Privacy policy

At Milton Keynes Mindfulness we respect your privacy and understand how important it is that your personal information remains secure.

We will not reveal information about you without your permission and will never disclose your attendance at one of our events unless we are required to do so for legal reasons or by the emergency services.

We hope that this Privacy Policy statement answers any questions you may have regarding our care of your information but if you have any further questions please contact Mat Shencks using the contact form on this website:

Booking information

In order to complete your bookings we ask for the following information from you: your name, an email address, and the date of the event that you wish to attend. This information is collected by the third party software PayPal.

We need this information in order to communicate with you about your bookings. We do not collect sensitive information about you unless there is a clear reason for doing so, such as ensuring we meet specific needs you may have.

Who has access to my data?

Only Mat Schencks, the lead teacher at Milton Keynes Mindfulness.

Electronic mailing lists

When you subscribe to a mailing list so that you can receive news about future events we record your name and email address.

If you subscribe to our mailing list we will send you emails containing the following types of information:

  • our programme of retreats and courses for the following year;
  • reminders of forthcoming retreats;
  • notifications that a retreat/course is fully booked and a waiting list is in operation;
  • information about events that we believe would be of particular interest to an Mindfulness practitioner.

We aim to minimise the number of emails we send to this list.

What if I want to change my communications preferences at a later date?

Every email message we send to the email list includes a link to opt out of receiving future emails and a link to change your subscription preferences.

You can also let us know of any changes to your communications preferences by contacting us using the contact form on this website.

If you opt out of receiving our communications at any point, we will delete your entry from this list. This will ensure that you do not receive any further communications from this list.

Do you ever share my information with third parties?

We will not at any time sell or exchange your information. We may use other companies to provide services on our behalf. We only provide these partners with the information they need to deliver the required service. We ensure that any third party we employ has a robust privacy policy. The third parties that we currently use are:

MailChimp – to distribute our e-newsletters
PayPal – to process online booking payments
Google – to provide website usage data and statistics

We do not share your information for any other purposes.

How is my credit/debit card information processed?

When you make a booking online using PayPal we receive the following details about you: your name, postal address, email address, details of the event you have booked, the amount paid, and when the transaction occurred. We cannot view, and do not collect, your credit or debit card information.

PayPals privacy policy can be seen here: https://www.paypal.com/en/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full

How secure is the information I give you?

Milton Keynes Mindfulness takes the care of your data seriously and undertakes to protect your personal information by putting in place appropriate procedures to safeguard and secure the data we collect.

In todays online environment it is unfortunately not possible to completely guarantee against loss, misuse or alteration of data, for example in the event of a successful cyber-attack. In the unlikely event of such an event affecting your data we will contact you to let you know the scope of the event.

Data retention

Retreat booking information

The information you disclose in relation to your booking is held on our database to assist with your current booking until you request to unsubscribe from the mailing list.

Mailing list

The information you provide to subscribe to our mailing list is retained until you request to unsubscribe.

The right to be forgotten

You have the right to be forgotten, which means that if you request us to, we will remove all the data that we hold on you from our systems, unless there is a legal requirement for us to keep it.

How can I see what information you hold on me?

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation (which will be effective from 25 May 2018) you can request a report detailing the information we hold about you. To obtain a report, please make a request via the contact page of this website.

We aim to offer a full response to all information access requests within a month.

The following information will be required before access is granted:

  • Your full name and contact details
  • Your relationship to Milton Keynes Mindfulness
  • A copy of your passport or national ID card

Reports will be sent by email. We reserve the right to charge a reasonable admin fee for additional copies of the same information.

Cookies on the Milton Keynes Mindfulness website

Our website uses cookies – small text files that are placed on your device to provide you with a better user experience when using our site. In general, cookies are used to retain user preferences, store information for things like shopping carts, and provide anonymous tracking data to third party applications such as Google Analytics. As a rule, cookies will make your browsing experience better.

However, you may prefer to disable cookies on this and other sites. The most effective way to do this is to disable cookies in your browser. Consult the Help section of your browser or take a look at the All about Cookies website which offers guidance for managing cookies.

Who can I contact for further information?

If you are unhappy with our organisation’s data practices and do not feel that we have addressed your concerns, please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office or call the helpline on 0303 123 1113.