Our Privacy Policy
Data protection and privacy statement
Ashok Tree and our affiliated entities* are committed to safeguarding your privacy online. This statement explains how we will collect, use and disclose information. This statement may change from time to time, so please check this page periodically.
- What information we collect
- Why we collect information
- Where we collect information from
- How long we keep your information for
- Who we share your personal information with
- How your information is secure
- Further information
- Managing your communications from us
It is important that you feel completely comfortable and confident that your personal information is in safe hands. Ashok Tree takes protecting your privacy extremely seriously and takes all reasonable steps to ensure your information is secure.
The use of your personal information, why we collect it and what we save varies depending on how you interact with us, what consent you have given us and what the situation is. We have done our best to indicate this throughout the statement. There may be other privacy policies that apply to certain services we provide. We will make these explicit when they apply. Please read them before you subscribe for such services.
What information we collect
We may collect a variety of personally identifiable or sensitive information from you for various reasons. For example, we may collect:
- Any personal details you may choose to give us, such as your name, age, or address. We save this so we can keep in touch with you.
- Your financial details, if you have purchased a product or service from us. We need this to process your payment.
- Your background, in order to process your application if you have applied to study on a Teachers Training Certificate course with Ashok Tree.
- Any physical or mental health information that you may have given us. This is so we can fully and fairly administer your application and accommodate any specific needs you may have when participating in a residential based program.
Why we collect information
Whenever you interact or communicate with us, we collect personal information. This information allows us to function and become more efficient. Some examples may include:
- Processing training course applications. Your personal and sensitive information allows us to communicate with you and assess your suitability for the course.
- Continuously improving. We value any feedback, including customer satisfaction surveys or complaints you may have. In order to improve our services and products we provide to you and others, we need to communicate with you and collect personal information.
- Services & Products. So we can communicate with you in the ways that suit you best, we may create a profile of your interests, preferences and support. Creating profiles allows us to target our resources effectively, which our students, teachers & customers tell us is valued. We may use additional information which is publically available such as where you live or your age. This helps us make the right requests to the right people; for example, invite you to a specific course or retreat.
We would like to use the personal details you provide us to communicate with you about any news we have, success stories, new courses, retreats, workshops and classes. We do not normally ask for consent to contact you if you are a student or teacher because we have a legitimate interest to communicate with you, provided of course that this does not breach your fundamental rights.
If you are signed up to the Telephone Preference Service, we will only make telephone calls to you where you have consented to receive them.
When you give us your details we will always tell you what we are going to do with them. If we request your contact details for any reason, you will always have an option to not give us them or to opt out. It is always your choice and you can change your mind at any time by contacting our Customer Care team.
Where we collect information from
Examples may include:
- From you directly, for example, when you fill out one of our applications or when you “sign up” at one of our events.
- From external sources, for example, when you interact with us on social media.
- From our website, when you visit. For example, we use software such as Google Analytics to identify which pages on our website are visited most. This information is collected automatically. It does not contain any personal or sensitive information, so browsing is anonymous.
How long we keep your information for
We keep personal information for different lengths of time dependent on the purpose. For example, we would like to keep student & teacher information beyond the length of a course so we can keep in touch about our ongoing courses, workshops, classes and retreat and continue our relationship together and give teachers the opportunity to grow within the community.
We want to ensure that the personal information we collect from you is used to appropriately support our work together and considers any future dealings that you would like to have with us. For example, many people ask to receive references for their teaching. In these cases it is important we have the correct personal information on file. You can contact us at any time to ask us to remove or amend your personal information.
Who we share your personal information with
If you apply to work for Ashok Tree, we will use your personal information to run checks against official sanctions lists, which contain details of known terrorist individuals and entities (e.g. UN Sanctions). This ensures that we are not complicit in funding or supporting terrorism.
We may also need to disclose your details if required to by the police, regulatory bodies or legal advisers.
We never sell your personal details with third parties for the purpose of marketing. Sometimes we may need to share your information with external organisations. Some of our suppliers and offices are outside the European Economic Area. Whenever we share or transfer your personal information, we comply with the standards set by the GDPR and this privacy statement at a minimum.
How your information is secure
The security of your information is of utmost importance to us. We seek to use reasonable measures to protect your information as required by the law, in line with industry standards and in accordance with the policies Ashok Tree has set. Sensitive data is held under strict security conditions. If you have any reason to believe that any personal information we hold is no longer secure, please contact us immediately.
Further information
The laws that say how your personal information can be used are:
- The Data Protection Act 1998
- The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003
- The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
You can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office to find out more about types of personal information, its usage and your rights, or to report a concern.
Managing your communications from us
You have the right to know what personal information we have about you, to make changes to how you hear from us, and to ask us to stop processing or to remove your personal information. You also have the right to ask for a copy of the information we have.
You can change your communication preferences at any time; just get in touch with our Customer Care team:
Customer Care
Ashok Tree @ Yogiville
Tiruvannamalai, India
+91 89404 84154
*affiliated entities include Yogiville Ltd (UK & India), Neuroprana Ltd, Yogi Ashokananda School & Ashok Tree