Privacy Policy
Saurashtra Vipassana Research Center, registered as a Public CharitableTrust is responsible for managing vipassana courses in Rajkot, and withregistered address at C/O Bhabha Guest House, Panchnath Road, Rajkot- 360001and meditation centre at Near village Rangpar, Ta: Padadhari,Rajkot-Jamnagar Road, Dist: Rajkot 360110 with the website https://kota.vridhamma.org/.
Saurashtra Vipassana Research Center (hereinafter referred as such “or“Trust” or “Centre” or “we” or “us” or “our”) cares about privacy of ourusers (hereinafter referred as “user” or “users” or “applicant” or “student”or “you” or “your”).
This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguardyour information when you visit our website, including mobile website andmobile app, if any (hereinafter referred as ‘the website’), make donations,apply online/through mobile app or in any other way for the courses listedon the website or any other services avail services offered therein. Pleaseread this privacy policy carefully.
Your use of the website and/or availing services provided by us and/or submitting applications for the courses at the Centre and/or making donations to the Centre constitutes a binding acceptance of this privacy policy and indicates your consent to the collection, use and disclosure ofyour information and our data practices according to the terms of thispolicy.
The Trust aims to take great care when dealing with your data and yourrights, in compliance with applicable rules and regulations, in particular,the information technology act, 2000 and the rules made thereunder.
This privacy policy shall form an integral part of our terms of use.
The Information We Collect
1.General
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If you choose to register for a Vipassana meditation course viaon-line platform, mobile app or conventional registrationapplication (paper form, email, phone), the type of personallyidentifiable information that may be collected include: name,address, e-mail address, passport size photograph, telephone number,fax number, identity number of the photo identity document issued bythe Government of India, passport number in case of theinternational applicants and all the other sensitive personalinformation that is called for on the application form. Generally,such information includes date of birth, gender, profession,education, your medical information/history including mental healthinformation, family relation & background, any special needs youmay have, name of spouse, name of friends who are participating inthe course, emergency contact, course history, donation details, PANnumber in case of donations, native language and other languagesspoken. Based on the details provided by you in your application, ifrequired, we may request the additional information for properevaluation of your application and to serve you in a better way.
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When you arrive at the Centre to attend the course, we will requestyou to bring duly signed application generated by the registrationsystem or to fill out the physical copy of your application form.
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For the duration of the course we may store the keys andregistration number of your vehicle, in case it needs to be moved inan emergency.
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In addition, if there are reasons why your application may not beaccepted, or that your admission to a course should be subject tocertain restrictions, prerequisites or qualifications, we maycollect this information and the reason(s) thereof. Such decisionsare based on data provided by you, but also on events or theobservations made by the concerned persons or any pastevents/behaviour/records. Only the persons involved with theassessment have access to such information about you.
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As per the provisions of this policy, you have option of notproviding your consent or the data requested by us. However, in thatcase, we will not be able to process your application or otherrequest(s) any further.
Information our servers automatically collect when you access the website,such as your native actions that are integral to the website, includingliking, re-blogging, or replying to a post, as well as other interactionswith the website and other users via server log files.
The Centre does not collect or process your credit or debit or any othertype of card (“Payment Card”) data. We utilize the services of third-partyvendors/service providers to facilitate and process such transactions. Youare requested to review their privacy policy and contact them directly forany queries or questions. Such payment processors generally provide us withsome limited data related to you, such as a unique payment status referencenumber, card type and transaction status that is used for tracking anyqueries related to the donation.
4.Permissions for social networking sites accounts
The website/ any account created by the Centre with social networking sitesto connect with the students, if any, may by default access your basicaccount information, including your name, email, gender, birthday, currentcity, and profile picture URL, as well as other information that you chooseto make public from the social networking accounts, including, Apple’s GameCenter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter etc. We may alsorequest access to other permissions related to your account, such asfriends, check-ins, and likes, and you may choose to grant or deny us accessto each individual permission for each such social networking site. For moreinformation regarding such permissions, please refer to the permissionpreferences of the respective social networking sites.
The website/any account created by the Centre with social networking sitesto connect with the students, if any, may access user information fromsocial networking sites, such as Apple’s Game Center, Facebook, Google+,Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, including your name, your social networkusername, location, gender, birth date, email address, profile picture, andpublic data for contacts, if you connect your account to such socialnetworks. This information may also include the contact information ofanyone you invite to use and/or join the website.
We may request access or permission to and track location-based informationfrom your mobile or other device, either continuously or while you are usingthe website to provide location-based services. If you wish to change ouraccess or permissions, you may do so in your device’s settings.
We may request access or permission to certain features from your mobile orother device, including your mobile or other device’s bluetooth, calendar,camera, contacts, microphone, reminders, sensors, SMS messages, social mediaaccounts, storage, and other features. If you wish to change our access orpermissions, you may do so in your device’s settings.
Device information such as your mobile or other device’s ID number, model,and manufacturer, version of your operating system, phone number, country,location, and any other data you choose to provide.
9.Push notifications and text messages
We may request to send you push notifications regarding your account or thewebsite. If you wish to opt-out from receiving these types ofcommunications, you may turn them off in your device’s settings.
In addition, we may send you text messages for certain events or details ofgroup meditations/sittings, opportunities to serve. If you wish to opt-outfrom receiving these types of communications, you may turn them off in yourdevice’s settings.
Information from third parties, such as personal information or networkfriends, if you connect your account to the third party and grant thewebsite the permission to access this information.
Personal and other information you may provide while filling questionnairesand/or filling out forms, if any, for various purposes. The informationspecified above may be acquired by us directly from the users, through ouraffiliates or automatically through cookies and other tracking technologies,details of which are provided in this privacy policy or through any othermeans provided in this policy.
For the purpose of this policy, affiliates include joint venture partners,entities involved in the teachings of Vipassana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba khin, or entities formed by Mr.S. N. Goenka/as per his guidance, any other entities that we control or thatare under common control with us, entities with common goals as ours or anyother sister concern.
Why we need your information
A Vipassana course can be very demanding. With the information you give us,we evaluate your application for admission to a course as a student orserver and assess if you are mentally and physically capable ofparticipating in a course or to serve.
We then use your information to:
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plan accommodation, sitting arrangement, food, providing properinfrastructure for instructions through audio/video modes, andtransport;
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provide you with the special support (for e.g. hearing aid, nativelanguage discourses, translations of the instructions etc.) duringthe course;
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give you adequate guidance and assistance during the course;
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provide further useful information to you after your course;
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keep financial information for tax reasons, accounting purposes orother personal information required by law;
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To assist you, in any manner whatsoever within our capacity, in caseyou need the support after the course.
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We also use this information to process the data if you use ‘trackapplication’ feature of the app or IVR facility offered by VipassanaResearch Institute (VRI) or through a third party.
In certain cases, we need to keep personal details when course applicantsare considered at risk of harming themselves or others, or the Centre orother Vipassana organisations/Centres in this tradition or our affiliates.
We have found that people who attend/serve a Vipassana course frequentlyalso attend/serve subsequent courses over their lifetime. In order tofacilitate subsequent attendance/serving at courses and to maintain a recordof a student’s/server’s history and experience, we may maintain the data ofeach applicant indefinitely in the absence of a legal prohibition to do so.In particular, if you have been assessed as ineligible for participation ina course or serving a course in the future, or eligible only under certainrestrictions, pre-requisites or qualifications, to protect your interest, wemay keep this information indefinitely in the absence of a legal prohibitionto do so.
Some people also apply for multiple courses at the same time in differentVipassana Centres or for back to back courses in a short span of time in thesame Vipassana Centre, which is not beneficial for that particular applicantand is not fair for other applicants. Sometimes, due to heavy volume ofapplications, we are required to reject many applications. Upon applicant’srequests, we consider such applications for the later courses. In suchcases, sometimes we need to verify and discuss with the applicant, if thereis any major discrepancy in the information provided in the earlierapplication and information submitted in the applications for later courses.Considering all these aspects, we may maintain the data of each applicantindefinitely in the absence of a legal prohibition to do so.
Other purposes:
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The Centre may store and use user’s name, postal address and/oremail address to send the information about Vipassana relatedactivities, facilities and newsletters, if users have not opted-outof such contact.
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The Centre may use the information that user provide about otherswhile sharing the information or pages or media content to enablethe Centre to send them user’s greeting and Centre website address.
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We may use the non-personally identifiable information that wecollect to improve the design and content of our website and toenable us to understand requirements of our users, location of theuser and which files users are accessing within the website, i.e.,to use this information in the aggregate to analyse site usage.
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The Centre may use the relevant information to assist lawenforcement, respond to subpoena, legal obligations and for otherlawful purposes.
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The Centre may use the required information to deliver anycontent/product/newsletter or any other material as per the requestof a specific user, whenever necessary.
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The Centre may de-identify and aggregate data collected through theServices and use it for any purpose. Such information does notidentify you individually.
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To enable users to view and/or download books, newsletters, and toplay/download audios and videos, as per user’s requirements.
In addition, the Centre may use the information for the followingpurpose(s):
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Compile anonymous statistical data and analysis for use, eitherinternally or with the third parties.
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To perform necessary activities regarding various features offeredthrough website.
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Create and manage your account.
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Send you an email regarding your account or donation.
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Fulfil and manage payments and other transactions related to theservices offered through website.
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Generate your personal profile to make future visits to the websitemore personalized.
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Increase the efficiency and operation of the website.
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Monitor and analyse usage and trends to improve your experience withthe website.
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Notify you of updates to the website.
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Perform any other activities as needed, to serve you in the bestpossible way.
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Prevent fraudulent transactions, monitor against theft, and protectagainst criminal activity.
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Request feedback and contact you about your use of the website.
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Resolve disputes and troubleshoot problems.
How we process your information
If you apply to attend a Vipassana course, or to give service, online orthrough a mobile app, or any other way, your data goes through a front endweb portal called ‘scheduler’ to a registration software called ‘DIPI’.
Vipassana Research Institute (VRI), registered as a Public Charitable Trust,with its registered office at Green House, 2nd floor, Green street, Fort,Mumbai – 400 023, India, manages this registration software, a front endweb-portal.
The Centre is responsible for the further processing of this data for thepurposes mentioned above. When we process your personal information, wefollow a set of principles according to our policies and applicableregulations. Subject to the applicable regulations, we store yourinformation indefinitely to serve you in a better way, to safeguard interestof the Centre or the student(s)/server(s), for accounting, taxation, orbecause a special law requires us to do so and other regulatory purposes andfor such other reasons as provided in this policy.
All the information is stored on the servers of the Amazon Web Services,located in Mumbai, India.
DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION
We may share information we have collected about you in certain situations.Your information may be disclosed as follows:
A.General:
We do not ever make your personally identifiable information available tothird parties, for commercial or any other reason. However, we may acceptcredit/debit card based donations, in which case, personal informationrelated to those financial transactions is processed in the usual manner.Otherwise, we do not disclose your personal information outside of thefacilities of regional, national and international Vipassana organizationsin this tradition, our affiliates and their common infrastructure, except asprovided in this policy.
Affiliated Vipassana organisations/Centres in this tradition who use thesame registration software as ours will be generally able to view yourattendance status, status of your application in other centres where youhave applied and your address. In a rare and specific event, if astudent/server has been placed in any kind of special list for such reasonas mentioned in this policy, course registrars of other Centres will be ableto view the details regarding the same as provided in the registrationsoftware.
If we believe the release of information about you is necessary to respondto legal process, to investigate or remedy potential violations of ourpolicies, or to protect the rights, property, and safety of others, we mayshare your information as permitted or required by any applicable law, rule,regulation, or to assist law enforcement and respond to subpoena/summon.This includes exchanging information with other entities for fraudprotection and credit risk reduction.
C.Third-party service providers/vendors
We may share your information with third parties that perform services forus or on our behalf, including payment processing, data analysis, IVR, emaildelivery, hosting services, or any other services.
When you post comments, contributions or other content on the website, yourposts may be viewed by all users and may be publicly distributed outside thewebsite in perpetuity.
We may share your information with our affiliates, in which case we willrequire those affiliates to honour this privacy policy. Affiliates includejoint venture partners, entities involved in teachings of Vipassanameditation as taught by S. N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba khin,entities formed by Mr. S. N. Goenka/as per his guidance, any other entitiesthat we control or that are under common control with us, entities withcommon goals as ours or any other sister concern.
For the welfare of the student(s)/server(s), the Centre or the local orregional Vipassana organization in this tradition may consider it necessaryto take and retain notes on any health concern or behaviour in relation tothe course that is inconsistent with the Code of Discipline or thatotherwise indicates that a student should be restricted from attending orserve future courses or will need additional support during futurecourse(s). In the rare event of this occurring, such notes will be enteredon a computer and shared in confidence with assistant teachers andauthorized course registrars involved in future courses or by enteringnecessary details in the registration software and by following such otherprocedures as may be required. Your attendance at a course or servingthereof will constitute unequivocal consent to the handling and storage ofsuch notes and the cross-border transfer thereof subject to applicable laws,including those discussed below (“Specific Privacy Requirements”).
F.Social media contacts
If you connect to the website through a social network, your contacts on thesocial network will see your name, profile photo, and descriptions of youractivity.
G.Collection of information by third-party sites
This privacy policy only addresses the use and dissemination of informationthat we collect from you. Our website may contain links to other site(s)whose information practices may be different than ours.
Since the Centre and various Vipassana organizations in this tradition andour affiliates do not control the privacy policies of third parties, you aresubject to the privacy customs and policies, if any, of that third party,and the Centre or any other Vipassana organizations in this tradition andour affiliates shall not be responsible for the use or dissemination of yourpersonal information by that third party. Therefore, we encourage you to askquestions before you disclose your personal information to others.
If you are using the website for the registration for the courses, you willbe governed by the terms of additional policy for processing, disclosuresand consents for course applications, which you can view while applying forthe course.
In addition to the above, if required, the Centre may disclose your personalinformation with your consent.
TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES
We and our service providers may use cookies, web beacons, tracking pixels,and other tracking technologies on the website to help customize the websiteand to improve your experience. When you access the website, your personalinformation is not collected through the use of tracking technology. Mostbrowsers are set to accept cookies by default. You can remove or rejectcookies, but please note that such action could affect the availability andfunctionality of the website. You may not decline web beacons. However, theycan be rendered ineffective by declining all cookies or by modifying yourweb browser’s settings to notify you each time a cookie is tendered,permitting you to accept or decline cookies on an individual basis.
A "cookie" is a text file containing a small amount of information which ourserver downloads to your personal computer when you visit our website. Thefile contains a unique number so that our server knows which PC/mobile/otherdevice it is talking to. We create a session cookie when you use our onlineapplication form to register for a course. We may also use a session cookieto know whether you have logged in as an old student or not. Some cookiesare allocated to your PC/mobile/any other device only for the duration ofyour visit to a website, and these are called session based cookies. Theseare automatically deleted when you close down your browser.
We may also partner with selected third-party vendors to allow trackingtechnologies on the website through the use of first party and third-partycookies, to, among other things, analyse and track user’s use of thewebsite, determine the popularity of certain content and for betterunderstanding of online activity. These software(s) may record data such ashow often you engage with the services available on the website, the eventsthat occur within the website, aggregated usage and performance data, andwhere the products/mobile app were downloaded from. We may link the data westore within the analytics software to any personal data you submit withinthe website.
By accessing our website, you consent to the collection and use of yourinformation by these third-party vendors/service providers. You arerequested to review their privacy policy and contact them directly forresponses to your questions. We do not transfer personal information tothese third-party vendors/service providers. However, if you do not want anyinformation to be collected and used by tracking technologies, you caninstall and/or update your settings for such tracking technologies.
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Log data
As is true for most websites, we gather certain information automaticallyand store it in log files. This information may include internet protocol(IP) addresses, browser type, device identifier, Internet service provider(ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, clickstreamdata, and other usage data. We may combine this automatically-collected loginformation with other information we collect about you.We may use log datato monitor use of our sites and services, for security purposes and fortechnical administration.
Our website may contain links to third-party websites and applications ofinterest, including advertisements and external services, that are notaffiliated with us. Once you have used these links to leave the website, anyinformation you provide to these third parties is not covered by thisprivacy policy, and we cannot guarantee the safety and privacy of yourinformation. Before visiting and providing any information to anythird-party websites, please read and understand privacy policies andpractices (if any) of the third party responsible for that website, and takethose steps necessary to, in your discretion, to protect the privacy of yourinformation. We are not responsible for the content or privacy and securitypractices and policies of any third parties, including other sites, servicesor applications that may be linked to or from the website.
Children's Privacy
In accordance with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998(and comparable legislation of other countries, including GDPR), we willnever knowingly request or solicit personally identifiable information fromanyone under the age of 18 without verifiable parental consent. In the eventwe receive actual knowledge that we have collected such personal informationwithout the requisite and verifiable parental consent, we will delete thatinformation from our database as quickly as is practical.
SECURITY OF YOUR INFORMATION
We use administrative, technical, and physical security measures to helpprotect your personal information. While we have taken reasonable steps tosecure the personal information you provide to us, please note that despiteour efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no methodof data transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or othertype of misuse. Any information disclosed online is vulnerable tointerception and misuse by unauthorized parties. Therefore, we cannotguarantee complete security of your personal information.
All teachers and assistant teachers of Vipassana as well as all meditationcentre staff and Dhamma workers/servers only have access to your informationsubmitted on the course application and registration forms on a ‘need toknow’ basis. We take all reasonable steps to ensure that such information ismaintained in confidence and safeguarded against disclosure to or access bythird parties once it reaches to us. However, the particular manner in whichyour information is maintained, stored and used is governed by theparticular privacy policy applicable to each such country. The primary riskof inadvertent disclosure of your information can be in the case ofapplications submitted by email and that is while the information is beingsent over the open internet, as under some circumstances our emailapplication facilities are not secure. Please do not use the emailapplication facility on this website unless you are prepared to personallytake this risk.
Our application forms and the personal data contained therein are handled bystorage and processing on computers. In addition, the computers of thedifferent Vipassana organizations are located in various countries of theworld. Your submission of an application form to attend one of our coursesconstitutes your unequivocal consent to the storage. In addition, in somecases the email service of a centre to which an application is submitted maybe provided through Google/android apps and apple store. As a result, thehandling of the data in your application to that centre is subject to theprivacy and security policies of Google/ android apps and apple store, asset forth in their publications that are available on their websites.
User’s rights and choices REGARDING INFORMATION
A.Account deactivation/updation
You may at any time review or change the information in your account orterminate your account by:
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Logging into your account settings and updating your account.
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Contacting us using the contact information provided on the websiteto delete/deactivate the account or to delete the data provided byyou.
Upon your request to deactivate/terminate/delete your account or delete yourdata, we will deactivate or delete your account and delete your informationfrom our active databases. Notwithstanding anything contained in thispolicy, some information may be retained in our files for analyticalpurposes, taxation and accounting purposes, to prevent fraud, collect anyfees owed, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforceour terms of use and/or comply with legal requirements/regulations or to take such actionsthat we deem necessary to protect our integrity or integrity of our services/website, our users, our affiliates or to take other actions permitted bylaw.
After you deactivate your account or after deletion of your data upon yourrequest, you will not be able to sign into the website or access anyinformation stored in connection with previous receipt/account with ourwebsite. You may open a new account at any time.
Upon termination/deletion of your account and data on the website, you maynot be able to avail the features like IVR facility, track the applicationetc.
If you no longer wish to receive correspondence, emails, or othercommunications from us, you may opt-out by:
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Noting your preferences at the time you register your account withthe website.
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Logging into your account settings and updating your preferences.
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Contacting us using the contact information provided on our website.
If you no longer wish to receive correspondence, emails, or othercommunications from third parties, you are requested to contact the thirdparty directly.
C.Controls for Do Not Track (DNT) features
Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems include a Do-Not-Track(“DNT”) feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacypreference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitoredand collected. Unfortunately, no uniform technology standard for recognizingand implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do notcurrently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism thatautomatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If astandard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future,we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this PrivacyPolicy.
D.Opt-Out/Opt-In
The Centre, VRI, regional Vipassana organizations, affiliate entities mayprovide you with the opportunity to "opt-out" of having us/them send youe-mail or postal mail about our/their services or other information relatedto Vipassana including serving opportunities. In other cases, it may bepossible for you to "opt-in" to certain local or regional Vipassana relateddistribution lists. If you choose to have your name, email address or otherpersonally identifiable information removed from any of those databases, youcan do so by contacting such local or regional Vipassana organizations, andrequest removal.
E.Specific Privacy Requirements
Please note that individual countries may have particular privacy lawrequirements. The Centre is committed to protecting the “rights and freedom”of individuals whose information it collects in accordance with such lawsincluding but not limited to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Pursuant to the applicable privacy regulations, you may have the followingrights, among others, with regard to any data we collect or retain thatrelates to you:
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the right of access, i.e. the right to obtain confirmation as towhether or not personal data is being processed, and where this isthe case, to obtain access thereto;
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the right to rectification and erasure, i.e. the right to haveinaccurate data rectified and/or to have incomplete data completed,and the right to have personal data erased for legitimate reasons;
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The right to impose restrictions on the processing of personal data,i.e. the right to request the suspension of data processing forlegitimate reasons;
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the right to data portability, i.e. the right to receive the data ina structured, commonly used and easily readable format, as well asthe right to transmit the data to another data controller;
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the right to object, i.e. the right to oppose the processing of datawhere legitimate reasons for this exist, including data processedfor marketing and profiling purposes, if this is envisaged;
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the right to contact the competent data protection authority in caseof unlawful data processing.
You may exercise the rights listed above by writing to the Centre at dhammakot@gmail.com. Inaddition to the foregoing rights, each application form to register for aVipassana Meditation course or related activity contains a series ofdisclosures and consents, which are also intended to protect your rights.
Grievance officer
If you have any questions or concerns about the privacy policy or itsimplementation you may contact us at: .
Interpretation
Regardless of theplace of residence/business/use of user or cause of action, terms of use, privacy policy, or any other matter regarding services offered by theCentre shall in all respects be interpreted, construed and governed by thelaws of India, without regard to the conflicts of law provisions. Anydispute arising thereof shall be submitted exclusively to the courts ofRajkot, Gujarat, India. We reserve the right to modify the terms of thispolicy and the at any time and in our sole discretion. Your use of thiswebsite constitutes a binding acceptance of our policies.