Privacy Policy

IMERE Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) applies to www.imere.org, and the Institute for Mystical Experience Research and Education, Inc. (IMERE), a non-profit NY corporation, and the Policy governs data collection and usage. For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, unless otherwise noted, all references to the IMERE include www.imere.org. IMERE’s website is a non-profit website that provides informational content only about mystical experiences and related spiritual phenomena. By using the IMERE website, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

Collection of Your Personal Information

Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through IMERE’s private message boards, this information may be collected and used by others.

We do not collect any personal information about you unless you voluntarily provide it to us. For example, if you choose to share/register your mystical experience with us, you can do so anonymously (your IP address will not be logged) or you may include your name and contact information. You may voluntarily choose to provide certain personal information to us when you elect to (a) share/register your mystical experience with us and provide your informed consent; (b) register for an IMERE community account; (c) sign up for our Constant Contact email subscription list; or (d) send us an email message. Additionally, we will use your information for, but not limited to, communicating with you in relation to communications you have initiated with us. We also may gather additional personal or non-personal information in the future.

In the case of mystical experience accounts shared with IMERE through our web survey (using the Survey Monkey platform), the information that IMERE obtains is recorded in such a manner that the identity of survey respondents cannot be readily ascertained, directly or through identifiers (i.e., subject id numbers) linked to the respondents, unless you voluntarily choose to provide your name, email address, and/or phone number. Moreover, we never contact individuals who share their experience with us unless they indicate that they may be contacted.

Sharing Information with Third Parties

IMERE does not sell, rent, or lease its email subscriber lists to third parties.

IMERE may share data with trusted partners such as Survey Monkey or Constant Contact to help organize data, perform analyses, send you email or postal mail, or provide website support. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to IMERE, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

IMERE may disclose your personal information, without notice, if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on IMERE or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of IMERE; and/or (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of IMERE, or the public.

Tracking User Behavior

IMERE may keep track of the websites and pages our users visit within IMERE, in order to determine what IMERE informational content is most popular. We use standard website data analytics systems to this end, including Matomo. The data we collect may be used to create improved content for our website visitors.

Automatically Collected Information

IMERE may automatically collect information about your computer hardware and software. This information can include your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times, and referring website addresses. This information is used for the operation of the www.imere.org, to maintain the quality of imere.org, and to provide general statistics regarding the use of IMERE’s website. For data collection, the main website analytics application we use is Matomo.

Use of Cookies

IMERE’s website may use “cookies” to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize IMERE’s pages, or register with IMERE’s site or services, a cookie helps IMERE to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the same website, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use IMERE’s features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of IMERE’s services or websites you visit.

Links

This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of any other site that collects personally identifiable information.

Security of your Personal Information

IMERE secures your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. IMERE uses the following methods for this purpose:

• SSL Protocol

When personal information (such as your name and email address) is transmitted to other websites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol.

We strive to take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or alteration of your personal information. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, you acknowledge that: (a) there are security and privacy limitations inherent to the Internet that are beyond our control; and (b) the security, integrity, and privacy of any and all information and data exchanged between you and us through this site cannot be guaranteed.

Right to Deletion

Subject to certain exceptions set out below, on receipt of a verifiable written request from you (via email or mail with confirmed receipt from us provided), we will:

• Delete your personal information from our records, including information we’ve collected that is maintained with third-party service providers, such as Survey Monkey or Constant Contact.

Please note that we may not be able to comply with requests to delete your personal information if it is necessary to:

Complete the transaction for which the personal information was collected, fulfill the terms of a written warranty or product recall conducted in accordance with federal law, and provide a good or service requested by you, or reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform a contract between you and us;

• Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; or prosecute those responsible for that activity;
• Debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;
• Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise his or her right of free speech, or exercise another right provided for by law;
• Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act;
• Engage in research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when our deletion of the information is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of such research, provided we have obtained your informed consent;
• Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with your expectations based on your relationship with us;
• Comply with an existing legal obligation; or
• Otherwise use your personal information, internally, in a lawful manner that is compatible with the context in which you provided the information. 

Children Under Thirteen

IMERE does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If you are under the age of 13, you must ask your parent or guardian for permission to use this website.

California Privacy Rights

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits our visitors who are California residents to request certain information regarding IMERE’s disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us.
Note:  We do not disclose personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes.

Email Communications

From time to time, IMERE may contact you via email (e.g., through Contact) for the purpose of providing announcements and/or other general communication. In order to improve our announcement efforts, we may receive a notification when you open an email from IMERE or click on a link therein.

If you would like to stop receiving announcement communications via email from IMERE, you may opt out of such communications by clicking on the unsubscribe link included in all informational emails sent through our email service platform, Constant Contact.

External Data Storage Sites

We may store your data on servers provided by third-party hosting vendors with whom we have contracted, including, but not limited to, Survey Monkey and Constant Contact.

Changes to This Statement

IMERE reserves the right to change this Policy from time to time. For example, when there are changes in our data protection practices or changes in the law. When changes to this Policy are significant, we will provide a prominent notification on our website and/or update our Privacy Policy. Your continued use of the website is available after such modifications will constitute your: (a) acknowledgment of the modified Policy; and (b) agreement to abide and be bound by that Policy.

Contact Information

IMERE welcomes your questions or comments regarding this Policy. If you believe that IMERE has not adhered to this Policy, please contact IMERE at:
 
Mailing Address:
Institute for Mystical Experience Research and Education, Inc.
P.O. Box 61
Laurel, New York 11948
 
Email Address:
connect@imere.org
   
Effective as of June 4, 2024
 

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