PRIVACY STATEMENT & DATA PROTECTION

Meditation Teacher College abides by the GDPR & PECR, which means we need to tell you what data we collect from you and what we intend to do with it. In this policy, when referring to us, we, our, or College this means Meditation Teacher College and it’s staff (eg: Director, Colin Ellis).

This policy is for the following domains:

MeditationTeacherCollege.com (College & course platform)
MeditationTeacher.uk (Meditation Teacher(s) in the UK)
MT.sbs (no content, but short-link provision owned by the College)

Personal Data refers to information that tells us specifically who you are, such as your name, email address, or phone number. We will collect Personal Data only where we have your consent to do so – typically you will have to join (register for) a course, or subscribe to the Newsletter, opt-in to get a download and updates, or scheduling a call.

COOKIES

At present, the only cookies we use are for the functioning of the website - for your convenience. These do not collect personal data for browsing the website unless you login or subscribe. They do collect data which is anonymous so we can determine what people like on our website so we can provide more of it. Subscribing (opt-in), registering, or logging-in may allow the College to recognise you so we can personalise our service to you. For example, so we can make it easy to login to a course and show you how many lessons you have completed.

DATA

What data do we keep and why do we keep it?

First name and email address. We use this as a way of contacting you regarding our courses, newsletters, books or other potential recommendations, including offers. For instance, as well as lots of FREE guidance, we shall let you know about our paid courses and coaching (so we can give you more support) but also things we find that are either better, or at least as good as, what we have to offer so you can learn from others too. Some of these may have something you can buy, and if so we may receive a (generally small) commission. We think that’s fair since it in no ways effects how much you pay and helps the College to be sustainable.

If you join a live course, event, retreat or coaching programme we may ask for and keep more details about you, which shall be made known to you before or during your sign-up for these services. For instance, if you come on retreat with us, we may ask for a Next of Kin phone number & thecontactdetails of your Doctor, as well as health related questions. These are to comply with Health & Safety regulations. Online events do not need the same amount of data but sometimes a Risk Assessment is relevant therefore questions & personal data shall be sought.

Any other data - emails, comments, feedback, or questions (or answers provided by you), from you to us or other students/perticipants - may be recorded, transcribed, or kept (online or offline). If is in answer to an anonymous survey then no personal data shall be attached. If not anonymous (your email or username is connected (eg: on a forum), this data shall be kept, even if you unsubscribe and your personal data is deleted (the data henceforth becomes anonymous).

We will never share, sell or rent your personal data to anyone for any reason.
We may, however, have to give over our records if they are subpoenaed by a law court.

You have a right to request to see, have amended or destroyed, any data we may have about you. We will respond to any such request made within 21 days. Generally, every email via our email service provides an unsubscribe link, so you can be deleted from any list without having to email the College.
If records are needed in paper form there will be a charge to cover administration costs of £20 plus postage.

How will we store your data?

Your personal data (name and email address, etc.) are stored on the secure servers of our email-service provider plus a backup on the College computer, which is encrypted and password protected (it’s not MS Windows or Apple Mac therefore more secure). All communications between the College computer and the cloud (internet) is via encrypted SSL (& SFTP) protocols.

3rd Party (Data Processor) Providers

1. We use one platform for all the technical services (outgoing email, course platform, website creation & hosting webinars, etc.) - InfluencerSoft - and are confident everything you do on our websites are kept private by their support staff.
2. We use Zoho.eu for receiving emails (instead of gmail, yahoo or outlook) - and are confident everything we do on their server is private and untouched by their staff.

How long will we store your data and how will we dispose of it?

As soon as you unsubscribe from any of our mailing lists, you shall no longer receive emails related to that list (eg: All One Planet Newsletter). If you are registered with the College this will not delete your Personal Data from our system.

If you want to be completely deleted from our system, please contact the Data Controller ( Colin@MeditationTeacherCollege.com ) to make your request. If you use the Subject heading, "Delete My Personal Data", this will help us recognise your email. The College will then tell the Data Processor support staff to comply with your request.

CAUTION. Please be aware, if you request us to delete your personal data, you will no longer be able to gain access to any course or resource - including all paid-for products or courses. Re-registering will only give you access to all FREE resources and courses (with others available to purchase).

Instead of a "Delete My Personal Data" request, you may change your subscription preferences, change your email and photo in your Profile Settings or ask us to change/delete any of your data the system doesn't allow you to change yourself.

Any College backups shall be deleted within one month via the backup being updated.

The exception, is when we feel there may be contractual or liability (& potentially other) considerations, in which case we shall stay within the law and only keep records for as long as the law provides and only use your data for those considerations.

If you are not happy with the way the College uses your data you can, in the first instance email the Director at Meditation Teacher College, via Colin@MeditationTeacherCollege.com

Note from the Data Controller

"Meditation Teacher College is not a large college or faceless corporation. It is a very small, specialised, education provider promoting good health, wellbeing and spiritual guidance. Good ethics and integrity are hallmarks of our business model. We do not have a team of people to keep up-to-date with GDPR, PECR, and all the other privacy legislation. Privacy legislation compliance is aimed at large organisations with teams of data programmers, data specialists, and outsourced data privacy consultants, that want to make money from your data by selling your personal preferences or profiling (from several sources) or face & voice recognition, and all the other privacy-erroding algorithms & AI out there. This compliance is about proving a faceless organisation has the processes in place to deal with privacy concerns and breaches. Micro-businesses are then expected to comply with these compliance-laws and have the same processes that a multinational should have.
This means:

1. We abide by the principles of the law (and completely agree with them) even if, at any time, we fail to adhere to the minutiae of compliance.
2. Contact me if you have a problem with our use of your data. I will resolve it.
3. If it doesn't happen immediately, it's not because I want to insult you with more newsletters, etc., but because I'm ill, on retreat, or simply not seen your request for some reason. I'll not be offended if you try again.

If you would like to help me to have the resources to keep up-to-date with privacy legislation compliance (sometimes at variance with the simple, genuine intention to respect your privacy), please consider a donation or College Sponsorship."

Data Controller:
Colin Ellis
Meditation Teacher College
UK
Colin@MeditationTeacherCollege.com

Updated: 05/08/2021