Privacy Policy

DRBA BOOK WAREHOUSE ONLINE SYSTEM

Dharma Realm Buddhist Association (DRBA) (the “Organization”) is committed to protecting the privacy of its users. This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) is designed to help you understand what information we gather, how we use it, what we do to protect it, and to assist you in making informed decisions when using our Service.  Unless otherwise indicated below, this Privacy Policy applies to any DRBA Book warehouse sites that references this Privacy Policy. 

For purposes of this Agreement, “Service” refers to the DRBA Book Warehouse Online System. The terms “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to the the Organization and the staff members of the DRBA Book warehouse. “You” refers to you, as a user of Service. 

I. CONSENT

By accessing our Service, you accept our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and you consent to our collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. In addition, by using our Service, or services across partnered and unaffiliated sites, you are accepting the policies and practices described in this Privacy Policy. Each time you visit our website, or use the Service, and any time you voluntarily provide us with information, you agree that you are consenting to our collection, use and disclosure of the information that you provide, and you are consenting to receive emails or otherwise be contacted, as described in this Privacy Policy. Whether or not you register or create any kind of account with us, this Privacy Policy applies to all users of the website and the Service.

II. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We may collect both “Non-Personal Information” and “Personal Information” about you. “Non-Personal Information” includes information that cannot be used to personally identify you, such as anonymous usage data, books requested, and any notes provided by you with the requests. “Personal Information” includes information that can be used to personally identify you, such as your name and email address.

In addition, we may also track information provided to us by your browser when you view or use the Service, such as the time and date of access.  We use this information for, among other things, the operation of the Service, to maintain the quality of the Service, to provide general statistics regarding use of the Service and for other business purposes. 

We, as the Organization, don’t track your information. The website, which is powered by Google’s services, may track your information using cookies to provide you with better service, such as minimizing the number of logins you need into your Google accounts. Cookies are sent to a user’s browser from Google’s servers and are stored on the user’s computer hard drive.

For staff members and administrators, we may collect logs of managing activities in addition, which contains your email, you name, and your  activity details including time and actions like approving a request. The logs are only accessible by staff members and administrators.

III. HOW WE USE AND SHARE INFORMATION

Personal Information:

In general, we do not sell, trade, rent your Personal Information with any third party. We also do not share your Personal Information with third parties without your consent. We may share your Personal Information with other DRBA departments inside the Organization. In general, departments within the Organization will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the services they provide for the Organization.  For example, when you provide us with personal information to complete a book request, you consent to our collecting and using such personal information for that specific purpose, including by transmitting such information to other departments performing these services for the Organization. 

In addition, we may disclose your Personal Information if required to do so by law or if you violate our Terms of Use.

Non-Personal Information:

In general, we use Non-Personal Information to help us improve the Service and customize the user experience. We also aggregate Non-Personal Information in order to track trends and analyze use patterns of the Service. This Privacy Policy does not limit in any way our use or disclosure of Non-Personal Information and we reserve the right to use and disclose such Non-Personal Information to other departments of the Organization at our sole discretion.

Permissions:

The Service is powered by Google Apps Script, and as a Web App, it by nature requires a selected set of permissions to be able to provide the required Service. 

A brief explanation on the permissions you may be asked to grant:

1. Know who you are on Google

We restrict the app only be used by the ones approved by us. This is to protect the book warehouse data stored in the Drive, as well as user privacy. This does not require a Google+ profile although it may say "public profile" in its permission description.

2. View your email address

This is needed because we need this information to know who is requesting the book(s), as well as who to notify when books are ready.

3. View and manage your spreadsheets in Google Drive

We do NOT view or manage your own spreadsheets or any other files not owned by us in your Google Drive. This permission is required because we are sharing our own spreadsheets with you (which makes the spreadsheets part of your Google Drive too). None of your own Google Drive items will be seen or touched.

4. View and manage data associated with the application

This is to utilize some data we stored in the application. They are some constant strings, like "RequestTab", as our configuration information for the system.

5. (Staff only) Send emails on your behalf

This is only required for staff members and administrators, who send out emails to notify about status updates.  Regular users will not be asked for this permission.

6. (Staff only) View and manage your Google Docs documents

This is only required for staff members and administrators, whose managing activities will be logged to Google Docs documents. Regular users will not be asked for this permission.

7. (Staff only) View and manage the files in your Google Drive

This is only required for staff members and administrators, whose managing activities will be logged to Google Docs documents. There is one log document per month, which will be created (and owned) by the first staff / admin accessing the system during the month. Regular users will not be asked for this permission.

IV. HOW WE PROTECT INFORMATION

We implement reasonable precautions and best practices in order to protect your Personal Information and minimize the possibility of your information being accessed by others. We also restrict the usage within the DRBA community and all users registered with the system must be manually reviewed and approved by our administrator or staff members before granted access; we revoke access of users who are no longer appropriate to use the system on a timely manner. 

However:

1. These measures do not guarantee that your information will not be accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed by breach of such precautions. 

2. Your information will always be accessible by the staff members of the Service in order to provide services for you. This is because each book request needs to be explicitly reviewed and approved, which includes verifying your identity by the staff members.

3. Due to the limitation of the technology we utilize, the book request details will be visible to other users, except your identity information. 

• Your identity information, which is your email address and name, will be represented by a user ID as seen by others, instead of your explicit email and name. 

• Any information explicitly disclosed in your note, as well as email addresses of “copy-to” recipients, will be visible to others unmodified.

By using our Service, you acknowledge that you understand and agree to assume these risks.

V. YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING THE USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We would not contact you for marketing purposes. You have the right at any time to:

1. Opt out to stop using the system by revoking all permissions granted to the web app, via https://myaccount.google.com/permissions.

2. Request removal of your account from the system registration by sending an email request to our administrator listed on the website.

3. Request removal of all records of your information from the system (this is a manual process and will take a significant amount of time to complete) by sending an email request to our administrator listed on the website.

VI. Google

Our Service is hosted by Google Inc. (“Google”).  Google provides us with the online platform that allows us to provide the Service to you.  Your information, including Personal Information, may be stored through Google’s servers. By using the Service, you consent to Google’s collection, disclosure, storage, and use of your Personal Information in accordance with Google’s privacy policy available at https://policies.google.com/privacy.   

VII. LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

As part of the Service, we may provide links to or compatibility with other websites or applications. However, we are not responsible for the privacy practices employed by those websites or the information or content they contain. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by us through the Service. Therefore, this Privacy Policy does not apply to your use of a third-party website accessed by selecting a link via our Service. To the extent that you access or use the Service through or on another website or application, then the privacy policy of that other website or application will apply to your access or use of that site or application. We encourage our users to read the privacy statements of other websites before proceeding to use them.

VIII. AGE OF CONSENT

By using the Service, you represent that you are at least 18 years of age.  

IX. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

The Organization reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use at any time. If we decide to change this Privacy Policy, we will post these changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it. Any such modifications become effective upon your continued access to and/or use of the Service five (5) days after we first post the changes on the website or otherwise provide you with notice of such modifications. It is your sole responsibility to check this website from time to time to view any such changes to the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to any changes, if and when such changes may be made to this Privacy Policy, you must cease access to this website. If you have provided your email address to us, you give us permission to email you for the purpose of notification as described in this Privacy Policy.

XI. EMAIL COMMUNICATIONS & OPTING OUT

We will send you Service-required notifications regarding your book requests, such as notifying you the status of your request, or reminding your to pick up your books. We will send you Service-related announcements on occasions when it is necessary to do so; for instance, if our Service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, or a new enhancement is released, which will affect the way you use our Service, we might send you an email.  Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. 

XII. CONTACT US & WITHDRAWING CONSENT

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy or the practices of this Site, or wish to withdraw your consent for the continued collection, use or disclosure of your Personal Information, please contact us by sending an email request to our administrator listed on the website.

Last Updated: This Privacy Policy was last updated on July 7 2024.