Privacy Policy

Privacy

Your privacy is important to us

We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what we do with it, no matter how you interact with us. That's whether you want to visit our websites, our temples and satsang centres, attend events, or read, learn, research, interact, participate, volunteer for us, donate, buy, download or receive goods (books, DVDs/CDs, Murtis, other articles) or use our services and mobile-tablet apps, want information, or want to learn more about what we do.

We are committed to using your personal information in accordance with our responsibilities.

This notice, together with our website tells you about how we collect, use and protect your personal information.

Processing of your personal information is carried out by Dada Bhagwan Vignan Foundation, registered as a charity in India (registration number U85300GJ2011NPL068073.

“We” means Dada Bhagwan Vigan Foundation, Dada Bhagwan Foundation, Dada Bhagwan Pariwar, Dada Bhagwan Aradhana Trust, Shree Simandhar Swami Aradhana Trust, Shree Simandhar Swami Jagatkalyan Foundation, Shree Simandhar Swami Foundation, Mahavideh Foundation, Amba Charitable Foundation, Amba Educational Foundation, and/or the entity from whose website you have lawfully reached this privacy policy (together the “Collective”, being entities with the same or similar objectives and based in Adalaj, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India).

What information we have

You may visit our site anonymously. However please refer to our Cookie Policy below.

When you engage with us by phone, mail, in person or online, we may collect personal information about you. This may include your name, address, email address, telephone number, date of birth, job title, volunteer details, and other information relating to you personally which you may choose to provide to us. Data protection law recognises that certain types of personal information are more sensitive. This is known as 'sensitive' or 'special category' personal data or information and covers information revealing racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs and political opinions, trade union membership, genetic or biometric data, information concerning health or data concerning a person's sex life or sexual orientation. We try not to collect any sensitive data/information. Sensitive data/ information will only be collected where necessary, for example, health information when you register for a challenge event or to deliver a community service as a volunteer. Clear notices will be provided at the time we collect this information, stating what information is needed, and why. With your consent, we may also collect sensitive personal data/information if you choose to tell us about your experiences relating to our services, for example, for use in a case study.

How we collect information

When you directly give us information

We may collect and store information about you when you interact with us. For example, this could be when you:

• support our work through a donation
• register or participate, including by asking questions or sharing experiences, for an activity, workshop, seminar, webinar or other event, satsang or Gnan Vidhi, including live webcast/broadcast events
• buy goods from our online shops or use our online services
• submit an enquiry
• give us feedback
• make a complaint
• seek guidance or solutions in solving personal issues
• use one of our apps
• register as a volunteer
• register for egroups, google groups or direct email communications
• subscribe to newsletters
• subscribe for magazines like Dadavani. Akram Youth and Akram Express
• are captured by CCTV, audio and video recording during satsang activities and at event venues
• are filmed or photographed during satsang activities and at event venues
• connect with software enabled online meetings and web-audio-video satsang
• connect through team collaboration software for volunteer meetings

When you indirectly give us information

When you interact with us on social media platforms such as Facebook, Google Plus, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn we may also obtain some personal information about you. The information we receive will depend on the privacy preferences you have set on each platform and the privacy policies of each platform. To change your settings on these platforms, please refer to their privacy notices. We may obtain information about your visit to our site, for example the pages you visit and how you navigate the site, by using cookies. Please visit our cookies policy (below) for more information on this.

We may obtain personal information about you from someone else who has registered you or signed you up to an event on your behalf (for example, a family member, a friend or acquintance).

Children aged 18 or under

If you are aged 18 or under, we must have your parent/guardian's permission in writing before you provide any personal information to us. That must include documents to verify your age and the identity of your parent/guardian where required by us.

Where children aged 18 or under attend our events, they must only do so with the approval of a parent or guardian.

Bases for processing

The lawful bases we rely on for processing your personal information are:

• Your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting us as set out at the end of this Privacy Notice.
• We have a contractual obligation.
• We have or to comply with a legal obligation.
• We have a legitimate interest.

What we do with the information we have

We will use your personal information for the following purposes:

• Satsang/Event recordings: We may use images and/or audios and/or videos recorded of you when you attend any of our events or when you ask any questions at our events to show, edited or unedited, on the internet and/or television broadcasts, whether live or recorded, as well as recordings shown at our own events.
• Donation processing: We will process personal information you provide in order to administer any one-off or on-going donations you make and claim any tax benefits we are entitled to claim.
• Responding to a request: If you contact us with a query, we may use your personal information to provide you with a response.
• Direct marketing/communication: We may send you communications and marketing information for our own events and by email, SMS, Whats App, post, other social media or by phone. If you withdraw your consent and then subsequently opt in to receive marketing information again, then your most recent preference will prevail.
• Monitoring and Evaluating: We may use your information in order to improve current and future delivery of our services.
• Processing an application to volunteer with us: We may process your information if you send or fill in an application form or send us your CV/Biodata or details in respect of an opportunity to volunteer with us in order to evaluate your suitability and respond to you.
• Transactional purposes: We will need to use your personal information in order to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us for goods or services, for example, processing your order and payment for events for which you have registered.
• Providing and developing our website: We may use your personal information to help provide you with access to our website, personalise your experience, and improve and develop it further.
• Administration: We may use your personal information to record and deal with a complaint, record a request not to receive further marketing information, record what our volunteers have done for us, and for other essential internal record keeping purposes.
• Prevention of crime: We may record your image on CCTV which we use to prevent crime and keep our people, our premises and the public safe.
• Protecting your vital interests: We may process your personal information where we reasonably think that there is a risk of serious harm or abuse to you or someone else.
• Market research and surveys: We may invite you to participate in surveys or market research to help us improve our website, services and strategic development. Participation is always voluntary, and no individuals will be identified as a result of this research, unless you consent to us publishing your feedback.
• Profiling and analysis: We may use your personal information to conduct profiling of our supporters or potential supporters. This will help us target communications in a more focused, efficient and cost-effective way, helping us reduce the chances of supporters and potential supporters receiving inappropriate or irrelevant communications. You can object to such use of your personal information for profiling at any time by contacting us at the details set out at the end of this Privacy Notice.

Who we share your information with

We will only use your information for the purposes for which it was obtained. We will not, under any circumstances, sell to, or share your personal information with, any third party for their own purposes, and you will not receive marketing from any other companies, charities or other organisations as a result of giving your details to us. We may share your data within the Collective on the terms of this policy. We will only share your data with others for the following purposes:

• Third party suppliers: We may need to share your information with data hosting providers or service providers who help us to deliver our services, projects and activities. These providers will only act under our instruction and are subject to pre-contract scrutiny and contractual obligations containing strict data protection clauses.
• Where legally required: We will comply with requests where disclosure is required by law, for example, we may disclose your personal information to the government for tax investigation purposes, or to law enforcement agencies for the prevention and detection of crime. We may also share your information with the emergency services if we reasonably think there is a risk of serious harm or abuse to you or someone else.

We always aim to ensure that personal information is only used by those third parties for lawful purposes in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

We will not share any sensitive personal information with any third party without your consent.

Third party links

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services on our website. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.

How we protect your information

We use technical and corporate organisational safeguards to ensure that your personal information is secure. We limit access to information on a need-to-know basis and take appropriate measures to ensure that our people are aware that such information is only used in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

We undertake regular reviews of who has access to information that we hold to ensure that your information is only accessible by appropriately trained staff, volunteers and contractors.

Our online forms are always secured and our network is protected and routinely monitored.

If you use your credit or debit card to donate to us, buy something or make a booking online, we pass your card details securely to our payment processing partners.

We do this in accordance with industry standards and do not store the details on our websites. However, please be aware that there are always inherent risks in sending information by public networks or using public computers and we cannot 100% guarantee the security of data (including personal information) disclosed or transmitted over public networks.

How long will we keep your information

We will keep your personal information in respect of any financial transactions for as long as necessary to comply with the law.

We will retain your personal information for as long as necessary, whilst you remain a registered participant in our activities or events or as a volunteer. In relation to photographs and filmed records, we will retain your information for as long as we consider appropriate in line with our activities. If you request that we stop processing your personal information for the purpose of marketing to you, we may in some instances need to add your details to a suppression file to enable us to comply with your request not to be contacted. In respect of other personal information, we will retain it for no longer than necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.

Where you have asked a question in satsang/discourses, you have already given consent to that. Copyright in that belongs to us and we will continue to use the same for the purposes for which it was recorded. Where possible, we will endeavour to cover your picture and delete reference to your name but due to the volume of material, it may not always be possible to do so.

International transfers of information

We may, on occasion, and in relation to Gnan Vidhi registration collaborate with other entities outside your local jurisdiction, including India. However, we take steps to put in place suitable safeguards to protect your personal information when processed by such entities. By submitting your personal information to us you agree to this transfer, storing or processing at a location outside your local jurisdiction. Information we hold about you will be processed in your local jurisdiction and/or in Adalaj, India.

Your rights to your personal information

You have the right to:

• confirmation of whether we are processing or have processed any personal information about you
• a summary of the personal information we have processed
• request access to personal information about you which is processed by us
• rectification of any inaccuracies corrected or to complete any incomplete information or to update out of date information
• erasure of your personal information in certain circumstances
• restrict processing of your personal information
• object to processing of your personal information in certain circumstances
• portability by asking us to transfer information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

If you wish to exercise these rights, please send your request to us along with copies of two separate identification documents which provide photo identification and confirm your address, such as an Aadhar Card, a passport, driving licence, or recent utility bill.Please also provide details of the email address relevant to the information or communications with you. Please also provide any additional information that is relevant to the nature of your contact with us, as this will help us to locate your records. You can send the documents via post or email to the address below.

We will respond within the statutory period allowed after receipt of your written request and copies of your identification documents. We reserve the right to charge a fee to process the request to the extent permitted by law.

Terms and Conditions

Please also visit our Terms and Conditions section establishing the use, disclaimers, and limitations of liability governing the use of our website from the terms of use section of the website you intended to visit.

Your Consent

By using our site, you consent to our website's privacy policy.

You can opt out of our emails by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our messages.

If you wish to change or stop how we communicate with you, please get in touch with us – details are set out at the end of our Privacy Notice on this website.

Our Privacy Notice may change from time to time without prior notification, so please check this page regularly to see if we have included any updates or changes, and that you are happy with them.

How you can contact us

You can contact us by:

Post: Simandhar City,
Ahmedabad-Kalol Highway,
Adalaj,
Gujarat 382421,
India
Phone: +91 79 3500 2100/01
Email: [email protected]

Cookie Policy

This Cookie Policy explains what cookies are, how this website uses cookies and what you can do to manage how cookies are used.

Questions you may ask about cookies

We are continually evaluating and improving how we present our content to you, we use cookies to give you the best possible experience on our websites.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small file that we save onto your device when you visit our websites. Most of the cookies we use will need your permission, by way of 'Consent', to allow us to do this.

Some cookies, (usually session cookies) are essential, and do not require your Consent.

However, regardless of whether we need your Consent or not, we will inform you if we are using them, by including information within this Cookie Policy. Cookies, and any similar technologies change over time, so please refer to this Cookie Policy at regular intervals to ensure you remain aware of how we use them.

Cookies relate to any data, including personal data, and send information back to any website that you visit that recognises the cookie stored in your device.

What is the purpose of Cookies?

There are several different types of cookies used for different purposes. Our websites use cookies in different ways and for different purposes. The possible purposes for which any of our websites may use cookies is set out below.

Some of these are for our benefit, to help us improve our website and improving the user experience. Others are to ensure security and help prevent fraud and are strictly necessary to provide the 'information society service' (requesting content to load on a webpage/a service over the internet) requested by you. Other types of cookie are more aligned to your preferences, such as what we think you might like to see in terms of direct marketing of our services.

Cookies allow us to distinguish you from other users of the website. We understand that everyone is unique and has different preferences. By using cookies, we can tailor the direct marketing that you see, and we can understand the webpages you may be most interested in, so your browsing experience is better for you. We can give you more choices when using cookies, such as saving your username, so you do not have to type this in every time you log into your account (where the website is account based). When we place a cookie on your device, it is retrieved by the website that placed it there in the first place, or any other website, which may use that specific cookie.

Cookies cannot be executed as code or used to deliver viruses and they cannot enable us to access your hard drive. We cannot read any information on your hard drive even if we store cookies there.

What if I use more than one device ?

Cookies relate to each device, and therefore if you are accessing the same webpage from multiple devices (phone, iPad, and laptop for example), you need to set your cookie preferences for each device. If you say no to marketing cookies on your laptop for example, you will still get marketing on your phone if you have not also selected your preferences specifically on your phone.

What are the different categories of cookies?

• Session Cookies are operational only for the duration that you are accessing a website. Once you close your browser, the cookie is deleted. These types of cookies are normally used for ensuring security when you connect to the webpage, or to save things you do for that session, such as items you add to a shopping basket.
• Persistent Cookies remain stored in your device until they expire (some cookies have an expiration date), or until you delete them. These types of cookies are usually used to capture your behaviour when you access a website, such as how long you spend on a page, which pages you have viewed, as well as your preferences for marketing and advertising or our events.

What are the different types of cookies?

• Essential Cookies We uses 'Essential Cookies' for what we regard as the essential functions of our websites, such as ensuring the security of the webpage you are visiting and enabling functionality that allows you to move around and use the website, storing items in your shopping basket.
• Analytical and Performance Cookies 'Performance Cookies' monitor how many people visit the website, how long people spend viewing the website, and which pages are visited for the longest period. This is not an exhaustive list, but an indication of the purposes of Performance Cookies. Analytical Cookies then analyse this activity further.
• Functional Cookies These are cookies that can remember who you are, and the preferences that you have chosen, for example, language and appearance of the webpage, which may depend on the browser you are using. This type of cookie, also remembers your cookie preferences.
• Marketing and Advertising Cookies These Cookies are used to provide marketing and specific tailored adverts to you. Cookies for these purposes, can be set by us and are called 'First Party Cookies' and operate on our own websites only.
• Third Party Cookies We use some third-party services on our websites. If you go to a page on our websites that contains this embedded content you may be sent cookies from these websites, for example Vimeo, Google maps, Facebook and Twitter. We do not control the setting of these cookies, so please check the third-party website for more information about their cookies and how to manage them.

What type of data do cookies contain?

This list is not an exhaustive list, and the type of data will depend on specific websites, and the purpose of the Cookie:

• Websites you visited and browsing history
• The type of device you are using
• Software and hardware on your device
• A unique id
• A session id
• A session start and end time
• Specific pages you have looked at
• Date you visited the website
• Expiry data of the cookie
• Passwords and user names
• Your preferences
• IP address

How do I give 'Consent' for using cookies?

There are a few ways in which you can give Consent for using Cookies that need your consent.

• You can click the box or boxes that pop up to allow us to use them when you first visit each of our websites, and periodically when you continue to use each website.
• You can choose your preferences by enabling and disabling cookies within the browser you are using, for example, within Google Chrome, Safari or Mozilla Fire Fox.

How do I withdraw 'Consent' for using cookies?

To withdraw consent for cookies

• You can go into your browser settings and change the Cookie preferences you have made.
• You may need to remove the persistent cookie text files that have an expiry date in the future.
• You may deselect or reselect alternative preferences, with tick boxes, where those options exist.

How can I control the use of cookies?

Most internet browsers automatically accept cookies unless you change your browser settings. If you wish to restrict, block or delete the cookies which are set by any websites, you can generally do this through your browser settings. These settings are usually found in the 'options' or 'preferences' menu of your internet browser.

Please note however that if you set your internet browser preferences to block all cookies, you may not be able to access all or parts of our websites.

Unless you have adjusted your internet browser settings to block cookies, our site will set cookies.

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit https://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

Using the links below, you can find out how to manage cookies (or deactivate them) in major browsers:

• Chrome Browser: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/61416?hl=en
• Internet Explorer: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies
• Mozilla Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences
• Safari: https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/manage-cookies-and-website-data-sfri11471/mac

This policy was last updated on 20 May 2021.