Terms, Data, Privacy and Operating Policy

1. Who we are and what this covers

Urban Shaman Ministries (“the Ministry,” “we,” “us”) is a religious nonprofit corporation organized in Wyoming. This policy covers everything the Ministry operates, every program within it, now and as each one opens, and everyone it attends to, whether or not they are members: our website at urbanshamanministries.org, our programs, forms and messages, and The Urban Elders Council (“the Council”), our recorded fireside chat for men over 50. It is part of the same ecosystem as CGS Global LLC, and it is built on the same standards as the CGS Master Terms, Data Privacy and Operating Policy.

Where a program has its own agreement, such as the Guest Agreement a Council guest signs, that agreement is the legal agreement for what it covers. If this policy and that agreement differ on those points, the agreement governs.

1A. The ministry and our covenant

Urban Shaman Ministries is a religious nonprofit corporation. We keep a covenant with everyone we attend to, whether or not they are members. What you share with us in confidence stays in confidence. Under the discipline and tenets of Urban Shaman Ministries, its ministers are authorized and accustomed to hear such communications, and have a duty to keep them secret. We invoke the privilege that protects those communications, to the fullest extent the law allows.

This covenant covers what you share with us privately, including what you send through our forms and what you say to us outside any recording. It does not cover what you choose to say in a recorded conversation that we publish, as the Guest Agreement describes. It also does not stop us from doing what the law requires, such as answering a court order or making a report the law requires.

1B. Accepting this policy

By interacting with us in any way, you accept this policy. That includes visiting our pages, using our forms, writing to us, and taking part in any program. If you do not accept it, stop all interactions with us. Continuing to interact with us is your acceptance of this policy. Accepting this policy does not replace the consents we ask for in plain words, or the agreements a program asks you to sign.

2. What we collect

This is what we collect through the Council today. As the Ministry opens other programs, what each one collects is added here.

• From guests: name, email, location and time zone, whether you are 50 or older, your story, materials, anything else you share, recordings and links you send, your format preference, topics you want kept private, how you prefer to be contacted, and the names and contact details of anyone you ask us to invite or send your episode to.
• From listeners and visitors: the question you ask or suggest, your name, email, city and state.
• Your consents: each time you check a consent box, we keep the exact wording and the time.
• Visits and interactions: a record of visits to our pages and of how you interact with our forms and messages.
• The recorded conversations: audio and video, and the transcripts and clips made from them.

3. What we do with your data, and why

We never sell anyone’s data, to anyone, for any reason. We do not use it for advertising. This is what we do with it, and why:

• Prepare the conversation and the guest profile, so we are ready for your episode.
• Choose and answer questions, so the questions people ask or suggest are heard and answered on the show.
• Contact you about your appearance or your question, so we can reach you when it matters.
• Publish and promote episodes, so the conversations reach the people they are for.
• Send an episode to people a guest names, only as the guest asked.
• Keep a record of your consent, so we can show what you agreed to and when.
• Keep your contact details until you ask us to erase them, so we can reach you again as you allowed.

4. Consent

We ask for your consent the first time, in plain words, and we do not assume it. Once you give it, it stays in place until you withdraw it, for the purpose you gave it for. A new purpose gets its own question. We keep your answer, the wording you agreed to, and the time. You can withdraw a consent at any time by telling us, and we will stop the use it covered going forward.

5. Recording and publication

For the Council, guests are recorded in audio and video only after they have signed the Guest Agreement. The Guest Agreement covers what we may record, publish, clip and promote, what airs and in what form, and what you may do with the recording. A guest’s appearance may not air at all. We decide what airs and in what form. We edit as little as possible, and only when necessary, and we contact you only if we need to or want to ask you something.

6. Nominations

For the Council, when a guest names someone to invite, or to send an episode to, we contact that person and tell them who sent their name. We use their details only for that. Anyone we contact this way can ask us to stop and to erase their details, and we will.

7. AI tools

We may use AI tools to help produce, edit, transcribe, translate or promote an episode. We review AI output before it is used. We will not materially change the meaning, tone or substance of what you said. We will do our best not to use recordings to train or fine-tune AI, or to create synthetic audio or video of you, without your written consent.

8. Who sees it

Only we see what you send us. We use service providers to store and send it, such as GoHighLevel for our site, forms and messages, and Spotify and Apple Podcasts to publish episodes. Published episodes are public.

9. How long we keep it

• What a guest submits before the conversation: deleted within 30 days, together with our working copies.
• The Resource Center and a bio: we keep your materials for these only if you have checked the optional box, or if you upload them or send us a link yourself.
• Recordings and published episodes: kept, as the Guest Agreement describes.
• Questions and contact details: kept until you ask us to erase them.
• Consent records: kept, so we can show what you agreed to and when.

Deletion is confirmed to you and logged.

10. Your rights

You can ask us to tell you what we hold about you, to give you a copy, to correct it, to erase it, or to move it to you. You can ask us to erase anything you filled out or gave us at any time, and we will. We respond within 10 business days. If you are a California resident, you also have the rights the California Consumer Privacy Act and the California Privacy Rights Act give you.

11. Conduct

We ask everyone who takes part, as a guest or a visitor, to treat each other with respect. We can decline, pause or end anyone’s participation, and decline to air an appearance, if the conduct calls for it.

12. Security and incidents

We keep what you send us in the tools we have named, with access limited to the people who need it. If something goes wrong with your information, we assess it within 4 hours and tell the people affected within 48 hours of confirming it.

13. Governing law

This policy is governed by California law. Disputes go to the courts of Riverside County, California, where our principal office is.

14. Changes

We may update this policy. We will tell guests and people we are in contact with 30 days before a material change takes effect. The version number and date at the top show the current version.

15. Contact

To ask a question about this policy, or to use any of your rights above, contact us at [contact email to be added].