Urantia Association Privacy Policy

Revised Privacy Policy Adopted by the Representative Council 23 December, 2018

Introduction

This Privacy Policy establishes the restriction requirements for the collection, storage, transfer, and use of any personal information and is intended to comply with the European Union Council Directive (EU) 2016/680 of 27 April 2016 (GDPR) and the EU-US Privacy Shield of 12 July 2016 (https://www.privacyshield.gov/), which were established for the protection of personal data.

Definitions

“Association”, for the purposes of this policy, means both Urantia Association International, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization registered in the state of Illinois in the United States of America, and all its “chartered associations.”

“Chartered association” means any association chartered by Urantia Association International, or its predecessor International Urantia Association, as a national or a local association.

“You” or” your” means the individual who provides personal data to the Association.

“Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person; an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, location data, phone number, or an online identifier.

To Whom Does This Policy Apply?

This policy applies to you, to the Association, and to any Association member who has access to any personal data.

This policy does not apply to any chartered association that has their own privacy policy. It also does not apply to any third-party websites linked to, or derived from, our website or to any other individual, organization, or group that the Association may recommend or with which it has any relationship. Be advised that the owners and operators of such third-party websites might collect, use, or transfer personal data under different terms and conditions than those stated in this policy.

How We Collect Your Personal Information

Each avenue for collecting your personal data has a link to agree to this Privacy Policy. Therefore, information collected and stored by the Association is voluntarily provided by you with full knowledge, understanding, and agreement with this Privacy Policy. You provide personal data when you:

Apply for membership
Sign up for our email list or newsletter
Apply to volunteer
Make a donation
Register for an event
Register for a discussion forum
Call the Association
Write the Association
When you grant the Association permission to give your name, phone number and email address to other students of The Urantia Book in your region.

Website Cookies

The Association does not currently collect personal information through its website by using cookies or other tracking devices. If the Association does, in the future, decide to implement these devices, all information collected by this means will remain anonymous, and will be used only to develop and monitor traffic patterns and other metrics relevant to the development and maintenance of the web site.

How We Use Your Personal Data

Your personal data may be used to:

Process your membership or volunteer application
Communicate Association news, events, projects and activities in newsletters via email or mail
Disseminate Association publications via email or mail
Request financial support and volunteers by phone, email or mail
Process donations and registrations for events
Answer your inquiries by phone call, letter or email
Put other students of The Urantia Book in contact with you via phone call or email, if you have granted such permission
Assist you in forming a study group.

Sharing and Transfer of Your Personal Information

From the point of data collection, the Association may share or transfer your personal data with the chartered association in your area and with the Urantia Association International.

The Association does not share, transfer, sell, give or otherwise disclose your personal data with any other group, organization or third party except the following service providers who are fully compliant with the EU-US Privacy Shield:

Constant Contact email service
eTapestry database program
Stripe and Chase credit card processors
Cvent (RegOnline) event registration service

Your personal data will not be shared, transferred, given or disclosed to any other chartered association other than the one in your area without your express written consent. No chartered association has access to the database of personal data of any person outside their operating territory or to that of any other chartered association.

When you grant the Association permission to give your name, phone number and/or email address to other students of The Urantia Book in your region, your data will only be shared within the Association. If you are a non-member who wishes to be contacted by other students in the region and have given permission to be contacted, your personal data will be shared with a designated association member who will coordinate contact.

Personal data may be disclosed in response to judicial or government warrants, subpoenas, or other governmental orders. The Association is not responsible for the use of such subpoenaed information after it is transferred.

Email Service Through MailChimp

When you request an update or change to your email address, it will also be updated in our email service MailChimp. MailChimp is certified to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss-U.S Privacy Shield Framework.

Event Registration

Event registration information submitted for attendance at any event solely sponsored by the Association, will be used for registration purposes, and, with your express permission, may be added to the database of the chartered association in your country and/or the Urantia Association International database in the US for the purpose of communication of news, events, publications and requests for donations and volunteers.

Forums, Discussion Boards

When registering in the Association’s discussion forums, discussion boards, a minimum amount of personal information may be submitted voluntarily to establish your profile. This profile will be used only to establish your identity for the forum for which it was obtained and will not be shared with any other forum or purpose. The email address provided will not be entered into any Association database and will not be shared, transferred, sold, given, or otherwise disclosed to any third party.

Participation in any of these forums or discussion boards implies the participant’s agreement to the rules and methods of the group. Any violation of these rules will be cause for immediate action without notification in accordance with the standards of each forum or board.

However, all participants should be aware that forums, discussion boards, posted videos, as well as some Association meetings, are in the public domain unless otherwise noted, and any personal information posted through these media channels is available for all to view. Such information would include any personal postings of images of any kind as well as all personal comments submitted through such channels. By participating in these media channels, you are expressing your consent for the sharing of all information posted, personal or otherwise.

Financial Information

Only those personal details needed to complete a donation, contribution, registration, sale or other financial transaction will be obtained either on-line, by telephone, by postal mail, or in person.

Credit card or payment information will not be shared outside of the Association. Banking, credit, and debit card information will be destroyed immediately after completion of the requested transaction.

However, the Association takes no responsibility for any information submitted through alternative payment services, such as PayPal or Google Wallet or other similar services.

Website Cookies

Your Rights

The Association collects the minimum amount of personal data required to perform requested tasks or services. You have the right to change, modify or remove your personal data, or to change your preferences. You have the right to easy access to your personal data, and to obtain a copy of any stored data.

We provide an “unsubscribe” option on every emailed announcement, newsletter, publication, funding request or miscellaneous email communication.

All requests regarding your personal data must be in writing either through our website, by email or postal mail. To change, modify, remove your personal data, change your preferences, or request a copy of your data, you may use the following means:

Website: https://urantia-association.org/privacy-preferences/
Email: centraloffice@urantia-association.org
Mail: Urantia Association International, 4000 W. Montrose Ave. #606, Chicago, IL 60641 USA

The Association will handle any written request regarding your personal information within 10 business days of receipt. The Association reserves the right to verify the identity of persons submitting such requests.

Association Responsibilities

The Association will maintain policies and procedures for assuring compliance with EU and US Directives. The Association will do the following:

Provide data protection policy and procedure training to all Association members with access to personal data.
Require all Association members with access to personal data to comply with all applicable Association data protection policies and procedures, including this Privacy Policy.
To provide a copy of this Privacy Policy to all Association members and to all individuals for whom the Association stores personal data.
The Association will take reasonable measures to assure the reliability, safety and security of the information collected, stored, transferred and used by the Association for the intended uses, and take reasonable precautions to protect this personal data from loss, theft, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.
Provide immediate notification to individuals whose personal data is used in violation of this policy.
Provide notification to individuals whose personal data has been breached by an outside source.
Association members who violate the provisions of any data protection policy or procedures or this Association Privacy Policy will be barred immediately from access to all personal data, and the violation thoroughly investigated.