Privacy Policy

Last Updated: June 17, 2025

This Privacy Policy explains how Seumisa (서미사) collects, uses, and protects your personal data when you visit https://seumisa.com (our “Website”) and use its related services, including our forum and user accounts (collectively, the “Service”).

By using our Service, you agree to the terms outlined in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use our Service.

 

Who We Are

Our website address is: https://seumisa.com. This Website, including its integrated forum and all related services, is operated by Seumisa (서미사). We are a non-profit Korean Buddhist Temple dedicated to fostering spiritual growth, community support, and the sharing of Buddhist teachings.

What Personal Data We Collect and Why We Collect It

We collect various types of information to provide our services, support our community, and enhance your experience.

Forum Registrations & Profiles:

  • Data Collected: When you register for our forum, we collect your username, email address, and password. You may also choose to provide additional profile information such as your name, location, and profile picture/avatar.
  • Purpose: This information is essential for creating your user account, enabling your participation in forum discussions, identifying you to other members, and personalizing your community experience. Your email is used for account verification, password resets, and essential forum notifications (which you can manage in your settings).

Comments & Forum Posts:

  • Data Collected: When you leave comments on our Website or post in the forum, we collect the data you enter into the comment/post fields, your IP address, and your browser user agent string.
  • Purpose: The content you post is visible to other forum members and Website visitors. Your IP address and browser information are collected to help detect spam and manage forum activity.

Media (e.g., Profile Pictures):

  • Data Collected: If you upload images to the Website (e.g., for your profile picture), these images are stored on our server.
  • Purpose: To personalize your profile and enhance your interaction within the community.
  • Note: If you upload images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS), other visitors to the Website can download and extract that data. Please be mindful of what you share.

Contact Forms:

  • Data Collected: When you use our contact forms (e.g., for general inquiries, assistance requests), we collect the information you provide, such as your name, email address, phone number, and message content.
  • Purpose: To respond to your inquiries, provide the assistance you request, and manage communications with you.

Cookies:

  • Data Collected: Our Website uses cookies to enhance your Browse experience. If you leave a comment or post on our site, you may opt-in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies for your convenience. If you have an account and log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser. When you log in, we also set up several cookies to save your login information and screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me,” your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
  • Purpose: To remember your preferences, keep you logged in, and improve site functionality.

Embedded Content from Other Websites:

  • Data Collected: Articles and forum posts on this site may include embedded content (e.g., videos, images, articles). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
  • Purpose: These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Social Logins (e.g., Google Login):

  • Data Collected: If you register or log in using a social media account (like Google), we receive basic profile information from that service (e.g., name, email address) to create your user account on our site. We do not store your social media password.
  • Purpose: To simplify the registration and login process for your convenience.

Who We Share Your Data With

We do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties. We may share your data in limited circumstances:

  • Spam Detection Services: Visitor comments and forum posts may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
  • Law Enforcement: We may disclose your information if required by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court order or government agency request).
  • Service Providers: We may share data with trusted third-party service providers who assist us in operating our Website and providing our services (e.g., web hosting, email delivery services). These providers are bound by strict confidentiality agreements.
  • Within the Community (Publicly Visible Information): Your username, profile information (that you choose to make public), and the content of your forum posts/comments will be visible to other members and site visitors.

How Long We Retain Your Data

If you leave a comment or forum post, the comment/post and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our Website and forum (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What Rights You Have Over Your Data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments/posts, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where Your Data Is Sent

Visitor comments and forum posts may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us via email:

  • Email: sseumisa@gmail.com