Privacy & Cookies Policy

We, Heartfulness, are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This policy sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, via our Site and when you attend our events, make donations or interact with us in some other way. will be processed by us.

Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

For the purposes of European Economic Area data protection law, (the "Data Protection Law") and Personal data protection Act 2012 Singapore, the data controller for your personal data is HEARTFULNESS Limited, Singapore, trading as Heartfulness, a company registered in Singapore under the Charities Act (UEN 201313718D) having its registered office at LHK 3 Building, 8 New Industrial Road, #05-03, Singapore 536200

We are part of international charitable organisation dedicated to bringing Heartfulness meditation to improve people's lives. We will share your personal data for the purposes set out in this policy with the lead Heartfulness organisation which is responsible for the Heartfulness programme worldwide, which is called the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation, a registered public charitable trust in India. More details about the sharing of data with the Foundation and other organisations can be found in the "Who we give your information to" section.

In particular, this policy sets out:

● Information we collect about you

● Cookies and other technologies

● How we use your information

● Our promotional updates and communications

● Our legal basis for holding your information

● Who we give your information to

● Where we store your information

● [Public forums]

● [Child safety]

● [Payment processing]

● How we protect your information

● How long we keep your information

● Your rights

● Changes to this policy

● Contact us

Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

By accepting using our Site and communicating with us you acknowledge you have read and understood this privacy policy.

Information we collect about you

We will collect and process the following personal data from you:

Information you give us

This is information about you that you give us by filling in forms on our Site or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. It includes information you provide when you register to use our Site, subscribe to our service, search for a product, place an order on our Site, participate in discussion boards or other social media functions on or via our Site, enter a competition, promotion or survey, submit a query, and when you report a problem with our Site.

The information you give us may include your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, financial and credit card information, personal description and photograph, login and password details.

Information we collect about you from your use of our Site:

We will automatically collect information from you each time you use our Site. This includes:

Technical information may include the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;

Information about your visit may include the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time), products you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page, and any phone number used to call our customer service number or social media handle used to connect with our customer service team.

Location data – we collect information through the Site as to your real time location to provide location services where requested or agreed to by you in order to allow tagging, allow check-in, deliver content, advertising or other services such as event information that are dependent on knowing where you are. This information is/may also be collected in combination with an identifier associated with your device to enable us to recognise your mobile browser or device when you return to the site/App.

Delivery of location services will involve reference to one or more of the following: (a) the coordinates (latitude/longitude) of your location; (b) look-up of your country of location by reference to your IP address against public sources; and/or (c) your Identifier for Advertisers (IFA) code for your Apple device, or the Android ID for your Android device, or a similar device identifier.

See Cookies and other technologies for more information on the use of cookies and device identifiers on the Site.

Information we receive from other sources.

This is information we receive about you:

● If you use any of the other Sites or apps we operate or the other services we provide.

● Where you use the meditation services of other Heartfulness organisations around the world

● From third parties we work closely with.

In this case we will have informed you when we collected that data if we intend to share your data internally and combine it with data collected on this site. We will also have told you for what purpose we will share and combine your data.

We will be combining the data we receive from other heartfulness organisations when you register for events online or in our meditation centres, when you make enquiries through email, Site or other communication channels or when you volunteer with any of our affiliate organisations.

We are working closely with third parties (including, for example, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, and search information providers). We will notify you when we receive information about you from them and the purposes for which we intend to use that information.

Cookies and other technologies

Our Site uses cookies and/or other similar technologies such as pixel tags or web beacons to collect and store certain information. These typically involve pieces of information or code that a Site transfers to or accesses from your computer hard drive or mobile device to store and receive information about you. Cookies and similar technologies enable you to be remembered when using that computer or device to interact with Sites and online services and can be used to manage a range of features and content as well as storing searches and presenting personalised content.

Our Site uses cookies and similar technologies to distinguish you from other users of our Site. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our Site and also allows us to improve our Site.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies and similar technologies, but if you prefer, you can change your browser to prevent that and your help screen or manual will tell you how to do this. We also give you information about how to disable cookies here. However, you may not be able to take full advantage of our Site if you do so.

A number of cookies and similar technologies we use last only for the duration of your web or app session and expire when you close your browser/or exit the Site. Others are used to remember you when you return to the Site and will last for longer.

We use these cookies and other technologies on the basis that they are necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or because using them is in our legitimate interests in improving our Site and engaging in a focused way which understand our users (where we have considered that these are not overridden by your rights).

We use cookies and/or other similar technologies, such as tracking GIFs, web beacons pixel codes either alone or in combination with each other to create a unique device ID.

We use the following types of cookies: [this is a standard list of e-commerce cookies but you should check and delete where appropriate]

Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our Site and under our terms with you. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our Site, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.

Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognize and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our Site when they are using it. This helps us for our legitimate interests of improving the way our Site works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

Functionality cookies. These are used to recognize you when you return to our Site. This enables us, subject to your choices and preferences, to personalize our content, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).

Disabling cookies

The effect of disabling cookies depends on which cookies you disable but, in general, the Site may not operate properly if all cookies are switched off. If you only disable third party cookies, you will not be prevented from making purchases on our Site. If you disable all cookies, you will be unable to complete a purchase on our Site.

If you want to disable cookies on our site, you need to change your Site browser settings to reject cookies. How you can do this will depend on the browser you use. Further details on how to disable cookies for the most popular browsers are set out below: –

For Microsoft Internet Explorer:
1. Choose the menu “tools” then “Internet Options”
2. Click on the “privacy” tab
3. Select the setting the appropriate setting
For Google Chrome:
1. Choose Settings> Advanced
2. Under “Privacy and security,” click “Content settings”.
3. Click “Cookies”
For Safari:
1. Choose Preferences > Privacy
2. Click on “Remove all Site Data”
For Mozilla Firefox:
1. Choose the menu “tools” then “Options”
2. Click on the icon “privacy”
3. Find the menu “cookie” and select the relevant options
For Opera 6.0 and further:
1. Choose the menu Files”> “Preferences”
2. Privacy

Where you have not set your permissions, we may also separately prompt you regarding our use of cookies on the Site.

How we use your information

We use information held about you in the following ways:

Information you give to us:

We will use this information to:

● Carry out due diligence or other screening activities (including identity, reference and background checks) in accordance with legal or regulatory obligations or our internal risk management procedures (including but not limited to those designed to combat financial crime, ‘know-your-customer’, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing or anti-bribery) that may be required by law or that may have been put in place by us;

● Take steps in order to provide meditation services and anything else we agree to provide including:
○ administering your account with us;
○ providing meditation guidance and education
○ where you make a donation, verifying and carrying out the processing of payment you make, including through the Site;

● Assist our volunteer facilitators to contact you with information about us and our events taking place in your area by your chosen method of communication if you have given your consent to receiving information from us;

● Assist our volunteer facilitators, practitioners, trainers and event co-ordinators to administer, manage and organise events you have expressed an interest in attending;

● Enforce our legal and/or contractual rights against you including but not limited to legal advisers and debt collection agencies;

● Comply with relevant local or foreign regulatory authorities, government agencies, statutory boards, supervisory bodies, dispute resolution centres or revenue authorities; and

● Ensure that:
○ content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
○ we provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us.

Information we collect about you from your use of our Site

We will use this information in our legitimate interests, where we have considered these are not overridden by your rights:

● To administer our Site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes.

● To keep our Site safe and secure.

● For measuring or understanding the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you.

● To improve our Site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.

● To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so.

Information we receive from other sources

We will combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you in our legitimate interests (where we have considered that these are not overridden by your rights). We will use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).

Our promotional updates and communications

Where permitted in our legitimate interest or with your prior consent where required by law, we will use your personal information to provide you with promotional update communications by email, post and telephone about our products and services.

You can freely object to further marketing at any time by checking and updating your contact details within your account, or selecting the “unsubscribe” link at the end of all our marketing and promotional update communications to you, or by sending us an email to info@heartfulness.sg

Our legal basis for holding your information

We hold your information for one of three reasons:

● For the purposes of a contract with you, where we need information like your name and contact details so we can provide meditation sessions and guidance at your request;

● For our legitimate interests, having considered any impact on your interests and rights, for instance in promoting our organisation and the Heartfulness mission, in requesting and processing donations to fund our activities, to learn from our participants, donors and volunteers so we can improve our Site, our meditation sessions and education and their general experience of Heartfulness; and

● Regulatory authorities including but not limited to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore: the amount of time charitable institutions must retain records: Exempt organizations must keep records as long as they may be needed to administer provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. Generally, this means you must keep records that support an item of income or deduction on a return until the period of limitations for that return runs out. The period of limitations is the period of time in which an organization can amend its return to claim a credit or refund, or the IRAS can assess additional tax. The most common limitations period is three years after the date the return is due or filed, whichever is later.

Who we give your information to

We may give your information to:

● Our volunteer facilitators, practitioners, trainers and event co-ordinators worldwide for the administration, management and organisation of events;

● Other affiliate organisations around the world, the Heartfulness, Shri Ram Chandra Mission, Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation and Spiritual Hierarchy Publication Trust

● The affiliate organisations will use your information in accordance with this policy in the general operation, management and support of our activities and in its responsibility for the planning and strategy for the Heartfulness mission

● Healthfulness Institute, a Texas non-profit corporation, is a part of the Heartfulness worldwide organisation and takes responsibility for the IT, web hosting and related support and other services and it, and through it, its IT and technology suppliers will process your information for the purposes of this policy.

● Selected third parties

Our selected third parties may include:

● Organisations who process your personal data on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions and the Data Protection Law. This includes in supporting the services we offer through the Site in particular those providing Site and data hosting services, providing fulfilment services, distributing any communications we send, supporting or updating marketing lists, facilitating feedback on our services and providing IT support services from time to time. These organisations (which may include third party suppliers, agents, sub-contractors and/or other companies in our group) will only use your information to the extent necessary to perform their support functions.

● Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site and subject to the cookie section of this policy (this will not identify you as an individual).

● Payment processing providers who provide secure payment processing services.

We will disclose your personal information to third parties:

● If we merge with another organisation or are re-organised in order to sustain or further the Heartfulness mission and substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by us will also be transferred to the other organisation.

● If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of supply terms and other agreements with you; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Heartfulness India, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and to prevent cybercrime.

Where we store your information

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) that may not be subject to equivalent Data Protection Law.

Where your information is transferred outside the EEA, we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is subject to appropriate safeguards, such as relying on a recognised legal adequacy mechanism, and that it is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

We may transfer your personal information outside the EEA:

● In order to store it.

● In order to enable us to provide the services and guidance you ask of us. This includes events, meditation sessions, processing of payment details, and the provision of support services.This includes transfer to our affiliate organisations worldwide as set out in the section “Who we share your information with”

● Where we are required to do so to comply with the relevant laws of the country.

● In order to facilitate the operation of our group of businesses, where it is in our legitimate interests and we have concluded these are not overridden by your rights.

We may transfer your personal information to the following countries outside the EEA: India, USA.

Where we share your data with other Heartfulness entities outside the EEA, we have signed EU-approved standard contractual clauses with each of them to safeguard your information.

[Public forums]

The Site may, from time to time, make chat rooms, message boards, news groups and/or other public forums available to its users. Any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when using these and avoid posting any personal information.

[Child safety]

Protecting the safety of children when they use the Internet is important to us.

The Site is intended for use only by persons who are at least [18] years of age.

By using the Site, you confirm to us that you meet this requirement. If you are under the age of 18, you confirm you have received permission from your parent or guardian before using this site/App or sending us personal information.

If you are under the age of [13] your parent or guardian must consent on your behalf where we ask for consent in relation to the use of your information.

[Payment processing]

Payment details you provide will be encrypted using secure sockets layer (SSL) technology before they are submitted to us over the internet. Payments made on the Site are made through our payment gateway providers, Instamojo, Ccavenue Authorize.net and Pay Pal. You will be providing credit or debit card information directly to payment gateway providers which operates a secure server to process payment details, encrypting your credit/debit card information and authorising payment. Information which you supply to payment gateway providers is not within our control and is subject to payment gateway providers own privacy policy and terms and conditions.

How we protect your information

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of 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 will do our best to protect 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 strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to external sites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of such sites.

How long we keep your information

We retain personal data for as long as you are a registered meditator, donor or volunteer with us in order to meet our contractual obligations to you in our legitimate interests for as long as is permitted under any data protection laws for instance in order to comply with our legal obligations. We may also retain aggregate information beyond this time for research purposes and to help us develop and improve our services. You cannot be identified from aggregate information retained or used for these purposes.

Your rights

● You have the right under certain circumstances:
○ to be provided with a copy of your personal data held by us;
○ to request the rectification or erasure of your personal data held by us;
○ to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data (while we verify or investigate your concerns with this information, for example);
○ to object to the further processing of your personal data, including the right to object to marketing (as mentioned in "Our promotional updates and communications" section;
○ to request that your provided personal data be moved to a third party

● Subject to the relevant data protection laws, you have the right to withdraw consent to the collection, use or disclosure of your personal data held by us upon reasonable notice to us;

● You have the right to request for access to your personal data held by us;

● You have the right to correct an error or omission in your personal data held by us

● Where the processing of your personal information by us is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent without detriment at any time by contacting us. You can also change your marketing preferences at any time as described in "Our promotional updates and communications" section;

You can also exercise the rights listed above at any time by contacting us at privacy@heartfulness.org.

For the purposes of European Economic Area data protection law, If your request or concern is not satisfactorily resolved by us, you may approach your local data protection authority, (see https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/data-protection_en).

Your data protection authority can provide further information about your rights and our obligations in relation to your personal data, as well as deal with any complaints that you have about our processing of your personal data.

Changes to this policy

Any changes we make to our privacy policy in future will be posted on this page and, in relation to substantive changes, will be notified to you by e-mail. This policy is effective from 25-May-2018.

Contact Us

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to:

HEARTFULNESS Limited
8 New Industrial Road
#05-03, LHK 3 Building
Singapore 536200
info@heartfulness.sg