The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

PRIVACY POLICY

Last updated: January 20, 2024

This website is operated by Steiner Online Library, a Michigan nonprofit corporation located in the United States. You may contact us by mail at 9508 9th Street, Box 42, Interlochen, Michigan 49643-0042 USA or by email at [email protected]. Throughout the site and this Privacy Policy, the terms "we", "us", "our" and "SOL" to refer to Steiner Online Library dba the Rudolf Steiner Archive.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and the safety of your information. This Privacy Policy sets forth our policies and practices for handling your information in connection with the Site, our services, and any other website or online service that we operate and that links to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the "Service"). Your use of the Service is governed by this Privacy Policy, and you consent to our use of your information consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By using and accessing any of the Service, you agree to the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not use or access any of the Service.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, including to reflect changes to our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will post the revised Privacy Policy on the Site, update the "Last updated" date and take any other steps required by applicable law. We recommend that you review the Privacy Policy each time you visit the Service to stay informed of our privacy practices.

How We Collect and Use Your Personal Information

To provide the Service, we may collect the following kinds of information about you from a variety of sources as set out below. The information that we collect and use varies depending on how you interact with us.

In addition to the specific uses set out below, we may use information we collect about you to communicate with you, provide the Service, comply with any applicable legal obligations, enforce any applicable terms of service, and to protect or defend the Service, our rights, and the rights of our users or others.

What Personal Information We Collect

The types of personal information we obtain about you depends on how you interact with the Site and the Service. When we use the term "personal information", we are referring to information that identifies, relates to, describes or can be associated with you. The following sections describe the categories and specific types of personal information we collect.

Information you provide directly to us

Some features of the Service may require you to directly provide us with certain information about yourself. You may elect not to provide this information, but doing so may prevent you from using or accessing these features. Information that you directly submit to us through the Service may include:

  • Basic contact details including your name, address, phone number, email and the reason for the contact.
  • Demographic information such as country.
  • Order information including your name, billing address, shipping address, payment confirmation, email address, phone number.
  • Account information including your username, password, security questions.
  • Shopping information including the items you view, put in your cart or add to your wishlist.
  • Customer support information including the information you choose to include in communications with us, for example, when sending a message through the Service.
When you browse the Site, we also automatically receive your computer's internet protocol (IP) address in order to provide us with information that helps us learn about your browser and operating system. From your use of the Service, we may additionally receive technical information regarding device identifiers, browser type, operating system, software and settings information, resolution, Internet service provider, search terms, the date and time of your visit, information about the links you click and pages you view within the Service, and other standard server log information.

Information We Collect through Cookies

We also automatically collect certain information about your interaction with the Service ("Usage Data"). Usage Data may include information about how you access and use our Site and your account, including device information, browser information, information about your network connection, your IP address and other information regarding your interaction with the Service.

To do this, we may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies (“Cookies”). Like many websites, we use Cookies to power and improve the Site and the Service (including to remember your actions and preferences), to run analytics and better understand user interaction with the Service (in our legitimate interests to administer, improve and optimize the Service). We may also permit third parties and services providers to use Cookies on our Site to better tailor the Service, products and advertising on our Site and other websites.

Most browsers automatically accept Cookies by default, but you can choose to set your browser to remove or reject Cookies through your browser controls. Please keep in mind that removing or blocking Cookies can negatively impact your user experience and may cause some of the Service, including certain features and general functionality, to work incorrectly or no longer be available. Additionally, blocking Cookies may not completely prevent how we share information with third parties such as our advertising partners.

For specific information about the Cookies that we use related to powering our store through Shopify, see their Cookie Policy. By using the Service, you consent to our use of cookies and similar technologies.

Information we obtain from other sources

Finally, may receive information about you from other sources, including from vendors and service providers who may collect information on our behalf, such as:

  • Companies who support our Site and Service, such as Shopify.
  • Our payment processors, who collect payment information (e.g., bank account, credit or debit card information, billing address) to process your payment in order to fulfill your orders and provide you with products or services you have requested, in order to perform our contract with you.
  • When you visit our Site, open or click on emails we send you, or interact with the Service or advertisements, we, or third parties we work with, may automatically collect certain information using online tracking technologies such as pixels, web beacons, software developer kits, third-party libraries, and cookies.
  • If you access third-party social media services, such as Facebook, Google, or Twitter, through the Service to share information about your experience on the Service with others, we may collect information from these third-party services.

Any information we obtain from third parties will be treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We are not responsible or liable for the accuracy of the information provided to us by third parties and are not responsible for any third party's policies or practices. For more information, see the section below, Third Party Websites and Links.

How We Use Your Personal Information

Providing Products and Services. We use your personal information to provide you with the Service to fulfill your requests for products, services, and information and to otherwise perform our contract with you, including, to process your payments, to fulfill your orders, to send notifications to you related to your account, purchases, returns, exchanges or other transactions, to create, maintain and otherwise manage your account, to arrange for shipping, facilitate any returns and exchanges and to enable you to post reviews.

Marketing and Advertising. We use your personal information for marketing and promotional purposes, such as to send marketing, advertising and promotional communications by email, text message or postal mail, and to show you advertisements for products or services. This may include using your personal information to better tailor the Service and advertising on our Site and other websites.

Service Improvements. We use your personal information to analyze your use of the Service to understand and improve the Service;

Security and Fraud Prevention. We use your personal information to detect, investigate or take action regarding potentially prohibited or fraudulent, illegal or malicious activity and otherwise in accordance with our Terms of Service. If you choose to use the Service and register an account, you are responsible for keeping your account credentials safe. We highly recommend that you do not share your username, password, or other access details with anyone else. If you believe your account has been compromised, please contact us immediately. We may also use your personal information to meet our legal obligations, such as court orders and subpoenas.

Communications. We use your personal information to provide you with customer support and improve the Service. This is in our legitimate interests in order to be responsive to you, to provide effective services to you, and to maintain our business relationship with you. With your consent, for example, for the use of cookies, for commercial communications by third parties and the international transfer of your information.

How We Disclose Personal Information

In certain circumstances, we may disclose your personal information to third parties for legitimate purposes subject to this Privacy Policy. Such circumstances may include:

Third-party services. In general, the third-party providers used by us will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to allow them to perform the Service they provide to us. However, certain third-party service providers have their own privacy policies in respect to the information we are required to provide to them for your related activity. For these providers, we recommend that you read their privacy policies so you can understand the manner in which your personal information will be handled by these providers. If you access or use third-party services, such as Facebook, Google, or Twitter, to share information about your use of the Service, these third-party services may be able to collect information about you, including information about your activity on the Service, and such information may be provided to your connections on the third-party services, in accordance with their own privacy policies and any user controls they may offer.

Our vendors and service providers. We may share your information with our third-party vendors and service providers, including Shopify, who help us provide and improve the Service, including, for example, email deployment, marketing, and data processing.

Corporate transactions. We may share your information in connection with a corporate transaction or business transfer, such as an acquisition, merger, sale, reorganization, consolidation, liquidation or sale of assets resulting in another party's acquisition of all or elements of the Service, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.

Legal purposes. We may disclose information to respond to subpoenas, court orders, legal process, law enforcement requests, legal claims or government inquiries, and to protect and defend our rights, interests, property, safety, and security, and that of the Service, users, or the public.

Aggregated or de-identified information. After removing your name and any other information that personally identifies you, we may share aggregated or de-identified information with our vendors and service providers so that they can measure and analyze usage and performance of the Service. These vendors and service providers are prohibited from re-identifying or otherwise combining this information with other data.

With your consent. We may share information for any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect the information pursuant to your consent. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for the purposes of inferring characteristics about you.

User Generated Content

The Service may enable you to post product reviews and other user-generated content. If you choose to submit user generated content to any public area of the Service, this content will be public and accessible by anyone.

We do not control who will have access to the information that you choose to make available to others, and cannot ensure that parties who have access to such information will respect your privacy or keep it secure. We are not responsible for the privacy or security of any information that you make publicly available, or for the accuracy, use or misuse of any information that you disclose or receive from third parties.

Third Party Websites and Links

Our Site may provide links to websites or other online platforms operated by third parties. If you follow links to sites not affiliated or controlled by us, you should review their privacy and security policies and other terms and conditions. We do not guarantee and are not responsible for the privacy or security of such sites, including the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of information found on these sites. Information you provide on public or semi-public venues, including information you share on third-party social networking platforms may also be viewable by other users of the Service and/or users of those third-party platforms without limitation as to its use by us or by a third party. Our inclusion of such links does not, by itself, imply any endorsement of the content on such platforms or of their owners or operators, except as disclosed on the Service.

SECURITY

To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed. Please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and we cannot guarantee “perfect security.” You understand that your any information you send to us (not including credit card information), may be transferred unencrypted and involve (a) transmissions over various networks; and (b) changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices. Credit card information is always encrypted during transfer over networks.

DATA RETENTION

How long we retain your personal information depends on different factors, such as whether we need the information to maintain your account, to provide the Service, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes or enforce other applicable contracts and policies. We take reasonable steps to ensure that we retain information about you only for so long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, or as required under any contract or by applicable law.

Your Rights and Choices

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the rights listed below in relation to your personal information. However, these rights are not absolute, may apply only in certain circumstances and, in certain cases, we may decline your request as permitted by law.

Right to Access / Know. You may have a right to request access to personal information that we hold about you, including details relating to the ways in which we use and share your information.

Right to Delete. You may have a right to request that we delete personal information we maintain about you.

Right to Correct. You may have a right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information we maintain about you.

Right of Portability. You may have a right to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to request that we transfer it to a third party, in certain circumstances and with certain exceptions.

Restriction of Processing. You may have the right to ask us to stop or restrict our processing of personal information.

Withdrawal of Consent. Where we rely on consent to process your personal information, you may have the right to withdraw this consent.

Appeal. You may have a right to appeal our decision if we decline to process your request. You can do so by replying directly to our denial.

Managing Communication Preferences. We may send you promotional emails, and you may opt out of receiving these at any time by using the unsubscribe option displayed in our emails to you. If you opt out, we may still send you non-promotional emails, such as those about your account or orders that you have made.

You may exercise any of these rights where indicated on our Site or by contacting us using the contact details provided below. As permitted by law, we may charge a nominal fee for information requests and require you to establish your identity before providing you access to the requested information.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights. We may need to collect information from you to verify your identity, such as your email address or account information, before providing a substantive response to the request. In accordance with applicable laws, you may designate an authorized agent to make requests on your behalf to exercise your rights. Before accepting such a request from an agent, we will require that the agent provide proof you have authorized them to act on your behalf, and we may need you to verify your identity directly with us. We will respond to your request in a timely manner as required under applicable law.

CONSENT

When you provide us with personal information, for example, to make a donation, make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter or to submit content, you consent to our collecting it and using it for that specific reason only.

If we ask for your personal information for a secondary reason, like marketing, we will either ask you directly for your expressed consent, or provide you with an opportunity to say no.

Withdrawal of Consent

If after you opt-in, you change your mind, you may withdraw your consent for us to contact you, for the continued collection, use or disclosure of your information, at any time, by unsubscribing through a link in the e-mail communication, contacting us at legal@steinerlibrary or mailing us at: Steiner Online Library, 9508 9th Street, Box 42, Interlochen, MI 49643-0042 USA.

Age of Consent

By using this site, you represent that you are at least the age of majority in your state or province of residence, or that you are the age of majority in your state or province of residence, and you have given us your consent to allow any of your minor dependents to use this site.

Children’s Data

The Service are not intended to be used by children, and we do not knowingly collect any personal information about children. If you are the parent or guardian of a child who has provided us with their personal information, you may contact us using the contact details set out below to request that it be deleted.

As of the effective date of this Privacy Policy, we do not have actual knowledge that we “share” or “sell” (as those terms are defined in applicable law) personal information of individuals under 16 years of age.

Complaints

If you have complaints about how we process your personal information, please contact us using the contact details provided below. If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, depending on where you live you may have the right to appeal our decision by contacting us using the contact details set out below, or lodge your complaint with your local data protection authority.

INTERNATIONAL USERS

Information collected through the Service may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which we or the Service providers maintain facilities. We may transfer information that we collect about you, including personal information, across borders and from your country or jurisdiction to other countries or jurisdictions. If you are located in the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that we may transfer information, including personal information, to a country and jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction. By using the Service and providing us with information directly or indirectly, you consent to the transfer of information to the U.S. or to any other country in which we or the Service providers maintain facilities for processing in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not consent, you cannot use the Service. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is protected.

If you are located in the European Union, and despite our efforts to help you, you still have concerns about our collection and use of your information, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Supervisory Authority for data protection in your country.

Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our practices, please contact us by email at legal@steinerlibrary or at the following address.

Steiner Online Library
9508 9th Street, Box 42
Interlochen, MI 49643-0042 USA