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Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how the Buddhist Digital Resource Center ("BDRC," "we," or "us") collects, uses, and discloses information about you. This Privacy Policy applies when you use our websites, mobile applications, and other online products and services that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, our "Services"), contact our customer service team, engage with us on social media, or otherwise interact with us.

 

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of this policy and, in some cases, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our website or providing you with a notification). We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy regularly to stay informed about our information practices and the choices available to you.

 

Collection of information

 

Information you provide to us

We collect information you provide directly to us. For example, you share information directly with us when you create an account, make a donation, or subscribe to our mailing list. The types of personal information we may collect include your display name, email address, gender, and any other information you choose to provide.

 

We do not collect payment information through our services. We rely on third parties to process payments in connection to donations. Any information you provide to facilitate such a payment is subject to the third-party payment processor's privacy policy, and we encourage you to review their policy before you provide any information to the payment processor.

 

Information we collect automatically when you interact with us

In some instances, we automatically collect certain information, including:

    • Activity Information: We collect information about your activity on our Services, such as your search history.
    • Transactional Information: When you make a donation, we collect information about the transaction, such as the amount donated, and the date of the transaction.
    • Device and Usage Information: We collect information about how you access our Services, including data about the device and network you use, such as your hardware model, operating system version, mobile network, IP address, unique device identifiers, browser type, and app version. We also collect information about your activity on our Services, such as access times, pages viewed, links clicked, and the page you visited before navigating to our Services.
    • Information Collected by Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies: We use cookies to authenticate you on our services. We also work with third party analytics providers who use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers, and other technologies to collect information about your use of our Services and other websites and applications, including your IP address, web browser, mobile network information, pages viewed, time spent on pages or in mobile apps, and links clicked. This information may be used by BDRC and others to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, deliver content targeted to your interests on our services, and better understand your online activity. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, see Your Choices below.

 

Information We Collect from Other Sources

If you create or log into your BDRC account through a third-party platform (such as Apple, Google, or Baidu), we will have access to certain information from that platform, such as your name, email address, and profile picture, in accordance with the authorization procedures determined by such platform.

 

Information We Derive

We may derive information or draw inferences about you based on the information we collect. For example, we may make inferences about your location based on your IP address or infer reading preferences based on your reading history.

 

Use of information

We use the information we collect to provide, maintain, and improve our services. We also use the information we collect to:

  • Create and maintain your account;
  • Send you technical notices, security alerts, and support and administrative messages;
  • Respond to your comments and questions and provide customer service;
  • Communicate with you about new content, products, services, and features offered by BDRC;
  • Monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with our Services;
  • Detect, investigate, and prevent security incidents and other malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity and protect the rights and property of BDRC and others;
  • Debug to identify and repair errors in our Services;
  • Comply with our legal and financial obligations; and
  • Carry out any other purpose described to you at the time the information was collected.

BDRC does not sell your personal information.

 

Sharing of information

We share personal information in the following circumstances or as otherwise described in this policy:

  • We share personal information with other users of the Services. For example, if you use our Services to publish content, post comments or send private notes, certain information about you will be visible to others, such as your name, photo, bio, other account information you may provide, and information about your activities on our Services (e.g., your recent contributions).
  • We may disclose personal information if we believe that disclosure is in accordance with, or required by, any applicable law or legal process, including lawful requests by public authorities to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. If we are going to disclose your personal information in response to a legal process, we will give you notice so you can challenge it (for example by seeking court intervention), unless we are prohibited by law or believe doing so may endanger others or cause illegal conduct. We will object to legal requests for information about users of our Services that we believe are improper.
  • We may share personal information if we believe that you have violated the law, or if we believe it is necessary to protect the rights, property, and safety of BDRC, our users, the public, or others.
  • We share personal information with your consent or at your direction.
  • We also share aggregated or de-identified information that cannot reasonably be used to identify you.

 

Transfer of information to the United States

BDRC operates in the United States, therefore we and our service providers may transfer your personal information to, or store or access it in, jurisdictions that may not provide levels of data protection that are equivalent to those of your home jurisdiction. For example, we transfer personal data to Amazon Web Services, one of our service providers that processes personal information for us in various data center locations across the globe, primarily in the United States (Northern Virginia). We will take steps to ensure that your personal information receives an adequate level of protection in the jurisdictions in which we process it.

 

Third party images

BDRC does not host some of the content displayed on our website, primarily the images and metadata accessed through the International Image Interoperability Framework (hereafter "IIIF images"). When you interact with the IIIF images, it sends information about your interaction to the hosting third party just as if you were visiting the third party's site directly. For example, when you load IIIF images from the Endangered Archive Program, the British Library receives information about your activity, such as your IP address and what images you loaded. BDRC does not control what information third parties collect through IIIF images but does not send any data to these third parties. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected through IIIF images. The privacy policy belonging to the third party hosting the IIIF images applies to any information the IIIF images collects, and we recommend you review that policy before interacting with the IIIF images.

 

Your choices

 

Account Information

You may access and correct your account information at any time by logging into the services and navigating to the user page. You can delete your account by sending an email to help@bdrc.io.

Cookies

Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually adjust your browser settings to remove or reject browser cookies. Please note that removing or rejecting cookies may affect your ability to access content.

Third party cookies are used for analytics and can be blocked on BDRC with no consequences to your ability to access the content.

Communications Preferences

You may opt out of receiving certain communications from us, such as newsletters and fundraising emails, by following the instructions in those communications or through your user page. If you opt out, we may still send you administrative emails, such as those about your account or our ongoing business relations.

 

Your California Privacy Rights

The California Consumer Privacy Act or "CCPA" (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.100 et seq.) affords consumers residing in California certain rights with respect to their personal information. If you are a California resident, this section applies to you.

In the preceding 12 months, we have collected the following categories of personal information: identifiers, commercial information, internet or other electronic network activity information, and inferences. For details about the precise data points we collect and the categories of sources of such collection, please see the Collection of Information section above. We collect personal information for the business and commercial purposes described in the Use of Information section above. In the preceding 12 months, we have disclosed the following categories of personal information for business purposes to the following categories of recipients:

Category of Personal Information: Identifiers
Categories of Recipients: Analytics Providers, Infrastructure Providers

Category of Personal Information: Internet or Other Electronic Network Activity Information
Categories of Recipients: Analytics Providers, Infrastructure Providers

Category of Personal Information: Inferences
Categories of Recipients: Analytics Providers, Infrastructure Providers

Subject to certain limitations, you have the right to (1) request to know more about the categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect, use, and disclose about you, (2) request deletion of your personal information, (3) opt out of any sales of your personal information, if we engage in that activity in the future, and (4) not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. You may make these requests by emailing us at help@bdrc.io. We will not discriminate against you if you exercise your rights under the CCPA.

If we receive your request from an authorized agent, we may ask for evidence that you have provided such agent with a power of attorney or that the agent otherwise has valid written authority to submit requests to exercise rights on your behalf. This may include requiring you to verify your identity. If you are an authorized agent seeking to make a request, please contact us.

 

Additional disclosures for individuals in Europe

If you are located in the European Economic Area ("EEA"), the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have certain rights and protections under applicable law regarding the processing of your personal data, and this section applies to you.

 

Legal Basis for Processing

When we process your personal data, we will do so in reliance on the following lawful bases:

  • To perform our responsibilities under our contract with you (e.g., providing the products and services you requested).
  • When we have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data to operate our business or protect our interests (e.g., to provide, maintain, and improve our products and services, conduct data analytics, and communicate with you).
  • To comply with our legal obligations (e.g., to maintain a record of your consents and track those who have opted out of non-administrative communications).
  • When we have your consent to do so (e.g., when you opt in to receive non-administrative communications from us). When consent is the legal basis for processing your personal data, you may withdraw such consent at any time.

 

Data Retention

We store personal data associated with your account for as long as your account remains active. If you close your account, we will delete your account data within 14 days. We store other personal data for as long as necessary to carry out the purposes for which we originally collected it and for other legitimate business purposes, including to meet our legal, regulatory, or other compliance obligations.

 

Data Subject Requests

Subject to certain limitations, you have the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you and to receive your data in a portable format, the right to ask that your personal data be corrected or erased, and the right to object to, or request that we restrict, certain processing. To exercise your rights please send an email to help@bdrc.io .

 

Questions or Complaints

If you have a concern about our processing of personal data that we are not able to resolve, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Authority where you reside. E.g. contact details for certain Data Protection Authorities can be found using the links below:

 

Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at help@bdrc.io .