Privacy Policy

This site is owned and operated by The Guhyasamaja Center, a non-profit religious organization. Your privacy is very important to us. At The Guhyasamaja Center, we want to make your experience with the center satisfying and safe. Because we gather certain types of information about our users, we feel you should fully understand our policy and the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather and how we use it.

ELECTRONIC INFORMATION WE GATHER & TRACK

The Guhyasamaja Center electronically gathers two types of information about users.

• Information that users provide through optional and voluntary submission to receive our electronic newsletters, to contact us, to become a member, or to donate money to the center.
• Information The Guhyasamaja Center gathers through aggregated tracking derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites.

Note, the center does not ask for, receive, or transfer any financial information online; all transactions for online donations made to us are processed by PayPal at their site. The "donate" mechanism on our site simply passes you through to the PayPal site to complete the actual transaction. Please see our Donation Payment Terms & Conditions page for additional information.

HOW WE USE ELECTRONIC INFORMATION

The information referenced above allows us to

• better tailor our online content and services to users' needs,

• enhance our users' experience with the center,

• better understand the demographics of our online audience and our websites' performance,

• to provide services to members as outlined in our member benefits, and

• to keep a record of basic donation-related information for general accounting and tax purposes.

We will not share information we collect about individual users with any third party, except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public.

We may need to contact users by phone, postal mail, or E-mail if questions arise regarding your donation, membership, class/event registration, or in response to your questions or requests for information. We do not send unsolicited or “spam” E-mail.

Demographic analysis is done by The Guhyasamaja Center only and information is not shared with anyone not affiliated with the center. The Guhyasamaja Center tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites, however, we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. We want to be very clear: We will not obtain personally identifying information about you when you visit our site, unless you choose to provide such information to us.

ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER POLICY

We offer a free electronic newsletter that requires some type of voluntary submission of personal information by users, such as E-mail addresses. The Guhyasamaja Center gathers and keeps a list of the E-mail addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by clicking on the unsubscribe link provided in every newsletter.

CHILDREN

Consistent with the Federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without requesting parental consent. Our content is geared towards adults over the age of 18 and therefore we do not expect children under the age of 18 to provide us with any personally identifiable information.

COOKIES

We may place a text file called a "cookie" in the browser files of your computer. The cookie itself does not contain personal information although it will enable us to relate your use of this site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. The only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can not read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites.

The Guhyasamaja Center uses cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above). You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. If you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use this site.

SECURITY

The Guhyasamaja Center operates secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our customers.

OPT-OUT POLICY

We give users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include:

• Opting not to sign-up to receive our electronic newsletters or to modify or cancel subscriptions.

• Opting not to make donations and to modify or cancel donations.

• Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas online.

LINKS TO AND FROM OTHER WEBSITES

Our website may offer links to other sites. Other sites have their own policies regarding privacy. If you visit one of these sites, you may want to review the privacy policy on that site. In addition, you may have linked to our website through another site. In such cases the site you linked from may collect information from people who click on the banner or link. You may want to refer to the privacy policies on those sites to see how they collect and use this information.

ANY LOSS INCURRED BY YOU

The Guhyasamaja Center will do all we reasonably can to protect this site and all internet communications passing between us and you, but we cannot be held responsible for any losses fairly attributable to your failure to take reasonable precautions to prevent interception of or interference with any such communications (including, without limitations) failure to use and keep up-to-date firewalls and antivirus software on your own computer.

PHOTOS, VIDEO & AUDIO

The Guhyasamaja Center's representatives (see Contact page) often take photographs or make video and audio recordings of center classes and other events. Photos, video, and audio may include recognizable information such as participants' image/likeness and/or voice.

The center sometimes posts its photographs online for the enjoyment of participants and to promote the center for non-commercial purposes. In addition, some photographs may appear in printed materials to promote the center, such as the center's brochure, also for non-commercial purposes. The center may also post videos and audio online as a way to share the teachings. All photos, video, and audio recordings are intended for private or non-commercial use only. Some locations where the center may post its photos, videos, and audio recordings online can be found throughout our social media links on our pages.

The center does not tag or otherwise identifies individuals in photographs on our Facebook or other online sites without permission. And no visitors to our online sites are allowed to tag photos. Similarly, photos used in print will not identify individuals by name without permission.

If you prefer not to be included in the center's photos, videos, or audio recordings, please proactively alert a center representative on-site who will be happy to provide options to accommodate you. Retroactively, if you find that the center has posted a photograph online that includes you and you prefer to be omitted, please contact the webmaster for assistance. The Guhyasamaja Center does not have the resources to collect, edit, or reprint already distributed printed materials. Similarly, the center does not have the resources to edit video and audio recordings to remove individuals post capture.

YOUR CONSENT

By using The Guhyasamaja Center's websites or attending one of our classes or events, you consent to the collection and use of this information by The Guhyasamaja Center as specified above. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we may disclose it.

For additional details about the use of this site, please see our Terms of Use.