Privacy Policy

Compassion Institute, Inc. (“CI”, “Compassion Institute”, “we” or “us”) respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy (this “Policy”) describes how we process Personal Data (as defined below) we gather through our website, when you create an account, when you register for one of our courses and when you participate during a class session (together, the “Services”). It also tells you about your rights and choices with respect to your Personal Data, and how you can contact us if you have any queries or concerns.

1. Personal Data We Collect

In this Policy, “Personal Data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. We may collect and process Personal Data about you in the ways outlined below.

Information provided by you

• When you create an account. If you register for a Compassion Institute membership or teacher account, we will ask you to provide us with Personal Data such as your name and contact details (email address and cellphone), address, and whether you have taken a course with us before.
• When you register for a course. If you register for a course, we will ask you to provide us with Personal Data, including your name and contact details (email address and cellphone), country, address and how you found out about our courses.
• When you contact us. If you contact us via our website, email, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or by other means, you may provide us with Personal Data, such as a username, name and contact details, and the content, date and time of our communications.
• When you participate during a class session. If you participate during an online class, you may provide us with Personal Data included in your responses to polls, surveys and forums, and other user content you contribute during a class session.

Information collected via automated means

• Cookies and similar technologies. We use cookies and similar technologies (collectively “cookies”) to ensure that our Services function properly, to improve our products and Services and to assist with marketing campaigns. Cookies are small text files containing a string of alphanumeric characters. We and third-party partners collect information using cookies, pixel tags, or similar technologies. We and third-party service providers may use the following cookies:
  • ○ Strictly necessary cookies. Some cookies are strictly necessary to make our Services available to you. For example, to remember your preferences. We cannot provide you with the Services without this type of cookie.
  • ○ Functional cookies. We use cookies to help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, live-streaming, and other third-party features.
  • ○ Analytics cookies. We use cookies for website analytics purposes in order to operate, maintain and improve our Services. We work with third parties such as Google Analytics for these purposes.
  • ○ Advertising cookies. We work with third party advertising partners such as Google to show you ads that we think may interest you. These advertising partners may set and access their own cookies on our Services and they may otherwise collect or have access to information about you which they may collect over time and across different online services.
• The information collected via such cookies may include information such as your IP address, time spent on the Services, actions taken on the Services, device information, searches, interactions, hardware information, and other related information.

Information collected from other sources

• Information from third parties. We may obtain Personal Data about you from third parties, including your employer. This will include the information we need in order to provide the Services to you.

2. How We Use Personal Data

We will only process your Personal Data based on a valid legal ground, where this is required by law. The table below describes the legal ground by purpose.

3. How We Share Your Personal Data

We may share your Personal Data with third parties in the following circumstances:

• Service providers, vendors and partner organizations. We work with third party service providers to operate our Services, including for analyzing data, providing IT-hosting and maintenance (e.g., Cognito), billing, marketing (e.g., Mailchimp, WooCommerce), and running our community and course platform (e.g., Engagez). These third-party service providers may have access to or process your Personal Data as part of providing those services to us. For example, when you enroll in a course, apply for a scholarship, Compassion Corps grant, training fellowship, or other selective programs, Compassion Institute may share that information with the individuals designated to select participants in, and help manage, those programs, which may include people not employed by Compassion Institute directly. We may also share your Personal Data with partner organizations, and volunteers for the purpose of organizing and running the event or course you voluntarily signed up for.
• Analytics partners. We use analytics services such as Google Analytics to collect and process certain analytics data. You can learn more about Google’s practices by visiting https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/, and opt out of them by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
• Legal. We may disclose your Personal Data to third parties if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with applicable laws, in response to a court order, judicial or other government subpoena or warrant, or to otherwise cooperate with law enforcement or other governmental agencies. We also reserve the right to disclose your Personal Data that we believe, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to (i) take precautions against liability, (ii) protect ourselves or others from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses or activity, (iii) investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations, (iv) protect the security or integrity of our Services and any facilities or equipment used to make our Services available, or (v) protect our property or other legal rights, including to enforce our agreements, or the rights, property, or safety of others.
• Merger. We may disclose or otherwise transfer Personal Data to an acquirer, investor, successor or assignee as part of any merger, acquisition, debt financing, sale of assets, financing or similar transaction, as well as in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership in which information is transferred to one or more third parties as one of our business assets.
• Consent. We may also disclose your Personal Data with your permission.

4. Payments

For payment processing, Compassion Institute relies on third-party payment processors, such as Stripe. When you make a payment through our website, your credit card information is collected and processed directly by these third-party payment processors. Compassion Institute does not collect, store, or have access to your credit card information.

5. Data Retention

We take measures to delete your Personal Data or keep it in a form that does not permit identifying you when this information is no longer necessary for the purposes for which we process it. We may retain your Personal Data for a longer period where required to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, resolve a dispute, prevent fraud and abuse or enforce our terms of service. When determining the specific retention period, we take into account various criteria, such as the nature and length of our relationship with you, and mandatory retention periods provided by law and the relevant statute of limitations.

6. Your Rights in Relation to Your Personal Data

Depending on where you reside, you may have the following legal rights:

• Access and Portability. You may ask us to provide you with a copy of the Personal Data we maintain about you, including a machine-readable copy of the Personal Data that you have provided to us, and request information about its processing.
• Rectification and Deletion. You may ask us to update and correct inaccuracies in your Personal Data, or to have the information anonymized or deleted, as appropriate.
• Restriction and Objection. You may ask us to restrict the processing of your Personal Data, or object to such processing.
• Consent Withdrawal. You may withdraw any consent you previously provided to us regarding the processing of your Personal Data, at any time and free of charge. We will apply your preferences going forward and this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before you withdrew your consent.
• Complaint. You may lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, including in your country of residence, place of work, or where an incident took place. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach a supervisory authority, so please contact us in the first instance.

You may exercise these rights by contacting us using the contact details at the end of this Policy. Please note that there are exceptions and limitations to each of these rights.

7. Children’s Privacy

We do not knowingly collect, maintain, or use Personal Data from children under 18 years of age, and no part of our Services is directed to children. For instance, our classes require those enrolling to be of 18 years of age or older. If you learn that a child has provided us with Personal Data in violation of this Policy, then you may alert us by contacting us using the contact details at the end of this Policy.

8. Cross-Border Data Transfers

Our Services are hosted and supported in the United States (“U.S.”). If you choose to use our Services from regions of the world with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, then please note that you are transferring your Personal Data outside of those regions to the U.S. for storage and processing. You may contact us as specified below for more information about our processing of your Personal Data in the U.S.

9. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our privacy practices. If we modify this Policy, we will indicate the date of the latest revision at the top of this Policy.

10. Our contact information

Should you have any queries regarding this Policy, about Compassion Institute’ processing of your Personal Data or if you wish to exercise your rights with respect to your Personal Data, you can contact Compassion Institute by email: [email protected].