PRIVACY POLICY
(Science of Spirituality Members Website)
Who we are
The non-profit organization, Science of Spirituality, Inc. ("SOS"), is the
controller of the personal data you submit to us and responsible for your
personal data under applicable data protection law.
SOS is a nonstock religious corporation registered in Delaware, Corporate
No. 871450 and headquartered in Lisle, Illinois, USA. SOS is recognized as
a tax exempt religious organization by the United States Internal Revenue
Service and is registered as a charitable organization in the State of
Illinois.
SOS is committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your
privacy. This privacy policy (together with the terms of use of our
website) sets out the type of information we collect, what we use it for
and the rights that you have in relation to this information.
Scope of this Policy
This privacy policy is for its members and applies to its members-only
website www.sangat.sos.org.
Who we collect information from
Through the sangat website and through sign-ups and other contacts with
SOS, we collect and hold information on members in the following
categories: Membership information and Members who want to know about or
participate in services, programs and events or activities or be on our
mailing or email lists, donors, members who purchase CD's, DVD's, books and
other items distributed by SOS, volunteers of all kinds, and participants
in our children's summer camp and youth programs.
SOS volunteers include those who work in audio-visual, media and IT,
administration, handling donations, food service, welcoming, ushers,
doctors and nurses who provide first aid, counselors, speakers, helpers for
the sick and homebound, maintenance, janitorial and clean-up, set up and
break down, and numerous other functions to help SOS be of better service
to its members.
.
What information we collect
The type of information we collect and how we use it depends on the reasons
why you are providing it to us.
This can include the following information:
-
Your name
- Your contact details (e.g. postal address, email address, telephone
number, mobile number)
- Your date of birth / age bracket
-
Your bank / credit card details
-
Your donations and purchases
- Your user id and password for our Sangat website
- The particulars of your initiation and membership
-
Details of any disabilities
-
Dietary and access requirements
- Technical Data, which includes internet protocol (IP) address, location
data, your login data.
If you are a member volunteer in the U.S., and you have authorized
us to do so, we sometimes request information about you for our insurers
and sometimes run background checks on you depending on the activity you
are involved in, such as children's camp, medical team volunteers at
programs and events, volunteers that help the home-bound and elderly, and
other situations where such information relates to your qualifications for
and our ability to obtain insurance to cover the volunteer activity in
question.
We are committed to protecting the privacy of young people who take part in
our programs, for example the Bowling Green Children's Camp during the
summer. Where appropriate, we will seek the consent from a parent, guardian
or care giver before collecting information about young people under 18.
If you are aged 18 or under, you must get your parent, guardian or
caregiver's permission before you provide any personal information on this
website.
How we use your information
The legal basis that we rely upon for processing your personal information
will depend on the circumstances in which it is collected and used. In most
cases, the legal basis will fall into one of the following categories:
- Where you have provided consent for us to use your data in a certain way
- Where the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with
you
- Where the processing is necessary to complete a financial transaction
with you
- Where the processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation
we have
- Where processing is necessary for our legitimate interest, for example
processing donations or sending communications where our legitimate
interest is to raise funds or deliver our charitable and spiritual services
We may use your personal information for the following purposes:
- Providing you with access to the information, services, spiritual
messages in various media, and support you asked for or want to know from
SOS.
- Volunteer work or services you offer or agree to undertake
- Sending you communications about, for example, services, meditation
sessions, events, programs, children's activities, projects we are
undertaking and uplifting messages in the field of spirituality
- Registering you for attendance at and/or arrangements for, an SOS event,
activity or program
-
Administering your donation
We may also use your personal information for other purposes which we
specifically notify you about and, where appropriate, obtain your consent.
Who we will share your information with
We will not sell your personal information to third parties or share them
with other charities or religious organizations.
We may sometimes share your information with our trusted service providers
who perform services and functions on our behalf to support our
interactions with you, including, for example, cloud computing services,
website administrators, and institutions and processors that handle
financial transactions with you (member donations and orders for books,
DVD's, or CD's for example).
We may also have to disclose your information in order that we comply with
a legal obligation imposed on us.
From time to time, we may disclose your personal information to
organizations for the purposes of fraud and credit risk reduction. We may
also share your information with our financial and legal advisers for the
purposes of obtaining advice and the protection of our legal rights.
We try to ensure that other organizations with which we may share
information agree to maintain appropriate measures to protect the security
of your personal data.
Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable
information or personally sensitive data through SOS public message boards,
this information may be collected and used by others. We do not read any of
your private online communications.
Where we will store your information
Your information may be transferred and stored outside SOS's own computers,
for example on website host servers.
You have chosen a password which enables you to access our site. You are
responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share
a password with anyone.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not
completely secure. Although we maintain protections for your personal data,
we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any
transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information,
we will use reasonable procedures and security features to try to prevent
unauthorized access.
Cookies
A cookie is a small text file that can be stored and accessed from your
device when you visit our website. Cookies allow us to recognize you as a
user when you return to our website using the same device and browser.
We use first party cookies on our website. First party cookies are cookies
that are put on your device directly by the website provider and are often
used to recognize your device when it revisits a site and to remember your
preferences as you browse the site.
- Sometimes we use cookies to see how our website is being used.
- Analytics cookies.
How do I refuse or withdraw my consent to the use of Cookies?
You can stop cookies from being downloaded on your computer by selecting
the appropriate settings on your browser. Most browsers will tell you how
to stop accepting new cookies, how to be notified when you receive a new
cookie, and how to disable existing cookies.
For more information on the development of user-profiles and the use of
targeting/advertising cookies, please see www.youronlinechoices.eu if
you are located in Europe or www.aboutads.info/choices if
in the United States.
Links
Our website may include links to other sites not owned or managed by us
such as Facebook and You-Tube. We cannot be held responsible for the
privacy of information collected by websites not managed by us.
How long will we keep your information
We will retain your information for as long as it is required to fulfil the
purposes for which we collected it, and for as long as is necessary for the
legitimate purposes of our legal rights and obligations. After that time,
we will delete your data from our systems and require that anyone to whom
we have passed your information also delete it.
Your rights
(if you are an EU resident or applicable state law requires them)
You have a number of rights under data protection laws, these include the
right to:
- Access a copy of the information we hold about you
- Rectify inaccuracies in information we hold about you
- Have the information we hold about you erased in certain circumstances
- Restrict the processing of your information
- Object to your information being used for direct marketing
- Transfer the information we hold about you to another entity
- Withdraw any consent you have provided
If you would like access to your information, please send a description of
the information you want to see and proof of identity to Science of
Spirituality, 4105 Naperville Road, Lisle, Illinois 60532 Attn: Privacy
Officer or email us at privacy@sos.org
. If you would like to invoke any of your other rights, please contact us
as at privacy@sos.org.
Cross border data transfers
Our member website is maintained in the United States. If you are visiting
from regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ
from those in the United States, please note that you may be transferring
your information to the United States and in other countries around the
world. You freely and specifically give us your consent to export and use
your information within the United States and in other countries as
specified in this Privacy Policy. You understand that data stored in the
United States may be subject to lawful requests by the courts or law
enforcement authorities in the United States. If you are situated in the
European Union, whenever we transfer your personal data to processors
outside of the European Union, we use appropriate and suitable safeguards
to protect the transfer, use and storage of your personal information. We
may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give
personal data the same protection it has in the European Union.
Complaints
If you have a complaint about the way we are using your information then
initially you should contact us at privacy@sos.org. If you are located in
the European Union and have any complaints regarding our privacy practices
as data controller, you have the right to make a complaint at any time to
your local Supervisory Authority. We would, however, appreciate the
opportunity to deal with your concerns before you approach your Supervisory
Authority so please contact us in the first instance.
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data or to exercise
any of the other rights. However, we may refuse or be unable to comply with
your request if your request is unfounded, repetitive, excessive,
unintelligible or we cannot verify its true origin and have concerns that
it is not a legitimate request.
Changes to this policy
We may change our privacy policy from time to time so please check back
periodically.
This policy was last updated: November 2018