Privacy Policy

Effective September 1, 2004

Last Amended March 31, 2017

M.A. Center is committed to safeguarding the privacy of its online users' Personal information (as defined below).  Please read the following privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) to understand the rules and procedures followed by M.A. Center in handling Personal Information provided to us over the internet. If you have further questions regarding our Privacy Policy, please contact us via email at privacy@amma.org.  Any defined terms used herein but not defined herein are defined in our Terms of Use.

What information does M.A. Center Collect?

M.A. Center collects Personal Information only from persons who voluntarily provide the Personal information or from various affiliated M.A. Center organizations (e.g., inter alia, local satsangs and local centers in the U.S. and abroad, and such organizations, the “Affiliated Amma Organizations”) that have already been granted permission to share such Personal Information.

“Personal information” means your name, shipping/mailing address, telephone number, fax number, email address, credit or debit card account number, and may also include your retreat registration as well as your donation preferences.

How M.A. Center uses the Personal Information

1.  We use your Personal Information to respond to and fulfill requests for products and services including sending information about the activities of Amma, M.A. Center, and its affiliates;
2.  Sending you our e-newsletters;
3.  Contacting you about the status of your orders, donations, and retreat registrations;
4.  Completing your purchases and retreat registrations; and
5.  Completing your donations.  

When we Disclose Personal Information to Others

1. M.A. Center does exchange Personal Information with various Affiliated Amma organizations so that they can contact people on the mailing list about M.A. Center programs and events.
2. M.A. Center's mailing list, including the Personal Information we receive through the internet, is never shared with any commercial organizations, and is never sold, rented, or given to unrelated third parties.
3. M.A. Center will disclose Personal Information to third parties if we believe in good faith that the law requires us to so do.

Right to Control and Correct Personal Information

1. Individuals who wish to register online for M.A. Center retreats are asked to open an account in which they provide a username and password.  Please contact us at privacy@amma.org at any time to change that information.
2. Individuals who wish to receive information about M.A. Center activities via the e-newsletter provide their name and email address.  Individuals can change the information at any time by emailing us at privacy@amma.org. You may unsubscribe from the e-newsletter by emailing us at mailadmin@ammachi.org.
3. Individuals who purchase goods or services from the bookstore, or who give donations, are asked to supply their Personal information at each transaction. Individuals can change the information at any time by emailing us at privacy@amma.org.

Security

The security of your Personal Information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the Personal Information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Our store is hosted on Shopify, Inc. Shopify provides us with the online platform that allows us to sell our products to you. Your data is stored through Shopify’s data storage, databases, and the general Shopify application. Shopify stores your data on a secure server behind a firewall.

When you complete a purchase on our Site, then Shopify stores your credit card data. It is encrypted through the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). Your purchase transaction data is stored only as long as is necessary to complete your purchase transaction. All direct payment gateways adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of credit card information by our store and its service providers. For more information about Shopify’s platform and data collection and use practices, you may want to read Shopify’s Terms of Service and Privacy Statement found on its website.

If you have any questions about security on our Site, you can contact us at privacy@amma.org.

How We Use Cookies

1. M.A. Center does use cookies to store information. A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored in your computer's hard drive.
2. M.A. Center gives the option to the user to store their personal preferences as cookies. These cookies are for your convenience only, and are not used for any other purpose, other than that outlined in number 3 immediately below.
3. M.A. Center does use cookies to track the items you place in your shopping cart during a single shopping session. Therefore your browser must accept cookies if you wish to shop at our online bookstore www.amma.org/bookstore. These cookies identify your computer and contain no Personal Information.

Regarding Children

1. M.A. Center does not knowingly collect Personal Information about or from persons under the age of 13.
2. We do not sell or market products or services for purchase by children.
3. If a child under 13 submits Personal Information to us and we learn that the Personal Information is the information of a child under 13, we will attempt to delete the information as soon as possible. If you believe that we might have any Personal Information from a child under 13, please contact us at privacy@amma.org.

Amendment of Policy

M.A. Center reserves the right to amend this Privacy Policy any time. No individual notice of such changes will be provided, but they will appear on the website in the form of a revised and newly dated Privacy Policy. Our current policy was amended March 31, 2017.