Privacy Policy

The World Academy of Personal Development Inc. and OptimalThinking.com (“Owner” both jointly and individually) does not collect personal information about you except when knowingly provided by you. Owner may however, use or provide to third parties, statistics about members, traffic patterns and related site information but these will not personally identify you. By responding to any request for personal information, you agree that Owner may use and provide to third parties the information that you provide in order to provide you with information about relevant products and services. If you do not wish to receive email or other correspondence related to Owner’s or third parties’ promotions or products, simply indicate your preference when you are asked to provide the information or contact Owner at https://www.optimalthinking.com/contact/

If you do not wish to receive email or other correspondence related to Owner’s or third parties’ promotions or products, simply indicate your preference when you are asked to provide the information or contact Owner at https://www.optimalthinking.com/contact/. Specifically, if you prefer NOT to have information collected, you may:

• Disable cookies within your browser prior to visiting our website
• Refrain from submitting information via web forms in our website
• Decide not to “opt-in” to various programs
• Choose not to purchase from our online store (if applicable)
• Choose not to complete any surveys or assessments on our website

Scope: What Is Covered by Our Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies only to your use of this website and does not extend to any websites that link to our site, whether we provide those links or they are shared by others. We have no control over how your data is collected, stored or used by other websites and we strongly advise that you check the privacy statements of third party websites before providing any data to them.

Collection of Information

You may be visiting our website to (i) browse, (ii) submit forms, (iii) buy products and services and (iv) complete assessments. Owner collects and stores various kinds of data for varying reasons.

• Browse: If you are browsing our website, we collect information about your computer and the pages you visit in the aggregate with the exception of individual or personal information. We deploy this information for research, analysis and reports in order to optimize our navigation, page structure and content to help visitors find information more efficiently and provide more value.
• Submit Forms: Various pages of our website contain forms that allow you to request information about our services and products or to gain access to resources  in exchange for contact information. When you fill out these forms, you may need to provide your contact information. By filling out a form, you agree to our privacy policy. You also acknowledge that your data may not be subject to EU regulations such as the GDPR, as this is a U.S. company and website.
• Purchase:  When you make a purchase in our online store or register for coaching or seminars, we require you to create an account with us. We collect information in this account that enables us to complete your order and/or registration and streamline your purchasing process the next time you order. You can view and update this information.
• Assessments: We collect your responses to help us improve our business based on aggregate and individual feedback. These surveys are forwarded through opt-in marketing programs or made available on our website.

Personal Information

Users may be asked for, as appropriate:

• first name, last name
• password
• email address
• work address
• phone number
• job title
• job level
• job role
• department
• company name
• company size
• company industry
• professional interests
• and other related business/professional information

Users may, however, visit our site anonymously. We will collect personal identification information from users only if they voluntarily submit such information. Users can always refuse to supply personally identification information, except that it may prevent them from engaging in related activities.

Non-personal Information

We may collect non-personal identification information about Users whenever they interact with our Sites. Non-personal identification information may include the browser name, the type of computer and technical information about Users means of connection to our Sites, such as the operating system and the Internet service providers utilized and other similar information.

What We Do With Your Information

If you provide your personal data, we may, if permitted by applicable law, use your information to:

• Seek your feedback on our products and services through surveys or otherwise
• Process a payment you have made
• Process orders you have submitted
• Carry out our obligations arising from any agreements between us
• Notify you of changes to our services
• Send you communications including activities or promotions of our products or services
• Send you newsletters, event notices and announcements
• Process a job application

Owner may change this privacy policy by publicly posting such changes on Owner’s web site. In addition, please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online (for example, on message boards, through email or in chat areas), that information can be collected and used by Owner and by third parties and may result in unsolicited messages. Further, through Owner you may be introduced to a variety of third party vendors and sites. For example, you can review the products offered by the vendors included on Owner’s site. The privacy policies of these third parties are not under Owner’s control and may differ from Owner’s. The use of any information that you may provide to any third party, or the use of “cookie” technology by any third party, will be governed by the privacy policy of the operator of the site that you are visiting. In some cases these third parties may share the information that they collect about you with Owner. If you have any doubts about the privacy of the information you are providing on another site, we recommend that you contact that site directly. Notwithstanding anything else in this privacy policy, Owner may release information when it believes that such release is reasonably necessary to (1) comply with law, (2) enforce or apply terms of any of this membership agreement or (3) protect the rights, property or safety of Owner, other users, or others.

“Cookies” are small pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually change your browser to prevent that. Owner uses “cookie” technology in a limited way to help deliver advertisements, to identify unique browsers that visit Owner’s web site and to track usage throughout Owner’s site.

You can control and delete these cookies through your browser settings as follows:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Safari
• Opera
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Safari for iOS (iPhone and iPad)
• Chrome for Android
• Windows Phone

Information Accuracy and Security

Owner intends to protect your personal information and to maintain its accuracy. Owner implements reasonable physical, administrative and technical safeguards to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure. Owner also requires that our suppliers protect such information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Information Retention and Storage

We will not retain personal information longer than necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it is processed, including the security of our processing complying with legal and regulatory obligations (e.g. audit, accounting and statutory retention terms), handling disputes, and for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims in the countries where we do business.

As circumstances may vary depending on the context and the services, the information provided in the online privacy statement or in a specific notice may provide more detailed information on applicable retention terms. If we process your data for marketing purposes, we will delete your data if we have not received any responses to our marketing activities for three years. The deletion will occur within six months of the three-year period.

Notice to European Union Residents

This Policy is intended to provide adequate and consistent safeguards for the handling of personal information in accordance with Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (“the Directive”) and all the relevant transposing legislation of the Directive in the European Union/European Economic Area, the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act, as such laws may from time to time be amended and valid during the application of this Policy, the Privacy Shield, and any other privacy laws, regulations and principles concerning the collection, storage, use, transfer and other processing of personal data transferred from the European Economic Area or Switzerland to the United States including but not limited to the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (“the General Data Protection Regulation”) as of its entry into force on 25 May 2018.

Be advised that some or all of your data may be stored or transferred outside of the European Economic Area (“the EEA”), which includes all EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. By using our site and submitting your information to us you are deemed to accept and agree to this. If we do store or transfer data outside the EEA, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is treated as safely and securely as it would be within the EEA and under the GDPR. This includes but is not limited to the use of legally binding contract terms between us and any third parties with whom we engage and the use of the EU-approved Model Contractual Arrangements.

California Residents

This company is a California-based business. The California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) requires California companies to provide an opportunity for California residents to opt-out or unsubscribe from having personal information used by third parties (such as advertisers or affiliated companies) for direct marketing purposes.

You have the right to request information from us regarding the manner in which we share certain categories of personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes, in addition to the rights set forth here. Under California law, you have the right to send us a request at the designated address listed below to receive the following information:

1. The categories of information we disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year;
2. the names and addresses of the third parties that received the information; and
3. if the nature of the third party’s business cannot be determined from their name, examples of the products or services marketed.

This information may be provided in a standardized format that is not specific to you. The designated email address for these requests is privacy@optimalthinking.com. If you are a California resident you may contact us at the address designated below to exercise your disclosure choice options.

Please note that we have not yet developed a response to browser “Do Not Track” signals, and do not change any of our data collection practices when we receive such signals. We will continue to evaluate potential responses to “Do Not Track” signals in light of industry developments or legal changes.

Children: Minimum Age Requirement

Owner complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). COPPA and its accompanying regulations protect the privacy of children using the Internet.

This website is intended for persons eighteen (18) years of age or older. Per COPPA rules, anyone under the age of thirteen (13) must seek the permission of a parent or guardian before using this website. No one under the age of eighteen (18) should visit this website. Furthermore, this website will not knowingly contact or collect personal information from anyone under 18 and does not intend to solicit information of any kind from persons under the age of 18.

When This Privacy Policy Doesn’t Apply

This Privacy Policy doesn’t apply to third parties that may advertise our services or to companies who may link to this website. Neither does it apply to websites to which we may include links in our informational materials and in our services.

Right to Lodge a Complaint

If you consider our processing of your personal information not to be compliant with the applicable data protection laws, you can lodge a complaint and email us at privacy@optimalthinking.com, providing specific details of the complaint. You may also be eligible to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection authority. The names and contact details of the Data Protection Authorities in the European Union is located at http://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index_en.htm.

You may email privacy@optimalthinking.com to review, update, and revise your personal information.

Questions

If you have questions or complaints about our privacy policy, website practices, or your interactions with this website, please contact:

The World Academy of Personal Development, Inc.
Attn: Data Privacy Officer
100 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 700
Santa Monica, CA 90401
United States of America
privacy@optimalthinking.com

Any requests described above may also be made by sending a letter to the above address. Include your contact information, preferably an e-mail address. Requests submitted by standard mail will take longer to process due to the time it takes to exchange correspondence.