Table of Contents
Section 2. What personal information we may hold about you
Section 3. Where we obtain your personal information
Section 4. How we use your data
Section 7. Retaining your personal information
Section 8. How we share your personal information
Section 9. International data transfers
Section 10. How we keep your personal information safe
Section 14. Updates to this Notice
Isha Foundation Privacy Policy
Last updated: 19 November 2024
Isha Foundation in the UK, Isha Foundation, Inc. Isha Foundation India and our affiliated organisations (collectively, “Isha Foundation“, “we”, “our”, “us”) is committed to keeping your personal information safe and meeting our responsibilities under privacy law. Given that this is information that can be used to identify you, we want you to be confident that we are using it responsibly.
This Privacy Policy applies to our handling of personal information to the extent that we are subject to EU and/or UK data protection legislation (including the EU and UK GDPR), i.e. where you interact with Isha Foundation UK, or where you interact with an Isha Foundation organisation that is based outside the UK, but you are located in the UK or EEA. The Policy gives you detailed information on why and when we collect your personal information when you use our websites (including https://isha.sadhguru.org/uk/en/ and any other websites that reference this Privacy Notice), apps (including the Miracle of Mind App) and other services that we provide, how we use your personal information, how we keep it secure, and how you can let us know if you would like us to change how we manage it.
1. Who we are
Isha Foundation is a private limited company incorporated in England and Wales (company number 07259502) and a charity incorporated in England (with charity number 1152417). Our registered address is Isha Foundation UK, 49-153 Farnham Road, Slough, Berkshire, Greater London, United Kingdom, SL1 4XP.
Isha Foundation, Inc. (trading as Isha Institute of Inner Sciences) is a company formed in the state of Tennessee, United States, whose principal office is located at 951 Isha Ln, McMinnville, TN, 37110-627 with control number 0361102 and Tax ID 62-1794866
Isha Foundation India has its registered address is 15 Govindasamy Naidu Layout, Singanallur, Coimbatore – 641 005, India.
We work to advance human consciousness, at an individual level, through the education of the public in the art and practice of yoga and meditation (for example in Kriya Yoga, Pranayama and Hatha Yoga), and to help people reach the peak of their potential. We also seek to advance such consciousness at a community level through our advancement of ecological causes, for example by working on strategies to advance healthy soils globally and combat soil degradation.
If you have questions regarding your personal information or its use, please contact us using the details set out in the ‘Contact us’ section below.
2. What personal information we may hold about you
Personal information is any information that relates to an individual. It does not include information where the identity of the individual has been fully and effectively removed (anonymous data).
We collect the following personal information about you:
- Identification information, such as your name, date of birth and gender;
- Contact information, such as your email address, telephone/mobile number, country of residence and/or home address;
- Account information, such as your username and password;
- Financial information, such as payment card details and billing address;
- Health information, including details about your mental and physical health, food allergies and dietary requirements.
If you contact us, for example to provide your feedback, we may keep a record of that feedback and correspondence, as well as your name and contact details.
When you access our websites, we also collect information about your computer (“Technical Information“), including, where available, your IP address, operating system, and browser type. We do this for system administration purposes, including to analyse trends and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use so that we can improve the site, and deliver customised, personalised content.
Sensitive Personal information
Under data protection legislation, certain personal information is considered more ‘sensitive’ (e.g., information relating to race, religion, political affiliation and health). This is also known as ‘special category data’. As noted above, we may collect your health information to the extent necessary to be able to provide you with the services or programmes that you have enrolled for and/or to ensure that you are able to take part in particular programmes safely.
3. Where we obtain your personal information
We collect and retain personal information about you that you have given us in different ways, for example where you:
- Create an account with us;
- Make a donation;
- Use our websites;
- Apply to or enrol on one of our courses;
- Attend one of our events or otherwise use our services;
- Complete one of our online forms (including call back requests), take part in surveys, post on our message boards, post any blogs, enter any competitions or prize draws, download information such as videos or other publications or participate in any other interactive areas that appear on our website or within our services;
- Subscribe to our mailing lists;
- Engage with us via social media platforms;
- Contact us via email, phone, in person or by post;
We may collect personal information about you from third parties, including:
- where you have told a third party you are happy to share your data (including where, for example, an individual makes a booking for a group that you are part of); or
- from publicly available and privately subscribed sources as part of our fundraising process. This may include obtaining information from individuals working on our behalf such as our Board and from other organisations (e.g. credit reference agencies or search information providers) so that we can conduct appropriate customer due diligence where required.
4. How we use your personal information
We may use your personal information for the following purposes:
| Personal information we are collecting | Why we use the personal information | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Identification Information Contact Information Account Information Financial Information Health Information |
Allow you to use our website, app(s), and/or provide any other information and services that you have requested or any applications or services that you have ordered | Legitimate interests Processing necessary for performance of a contract To the extent that the information you provide is special category data, we collect and use this on the basis of your explicit consent or because it is necessary to perform a contract with you |
| Identification Information Contact Information |
Compare information for accuracy and to verify it with third parties | Legitimate interests |
| Identification Information Contact Information Account Information Financial Information Feedback |
Provide, maintain, monitor, protect, measure and improve any applications, products, services and information that you have requested from us, including so that we can provide an enhanced, personal, user experience for you | Legitimate interests |
| Identification Information Contact Information |
Send you our newsletter where you have subscribed to this | Explicit Consent |
| Identification Information Feedback |
Manage our relationship with you (for example, customer services and support activities) | Legitimate interests |
| Technical Information | Undertake internal testing of our website, applications, systems and services to test and improve their security, provision and performance | Consent |
| All Information Types | Provide you with any information that we are required to send you to comply with our regulatory or legal obligations | Processing necessary for a legal obligation |
| All Information Types | Detect, prevent, investigate or remediate, crime, illegal or prohibited activities or to otherwise protect our legal rights | Legitimate Interests |
| Identification Information Contact Information |
Contact you to check you would like to take part in our customer research | Legitimate Interests |
| Technical Information | Monitor, carry out statistical analysis and benchmarking, provided that in such circumstances it is on an aggregated basis | Explicit Consent |
| Identification Information Technical Information Contact Information Feedback |
Deliver targeted advertising, marketing or information to you which may be useful to you, based on your use of our applications and services | Explicit Consent |
| All Information Types | Deliver joint content and services with third parties with whom you have a separate relationship | Legitimate Interests |
| Technical Information | Provide you with location-based services, where we collect geo-location data | Explicit Consent |
| Identification Information Contact Information Feedback |
Carry out research and development to improve our services, products and applications | Legitimate Interests |
| Identification Information Contact Information Feedback |
Develop and provide new and existing functionality and services | Legitimate Interests |
| Identification Information Contact Information Health Information |
To protect you or someone else’s life in an emergency | Vital Interests |
5. Our lawful bases
We will only use personal information when the law allows us to (i.e., where we have a ‘lawful basis’). Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:
- Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. For example, we have a legitimate interest in improving and developing our services and ensuring the information we have is accurate;
- Where it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you (for example where we need your information to be able to provide you with a service that you have signed up for, or to enable you to create an account with us);
- Where it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation on us (for example, reporting to HM Revenue and Customs, Companies House or the Charity Commission);
- In more limited, emergency situations, to protect your or someone else’s life.
In some circumstances, we may ask for your consent to use your personal information for a specific purpose. In particular, we may obtain your consent before we send you any email marketing, newsletters or other communications about topics and events which we think might interest you, or to collect your health information in some circumstances.
We do not carry out any automated decision-making using personal information which produces legal effects or otherwise significantly affects individuals.
6. Direct Marketing
Where you have provided us with your consent, we will contact you by e-mail and text message to keep you updated on Isha Foundation’s work, products, services, campaigning, volunteering and fundraising activities and other information that we think you may be interested in. We may also contact you by post or by phone about the same or similar kinds of things unless you have indicated that you would not like to receive any marketing from us by post or phone.
You can opt-out from receiving marketing communications or update your contact preferences at any time by emailing us using the details set out in the ‘Contacting us’ section below.
Please note that where you have opted-out of receiving marketing communications from us we may still need to contact you for administrative purposes, for example, if there is a problem with a payment or in relation to your gift aid declaration.
Social Media
We use social media to promote our work. We have accounts on Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. Where members of the public engage with our posts or publish content relevant to our work, we may like the posts, follow them, reply or write to them. We conduct research on what people say on public social media platforms to better understand how people feel about our sector and to improve our work.
If you are a social media user, we may use social media tools as part of our relationship with you. These tools include Meta Custom and Lookalike audiences. Through using these tools, we may provide some of your data to the social media platform to allow them to identify your social media profile. You will then be shown advertising relating to Isha Foundation which we think you will be interested in seeing. The social media platform will also use your profile to identify those with similar characteristics to you who we think may also be interested in finding out more about the work we do. These individuals will then be shown advertising about Isha Foundation.
You can manage your social media ad preferences via the relevant social media platform:
- Meta Custom Audiences guides
- Meta Data Policy (also applies to Instagram)
- Twitter Privacy Notice
- Google Privacy Notice
When we engage with Meta to identify you on their platform and provide you with our adverts we are joint controllers of your personal information with Meta. Our agreement with Meta sets out our responsibilities to you — for example, we are responsible for informing you about this activity. Both we and Meta are responsible for keeping your information secure. You can exercise your privacy rights against each of us individually.
If you do not want us to use your data for social media advertising, you can opt-out by contacting us using the contact information in the ‘Contacting us’ section below. Please note that even if you opt-out you may still see adverts related to us. This is because the social media platform may receive information about you (such as the websites you have visited) that was not provided by us.
Data collected from our website may also be shared with Meta via our use of Meta Pixels. Meta uses this information to display our ads on your social media page and to create ‘lookalike’ audiences as detailed above. For more information about Meta Pixels and how you can opt in or out please see our Cookie Notice.
7. Retaining your personal information
We will not keep personal information for longer than necessary, and the appropriate retention period will vary according to the intended purpose for which we collected the personal information.
The criteria we use to determine the retention period of personal information are: (i) the respective statutory retention period; (ii) our contractual and/or business relationships with you; (iii) (potential) disputes; and (iv) any guidelines issued by relevant regulators. After expiration of that period, the relevant information is routinely deleted, as long as it is no longer necessary for the fulfillment of a contract, the initiation of a contract or to protect or defend our position or that of a third party. If you have any questions about our retention periods, please contact us at uk@ishafoundation.org.
8. How we share your personal information
We may share your personal information with third parties, including the following:
- with other organisations in the Isha Foundation Group, around the world, to the extent necessary to develop our services and/or provide you with the services, information applications, products or services that you have requested;
- with contractors, suppliers, or other third parties that process personal information on our behalf as part of the services that they provide to us (such as website host/app providers and developers);
- with other third parties that we work with to deliver advertising in accordance with this Privacy Policy (including social media providers);
- as part of a sale, merger or acquisition, or other transfer of all or part of our assets including as part of a bankruptcy proceeding;
- pursuant to a subpoena, court order, or other legal process or as otherwise required or requested by law, regulation, or government authority programs, or to protect our rights or the rights or safety of third parties;
- with our professional advisors, lawyers, accountants and auditors;
- with credit reference agencies and/or fraud prevention agencies; or
- with your consent or as otherwise disclosed at the time of data collection or sharing.
9. International data transfers
We may transfer your personal data outside of the UK and/or the EEA in some circumstances, including where we share it with Isha Foundation Group organisations in other jurisdictions, or use service providers who store data on servers outside of the UK/EEA. Where we transfer your personal data out of the UK/EEA, we will take steps to ensure that your personal information is protected in accordance with appropriate safeguards, especially where the recipient country is not considered to be adequate under EU or UK law (as appropriate). In particular, we will rely on the appropriate safeguards under data protection legislation, such as standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission and/or UK Government to protect your personal information.
10. How we keep your personal information safe
To protect your privacy we will make sure your personal information is kept securely and disclosed only to relevant organisations or representatives who need to access it to perform their roles. While we seek to use appropriate organisational, technical and administrative measures to protect personal information within our organisation, unfortunately no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please immediately notify us in accordance with the “Contact us” section below.
11. Your rights
Under certain privacy laws, you have rights relating to your personal information. You may have a right to the following:
- to request access to the personal information we hold about you;
- to request that we rectify or erase your personal information;
- to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information;
- to object to our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances;
- under certain circumstances, to ask us to port personal information about you that you have provided to us to you or to a third party; and
- where we previously obtained your consent, to withdraw consent to processing your personal information.
To exercise these rights, contact us via the “Contact us” section below. Please be aware that we may be unable to provide these rights to you under certain circumstances, for example if we are legally prevented from doing so or can rely on exemptions.
Additionally, you have the right to lodge a complaint against us, which you can do by contacting the supervisory authority in your country of residence. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk/concerns, while details of the appropriate authorities in other EU Member States can be found here.
12. Other websites
Our websites contain links to other websites. Please note that when you click on one of these links, you are entering another website for which we have no responsibility (even if you access the website via a link to one of our websites). We encourage you to read the privacy notices on all such websites.
13. Cookies
Our websites and apps use cookies to enhance your experience while using those sites. Cookies are pieces of information that some websites transfer to the computer or device that is browsing that website and are used for record-keeping purposes at many websites. For further details about our use of cookies, please visit our Cookie Notice here.
14. Updates
This Notice may change from time to time — for example, to take into account changes at Isha Foundation or to reflect changes in regulation or legislation. It was last updated on 19 November 2024.
Updates to this Notice will be posted on this page — please check back from time to time. We will also use reasonable efforts to inform you of any significant changes by email where appropriate.
15. Contact us
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Notice or the way in which we handle your personal information, please email us at uk@ishafoundation.org.
You can also contact us at the following address:
49-153 Farnham Road, Slough, Berkshire, Greater London, Berkshire, United Kingdom, SL1 4XP.