Privacy Policy

Last updated: February 20, 2024 | Version: 1

This Privacy Policy describes how Hello Gaia Media LLC (hereinafter "Hello Gaia", "we," "us," "our") collects, uses, discloses, and protects the personal information of the visitors to its web properties and other users of its services ("you" or "your"). Below we also provide you with information about the rights and choices you may have with respect to your personal information, and how you can reach us to get answers to your questions.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices in relation to the collection, processing and storage of your personal information. By accessing or using our Services (defined below), you understand that we will process your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with or you are not comfortable with any aspect of this Privacy Policy, you should immediately discontinue access or use of our Services. 

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time which will be indicated by changing the date at the top of this page. If we make any material changes, we will notify you by email (sent to the email address specified in your account), by means of a notice on our Services prior to the change becoming effective, or as otherwise required by law. We may provide "just-in-time" disclosures or additional information about our data collection, use and sharing practices of specific services. These notices may supplement or clarify our privacy practices or may provide you with additional choices about how we process your personal information.  We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed about our collection, processing and sharing of your Personal Data.

1. SCOPE - WHAT THIS PRIVACY POLICY COVERS

Hello Gaia is committed to protecting the personal information of individuals who interact with us. This Privacy Policy applies to the personal information we collect and use for our own purposes (i.e., as a "data controller"), during any written, electronic or oral communication or collected online or offline when:

Our Sites may include links to websites and/or applications operated and maintained by third parties. Please note that we have no control over the privacy practices of websites or applications that we do not own. We encourage you to review the privacy practices of those third parties.

2. SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION

Where we need to Process your Sensitive Personal Information for a legitimate purpose, we do so in accordance with applicable law. The Services are not intended for use by children.

To the extent that information we collect is health data or another special category of personal data subject to applicable data protection laws, we ask for your explicit consent to process the data. We obtain this consent separately when you take actions leading to our obtaining the data, for example, when you sign up for an account on a Site, agree to receive communications from us  or agree to allow us to track you. You can withdraw your consent at any time by unsubscribing from our newsletters or deleting your account on the Sites.

Children. Except as may otherwise be specified for certain of our Sites, the Sites  are not intended for use by children, especially those under 16 (or applicable age in your country) ("Minor(s)"). Minors should not provide any Personal Information or use our public discussion areas, forums or chats. Minors under the age of 18 are not permitted to make purchases through the Services or obtain coupons or codes from the Services to purchase goods or services on third party websites. If, notwithstanding these prohibitions, your children disclose information about themselves in our public discussion areas, consequences may occur that are not intended for children (for example, they may receive unsolicited messages from other parties). If it is discovered that we have collected Personal Information from a Minor, we will delete that information immediately.

3. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Personal information is typically data that identifies an individual or relates to an identifiable individual. This includes information you provide to us, information which is collected about you automatically, and information we obtain from third parties. The definition of personal information depends on the applicable law based on your physical location. Only the definition that applies to your physical location will apply to you under this Privacy Policy.

Information you provide to us

To become a customer or subscribe to our email notifications, you must provide us with your email address. In order to provide our Services, we must collect information about your transactions with us in relation to the Services, including information relating to any purchases you make. We may collect the following information for you to subscribe to our Services: basic identifying information such as your first and last name, title, job position, employer, contact information (company, email address, phone number, and physical business address), User IDs and passwords, contact preferences, areas or topics of interest, your due date, the age of your children,  information provided in response to quizzes or surveys or to use certain health-related programs, and/or a photograph (if you or another user posts a photo on the Service) (collectively "Account Information"). By voluntarily providing us with this information, you represent that you are the owner of such personal information or are otherwise authorized to provide it to us.

We also collect information that you provide to us when you contact us for customer service, technical support, or for any other purposes related to our Services.

When you visit our Sites, we collect personal information that you provide us such as when you voluntarily post material, request further information about our Services, when you sign up for a Hello Gaia event or webinar, or when you report a problem with our Sites. Note that on some forms, collection of certain information is required in order for us to respond to your inquiry. We may also collect personal information from you offline, such as when you attend one of our events. The personal information we collect may include contact information (such as your name, address, telephone number or email address), professional information (such as your job title, department or job role), and contact preferences.

We also process the personal information in the records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses) if you contact us.

You also may voluntarily choose to provide personal information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, "post" or "posted") on public areas of the Sites, or transmitted to other users of the Sites or third parties (collectively, "User Contributions"). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. If you elect to post User Contributions, any personal Information or content that you voluntarily disclose, becomes available to the public. If you remove information that you posted, copies may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Service. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Sites with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.

Information we collect from you automatically

As you navigate through and interact with our Sites, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including: (a) details of your visits to our Sites, including traffic data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use our Services; and (b) information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.  In addition, we may collect different types of information about your location, including general information (e.g., IP address, zip code) and more specific information (e.g., GPS-based functionality on mobile devices used to access the Service), and may use that information to customize the Sites with location-based information and features. If you access the Service through a mobile device and you do not want your device to provide us with location-tracking information, you can disable the GPS or other location-tracking functions on your device, provided your device allows you to do this.

The information we collect automatically helps us to improve our Services and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to: (i) estimate our audience size and usage patterns; (ii) store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Services according to your individual interests; (iii) speed up your searches; and (iv) recognize you when you return to our Services. For more information about the cookies and tracking technologies we may use please review the Cookie section below.

Information we collect from third parties. From time to time, we may obtain information about you from our third party sources as required or permitted by applicable law. These sources may include:

4. COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES

A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser, as described in the Your Choices and Rights section below. However, if you select this setting, you may be unable to access certain parts of our Services. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Sites.

Flash Cookies and LocalStorage. Certain features of our Sites may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on our Sites. Flash cookies and LocalStorage are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies.

Web Beacons. Pages of our Sites may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit Hello Gaia, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

Third-Party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies. When you use the Sites, certain third parties may use automatic information collection (as described above) technologies to collect information about you or your device.

Some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Sites are served by these third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our website. The information they collect may be associated with your Personal Information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioral) advertising or other targeted content. Please review each third party's privacy policy to learn more about their collection practices.

These third parties may include analytics companies, including Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and Segment. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly. For information about how you can opt out of receiving targeted advertising from many providers, see the Your Choices section below.

Do Not Track. Some Internet browsers - like Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari - include the ability to transmit "Do Not Track" or "DNT" signals. Since uniform standards for "DNT" signals have not been adopted, the Sites does not currently process or respond to "DNT" signals. We take privacy seriously and will make efforts to continue to monitor developments around DNT browser technology and the implementation of a standard.

5. ANONYMIZED AND AGGREGATED DATA

Anonymization is a data processing technique that modifies personal information so that it cannot be associated with a specific individual. Except for this section, none of the other provisions of this Privacy Policy applies to anonymized or aggregated customer data (i.e. information about our customers that we combine together so that it no longer identifies or references an individual customer).

We may use anonymized or aggregate information for any business purpose, including to better understand customer needs and behaviors, improve our Services, conduct business intelligence and marketing, and detect security threats. We may perform our own analytics on anonymized data or enable analytics provided by third parties.

6. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

Our primary purpose in collecting personal information is to provide you with a secure, smooth, efficient, and customized experience. In general, we use personal information to create, develop, operate, deliver, and improve our Services and be able to offer our services and products. We may also use your personal information to:

  1. Provide Our Services. We process your personal information to enter into a contract with you, to provide the Service to you, to administer, maintain and/or analyze the Services, and to communicate with you about your use of our Services.
  2. Respond to Requests. We may process your personal information when you contact us, such as with questions, concerns and feedback. We share this information with third parties upon your request, or our service providers or partners to the extent necessary to provide you a response. Without your personal information, we cannot respond to you or ensure your continued use and enjoyment of our Services.
  3. Facilitate and Evaluate Use of the Services. We may use your personal information to provide you with the Services, to facilitate your use of the online services (such as facilitating navigation and the login process, preserving information between sessions and enhancing security), to improve quality, to evaluate page response rates and determine content.
  4. Improve the Accuracy of Our Records. We may use the personal information we receive from you or third parties to better understand you and/or maintain and improve the accuracy of the records we hold about you.
  5. Personalize Your Experience. We also may use cookies and similar tracking technology to personalize your experience. By personalizing our communications, we enable you to more easily use our website because we keep track of your preferences (e.g., your language selection, your time zone, etc.). Without processing your personal information for such purposes, you may not be able to access or personalize part or all of our Services.
  6. Ensure the Security of Our Services. We may process your personal information to help monitor, prevent and detect fraud, enhance security, and combat spam or other malware or security risks. combat spam, malware, malicious activities or security risks; improve and enforce our security measures; and to monitor the security of our Services.
  7. Quality Control and Training. We may use or access personal information for the purposes of quality control related to the Services and staff training.
  8. Post Testimonials. We may use personal information to post testimonials on our Sites. Prior to posting a testimonial, we will obtain your consent to use your name and testimonial. You can request your testimonial be updated or deleted at any time by sending a request with your name, testimonial location and contact information.
  9. Provide Marketing Communications. We may use information we obtain from you, your interactions with Hello Gaia and our Services, and from third party sources to provide you with marketing and promotional communications, to deliver targeted and relevant advertising and marketing to you, to determine the effectiveness of our marketing and promotional campaigns, to better understand you and your preferences, and to position and promote our services and products. Our marketing will be conducted in accordance with your advertising / marketing preferences and as permitted by applicable law.
  10. Communication About Events. Hello Gaia and our partners may use your personal information to communicate with you about our events or our partner events. After the event, Hello Gaia may contact you about the event and related products and services, and may share information about your attendance with our conference sponsors and partners, where legally permitted to do so. If a partner or conference sponsor directly requests your personal information at their conference booths or presentations, your personal information will be handled in accordance with their privacy practices.

7. LEGAL BASES FOR PROCESSING YOUR INFORMATION

For individuals who are located in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the United Kingdom (collectively, "Europe Residents") at the time of data collection, our legal bases for processing your information under the applicable data protection laws will depend on the personal information at issue, the specific context in the which the personal data is collected and the purposes for which it is used. We generally only process your data where we are legally required to; where processing is necessary to perform any contracts we entered with you or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you; where processing is in our legitimate interests to operate our business and not overridden by your data protection interests or fundamental rights and freedoms; or where we have obtained your consent to do so. Below is a chart showing how Hello Gaia uses your personal information, as described above in Section 5, with the corresponding legal basis for each processing activity.

Section & Purpose of Processing

Legal Bases for Processing

6(f) Ensure the Security of Our Services

6(d) Improve the Accuracy of Our Records

Based on our legal obligations.

6(a) Provide Our Services

6(b) Respond to Request

6(c) Facilitate and Evaluate Use of the Services

Based on our contract with you or to take steps at your request prior to entering a contract.

6(e) Personalize Your Experience

6(g) Quality Control and Training

6(j) Communicate About Events Research and Development of Our Services

Based on our legitimate interest to operate our business and not overridden by your data protection interests or fundamental rights and freedom.

6(h) Post Testimonials

6(i) Provide Marketing Communications 

(when not based on legitimate interest under the applicable law)

Based on your consent

8. WHY WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We share your personal information as needed to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and as permitted by applicable law. We may share your personal information in the following circumstances:

9. RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting obligations or to resolve disputes. While retention requirements vary by jurisdiction, information about our typical retention periods for different aspects of your personal information are described below.

10. DATA SECURITY

Hello Gaia maintains (and requires its service providers to maintain) appropriate organizational and technical measures designed to protect the security and confidentiality of any personal information we process. We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational measures designed to secure your information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. 

The safety and security of your information depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Services you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Services. Any transmission of personal information or Business Data is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Services. We are not responsible for the security measures for any third party.

11. CHILDREN'S PERSONAL INFORMATION

We do not knowingly request to collect personal information from any person under the age of 18. If a user submitting personal information is suspected of being younger than 18 years of age, we will require the user to close his or her account and will not allow the user to continue using our Services. We will also take steps to delete the information as soon as possible. Please notify us if you know of any individuals under the age of 18 using our Services so we can take action to prevent access to our Services.

12. YOUR CHOICES

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

Marketing Communications. You can opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us. Direct marketing includes any communications to you that are only based on advertising or promoting our products and services. We will only contact you by electronic means (email or SMS) based on our legitimate interests, as permitted by applicable law, or your consent. To the extent we can and do rely on legitimate interest under the applicable law, we will only send you information about our Services that are like those which were the subject of a previous sale or negotiations of a sale to you. We will contact you by electronic means for marketing purposes only if you have consented to such communication. You may raise such objections regarding initial or further processing for purposes of direct marketing, at any time and free of charge.

If you do not wish to receive non-transaction/security-related communications from us, you may opt-out by clicking the "unsubscribe" link in the communication or contact us via email or where specified in the "Contact Us" section, below. Please note that "opt-out" and "unsubscribe" requests may not take effect immediately and may take a reasonable amount of time to receive, process and apply, during which time your Information shall remain subject to the prior privacy settings. Additionally, you should be aware that any Information provided to third parties prior to your election to opt-out or unsubscribe will not be retrieved or rescinded, unless required by applicable law.

Analytics. We use Google Analytics. For information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en. Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on provides visitors with the ability to prevent their data from being collected and used by Google Analytics, available at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Cookies. Your browser may provide you with the option to refuse some or all browser cookies. You may also be able to remove cookies from your browser. You can exercise your preferences in relation to cookies served on our Sites by taking the steps outlined below.

We do not control third parties' collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. You can decide whether to accept cookies. If you do not want us to deploy cookies in your browser, you may exercise your preference by modifying your web browser setting to either (1) refuse some or all cookies, or (2) notify you and ask for your permission when a website tries to set a cookie. If you want to learn the correct way to modify your browser settings, please use the "Help," "Tools" or "Edit" menu in your browser or review the instructions provided by the following browsers:

If you disable or remove cookies, some parts of the Services may not function properly. Information may still be collected and used for other purposes, such as research, online services analytics or internal operations, and to remember your opt-out preferences.

13. PRIVACY RIGHTS

Depending on applicable law where you reside, you may be able to assert certain rights related to your personal information identified below. If any of the rights listed below are not provided under law for your operating entity or jurisdiction, Hello Gaia has absolute discretion in providing you with those rights.

You can exercise your rights by contacting us at [email protected]. We will consider your request under applicable law. When we receive an individual rights request via email, we may take steps to verify your identity before complying with the request to protect your privacy and security. We may ask you to identify which country you are located in when you use or access some of the Services, or we may rely on your IP address to identify which country you are located in to determine your rights under the applicable data protection law in your jurisdiction. Your rights to personal information are not absolute. Depending upon the applicable law, access to your rights under the applicable law may be denied: (a) when denial of access is required or authorized by law; (b) when granting access would have a negative impact on another's privacy; (c) to protect our rights and properties; (d) where the request is frivolous or vexatious, or for other reasons.

If for any reason you are unsatisfied with our response to your exercising any rights afforded to you by applicable law and as set forth in this Privacy Policy, you may contact us at [email protected]. In such communication we ask that you specify the nature of your dissatisfaction and we will endeavor to respond to you promptly.

14. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS OF INFORMATION

Personal information, including personal information collected in the European Economic Area ("EEA"), the United Kingdom or Switzerland, may be transferred, stored and processed by us and our services providers, partners and affiliates in the United States and potentially other countries whose data protection laws may be different to the laws of your country . Some of these countries are not deemed 'adequate' by the European Commission. We will protect your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy wherever it is processed and will take appropriate contractual or other steps to protect the relevant personal information in accordance with applicable laws. We use European Commission-approved Standard Contractual Clauses and UK ICO approved International Data Transfer Addendums where required for any transfers of European Residents' personal information to our service providers located in countries that are not deemed to be adequate by the European Commission.

15. CONTACT INFORMATION

To ask questions or if you have concerns about this Privacy Policy, you can email us at [email protected].