Thank you for choosing to be part of the Center for Sacred Studies ("CSS") community.  We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy.  If you have any questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy or our practices with regards to your personal information, please contact us at CenterForSacredStudies@gmail.org.

This website ("Site"), CenterForSacredStudies.org, is owned by CSS, a 501c3 nonprofit based in the United States, and operating internationally.  When you visit our Site, use our services, become a member or student, or purchase products, you trust us with your personal information.  We take your privacy seriously.

In this Privacy Policy, we seek to explain to you in the clearest way possible what information we collect, how we collect, use, and disclose it, and what rights you have in relation to it.  We encourage you to read it carefully and to regularly check this page to review any changes we might make.

This Privacy Policy also concerns the collection, use, and disclosure of information that may be collected passively or actively.  Please read this Privacy Policy carefully before engaging with our Site and before submitting any information about yourself.

Except as otherwise noted, CSS is a Data Controller, a term used under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which means that we decide how and why the information you provide us is processed.  This Policy may be amended or updated from time to time to reflect changes in our practices with respect to the processing of your information or changes in applicable law.

1.  Scope of This Privacy Policy

Please be aware that this Privacy Policy does not govern all the information CSS may process. Our commitment to customers, members, and students is incorporated into and governed by our Terms and Conditions. Our commitments to employees and volunteers are governed by our internal employment policies.

In all instances, we are committed to transparency with our customers, employees, volunteers, and to protecting your data privacy.

2. Consent

By disclosing your personal information to us when using this Site, you consent to the collection, storage, and processing of your personal information by CSS in the manner set out within this Privacy Policy.

3. Information About You That You Submit to This Site

Depending on your use of the CSS Site, we collect two types of information:

Personally Identifiable Information that identifies you or can be used to identify or contact you.  Examples of personally identifiable information include:

• Personal details: your name, username or log in details, password, areas or topics of interest, and photographs;
• Demographic information: gender, age/date of birth, nationality, salutation, job title, company information, education, work experience, and other professional information, and language preferences;
• Contact details: postal address, telephone and/or mobile number, email address, and your public social media handles or profile(s);
• Location information: location data that describes the precise geographic location of your device;
• Purchase and payment details: records of purchases and prices, invoice records, payment records, billing address, payment method, cardholder or accountholder name, payment amount, and payment date;
• Employer details: where you interact with us in your capacity as an employee or as a volunteer, the contact information of your current and/or previous employer (including name, address, telephone number, and email address) to the extent relevant; or
• Views and opinions: any views and opinions that you or other users choose to send to us, or publicly post about us on social media platforms or in the Services, including on forums.

Non-Personally Identifiable Information which is information, any single item of which, by itself, cannot be used to identify or contact you, which may include, but is not limited to:

• Information about your use of the Services, such as usage data and statistical information, which may be aggregated;
• Browsing history including the websites or other services you visited before and after interacting with the Services;
• Searches for and interactions with e-commerce opportunities, such as merchants and offers contained in the Services;
• Non-precise information about the approximate physical location (for example, at the city or zip code level) of a user’s computer or device derived from the IP address of such computer or device;
• Device identification, which is a distinctive number associated with a smartphone or similar handheld device, but is different than a hardware serial number;
• Advertising ID, which is a unique, user-resettable identification number for advertising associated with a device (e.g., iOS uses the Identifier for Advertising and Android uses Google Advertising ID);
• Internet Protocol address, which is a unique string of numbers automatically assigned to your device whenever you access the Internet;
• Internet connection means, such as internet service provider, mobile operator, Wi-Fi connection, service set identifier, International Mobile Subscriber Identity, and International Mobile Equipment Identity;
• Information collected through the use of cookies including information collected using such methods and technologies about your visits to, and interaction and engagement with CSS content and ads on third party websites, applications, platforms, and other media channels, and your interaction with emails including the content and ads therein;
• Device type, settings and software used;
• Log files, which may include IP addresses, browser type, ISP referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamps and/or clickstream data, including any clicks on customized links;
• Web Beacons, which are electronic files that allow a website to count users who have visited that page or to access certain cookies;
• Pixel Tags, also known as clear GIFs, beacons, spotlight tags or web bugs, which are a method for passing information from the user’s computer to a third party website;
• Local Shared Objects, such as Flash cookies, and Local Storage, such as HTML5; and/or
• Mobile analytics to understand the functionality of our mobile applications and software on your phone.

4. Do We Collect Information From Children Under 16 Years of Age

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. The CSS Site is not designed for or directed to children under the age of 16.  CSS will not knowingly collect personally identifiable information via this Site from any person we actually know is under the age of 16.

5. How We Use the Information We Collect

We request the above information in order to provide you with special features, services (such as newsletter, membership, subscriptions, tips/pointers, products, pricing or other further information).  Prior to entering information for submission, you will be informed of what information is required and what information is optional. Information that we collect, either passively or actively, may be used to improve our site, its content, and our services, for marketing, research or for any other purpose specified.  We may periodically send promotional emails about our products and services or other information which we think you may find interesting, using the email address which you have provided.  You may remove yourself from our mailing list at any point.

6. What Information We Disclose to Third Parties

We may disclose your user information to:

• legal and regulatory authorities if we believe in good faith that we are required to do so in order to comply with an applicable statute, regulation, rule of law, a subpoena, a search warrant, a court or regulatory order, or other valid legal processes.
• our external advisors;
• parties who process user information on our behalf ("Data Processors"). We may employ independent volunteers, contractors, vendors, and suppliers ("Outside Contractors") to provide specific services and products related to CSS.  We require that these Outside Contractors agree to (1) protect the privacy of your personally identifiable information consistent with this Privacy Policy and (2) not use or disclose your personally identifiable information for any purpose other than providing us with the products or services for which we agreed or contracted or as required by law.
• any party as necessary in connection with legal proceedings. We may disclose personally identifiable information in special circumstances when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against someone who may be violating our Terms and Conditions, to detect fraud, or to protect the safety and/or security of our customers.
• any party as necessary for the investigation, detecting or preventing criminal offenses;
• any financial grantor; or
• any third party providers of advertising, plugins or content used on the website.

7. Choosing to Restrict the Use or Collection of Personal Information

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways:

• Whenever you are asked to fill in a form on our website, you will have the ability to choose if your information is to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes, i.e. we do not use 'pre-ticked boxes to assume your consent.
• If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to or emailing us at CenterForSacredStudies@gmail.com and let us know what you want us to do and provide us with enough information to verify that it is you making the request.
• We will not sell, distribute, transfer or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.
• You may request details of the personal which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation ‘data protection law’. Personally identifiable information that we hold about you that you have submitted to this site may be viewed, corrected or deleted by you by contacting us using the contact details set out in the paragraph below entitled “Contacting Us”.

8. Cookies Policy

Cookies are integral to the way modern websites work.  Most personalization and social media integration on websites rely on cookies in one way or another.  We use cookies to track Site usage and trends, improve the quality of content and give you the best online experience during your visit to our Site.

Cookies are small information files that are stored on your computer, tablet, smartphone, or other devices that help websites recognize you and record information about your visit.  Cookies can help to display the information on a website in a way that matches your interests and is relevant to you.  A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any personal information about you.  They are simply a record of your visit to our Site.  By using our Site you agree to our use of cookies in accordance with this cookie policy.

The cookies we use on this Site are broadly grouped into the following categories:

• Essential: Some of the cookies on our Site are essential for us to be able to provide you with a service you have requested.
• Analytics: We use analytics cookies to help us understand how users engage with our Site.  Without these cookies, we would find it difficult to analyze how well our Site was performing and improve it.  We feel that it is vital to monitor user statistics to enable us to provide the most relevant and useful content to you.  These cookies do not let us identify specific users as the information is aggregated.
• Social sharing: We use cookies to allow you to share content directly to your social networking sites, e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
• Interest-based advertising: You may have noticed that when you visit websites, you may be shown advertisements for products and services you may be interested in.  CSS sometimes places advertisements on external websites which we hope to be relevant to you based on the types of things that interest you.  These and the other cookies we use do NOT allow us to see what other sites you have been visiting.  They simply act as a record of our web pages and advertisements that you may see.

9. How Can I Reject or Opt-Out of receiving cookies

When you first visited this Site, you will have been shown a status bar notifying you that this Site uses cookies and inviting you to review our Cookie Policy. Once you have clicked to go further, the cookie prompt will disappear.  This confirms that you consent to us using the cookies detailed above in this Privacy Policy.  Please note that we cannot always control third-party cookies (such as from social networks) stored on your machine from our Site.  Where this is the case, you will need to visit the relevant third party’s website directly to understand their cookies stored on your machine by them.  Please see our ‘Third Party Cookies’ section below. If you want to reject the cookies we use from this Site, you will need to:

• Delete the cookies from your browser. Most browsers also allow you to prevent all or some cookies from being stored on your machine.  For more information on how to delete or disable cookies, please use the ‘help’ function within your browser or alternatively visit AllAboutCookies.org.  After deleting our cookies, the next time you visit our Site the cookie status bar will appear again inviting you to again reconsider your preferences.
• If you only want to reject the Internet-Based Advertising cookies we store on your machine, you can opt-out of receiving these cookies at any time by going to the Internet Advertising Bureau website at YourOnlineChoices.com and follow the opt-out instructions.

10. Third-Party Cookies

Some of the cookies described above are stored on your machine by third parties when you use our Site. We have no control over these cookies as to how the third party uses them.  They are used to allow the third party to provide a service to us.  For example, website analytics.  For more information on these cookies and how to disable them, please see the Internet Advertising Bureau website at www.YourOnlineChoices.com where you will be able to opt-out of receiving Internet Based Advertising cookies from third parties (e.g. Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.)

11. Data Protection and Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, as a company CSS has put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. Because the Internet is an open system, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure.  Although we will implement reasonable measures to protect your information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to us using the Internet.  Any such transmission is at your own risk and you are responsible for ensuring that any personal information that you send to us is sent securely. In certain instances, we may use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption and/or transfer certain user information in a non-human readable format to provide protection.  However, we cannot guarantee there will not be a breach.  We are not responsible for any breach of capacity or for the actions of third parties.

12. Links to Other Websites

It is likely that as you use our Site and services, you will come across links to other websites to which this Privacy Policy does not apply. We encourage you to read and understand the Privacy Policy of every website you visit.

13. How to Contact Us

We take your concerns seriously.  You may contact us in order to ask questions or submit comments about this Privacy Policy.  You may also request to be removed from our physical mailing list.  Please contact us using the contact information below:

Center for Sacred Studies
PO Box 2904
Guerneville, CA  95446
CenterForSacredStudies@gmail.com

14. California Consumers

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) provides certain rights for California consumers. For-profit businesses that are affected by CCPA must meet two conditions:

• The first is that the company collects or participates in the processing of personal information in California. And second, a company's annual gross revenue must exceed $25 million or the business must process the personal information of at least 50,000 consumers, households or devices every year or it derives 50% or more of its revenue from selling users' personal information.
• As a federally recognized 501c3 nonprofit, the Center for Sacred Studies falls outside of the scope of the CCPA.

15.  Changes to This Privacy Policy

Should this Privacy Policy be altered or updated, the latest version will be posted on our Site.  We encourage you to review our Privacy Policy from time to time in order to learn about potential changes before submitting any new personally identifiable information.