contact page.