Draft — pending legal review. The final wording of this policy is being finalised with qualified counsel. The structure below reflects what the published policy will cover.
Cookie Notice and Consent Settings
DRAFT — pending legal review. Not legal advice.
This Cookie Notice explains how `VAMS BioInnovation Private Limited` ("VAMS", "the Company", "we", "us")
uses cookies and similar technologies on this website, the choices available to you, and how to
manage those choices at any time through our preference centre. It should be read together with our
Privacy Policy.
We take a consent-first approach. Only strictly-necessary cookies are set automatically. All
non-essential cookies — including analytics and marketing — are set **only after you give affirmative,
informed opt-in consent**, and you can withdraw that consent at any time.
What Cookies and Similar Technologies Are
Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They allow the site to
recognise your device, remember your preferences, and understand how the site is used. We also use
"similar technologies" that serve comparable purposes, including:
Local storage and session storage — data stored in your browser to remember settings or state.
Pixels / web beacons — small elements that record whether a page or message was loaded.
Software development kits (SDKs) and tags — code that helps measure activity or deliver
functionality.
Device or browser identifiers — values used to distinguish one session or device from another.
In this Notice, "cookies" refers to cookies and all of these similar technologies together.
Legal Basis Under Indian Law
We operate under the laws of India, including the **Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023
(DPDP Act)** and applicable rules, together with the Information Technology Act, 2000 and related
regulations.
Strictly-necessary cookies are used because they are essential to provide the website and any
service you have specifically requested. These do not require your prior opt-in, but we still tell
you about them here.
Analytics cookies and marketing cookies involve the processing of personal data for purposes
that are not strictly necessary. For these, our legal basis is your consent under the DPDP Act.
Consent is obtained on a free, specific, informed, unconditional and unambiguous basis, given
through a clear affirmative action, and is granular and unbundled — you can agree to some
categories and refuse others. The core website experience and any service you purchase do not
depend on your accepting analytics or marketing cookies.
We do not use non-essential cookies to make any medical, diagnostic, or disease-related
determination about you. Our reports and content are informational and wellness-oriented.
How Consent Is Obtained and Managed
When you first visit the website (and again where required, for example after a material change or
after your consent expires), you will see a consent banner. From that banner you can:
Accept only strictly-necessary cookies (reject all non-essential cookies); or
Accept selected categories by opening "Manage preferences" and toggling analytics and/or
marketing on; or
Accept all categories.
Key principles we apply:
Affirmative opt-in. Non-essential cookies are off by default. Nothing in the analytics or
marketing categories is set until you switch it on. Pre-ticked boxes are never used, and continuing
to browse is not treated as consent.
Granular choice. You can consent to analytics without consenting to marketing, or vice versa.
Each non-essential category is a separate, independent choice.
Equal ease of refusal. Declining is as easy as accepting; "Reject all" is available at the same
level as "Accept all".
Withdrawable. You can withdraw or change your consent at any time, and withdrawal is as easy as
giving consent. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before you
withdrew.
Recorded. We keep a record of the consent you gave (which categories, and when) so we can honour
and evidence your choices.
You may also be able to control cookies through your browser settings (for example, blocking or
deleting cookies). If you block strictly-necessary cookies, parts of the website may not function.
The Preference Centre
You can review and change your cookie choices at any time through our preference centre, reachable
from the "Cookie settings" link in the website footer (and from the original banner). In the
preference centre you can:
See each cookie category and what it does;
Turn analytics and marketing on or off independently;
Save your updated choices, which take effect immediately for future activity; and
Withdraw all non-essential consent in a single action.
When you withdraw consent for a category, we stop setting those cookies going forward. Cookies already
placed on your device can also be cleared through your browser controls.
Cookie Categories and Examples
1. Strictly-Necessary Cookies (always active)
These are essential for the website to work and for services you have requested. They cannot be
switched off through the preference centre. Examples of purposes:
Maintaining your session and keeping you signed in;
Remembering items in a cart or the progress of a checkout;
Load balancing, routing, and basic site availability;
Security functions, such as protecting against fraudulent or malicious activity and helping keep
forms secure;
Remembering your cookie-consent choices themselves.
Consent required: No (essential). Typical retention: session, or short-lived (see the
retention section).
2. Analytics Cookies (consent required)
These help us understand how visitors use the website — for example, which pages are visited, how
people move through the site, and whether pages load correctly — so we can improve content and
performance. Examples of purposes:
Counting visits and traffic sources to measure and improve performance;
Understanding which pages are most and least used;
Identifying errors or broken journeys.
Where feasible, we configure analytics to reduce intrusiveness (for example, using aggregated or
truncated data). Analytics cookies are set only if you opt in.
Consent required: Yes. Legal basis: consent (DPDP Act).
3. Marketing Cookies (consent required)
These are used to make our messaging more relevant and to measure marketing effectiveness. Examples
of purposes:
Measuring the performance of campaigns and content;
Limiting how often you see a particular message;
Supporting relevant communications about our products and offers, where you have opted in.
Marketing cookies may be set by us or by third-party partners and can involve sharing limited data
with those partners. Marketing cookies are set only if you opt in, and consent to marketing is
separate from any consent for the service you purchase and from any optional data uses described
in our Privacy Policy.
Consent required: Yes. Legal basis: consent (DPDP Act).
Third-Party and Analytics Cookies
Some cookies are set by third parties that provide services to us (for example, analytics providers,
content delivery, embedded media, or advertising partners). These third parties may receive
information about your visit in order to provide their service.
We enable third-party analytics and marketing cookies only after you opt in to the relevant
category.
The current list of third-party providers and sub-processors we use is set out at
`https://www.vamsbiome.com/legal/subprocessors`. This list may be updated from time to time.
Third parties process data under their own privacy and cookie policies. We encourage you to review
those policies for details of their practices and any controls they offer.
We do not permit non-essential third-party cookies to load before you have given consent for the
relevant category.
Retention
Cookies are kept only as long as needed for their purpose:
Session cookies are deleted when you close your browser.
Persistent cookies remain for a defined period or until you delete them. Individual cookies have
different lifespans depending on their purpose.
Consent records are retained for the period we need to evidence and honour your choices, in line
with our general retention approach (`Retention depends on the record type and purpose. Generally: order, invoice and statutory business records for up to 8 years; identifiable microbiome test data and reports for up to 3 years after report delivery or account closure; raw sequencing files for up to 12 months after report delivery; support records for up to 3 years; and consent records for as long as necessary to demonstrate compliance. Data may be retained longer where required by law, litigation hold or explicit research consent, and may be deleted or anonymised earlier when no longer necessary.`).
We periodically ask you to renew your cookie choices so that consent does not remain in place
indefinitely.
You can delete cookies at any time through your browser, regardless of the period for which they were
set.
How to Change Your Settings
You can change your cookie choices in the following ways:
Preference centre — open "Cookie settings" in the website footer to turn categories on or
off and to withdraw consent.
Browser controls — most browsers let you block or delete cookies, and control cookies from
specific sites. Blocking strictly-necessary cookies may affect how the website works.
Device or platform controls — your device or operating system may offer additional advertising
and tracking controls.
Your Rights and How to Contact Us
Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to access, correct, update, and erase your personal
data; to withdraw consent; to nominate another individual to exercise your rights; and to seek
grievance redressal. To exercise these rights or ask questions about this Notice, contact us at
`legal@vamsbiome.com`, or contact our privacy contact at `privacy@vamsbiome.com`.
If your concern is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may have the right to complain to the
Data Protection Board of India. This does not remove any other statutory grievance mechanism or
remedy available to you.
Changes to This Notice
We may update this Cookie Notice to reflect changes in the cookies we use or in applicable law. Where
changes are material, we will take appropriate steps to inform you and, where required, seek fresh
consent. The "Effective date" below indicates when the current version took effect.
Version and Change History
Document name: Cookie Notice and Consent Settings
Version: 1.0
Effective date: 10 July 2026
Change history: v1.0 (10 July 2026) — Initial publication.