Privacy Policy

International Yoga Council LLC (“IYC”, “we”, “us” or “our”), a Wyoming limited liability company, operates the global yoga registry at https://international-yogacouncil.com (the “Website”). This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect when you visit the Website, register or contact us, how we use it, and the choices you have. It is the Privacy Policy referred to in section 37 of the Terms and Conditions.

We collect only what the registry needs. We do not sell personal information.

1. Information we collect

When you register

• Your name, email address and country, and optionally your city and phone number.
• The category and designation you apply for (for example IYC-RYI 200), and the membership term you choose: two or five years.
• For an instructor trainer: your years of teaching and verified teaching hours, which IYC checks against the published requirement.
• Optionally, a photograph of yourself for your ID card or, for a centre, school or academy, its logo. IYC checks every picture before it appears on the card. Juniors cannot add a photograph.
• Your age group: 18 or over, or 13 to 17. We do not accept registrations from anyone under 13.
• For a junior applicant (13 to 17): the name and email address of your parent or legal guardian, and a record of their approval (the date and time, the name they typed, and the internet address they used).
• Supporting evidence: a short description of your experience, training or qualifications, and, for an academy, its curriculum and faculty. We may ask to see other documents to examine or verify them. We ask only when needed, and tell you why.
• A copy of your training certificate (a PDF, JPG or PNG file). Instructors upload one when they register or upgrade to an instructor designation; academies and centres may. It is stored privately, only IYC's registry staff can open it, and it is never shown publicly or to an academy or centre.
• The styles you practise or teach, and how long you have practised.
• The academy or centre where you trained or practise, if you name one, and the membership or student number it gave you. Instructors are asked for this.
• If you teach: optionally, a short bio and your website.
• For an academy or school: its name, address, website, a contact person, and the IYC IDs of the instructors it chooses to link.
• What you choose to show in the public registry.

Our record that you accepted the Terms

When you accept the Terms and Conditions we keep the version you accepted, your name and email, the date and time, your internet (IP) address and your browser type, as the Terms allow. We use this record to show what you agreed to.

When you pay

Payments are made through Stripe, Inc. Your card details go directly to Stripe and are never received or stored by IYC. Stripe tells us the payment status, the amount, any transaction tax charged, the date and the last four digits of the card, which we keep for our records. Stripe's use of your information is governed by Stripe's own privacy policy.

After you are registered

• Annual declarations and continuing professional education records, once IYC has adopted and published those programmes.
• For academies, compliance declarations and quality-review records, once those reviews are adopted and published.
• Complaints, safeguarding concerns and any resulting review, decision, suspension or revocation, and what you tell us in response.
• Member-portal sign-in: the one-time codes we email you (kept only briefly, and only as a scrambled hash), your sign-in sessions, and the changes you make to your profile.

When you contact us

Your name, email address and your message.

When you visit the Website

Standard technical information such as your browser and device type, pages visited, approximate location from your IP address, and referring site, collected through privacy-respecting analytics. See section 7.

2. How we use your information

• To review and approve your registration, examine and verify the information and documents you give, and issue your IYC ID and digital ID card.
• To process payments, taxes and refunds.
• To keep a record of the Terms you accepted and of a guardian's approval of a junior registration.
• To show your public registry listing (section 3).
• To send you service emails, such as confirmation, approval, renewal reminders, and changes to our Terms or this policy.
• To send the IYC newsletter and event news, if you opt in. You can unsubscribe at any time.
• To run identity, sanctions and fraud screening where the law requires or permits it, and to refuse transactions that the law prohibits.
• To receive and review complaints and safeguarding concerns fairly, and to take proportionate action under our published procedures.
• To answer your questions.
• To keep the Website and the registry secure, and to prevent fraud and misuse.
• To meet legal, tax and accounting obligations.

3. The public registry

For each active registration, the public registry shows only:

• first name, country, category, designation, IYC ID, and the dates and status of the registration (Active, Expired, Suspended or Revoked; we never show why).

For an instructor trainer it also shows the training levels IYC has verified, and for a school or academy the training programmes IYC has approved.

Your ID card photograph or logo is never shown in the public registry or on the verification page: it appears only on your own ID card, which you choose who to show.

It shows more, such as a full name, city, styles, bio, website, or an academy's address, only if you choose to share it. An instructor's styles are shown so that people can find them by style, and an academy's city, bio and website make up its public profile.

Juniors (aged 13 to 17) receive extra protection. A junior is never listed by name and does not appear in registry searches. Only someone who already has the junior's IYC ID can look it up, and sees the ID, category, country and dates, and nothing else. A junior cannot choose to share more.

We never show your email address, phone number, age group, supporting evidence or payment details in the public registry.

You can change what you share, or ask for your listing to be removed, at any time by emailing us. When a registration expires, is suspended or is revoked, its listing is taken out of the public registry; someone who checks its IYC ID sees only the ID, category and status.

4. Who we share information with

We share personal information only with service providers who help us run the registry, under contracts that require them to protect it:

• Arivu IQ Corp, IYC's technology partner, which runs the Website, the member portal and related systems for us. Some emails about your registration, support or learning may come from an arivu-iq.com address, and a payment may show Arivu IQ Corp as the merchant receiving it on IYC's behalf;
• Stripe (payments);
• Microsoft Azure (website hosting, database and email delivery);
• identity, sanctions and fraud-screening providers, where we use them;
• our website and IT support providers;
• professional advisers, such as accountants and lawyers, where needed.

The academy or centre you name. If you name an academy or centre that is registered with IYC, we show it your name, the designation you applied for and the membership number you gave, so that it can confirm whether you trained or practise there. We do not show it your contact details, your evidence or anything else, and its answer only informs our review: IYC makes the decision. You can change or remove the academy you named in your member portal.

We may also disclose information to the competent authorities where the law requires or permits it, including where we refer fraud, abuse or a safeguarding concern, or to protect the rights, safety or property of IYC, registrants or others.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.

5. Legal basis (EEA, UK and Switzerland)

Where the GDPR or a similar law applies, we process personal information:

• to perform our agreement with you (registration, payment, ID card);
• for our legitimate interests (running a secure and accurate registry, verifying information, handling complaints and preventing fraud);
• to meet legal obligations (tax, sanctions, safeguarding); and
• with your consent (newsletter, optional public profile details).

You can withdraw consent at any time.

6. International transfers

IYC is based in the United States, and your information may be stored and processed in the United States or other countries where our service providers operate. Where required, we use appropriate safeguards for these transfers.

7. Cookies and analytics

The public Website uses only the cookies needed for it to work and to remember your preferences, plus analytics that help us understand which pages are useful. Where the law requires consent for analytics, we ask for it first.

The member portal uses a sign-in cookie, set when you enter your one-time code, so that you stay signed in for up to 14 days on that device; signing out removes it. The registry admin area uses a separate sign-in session for IYC staff only.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings; some parts of the Website may not work without them.

8. How long we keep information

• Active registrations: for the whole registration period, including a prepaid two-year or five-year period.
• After a registration expires: we keep the core record (name, IYC ID, category, dates) for up to 3 years so that you can renew with the same ID and so that IDs are not reused, unless you ask us to delete it sooner and the law allows.
• Record of accepted Terms and a guardian's approval: for as long as the registration lasts and for the period afterwards in which a claim could be made.
• Payment records: for as long as tax and accounting laws require, usually 7 years.
• Complaint and safeguarding records: for as long as needed for the review, any appeal, and the protection of others, and as the law requires.
• ID card photographs and logos: for as long as you keep them on your card. You can delete yours at any time in the member portal; a picture you replace, or that IYC declines, is deleted at once.
• Uploaded certificates: deleted 90 days after we approve or decline the registration or upgrade they support (or after one day, if the registration is never sent). We keep the decision and our notes.
• Messages to us: up to 2 years.

9. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards, including encrypted connections, restricted staff access and two-step sign-in for the admin area. No system is completely secure, so please contact us at once if you think your information has been misused.

10. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• access your personal information;
• correct it;
• delete it;
• receive a copy in a portable format;
• restrict or object to its processing; and
• withdraw consent.

Residents of US states with privacy laws, such as California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut and Utah, have these rights under their state law. We will not treat you differently for using them.

To make a request, email interyogacouncil@gmail.com. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we will reply within the time the law allows. If you are unhappy with our answer, you may complain to the data-protection authority where you live.

11. Children and juniors

The Website is not directed to children under 13, and we do not accept their registrations or knowingly collect their information. If we learn that we hold information about a child under 13, we will delete it.

People aged 13 to 17 may register only in a Junior category and only with the approval of a parent or legal guardian, given through a private link we email to them. We do not approve a junior registration without it. Juniors receive the extra protection described in section 3. A parent or guardian may ask us at any time to see, correct or delete a junior's information, or to remove the junior's registration.

12. Other websites

Registry listings and pages may link to other websites, such as an instructor's or academy's own site. Their privacy practices are their own; please read their policies.

13. Do Not Track

There is no common standard for “Do Not Track” browser signals, so the Website does not currently respond to them.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy. The updated policy applies from the date it is published on the Website, and we will email active registrants about material changes. Where the law requires fresh consent, we will ask for it, and we record the version you accepted.

15. Contact

International Yoga Council LLC
Email: interyogacouncil@gmail.com
Website: https://international-yogacouncil.com