Privacy Policy

1. Who we are?

Society for Pravsi Aid & Rehabilitation of Keralites (SPARK) is a non proft and non partisan organisation of expatrates from the Indian State of Kerala formed for the welfare and rehabilitation of Pravasis (expatriates).

SPARK through its website www.sparkglobal.in issues memberships to interested people, uses as a medium to communicate, accepts fees for its services.

2. How SPARK collects member information.

SPARK gathers necessary information in order to fulfill its mission of keeping its members informed of issues important to them and to provide them access to services, resources, and events that SPARK provides.

SPARK collects information directly in the following ways:

When members and non-members contact SPARK for information.

• Queries about SPARK activities.
• Social Media Channels.
• Event registration.
• Membership registration and renewals.
• Volunteer applications.

Information is also gathered when members and people interested in SPARK visit our website at www.sparkglobal.in or our social media pages. Using analytical tools, we collect general information about visitors which might include which pages you visit most often and which services, events, or information are most interesting to you. We may also track which pages you visit when you click on links in emails sent by us. We also use “cookies” to help our site run effectively. There are more details below in the section ‘Cookies.’

We use this information to personalize the way our website is presented when you visit, to make improvements in its operation, and to ensure we provide the best service and experience for our members and visitors to our website. Wherever possible we use anonymous information that does not identify individual visitors to our website.

3. Information SPARK collects.

The information SPARK, collects on members includes name, date of birth, email address, postal address, telephone, and mobile numbers, blood group and the details of your residential address. In addition, members and non-members may provide additional information when communicating with SPARK.

This information is used for tasks such as:

• Process new membership and renewals or payments for SPARK events.
• Update members about relevant issues related to SPARK and its activities.
• Ask members to contact their elected representatives.
• Send SPARK electronic publications such as the “SPARK Newsletter”.
• Ask members to participate in surveys

4. Legal basis for using members information.

SPARK will only use your personal information to fulfill its mission to provide members with the information and services SPARK offers. When you first join SPARK, we will also ask for your consent to collect and use specific personal data in order to fulfill our mission.

5. SPARK communication.

SPARK will only communicate with members who have consented to receive SPARK communications and with non-members when it believes that they will be interested in SPARK activities.

Members and non-members can request that SPARK cease communications by sending an email designated for the purpose.

6. Sharing Member Information.

Member data will primarily be used by SPARK staff and SPARK Officials and only in the context of fulfilling SPARK’s mission or activity, event, volunteer, or fundraising effort.

SPARK will never sell or share your personal information with marketing organizations. Nor will SPARK share data with any other organization unless SPARK has a legal obligation to do so.

7. Keeping Member information safe.

SPARK has been undertaken technical, and organizational procedures and policies to protect the personal information SPARK collects.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information using the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information sent to us this way, we cannot guarantee the security of data while it is being transmitted to us.

Our website may contain links to other sites. While we try to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices employed by other sites. Please be aware that advertisers or websites that have links on our site may collect personally identifiable information about you. This privacy statement does not cover the information practices of those websites or advertisers.

We do not collect or hold any credit or debit card information when you make a payment to us. All financial transactions passed to, our payment gateway, where they are processed securely according to the Payment Card Industry Security Standards. The only information we receive is a confirmation that the transaction has been successfully processed.

8. Data retention.

SPARK will only keep member data as long as is reasonable and necessary for SPARK’s activities and mission.

9. Rights.

A member or a non-member has the following rights under general legitimate interest:-

• Receive a copy of the personal information SPARK has retained
• Object to SPARK’s “legitimate interest” use of that data
• Ask for a correction of relevant data
• Withdraw their consent for the use of their data by SPARK
• Request SPARK to delete their data

To exercise these rights, send a written request to the SPARK for Communications at info@sparkglobal.in

10. Cookies.

A “cookie” is a small text file that is downloaded when you visit a website onto your device (such as a computer, mobile phone, or tablet). It is stored in the web - browser application which you have used to access this website. The website and browser, using this cookie for identification, can then work together to provide you a better, personalized experience and gather information about how you use the website.

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you visit our website and also allows us to improve the user experience.

We use cookies for the following purposes

“Strictly necessary” cookies are essential for you to move around our website and to use its essential features, such as accessing your account.

“Performance cookies” collect anonymous information about how you use our site, such as which pages are visited most.

“Functionality cookies” collect anonymous information that remembers choices you make to improve your own experiences, such as your text size or location. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog.

“Analytics cookies” are used to track the use and performance of our website and services.

No Cookies, Please

You can opt-out of all our cookies, except the “strictly necessary” ones. This is controlled by you using the settings in your web browser application. To control and delete cookies please use the preference settings for your own particular device, operating system, and browser application. We use Google Analytics to measure traffic on our website. Google has their own Privacy Policy which you can review here. If you’d like to opt-out of tracking by Google Analytics, visit the Google Analytics opt-out page.

However, be warned that if you choose to refuse all cookies, our website may not function for you as we would like it to.