Privacy Imprint

Introduction

We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors and customers; in this policy we explain how we will handle your personal data according to the rules of GDPR.

We use cookies to increase the usability of our websites https://www.merucourses.com.

We do NOT use third-party cookies (cookies from other companies).

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

In this Section 2 we have set out:

(a) the general categories of personal data that we may process;

(d) the legal bases of the processing.

We process your account data (“account data“). The account data include your name, email address, postal address, and phone number. We process your account data for the purposes of providing our services and communicating with you. The legal basis for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.

When you leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also your IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. The legal basis for this processing is performance of a contract between you and us (you wish to use the comment function of our website) and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.

We process information contained in any enquiry you submit to us regarding goods and/or services (“enquiry data“). The enquiry data may be processed for the purposes of offering and selling course materials and/or services to you. The legal basis for this processing is performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.

We process information relating to our customer relationships, including customer contact information (“customer relationship data“). The customer relationship data include your name, your contact details, and information contained in communications between us and you. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper management of our customer relationships.

We process information relating to transactions (i.e. course applications), including purchases of services, that you enter into with us (“transaction data“). The transaction data include your contact details and the transaction details. We process the transaction data for the purpose of supplying the purchased services (e.g. courses) and keeping proper records of those transactions. The legal basis for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract and our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our business.

We process information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our email newsletters (“notification data“). The notification data is processed for the purposes of sending you the relevant newsletters. The legal basis for this processing is consent.

AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING

We will NOT use your personal data for the purposes of automated decision-making

PROVIDING YOUR PERSONAL DATA TO OTHERS

We will NOT disclose your personal data to insurers and/or professional advisers.

We will NOT disclose your personal data to our suppliers or subcontractors.

Financial transactions relating to our services are handled by our payment services providers, Stripe (for credit cards) and PayPal. We will share transaction data with Stripe and PayPal only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing your payments, refunding such payments and dealing with complaints and queries relating to such payments and refunds. You can find information about the payment services providers’ privacy policies and practices at https://stripe.com/nl/privacyand https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.

In addition we may disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject (e.g. tax).

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

In this Section, we provide information about the circumstances in which your personal data may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

The hosting facilities for our websites are situated in the Netherlands.
We are not transferring your data into other countries.

RETAINING AND DELETING PERSONAL DATA

We will retain your personal data as follows:

After fulfilling your order (i.e. your participation in the course), we will retain your contact data and details of your order indefinitely to give you the best possible service (e.g. to grant you access for an advanced course where the participation of another course is required).

Details about unfinalized applications (applied but cancelled or not paid) will be retained for 3 years.

Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section, we may retain your personal data where such retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject.

AMENDMENTS

We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.

You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy.

YOUR RIGHTS

In this Section, we summarize the rights that you have under the GDPR data protection law. Some of the rights are complex, and not all of the details have been included in our summary. Accordingly, you should read the relevant laws and guidance from the regulatory authorities for a full explanation of these rights.

Your principal rights under data protection law are:

(a) the right to access;

(b) the right to rectification;

(d) the right to restrict processing;

(e) the right to object to processing;

(f) the right to data portability;

(g) the right to complain to a supervisory authority; and

(h) the right to withdraw consent.

You have the right to confirmation as to whether or not we process your personal data and, where we do, access to the personal data, together with certain additional information. That additional information includes details of the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned and the recipients of the personal data. Providing the rights and freedoms of others are not affected, we will supply to you a copy of your personal data. The first copy will be provided free of charge, but additional copies may be subject to a reasonable fee.

You have the right to have any inaccurate personal data about you rectified and, taking into account the purposes of the processing, to have any incomplete personal data about you completed.

In some circumstances you have the right to the erasure of your personal data without undue delay. Those circumstances include: the personal data are no longer necessary to process your orders. However, there are exclusions of the right to erasure. The general exclusions include where processing is necessary: for compliance with our legal obligations (e.g. tax); or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

You have the right to receive your personal data from us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

If you consider that our processing of your personal information infringes data protection laws, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority responsible for data protection.

To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal information is consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

You may exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal data by written notice to us.

THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

Our website includes hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites.

We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of third parties.

UPDATING INFORMATION

Please let us know if the personal information that we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.

ABOUT COOKIES

A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

Cookies are either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

COOKIES THAT WE USE

We use session cookies for the following purposes:

(a) authentication – we use cookies to identify you when you visit our website and as you navigate our website;

MANAGING COOKIES

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can however obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:

(a) https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en (Chrome);

(b) https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences (Firefox);

(d) https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies (Internet Explorer);

(e) https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411 (Safari); and

(f) https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy (Edge).

If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.

OUR DETAILS

This website is owned and operated by Stichting MERU/MVU – Maharishi European Research University – Maharishi Vedic University.

We are registered in the Netherlands in the commercial register Roermond under the registration number 41149508, and our registered office is at Station 24, 6063 NP Vlodrop, the Netherlands.

Our principal place of business is at Station 24, 6063 NP Vlodrop, the Netherlands.

You can contact us in case of questions regarding the privacy of your data:

(a) by post, to the postal address given above;

(d) by email: dpo [at] maharishi [dot] net.