MERU Privacy and Cookie Statement

 

1. Introduction

We are committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the EU when you use our services, visit our website or otherwise communicate or are in contact with us.

We use cookies and similar technologies (together hereinafter called “cookies”) when offering our website. In this Privacy and Cookie Statement, we also inform you about what cookies are, how we use cookies on our website and how you can manage these cookies.

 

2. Who are we?

Stichting MERU/MVU – Maharishi European Research University – Maharishi Vedic University,  Station 24, 6063 NP Vlodrop, the Netherlands, Chamber of Commerce registration number  41149508, online to be found at www.meru.international, is a host for courses, events and retreats for the global and local Transcendental Meditation (TM) communities and a health centre and organising partner for conferences on health care.

3. How do we collect your personal data?

We collect personal data in a number of ways. We will receive personal data from you when we offer and provide our services or when you otherwise contact us. Furthermore, your personal data may be collected when you visit our website or subscribe to our newsletter.

4. Which personal data do we process for what purpose and on what legal basis?

When you subscribe to our newsletter we collect your name and email-address.
For sending you newsletters which may be of special interest for you, we may also collect information about your background with TM (= your status as Non-Meditator,  Meditator, Sidha or TM Teacher) and your country of residence.
Processing of data you provide by applying to our newsletter is based on your voluntary consent, pursuant to Art 6 Par. 1 clause 1 lit. a GDPR.

Unsubscribing from our newsletter is possible at any time and can be done either by using the link provided for this purpose in the newsletter or by contacting us at courses@Maharishi.net.

If you have any messages or inquiries we give you the option of contacting us by using the contact form on our website. Providing a valid email address and your name is necessary so that we know who the message or inquiry is from and so that we can answer it. Further information may be provided voluntarily. Processing of data you provide by contacting us is based on your voluntary consent, pursuant to Art 6 Par. 1 clause 1 lit. a GDPR.

When you apply for our services or programmes we collect for example your contact details like your name, e-mail address, telephone number and postal address. Collecting information about your background with TM will help us to provide to you the best possible services and to check your eligibility for certain advanced courses, retreats or events. The legal basis for processing your personal data is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract, pursuant to Art 6 Par. 1 clause 1 lit. b GDPR.

We may also process your personal data when the processing of your personal data is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, e.g. tax, pursuant to Art 6 Par. 1 clause 1 lit. c GDPR; or where such processing is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests or of a third party, where such interests override the interests or fundamental rights of you as the data subject, pursuant to Art 6 Par. 1 clause 1 lit. f GDPR.

5. Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential as possible.
We do not transfer your personal data to third parties for purposes other than those mentioned below. We transfer your personal data to third parties only for the following reasons:

• If you have expressly provided your consent pursuant to Art. 6 Par. 1 clause 1 lit. a GDPR
• If disclosure is necessary pursuant to Art. 6 Par. 1 clause 1 lit. f GDPR to enforce, exercise or defend legal claims and there is no reason to assume that you have an overriding interest worthy of protection in not disclosing your data
• In the event that there is a legal requirement for disclosure pursuant to Art. 6 Par. 1 clause 1 lit. c GDPR
• If it is legally permissible and necessary pursuant to Art. 6 Par. 1 clause 1 lit. b GDPR for fulfilling contractual obligations towards you

Examples where we may share some of your personal data with third parties:

Upon your consent we may verify your background with TM with the TM organisation of your country and/or with Maharishi Vedic University Courses and Consultations B.V., Markt 1, 6063 AC Vlodrop, the Netherlands, to confirm your eligibility for certain courses, retreats or events.

For sending our newsletters we use email service providers like Mailchimp.

For the fulfimment of the contract with you we also share some of your personal data with the credit card company or payment service provider for the purpose of charging or collecting our fees, or with our tax consultant for the fulfilment of our tax obligations.

When we share your personal data with third parties who process personal data on our behalf (data processors), we will ensure that your personal data are protected in accordance with GDPR and the terms of this Privacy & Cookie Statement.

6. How long do we retain your personal data?

We retain the personal data that we collect from you only as long as required. Your information is retained in electronic or paper format or both. When it is no longer required, it will be deleted or destroyed.

Should you wish to obtain information on the specific retention period of any personal data we hold about you, please contact us at: dpo@Maharishi.net.

7. Data Protection Rights

Related to the personal data we hold about you, you have the following rights:

• to request information which personal data we have collected about you
• to request rectification of inaccurate or incomplete personal data
• to request being removed from our systems, unless processing of your personal data is necessary, e.g. for compliance with our legal obligations (e.g. tax)
• to request restriction of the processing of your personal data
• to receive your personal data you provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format
• to revoke the consent you granted at any time

• to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authorityIf you have any questions or complaints about the processing of your personal data, please send an e-mail to: dpo@Maharishi.net. We will be happy to help you. Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before responding to any requests related to your personal rights mentioned above.

 

8. Protecting your personal data

We use suitable technical and organisational security measures to protect your data against accidental or intentional manipulations, partial or complete loss, destruction, or the unauthorised access of third parties.

9. COOKIES

9.1 What are cookies?

Cookies are small files that your browser automatically generates and stores on your device (laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.) when you visit our site.

9.2 Type of Cookies

Cookies can be subdivided into different categories, based on their function, durability and origin:

Necessary cookies are essential for the website and help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. They are not used for tracking purposes. Their installation does not require your permission. Without these cookies the website cannot function properly.

Non-necessary cookies are cookies that can be set e.g. for statistical or marketing purposes. They are not related to the mere technical support of the website. They are automatically deleted after a defined period of time.

Statistic cookies allow to statistically record and analyse the use of a website, e.g.to check which pages of the website you visit, where your computer is localized etc. This information helps to improve the services and to better understand your requirements. When you visit this site again, these cookies make it possible to automatically recognise that you have already visited this site before.

Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites with the intention to display ads that are adapted to your interests.

Persistent cookies are stored on a users’ device in between browser sessions which allow preferences or actions of the user to be remembered. The cookies are activated every time the user visits the website. Most non-necessary cookies are persistent cookies.

Session cookies allow websites to link the actions of a user only during a browser session. A browser session starts when a user opens the browser screen and ends when he closes the browser screen. Session cookies are only set temporarily. When you close the browser, the cookies will be removed. Most necessary cookies are session cookies.

First party cookies are cookies set by the administrator of the website.

Third party cookies are set on your device by other parties, such as e.g. Google that set cookies to display certain content on our websites (for example videos).
We cannot take any responsibility for the way these third parties make use of your cookies. We kindly refer you to the privacy policy statements of these parties on their respective websites.

For more information on cookies you can visit: https://www.allaboutcookies.org/

9.3 Which cookies we use:

On our websites the following functional, analytic and tracking cookies or similar technologies can be used:

Necessary Cookies
Name	Provider	Purpose	Expiry
PHPSESSID	MERU	This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users’ unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.	Session
Statistic Cookies
Name	Provider	Purpose	Expiry
_ga	Google Analytics	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site’s analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.	2 years
_gid	Google Analytics	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visited in an anonymous form.	1 day
_gat	Google Universal Analytics	This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to throttle the request rate to limit the colllection of data on high traffic sites.	1 day
Unclassified Cookies
Name	Provider	Purpose	Expiry
pmpro_visit	PaidMembership Pro	The cookie is set by PaidMembership Pro plugin. The cookie is used to manage user memberships.	Session

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. (www.google.com/about/, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; hereinafter “Google”) to gather statistical information of how users use our website, helping us to offer an appropriate design and a continuous optimisation of our web pages. For this purpose cookies are set. The information about your use of our website is transferred to and stored by Google on servers in the United States and is personally not identifiable. Google will use this information to keep track of how our website is used, in order to provide us with reports on the website. The processing of your personal data via Google Analytics is based on our legitimate interest in obtaining general statistics on our website visitors, pursuant to Art 6 Par. 1 sentence 1 f GDPR.

For more information, read Google’s privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en) and the specific privacy policy of Google Analytics (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en).

You can set your browser to reject all or certain cookies. Please note, however, that in that case you may not be able to make full use of all the functions of this website.

Moreover, you can prevent Google from collecting and using data generated by cookies and related to your use of this website (incl. your IP address) by downloading and installing a browser add-on (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en).
The opt-out cookie works only in this browser and only for our website. It is stored on your device. If you delete the cookies for this browser, you will have to download the opt-out cookie once again.
Disabling cookies set by Google Analytics will provide no reduced service to you, but it will mean that we will not be able to capture detailed information about the experience of our users online, nor will we be able to track and improve the level of service our website is providing to users.

YouTube and Facebook Videos

Some of our web pages may contain from time to time embedded video content from YouTube and Facebook. When you visit a page with an embedded YouTube or Facebook video, or click to view the video, you may be presented with cookies from them. We do not control the setting of these cookies. To find out more please visit YouTube and Facebook’s embedding videos information page.

9.4 Enabling and disabling cookies

You can set your browser in such a manner it is merely allowed to store cookies with your consent. For more information, please consult your web browser’s manual. Please note that many websites do not work optimally if cookies are disabled. You can also choose to delete cookies manually. For more information, please consult to your web browser’s manual.

10. Third Party Websites

Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to our organisation, so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.

11. Updates to this Privacy & Cookie Statement

We may update our Privacy and Cookie Statement from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Statement on this page. All changes will take effect as soon as the Privacy and Cookie Statement has been posted on the website. Thus, you are advised to review this page periodically for any changes.