GOCC Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains who we are, how we collect, share and use Personal Information, and how you can exercise your privacy rights. We recommend that you read this privacy policy in full to ensure you are fully informed. If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your Personal Information, then please contact us at gatheringas1@aol.com.

About Us

The Gathering of Christ Church is registered in the United States of America but operates worldwide. Registered members and visitors on our website can access a wealth of resources, including but not limited to church video teachings, biblical study resources, various discussion forums and much more. In addition, the church has different initiatives to serve its members and visitors such as the Hebrew & Bible Academy, Hebrew Calendars, Sabbath Classes and Blog Talk Radio Shows to name a few.

A.  Information We Collect/Cookies

The Personal Information that we may collect broadly falls into the following categories:

(i) The information you provide to us: As a member of the church or visitor to our website, you may provide Personal Information about you and your Contacts. Personal Information is often, but not exclusively, provided to us when you register on our website or sign up for and to purchase calendars and enroll in the academy. The collection of Personal Information is necessary to process purchases and to allocate members to a local body under a designated leadership to teach and counsel. By giving us this information, you agree to this information being collected, used and disclosed as described in this privacy policy.

This information may include:

Registration information: To register on the church website and to be assigned to a body of the church whether locally or internationally.  When you register or for orientation, you will be asked to provide certain basic information, such as your name, email address, username, password, location, and phone number.

Billing and communications information: If you purchase merchandise from our website, you may also need to provide us with payment and billing information, such as your credit card details and billing address. We maintain a record of your billing transactions (but not your credit card details), purchases, and any communications and responses.

Information others process on our behalf: To keep you informed about upcoming church events and provide materials and resources for lessons, we need to upload a Distribution List with information such as your names and email addresses to Mailchimp that handles mass distributions. We use and process this information to provide learning resources and merchandise in accordance with your instructions.

(ii) Information we collect automatically: When you purchase merchandise, we may automatically collect certain information about your device and usage of the services. We use cookies to collect some of this information. Our use of cookies and other tracking technologies is strictly for essential website function. These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our websites and to use some of its features, such as access to secure areas. Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, you cannot refuse them without impacting how our website functions. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings. We also have Performance and Functionality Cookies, these cookies are used to enhance the performance and functionality of our websites but are non-essential to their use. However, without these cookies, certain functionality may become unavailable.

 (iii) Information we collect from other sources: From time to time, we may obtain information about you from third-party sources, such Ecwid and Mailchimp our joint marketing partners. We take steps to ensure that such third parties are legally or contractually permitted to disclose such information to us.

Examples of the information we receive from other sources include sales information such as products bought and at what frequency, location (such as city and state), and payment confirmation. We use this information, alone or in combination with other information (including Personal Information) we collect, to process orders and distribute pertinent emails pertaining to the church. We collect usage data about you whenever you purchase merchandise, which may include the dates and times you access the Services and your browsing activities. We also collect information regarding the sales of the merchandise, including metrics related to the deliverability of emails and other communications you send through to the church to follow up orders.

B. Use of Personal Information

We may use the Personal Information we collect through the website or other sources for a range of reasons, including:

To collect donations and funds for the academy, calendars, and apparel.

This includes sending you emails, invoices, and collect donations. We use third parties for secure credit card transaction processing, and those third parties collect billing information to process your orders and credit card payments.

To send you church messages and updates.

For example, we may inform you about changes to our church services, upcoming and planned events or Feast dates.

To communicate with you about your account and advertising.

To resend and reset a password for website registration and customer support with the various streaming and video platforms we use as teaching resources.  To communicate and advertise upcoming Academies and releases of new merchandise. All of which you can unsubscribe from by emailing gatheringas1@aol.com.

To provide, support and counsel.

To ensure that Elders and leadership are available to assist and support church members, to provide counsel where and when necessary.  To enable administration team to respond to queries and process orders. When we share Personal Information with third parties, we take steps to protect your information by requiring these third parties to enter into a contract with us that requires them to use the Personal Information we transfer to them in a manner that is consistent with this privacy policy and applicable privacy laws.

C. Member Distribution Lists

A Distribution List can be created in a number of ways, including by importing contacts from our website, from our shopping carts on History Times or directly from member emails. Our Distribution Lists are stored on a secure MailChimp server. We do not, under any circumstances, sell your information or our Distribution Lists.

D. Other Data Protection Rights

You may have the following data protection rights:

• To access, correct, update or request deletion of Personal Information. As a Member, you can manage your individual account and profile settings within the dashboard provided through the Church Website and Shopping Website platform, or you may contact us directly by emailing us at gatheringas1@aol.com.
• In addition, individuals who are residents of the EEA can object to the processing of their Personal Information, ask to restrict processing of their Personal Information or request portability of their Personal Information. You can exercise these rights by contacting us using the contact details provided above. Similarly, if Personal Information is collected or processed on the basis of consent, the data subject can withdraw their consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal.
• The right to complain to a data protection authority about the collection and use of Personal Information. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority.

E. Your Choices and Opt-Outs

Members and Visitors who have opted into our marketing emails can opt out of receiving marketing emails from us at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” link in the footer of our emails. Also, all opt-out requests can be made by emailing us at gatheringas1@aol.com. Please note that some communications (such as service messages, account notifications, billing information) are considered transactional and necessary for account management, and Members cannot opt out of these messages unless you cancel your account.

F. Our Security

We take appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect Personal Information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction, taking into account the risks involved in the processing and the nature of the Personal Information. Members must keep their username and password secure, and never disclose it to a third party. Because the information in a Member’s Ecwid account is so sensitive, account passwords are hashed, which means we cannot see a Member’s password. We cannot resend forgotten passwords either. We will only provide Members with instructions on how to reset them.

G. International Transfers

We operate in the United States

We are located in the United States, so your information may be transferred to, stored, or processed in the United States. While the data protection, privacy, and other laws of the United States might not be as comprehensive as those in your country, we take serious steps to protect your privacy.

H. Retention of Data

We retain Personal Information where we have an ongoing legitimate business or legal need to do so. Our retention periods will vary depending on the type of data involved, but, generally, we’ll refer to these criteria in order to determine retention period:

• Whether we have a legal or contractual need to retain the data.
• Whether the data is necessary to provide our Services.
• Whether our Members have the ability to access and delete the data from their accounts.
• Whether our Members would reasonably expect that we would retain the data until they remove it or until their accounts are closed or terminated.

When we have no ongoing legitimate need to process your Personal Information, we will either delete or anonymize it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your Personal Information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your Personal Information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible. However, we do NOT share this information with any other parties for any reason.