EU Privacy Notice for SRF Volunteers | SRF/YSS Volunteer Portal

Please note: if you are outside the European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK) or European Economic Area (EEA), this EU Privacy Notice does not apply to you. Instead, please review our general Privacy Policy for SRF Volunteers, which applies to you.

Revised June 28, 2021

Your information privacy is extremely important to us. We have prepared this EU Privacy Notice for SRF Volunteers (“Volunteer Notice”) to explain how we collect, use, protect, and disclose information and data with respect to SRF and Voluntary League of Disciples volunteers, and the Volunteer Portal and Voluntary League of Disciples website (“VLD Website”), and any other websites or mobile apps we may create from time to time (“Volunteer Sites and Apps”). This EU Privacy Notice for SRF Volunteers applies to you if you are in the European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK) or European Economic Area (EEA) and you volunteer directly with SRF and/or visit or use the Volunteer Sites and Apps.

This Volunteer Notice applies with respect to your volunteer activities. SRF’s EU Privacy Notice explains how SRF collects and uses information in other situations (such as if you take part in SRF services or meditation groups, have applied to study the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) Lessons, have applied for Kriya Yoga initiation, sought spiritual guidance and counselling from us, or have otherwise been in contact with SRF, whether over the internet or otherwise).

1. SRF and VLD as Data Controllers

If you volunteer with Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), our Voluntary League of Disciples (VLD) manages our volunteer programs. This Notice is provided by SRF and VLD (“we” or “us”), which are the data controllers for your data with respect to your volunteer activities under the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”). You can find our contact details in the last section of this Volunteer Notice.

2. The Categories of Personal Data We Process

When you volunteer with us or interact with us through the Volunteer Sites and Apps, we may process the following categories of personal data about you.

Personal Information

Names, titles, and photographs (if you provide them).
Contact details and account credentials such as telephone numbers, addresses, and email addresses, and your login information for any volunteer accounts you create.
Personal information that you provide to us in your volunteer application and/or volunteer profile.
Records of your donations (such as bank account numbers, payment card numbers, donation/transaction identifiers).
Information related to your Student Status (SRF Lessons or Kriyaban status), and your status as a VLD member.
Information related to your volunteer activities, including your volunteer history, and information collected through our Volunteer Sites and Apps.
Other operational personal data created, obtained, or otherwise processed in the course of carrying out our activities, for example, your volunteer ID.
The data we process may constitute sensitive personal data because, as a church, we necessarily process data suggestive of your religious beliefs. We may also process other categories of sensitive personal data including about your mental and physical health, family or employment relationships, and other information of this nature that you have provided us.

Usage Data and Site Activity

We automatically collect certain information about your device and your use of the Volunteer Sites and Apps: your browser type and operating system; web pages you view; links you click; your IP address, MAC address, Unique Device Identifiers (UID), and other persistent identifiers; the length of time you visit our Volunteer Sites and or use our Volunteer Apps; and the referring URL, or the webpage that led you to our Sites (“Usage Data”). We use this information to monitor and improve the Volunteer Sites and Apps, enhance your online experience and to enable us to provide you with an easier and more personalized experience and level of service.

Cookies and Anonymous Identifiers

Please see our Cookie Policy for further information about the cookies we use, and your choices regarding cookies.

3. Why We Process Your Personal Data

We use your personal data for some or all of the following purposes:

To contact and communicate with you: (i) in relation to your volunteer activities; (ii) to keep you informed about news and events, activities and services in which you may be interested; and/or (iii) to respond to questions and communications from you;
To process your application or nomination for a volunteer role, determine your qualifications and fitness for the role, to manage volunteer activities and schedules, reimburse volunteers as appropriate, and to provide you with services, support and guidance in performing your volunteer role;
To assist you with and process any donations;
To provide activities for our volunteers; for example, to provide and process registrations for group activities, meal preferences, and the like;
To enable us to meet all legal and statutory obligations or requirements, and obligations to third parties;
For safeguarding purposes (including diligence and complaints handling), with the aim of ensuring that all children and adults are provided with safe environments in connection with SRF activities;
To deliver SRF’s religious mission to our world-wide membership, and to carry out any other voluntary or charitable activities for the benefit of the SRF community;
For personnel, administrative, accounting and management purposes, for example to maintain our accounts, and to monitor performance of volunteer groups and expenditures;
To provide you with the Volunteer Sites and Apps, including to allow you to participate in online communities and allow you to post content and to send you alerts about your account;
To improve your browsing experience by personalizing the Volunteer Sites and Apps and to improve our online services and to better understand how users access and use our Volunteer Sites and Apps, to maintain, support, and improve our Volunteer Sites and Apps, and for research and analytical purposes.

4. Legal Bases for Processing Your Personal Data

We will process your personal data pursuant to GDPR Article 6(1)(b) if it is necessary to deliver services that you have requested, or to take steps to provide those services. Thus, we process your data when it is necessary to: (i) provide you volunteer activities; (ii) provide you with the Volunteer Sites and Apps, including communications related to your account; (iii) provide communications that you request from us, such as when you participate in discussion groups or volunteer communities, or ask us questions; or (iv) process your donations.

We process your personal data pursuant to GDPR Article 6(1)(f) because it is necessary for our legitimate interests, or the legitimate interests of a third party (such as safeguarding you or other members). Our legitimate interests are: (1) to contact and communicate with you about our activities; (2) plan and offer activities to you and others who have contact with SRF; (3) to determine your qualifications and fitness to serve as a volunteer; (4) to support and assist you in fulfilling your volunteer role with SRF, and provide the required guidance and support to help your group carry on its activities; (5) to maintain our accounts and records, including of volunteer groups and activities; (6) to fulfill our legal obligations, and for our personnel, administrative and management purposes; (7) to further our religious objectives; (8) to perform diligence or safeguarding tasks and respond to any complaints or problems that may arise; (9) to better understand how users access and use our Volunteer Sites and Apps, to maintain, support, and improve our Volunteer Sites and Apps, to respond to user preferences, and for research and analytical purposes.

We obtain your consent (pursuant to GDPR Article 6(1)(a)) if you have volunteered with us and we would like to share your contact information with others.

As a religious organization, we process special categories of information, including about your religious and philosophical beliefs or health information, in connection with our purposes of providing religious and spiritual teaching, services and support, and maintaining church records. This processing is pursuant to GDPR Article 9(2)(d).

5. Sharing Your Personal Data

Your personal data will be treated as confidential, and will be accessed by those persons within SRF and VLD who need to do so for purposes listed in Section 3. We will never sell your information to third parties. It will only be shared with third parties or other data controllers where it is necessary for the performance of our tasks or where you first give consent. It is likely that we will need to share your data in the following circumstances:

In limited circumstances we share information with our third-party Service Providers. For example, we may ask a commercial provider to send out newsletters or announcements on our behalf, in which event we will share your email address with that third party, and we may use third-parties to host the Volunteer Sites and Apps. We also share your payment information with third-party payment processors and financial institutions as necessary to process a donation from you. We only provide our Service Providers with the information necessary for them to perform these services on our behalf, and Service Providers are prohibited from using Personal Information other than as specified by us.
In the event that a communication with you requires translation, we may ask a member of our organization to assist us with translation, but only after we have removed any names or contact information from the communication.
If you are a volunteer, we may share your contact information with other volunteers so that they may contact you in connection with your volunteer role and for organizational and administrative purposes.
Where you have consented to have your contact information shared more widely within the SRF community (for example, for outreach purposes), then with your consent we will share your contact information with others.
We cooperate with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We may disclose personal data and any other information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties if, in our discretion, we believe it is necessary or appropriate in order to respond to legal requests (including court orders and subpoenas), to protect the safety, property, or rights of our organization or of any third party, to prevent or stop any illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity, or to comply with the law.
We may disclose to third parties, certain Usage Data regarding the Volunteer Sites and Apps. However, in such cases, your Usage Data is aggregated with the Usage Data of others and does not identify you individually and is not Personal Data.
Please note that if you are a volunteer with Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS) we will share your information with YSS to facilitate your YSS volunteer activities.
Finally, if you choose to share information on any public area of the Volunteer Sites or Apps (such as by posting information to a public testimonial or public discussion forum), that information is publicly displayed and may be accessed and viewed by anyone.

6. How Long We Keep Your Personal Data

We will keep some records permanently, where we believe it is necessary for legal purposes. We may keep some other records for an extended period of time, including safeguarding records. In general, we will endeavor to keep data only for as long as we need it. This means that we may delete it when it is no longer needed.

7. Managing Your Volunteer Website Preferences

You can review, correct, update, or change your online Personal Information through your Volunteer Portal account or by emailing us at GDPR@voluntaryleague.org. You can also opt-out of receiving certain e-mails and other communications from us by using the “unsubscribe” link in the emails. However, you cannot opt out of receiving all e-mails from us, such as e-mails about the status of your account.

8. Your Rights Regarding Your Personal Data under the GDPR

You have the following rights with respect to your personal data. When exercising any of the rights listed below, in order to process your request, we may need to verify your identity for your security. In such cases we will need you to respond with proof of your identity before you can exercise these rights.

Right of access: the right to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and certain information concerning how such personal information is used;
Right to data rectification: the right to correct inaccurate personal information;
Right to deletion: in certain circumstances, the right to delete/erase your personal information (also known as the “right to be forgotten”);
Right to data portability: in certain circumstances, the right to receive the personal information provided by you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and to transmit the personal information to another data controller;
Right to object: the right to object to the use of your personal information where such use is based on our legitimate interests or on public interests, and the right to object to any processing for direct marketing purposes;
Right to restriction of processing: in certain circumstances, the right to restrict our use of your personal information;
Right not to be subject to automated individual decision-making: the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you;
Right to withdraw consent: you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time where our processing is based on consent.

If you would like to exercise your rights, please contact us using the information provided at the end of this Notice. We hope that we can resolve any question or concern you raise about our use of your information. However, should you not receive a satisfactory answer to your request, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (see a complete list here: https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members_en ).

9. Transfer of Data Abroad

SRF and VLD are located in the United States. When you provide personal data to us, you transmit that information to the United States. We do not transfer your personal data internationally except to European Union Member States.

10. Be Careful When You Share Information with Others

Please be aware that whenever you choose share information on any public area of the Volunteer Sites or Apps (such as by posting information to a public testimonial or public discussion forum), that information may be accessed by others. That information may be further passed along or for further made public by others. This means that anyone with access to such information can potentially use it for any purpose, including sending unsolicited communications.

11. Updates to this Notice or Changes in Processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Volunteer Notice, then we will provide you with a new Volunteer Notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

In other circumstances, if we decide to change this Volunteer Notice, we will inform you by posting the revised Volunteer Notice on the Volunteer Sites and/or Apps. Those changes will go into effect on the “Revised” date shown in the revised Volunteer Notice.

12. Online Tracking

As explained in our Cookie Policy, we use third parties (such as YouTube and a third-party that helps respond to questions through chat functionality) to enhance the functionality of our Volunteer Sites and Apps. The third parties we use may set cookies and collect certain information when you visit the Volunteer Sites and Apps. These companies may collect non-personally identifiable information (e.g. click stream information, web browser type, time and date, the pages or videos you viewed), your IP Address, and information from cookies they set during your visits to the Volunteer Sites and other websites. These companies may track your activity over time and different websites, and may use the information they collect to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of interest to you. Our systems do not recognize browser “Do Not Track” signals, but several of the third parties who utilize these cookies on our Volunteer Sites enable you to opt out of targeted advertising practices. To learn more about these advertising practices or to opt out of this type of advertising, you can visit optout.aboutads.info and optout.networkadvertising.org. Please also see our Cookie Policy for further information and your choices regarding cookies.

13. Be Careful When You Share Information with Others

Please be aware that whenever you share information on any public area of the Volunteer Sites and Apps, that information may be accessed by others. In addition, please remember that when you share information in any other communications with third parties, that information may be passed along or made public by others. This means that anyone with access to such information can potentially use it for any purpose, including sending unsolicited communications.

14. Security

We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect the confidentiality and security of information transmitted to us. Although no data transmission over the Internet or other network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, we strive to protect your personal data on or through the Volunteer Sites and Apps so that it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed. However, we cannot and do not guarantee the security of any information you transmit on or through the Volunteer Sites and Apps, and accept no liability for any unintentional disclosure or misuse.

15. Links

Our Volunteer Sites and Apps may contain links to other websites or allow others to send you such links. A link to a third party’s website does not mean that we endorse it or that we are affiliated with it. We do not exercise control over third-party websites. You access such third-party websites or content at your own risk. You should always read the privacy policy of a third-party website before providing any information to the website.

16. Children’s Privacy and Our Volunteer Sites and Apps

The Volunteer Sites and Apps are intended for users who are 16 years old or older. We do not knowingly or intentionally collect Personal Information from children under the age of 16 in connection with the Volunteer Sites and Apps. If we become aware that we have inadvertently received Personal Information from a child under the age of 16 in connection with the Volunteer Sites and Apps, we will delete such information from our records.

17. Our Contact Details

Please contact us if you have any questions about this Volunteer Notice or the information we hold about you or to exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints at:

VLD: GDPR@voluntaryleague.org

SRF: GDPR@yogananda-srf.org

Mail: Attention: Legal Department, Self-Realization Fellowship, 3880 San Rafael Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 90065 USA

Telephone: 1 (323) 225-2471