How the school handles what you tell it.

In brief

• This site has no accounts. It asks once whether it may count your visit with Google Analytics, and nothing is sent to Google unless you say yes.
• The enquiry form sends nothing to us. It writes your message out in WhatsApp, and nothing leaves your device until you press send there.
• What you tell us when you enquire or take a class is used to teach you, and for nothing else.
• We do not sell your details, share them for marketing, or keep a mailing list.
• Two things on the site come from Google, the typefaces and the map on the contact page, so Google sees the request. That is set out under third parties.

Who we are

Avadhuta School of Yoga and Wellness, Vilasini Bhavan, Kovalam Beach Road, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695527, India. The school is run by Abhilash Soman, and he is the person who answers anything raised under this policy. You can reach him on WhatsApp or by phone at +91 98951 02539, or by post at the address above.

This policy covers avadhutayoga.com and the details you give us when you enquire about, book, or attend a class, workshop or retreat, in person or online.

What we collect, and why

When you visit the site

The server that hosts this site keeps the ordinary access log any web server keeps: the address your connection comes from, the pages you asked for, the time, and the browser you used. We use it only to keep the site running and secure. It is not tied to your name, and we do not use it to build a picture of who you are.

When you enquire

The form on the contact page asks for your name, where you are starting from, your city or timezone, and what you would like to work on. Nothing on that page stores your answers. Submitting the form opens WhatsApp on your device with the message already written, and it is sent only when you press send there. From that point the message travels through WhatsApp and arrives on the school's phone. If you write to us on WhatsApp directly, we receive your phone number and whatever you choose to say.

When you book or attend

To teach you well we may ask for your name and a way to reach you, your experience, any injury, condition or pregnancy that should shape your practice, a parent or guardian's details for a children's class, and travel dates and dietary needs for a retreat. We ask only for what changes how we teach you.

Details about your health

We ask because a teacher who does not know about a back injury cannot work around it. Anything you tell us about your body is used to plan and adapt your practice, is kept in the school's own records, and is not passed to anyone else. Tell us as much or as little as you are comfortable with, and tell us when something changes.

How we use it

To reply to you, to suggest a course and a time, to teach you safely, to tell you about a batch or retreat you have asked about, and to keep the records a business is required to keep. That is the whole list. We do not advertise to you, do not sell or rent your details, and do not add you to a mailing list, because we do not have one. If we ever want to use your words or your photograph on this site, we ask first.

Photographs and reviews

The photographs on this site were taken during the school's own classes, retreats and events, and are published with the knowledge of the people in them. If you are in one and would rather not be, tell us and we will take it down. At retreats and events a photographer is sometimes present; say so to the teacher if you do not want to be photographed and we will make sure of it. We publish no photograph of a child without a parent's or guardian's agreement.

The reviews page and the home page reproduce reviews that people have published on Google, under the name they chose there. If one of them is yours and you want it removed from this site, say so and it goes.

Third parties

We run no advertising pixels and no social media buttons that report back. The icons in the footer are plain links. Five outside services touch the site, one of them only with your agreement:

• Google Analytics. Only if you allow it. If you do, Google sets cookies on your browser and receives your IP address, the pages you look at and roughly where you are, and we see those visits counted up in a dashboard. We do not use it for advertising, we have not linked it to Google Ads, and we cannot tell who you are from it. Google's privacy policy applies. Say no and nothing is loaded from Google Analytics at all, not even a request.
• Google Fonts. The two typefaces load from Google's servers, so Google receives your IP address and browser details with that request. Google states that it does not use the Fonts service to set cookies or track people across sites; its privacy policy applies.
• Google Maps. The map on the contact page and the home page is a Google frame. Loading it sends your IP address to Google, and Google may set its own cookies inside the frame. Blocking third-party cookies in your browser does not affect the rest of the site.
• WhatsApp. Messages you send us travel through WhatsApp, which is run by Meta and is governed by its own privacy policy. The content of messages is end-to-end encrypted; WhatsApp still sees that a message was sent and when.
• YouTube. The films on this site are links, not embedded players. Nothing loads from YouTube until you choose to follow one, at which point you are on YouTube and its terms apply.

Cookies and the choice you are given

The site sets no cookies of its own. The only cookies it can cause are Google Analytics', and those are set only if you choose Allow on the bar that appears on your first visit. Until you answer, and for ever if you answer No, nothing is requested from Google Analytics.

Your answer is kept in your browser's own storage rather than in a cookie, which means it never reaches a server, and it is remembered so you are not asked again. Clearing your browser data clears it, and the bar asks once more.

You can change your mind at any time, in either direction.

Change your cookie choice

The Google Maps frame on the contact page may set Google's own cookies inside that frame, as described under third parties. Blocking third-party cookies in your browser stops that and affects nothing else on the site.

How long we keep things

If you enquire and do not go on to take a class, we do not keep your message beyond answering it. If you become a student, we keep your details for as long as we are teaching you and for a reasonable time afterwards, so that if you come back we know where you left off. Records the law requires a business to keep, receipts for instance, are kept for as long as it requires. Ask, and we delete everything else we hold about you.

Your rights

Under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and under the GDPR if you are writing to us from the United Kingdom or the European Union, you can ask what we hold about you, have it corrected, have it deleted, and withdraw any consent you have given. You do not need a reason. Send the request to the contact above and we answer within a month. If you think we have handled your details badly and we have not put it right, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India or to the supervisory authority where you live.

Children

Enquiries and bookings for the children's class come from a parent or guardian, and it is the parent we speak to. The site is not aimed at children and we do not knowingly collect a child's details through it.

Keeping it safe

The site is served over HTTPS. What we hold about students lives on the school's own devices, protected in the ordinary ways, and is seen only by the people teaching you. No system is perfect; if we ever learn that your details have been exposed, we tell you.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version appears here with a new date at the top. A change that affects what we do with your details is pointed out on this page rather than slipped in.

Contact

Avadhuta School of Yoga and Wellness, Vilasini Bhavan, Kovalam Beach Road, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695527, India. WhatsApp and phone: +91 98951 02539.