Privacy Policy

The Secular Buddhist Association (“we”, “us”, “SBA”) provides products and services through a Platform that includes this website, https://secularbuddhism.org. This Platform is operated by us for users of the Service (“you”). We care about the data that you entrust with us.

This Privacy Policy defines our policies with respect to information we collect from you and other users of our Platform. Under applicable law, we are the “data controller” of personal data collected through our Platform. For information on how to contact us, see the end of this policy.

Information We Collect
When you use our Platform, we collect information from you. This includes the following.

Information You Provide. In order to offer the products and services available on our Platform, it is necessary for you to provide us with certain information. We collect personal information only when you voluntarily provide such information. This includes when you register for our Platform, or use our services. Information we collect may include a username, email address, physical address, your location, payment information, and any data or content that you submit using our Platform.

Note that your financial information is not stored anywhere on the SBA Platform, it is managed entirely by PayPal.

Data We Collect Automatically. When you interact with our Platform, we receive and store certain information. This may include:

IP address
Date and time of the query
Time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
Content of the request (specific website, web page, etc.)
Access status
Volume of data transferred each time
Website from which the request comes
Browser
Operating system and its interface
Language and version of the browser software

We may store such information or such information may be included in databases owned and maintained by affiliates, agents, or service providers. The Platform may use such information and pool it with other information to track, for example, the total number of visitors to our Platform as well as the sites which refer visitors to our Platform.

Aggregated Information. In an effort to better understand and serve the users of our Platform, we may conduct research on our customer demographics, interests, and behavior based on the information collected. This research may be compiled and analyzed on an aggregate basis and we may share this aggregate data with our affiliates, agents, and business partners. We may also disclose aggregated user statistics in order to describe our services to current and prospective business partners or to other third parties for lawful purposes.

Information From Other Services. If you give us direct permission, we may collect your information in other services. For example, you may connect a social networking service like Facebook or Twitter to your SBA account. When you do this, it allows us to obtain information from those accounts like your name, email, interests, friends, or contacts.

Cookies. We may use cookies and similar technologies to keep track of your local computer’s settings, such as which account you have logged into and notification settings. Cookies are pieces of data that sites and services can set on your browser or device that can be read on future visits. We may expand our use of cookies to save additional data as new features are added to our Platform. In addition, we use technologies such as web beacons and single-pixel gifs to record log data such as open rates for emails sent by the system.

We may use third party web site analytic tools, like Google Analytics, on our website that employ cookies to collect certain information concerning your use of our Platform. You can disable cookies by changing your browser settings. Further information about the procedure to follow in order to disable cookies can be found on your Internet browser provider’s website via your help screen.

Advertisements. You may see our Platform advertised in other applications or websites. After using our Platform, you become a user of our Platform. Advertising platforms, like Twitter or Facebook, may collect information for optimizing advertising campaigns outside of our Platform.

If you do not wish to receive personalized advertising that is delivered by third parties outside of our Platform, you may be able to exercise that choice through opt-out programs that are administered by third parties, including the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA). Our Platform currently does not respond to “Do Not Track” (DNT) signals and operates as described in this Privacy Policy whether or not a DNT signal is received, as there is no consistent industry standard for compliance.

Comments and Reviews. When you leave a comment or review, our Platform collects the data show in the comment or review form, along with your IP address and browser in order to help detect spam. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. If you leave a comment or review, note that we may use either for marketing purposes (posting to Facebook, advertisements, etc.)

Where Information Is Processed
We are located in the United States. No matter where you are located, you consent to the processing and transferring of your information in and to the U.S. and other countries. The laws of the U.S. and other countries governing data collection and use may not be as comprehensive or protective as the laws of the country where you live.

Our Use Of Your Information
We use the information you provide in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy. If you provide information for a certain reason, we may use the information in connection with the reason for which it was provided. For instance, if you contact us by email, we will use the information you provide to answer your question or resolve your problem. Also, if you provide information in order to obtain access to our Platform, we will use your information to provide you with access to such services and to monitor your use of such services.

We may also use your information collected through our Platform to help us improve the content and functionality of our Platform, or to better understand our users. We may use this information to contact you in the future to tell you about services we believe will be of interest to you. If we do so, each marketing communication we send you will contain instructions permitting you to “opt-out” of receiving future marketing communications. In addition, if at any time you wish not to receive any future marketing communications or you wish to have your name deleted from our mailing lists, please contact us as indicated below.

Legal Handling Of Your Data
The laws in some jurisdictions require companies to tell you about the legal ground they rely on to use or disclose your personal data. To the extent those laws apply, our legal ground is as follows.

Contractual Commitments. Much of our processing of personal data is to meet our contractual obligations to our users, or to take steps at users’ request in anticipation of entering into a contract with them. As an example, we handle personal data on this basis to create your account and provide the services of our Platform.

Legitimate Interests. In many cases, we handle personal data on the ground that it furthers our legitimate interests in ways that are not overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the affected individuals. This includes providing a safe and enjoyable users experience, customer service, marketing, protecting our users, staff, or property, analyzing or improving our business, processing applications, and managing legal issues.

Legal Compliance. We need to use and disclose personal data in certain ways to comply with our legal obligations.

Consent. Where required by law, we handle personal data on the basis of your implied or express consent.

Our Disclosure Of Your Information
We are not in the business of selling customer information and we consider this information to be a vital part of our relationship with you. There are, however, certain circumstances in which we may share your information with certain third parties, as set forth below:

Consent. We may transfer your information with your consent.

Developers. Third party developers of our Platform may have access to your information. Developers must use such information in order to develop and improve our Platform.

Legal Requirements. We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, protect and defend the rights or our property, protect the personal safety of users of our Platform or the public, or protect against legal liability.

Aggregated or Non-identifiable Data. We may also share aggregated or non-personally identifiable information with our partners or others for business purposes.

Third Parties.  We do not share your data with third parties not described above.

Unsolicited Information
Any information you provide us regarding ideas for new products and services or modifications to existing products and services shall be considered unsolicited submissions (collectively, “Unsolicited Information”). All Unsolicited Information shall be deemed non-confidential and we shall be free to reproduce, use, disclose, and distribute such Unsolicited Information to others without limitation or attribution.

Children
Our Platform is for users age 18 and over and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian of a child under the age of 18 and believe he or she has disclosed personal information to us please contact us. For residents of the EEA, where processing of personal information is based on consent, the SBA will not knowingly engage in that processing for users under the age of consent established by applicable data protection law. If we learn that we are engaged in that processing with such users, we will halt such processing and will take reasonable measures to promptly remove applicable information from our records.

Other Websites
Hyperlinks. This Privacy Policy applies only to our Platform. Our Platform may contain links to other web sites not operated or controlled by us (“Third Party Sites”). The policies and procedures we described here do not apply to the Third Party Sites. The links from the Services do not imply that we endorse or have reviewed the Third Party Sites. We suggest contacting those sites directly for information on their privacy policies.

Embedded Content. Content on our platform may include embedded content (videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor had visited the other websites. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged into that website.

Data Retention
We retain personal data for so long as it may be relevant to the purposes identified herein. To dispose of personal data, we may anonymize it, delete it, or take other appropriate steps. Data may persist in copies made for backup and business continuity purposes for additional time.

Security
We take reasonable steps to protect the information provided via our Platform from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, no Internet or email transmission is ever fully secure or error free. In particular, email sent to or from our Platform may not be secure. Therefore, you should take special care in deciding what information you send to us via email. Please keep this in mind when disclosing any information via the Internet.

Your Data Rights And Choices
Access. You have a right to be informed about your personal data processing, including the source of your data collection, purpose of its processing, and how long it will be stored. If you have any questions regarding your personal data please contact us.

Rectification. You have a right to access and change your personal data provided during registration or account creation. You can do this in the account section.

Erasure. You can decide whether you wish to permanently delete your account or just specific data. If you decide to do so, the process is irreversible. To have your account deleted, please contact us. We reserve the right to refuse permanent deletion for legitimate reasons, in particular if current business affairs are not yet finished.

Restriction. You have a right to demand that we cease processing your data or restrict its processing with respect to exceptions set forth in article 18 of the GDPR.

Portability. If you need to export or import your data, please contact us.

Withdraw Consent. You can always withdraw your consent for processing your data for marketing. To do so, please contact us.

Complaints. You have the right to lodge a complaint with the appropriate data protection authority. If you have concerns about how we are processing your personal data, please contact us.

Changes To This Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to update or modify this Privacy Policy at any time and from time to time without prior notice. Please review this policy periodically, and especially before you provide any information. This Privacy Policy was last updated on the date indicated. Your continued use of our Platform after any changes or revisions to this Privacy Policy shall indicate your agreement with the terms of such revised Privacy Policy.

Contacting Us
Contact us if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the information practices of our Platform. You may contact us through our contact page.