Who we are

The nonprofit organization, Science of Spirituality, Inc. (‘SOS’), is the controller of the personal data you submit to us and is responsible for your personal data under applicable data protection law.

SOS is a nonstock, religious corporation registered in Delaware, Corporate No. 871450 and headquartered at 4105 Naperville Road, Lisle, Illinois, USA 60532; Ph: 1-630-955-1200. SOS is recognized as a tax-exempt religious organization by the United States Internal Revenue Service and is registered as a charitable organization in the State of Illinois.

Scope of this Policy

SOS is committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy sets out the type of information we collect from the public, what we use it for, and the rights that you have in relation to this information.

This Privacy Policy applies to use of data collected by us from the public, particularly those who use the SOS public Website www.sos.org. Because SOS is an international organization, this Privacy Policy also provides the terms for cross-border data transmission of your data within SOS and to its affiliated organizations. If you are a member and want to know what additional information we collect on our members who give it to us, go to our member Website at sangat.sos.org and look for SOS’s member Website Privacy Policy.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and ensure that you understand it. Your acceptance of our Privacy Policy is deemed to occur upon your first visit to our Website. If you do not accept and agree to this Privacy Policy, you should stop using our Website.

Who do we collect information from?

We collect information from anyone who is or says he or she is 18 or older and connects with us and volunteers their contact information, such as on our public Website, by email, at our meetings and programs, or by calling us or talking to one of our members.

Our Website is not intended for individuals under 18 years of age, without the valid consent of their parent or guardian. If we learn that we have collected or received personal information from an individual under the age of 18 without verification of legal guardian or parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under age 18, please contact us at privacy@sos.org.

 

Information we collect

The type of information we collect from the public who volunteer it is generally limited to your contact information: name and contact details (e.g. postal address, email address, telephone number, and mobile number). You can also email or talk to us to ask questions, send messages and receive answers.

Some data will be collected automatically by our Website, other data will only be collected if you voluntarily submit it and consent to us using it for the purposes set out herein.

The types of information we collect

Voluntarily submitted data

Personal information — ‘Personal information’ is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual, including: full name, email address, phone number, postal address, and telephone number. Personal information is collected from the public only if it is submitted with your consent. If you submit any personal information relating to other people to us or to our service providers in connection with us or our Websites, you represent that you have the authority to do so and to permit us to use the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Automatically collected data

This is information that does not reveal your specific identity or does not directly relate to any identifiable individual. It is used by us to help us with the operation of our Website and deliver a better user experience. Examples of such information include (1) information about the browser type and version used; (2) your operating system; (3) your Internet service provider; (4) your IP address; (5) date and time of access; (6) information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies.

In the event of abuse, we may block certain IP addresses.

How we use your information

For the public connecting with us, we use your contact information to deliver information to you about our programs, services, meetings, activities and spiritual messages and to answer your questions about SOS and what it offers.

All personal data is stored in a manner that reasonably protects it from misuse and loss and from unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.

We use your data and personal information to:

• Personalize and tailor for you our services and information on our Website;
• Supply information and news about our services to you;
• Respond to communications from you;
• Email to you newsletters, program information, spiritual messages, alerts and other information you have asked to be given;
• Unsubscribe you or let you opt-out at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link
• Give us information and feedback on your use of our Website to improve our Website and your use of it.

In some cases, your data that you give to us may be subject to a legal requirement that limits our use of it without your further or more explicit consent for us to be able to use such data.

With your permission and/or where permitted by law, we may also use your data to contact you by email, telephone, text message, post and/or message services with information, news and event details. We will not send you unsolicited messages or messages you tell us you do not want.

As stated above under the heading of ‘Automatically collected data,’ automatically collected information obtained through your browser or device, links, cookies and pixel tags is used to deliver a better Website user experience.

We will take reasonable steps to process your personal data without adversely affecting your rights under the rules and laws governing our use of it.

How we obtain your information

We obtain your information through a variety of means, including by direct contact on our Website, at our meetings and programs, by your calling or emailing us, by your speaking to one of our members, and where you otherwise volunteer it to us.

Personal information — We and our service providers may collect personal information in a variety of ways, including:

• Through our Websites or emailing us: We may collect Personal information through the Websites, e.g., when you register for an event, contact us, subscribe to our email newsletter, download content (e.g. audio, video or literature), register for an SOS program, or send us an email.
• Offline: We may collect Personal information from you offline, such as when you attend one of our events, programs or talks, during phone calls with our volunteers, or when you directly speak to one of our members.
• Through you: Our service providers and processors may collect information such as your location or your preferred means of communication when you voluntarily provide it.

Automatically collected information — We and our service providers may collect other information in a variety of ways, including:

• Through your browser or device: Certain information is collected by most browsers or automatically through your device such as computer type (Example Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, Internet browser type and version, and the name and version of the Sites you are using.
• Through links: In order to operate our services, we keep track of how you interact with links across our services. This includes links in emails we send you and links on the Website.
• Through cookies, pixel tags and other similar technologies: A cookie is a small piece of data that is stored on your computer or mobile device to enable SOS to give you a better Website experience and operate our services we offer on our Website. Pixel tag is a small block of code on a webpage that allow websites to do things like read and place cookies. The resulting connection can include information such as the person’s IP address, the time the person viewed the pixel and the type of browser being used.
• Like many websites: We also use cookies, pixel tags and similar technologies to collect additional Website usage data to operate our services and to remember and analyze how visitors use our Website, what pages they visit, the region they are in, and how we can better reach people like our visitors to get our messages and information to them, including when they search on the web for services or information of the kind or type that we offer.
• By aggregating information: Aggregated personal information does not personally identify you or any other user of our Website. For example, we may aggregate personal information to calculate the percentage of our users from a particular region.

Purposes for which we use your information

We may use your personal information for the following purposes:

• Providing you with access to the information, services, spiritual messages in various media, and support you asked for or want to know from SOS;
• Sending you communications about services, meditation sessions, events, programs, children’s activities, projects we are undertaking, and uplifting messages in the field of spirituality;
• Registering you for attendance at and/or arrangements for, an SOS event, activity or program;
• Answering your questions about SOS and what it offers;
• We may also use your personal information for other purposes which we specifically notify you about and, where appropriate, obtain your consent.
• Unless you are a member, we do not solicit or accept donations or offer to sell anything other than occasional purchases of books, CDs, DVDs and similar items about SOS if you visit our bookstore and choose to make a purchase. Accordingly, the only financial information from nonmembers we receive is payment information used by us and our service providers to process occasional purchases from our bookstore.

• Automatically collected information obtained through your browser or device, links, cookies and pixel tags is used to deliver a better website user experience and give us information to help us improve our ability to reach you and others with messages and information about SOS.

If you are a member, there is more information about you that we obtain and other purposes for which we use it. As noted above, the SOS privacy disclosure for members is on the SOS Website for its members at sangat.sos.org.

With whom we may share your information

We will not sell your personal information to third parties or share it with other charities or religious organizations.

We may share your data within SOS and with its affiliated organizations.

We may sometimes share your information with our trusted service providers who perform services and functions on our behalf to support our interactions with you, including, for example, cloud computing services, email outreach service providers, website administrators, search engine and social media platforms, and as mentioned previously, payment processors when a visitor makes a purchase from an SOS bookstore.

We may also have to disclose your information in order to comply with a legal obligation imposed on us.

Where we will store your information

Your information may be stored by us or transferred and stored outside SOS’s own computers, for example on website host servers.

Some or all of your data may be stored or transferred outside of your country of domicile. You accept and agree to this by using our Website and submitting information to us. If we do store or transfer data outside of your country of domicile, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that your data is treated as safely and securely as it would be within your country of domicile.

Data security is important to us and to protect your data we have put in place reasonable procedures to safeguard data collected through our Website. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we maintain precautions for the protection for your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site.

Cookies

Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognizes that cookie. Cookies are widely used because they allow a website to recognize a user’s device and therefore allow enhanced functionality.

You can find out more information about cookies at: www.allaboutcookies.org .

Like many websites, we use cookies and similar technologies to collect additional Website usage data and to operate our services. Cookies and other similar technologies may be used to collect other information, like statistical data on the use of our Website and its functioning. We do so to monitor and improve our Website information messages to you and to facilitate your ability to navigate through our Websites, and to allow us to share and make available our web pages to people like you who may be interested in our spiritual, healthy lifestyle, vegetarian and ethical living messages and programs via social media platforms such as Google and Facebook.

We may use third parties to provide information about us on other websites that may be of interest to you and people like you or who have similar interests in spirituality, meditation or our events and programs, based on information collected about your use of our Websites and other websites. To do so, these companies may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser (including through the use of pixel tags and web beacons).

By continuing to use the SOS Website, you agree to the placement of these cookies and similar technologies.

How do I refuse or withdraw my consent to the use of cookies?

You can stop cookies from being downloaded on your computer by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. Most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to be notified when you receive a new cookie, and how to disable existing cookies.

For more information on the development of user-profiles and the use of cookies, please see www.youronlinechoices.eu if you are located in Europe or www.aboutads.info/choices for locations outside Europe.

Links

Our Websites may include links to other sites not owned or managed by us such as Facebook and You Tube. If you use our links to go to other websites, we do not manage and cannot be held responsible for the privacy of information you provide on those websites, their use of cookies and other technologies and what information is collected from you by or on those websites.

We cannot be held responsible for the privacy of information you give to or which are collected by websites not managed by us.

How long will we keep your information?

We will retain your information for as long as it is required to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, and for as long as is necessary for the legitimate purposes of our legal rights and obligations. After that time, we will delete your data from our systems and require that anyone to whom we have passed your information also delete it.

Your rights

If you are an EU resident or in cases where applicable country or state law requires them, you have a number of rights under data protection laws. These include the right to:

• Access a copy of the information we hold about you
• Rectify errors in information we hold about you
• Have the information we hold about you erased in certain circumstances
• Restrict the processing of your information
• Object to your information being used for direct marketing
• Transfer the information we hold about you to another entity
• Withdraw any consent you have provided

If you would like access to your information, modify it or erase the information we hold about you, please send a description of the information you want to see or erase, and proof of identity to Science of Spirituality, 4105 Naperville Road, Lisle, Illinois 60532 Attn: Privacy Officer; or email us at privacy@sos.org. If you would like to invoke any of your other rights, please contact us at privacy@sos.org. In order for us to process a request from you, we need to recognize your email address (or written address if you write to us) or you may need to supply us with additional information to verify that we are dealing with the proper person making the request.

Cross border data transfers

Our member Website is maintained in the United States. If you are visiting SOS Websites in other countries or you are from another country and visiting SOS U.S. Websites, members, places, or programs, please note that information you give SOS from those visits will in many cases be sent to the United States where SOS as data controller is located. The laws governing data collection and use from your country, if other than the U.S., may differ from those in the United States. You freely and specifically give us your consent to export and use your information within the United States. You understand that data stored in the United States or other countries may be subject to lawful requests by the courts or law enforcement authorities. If you are situated in the European Union, whenever we transfer your personal data to processors outside of the European Union, we use appropriate and suitable safeguards to protect the transfer, use and storage of your personal information. We may use specific contracts or language in agreements or arrangements with service providers and affiliates of SOS approved by the European Commission which gives personal data from EU residents the same protection it has in the European Union.

Contacting us with questions and complaints

If you have a complaint or question about the way we are using your information then initially you should contact us at privacy@sos.org. If you are located in the European Union and have any complaints regarding our privacy practices as data controller, you have the right to make a complaint at any time to your local Supervisory Authority. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to deal with your concerns before you approach your Supervisory Authority so please contact us in the first instance.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data or to exercise any of the other rights. However, we may refuse or be unable to comply with your request if your request is unfounded, repetitive, excessive, unintelligible or we cannot verify its true origin and have concerns that it is not a legitimate request.

Changes to this policy

We may change our Privacy Policy from time to time so please check back periodically. The most current version of the Policy will govern our use of your information.

This policy was last updated: January 2020