Privacy Policy

Last updated: 28 October 2026

The Bhutanese Buddhist and Cultural Centre, Canberra Incorporated (BBCC, ABN 95 478 448 686) is a registered charity run by volunteers. Families, students, members and supporters trust us with their personal information. This policy explains what we collect through bhutanesecentre.org, why, who can see it, and the choices you have.

We aim to handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles.

What we collect

Accounts

Your email address (used to sign in) and password. Passwords are stored only in scrambled (hashed) form, so no one, including us, can read them.

Parents and children (Dzongkha school)

• Parent details: name, gender, email, phone number, address and occupation.
• Child details: name, date of birth, gender, class and any medical condition you tell us about.
• Enrolments, fee plans, fee payments and the payment receipts or screenshots you upload.
• Attendance, absence notices, class reports and teachers' comments.
• Sign-in and sign-out times recorded at the class kiosk, and a kiosk PIN (stored scrambled).

Donations, patrons and events

• Donations: your name, email, phone number, amount, payment reference, any message and the payment receipt you upload.
• Patrons: name, email, phone number and address.
• Event bookings and program registrations (for example Tara practice): name, contact details, address, number of people and any message.

Messages and technical information

• Messages sent through the contact form: your name, email, subject and message.
• When you sign in, register for a program or make changes in the admin or teacher pages, the time and the internet (IP) address the request came from, to protect accounts against misuse and keep a record of changes.

We do not take card payments on the website: fees and donations are paid by bank transfer, and we never see or store your bank card details.

Why we use it

• To run the Dzongkha school: enrolling students, arranging classes, keeping attendance, keeping children safe and contacting parents.
• To record fees and donations, confirm payments and keep the financial records a registered charity must keep.
• To organise events, practices and spiritual services, and to reply to your messages.
• To send you emails about your enrolments, payments, bookings and the Centre's activities. We do not send advertising and we never sell or rent personal information.

A child's medical information is used only so teachers and volunteers can look after the child during classes and activities.

Who can see it

• Parents see their own family's information. Teachers see the details of students in their classes. Only the committee members and volunteers who manage enrolments, fees or the website can see the records they need for that role.
• Payment receipts are kept in a private area of the website and can only be opened by signed-in people who are allowed to see them.
• We do not share personal information with anyone else unless you agree, or the law requires it.

Where it is stored and how we protect it

• The website and its database are hosted by GoDaddy on servers in Singapore.
• Copies of the database and uploaded files are backed up weekly and kept for about a month, on the website server and in the Centre's own Google Drive. The backups in Google Drive are encrypted with a password.
• Emails are sent through the Centre's own email service.
• The website uses an encrypted (HTTPS) connection, passwords and kiosk PINs are stored scrambled, and access is limited to the people who need it.
• The website's pages load typefaces from Google Fonts and icons from Cloudflare, which see your internet address when your browser fetches them.

Cookies

We use only the cookies the website needs to work: one that keeps you signed in and one that protects forms against forgery. We do not use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies.

How long we keep it

We keep personal information while it is needed for the purposes above, for example while a child is enrolled or an account is in use, and for as long as we must keep records as a registered charity (financial records for at least seven years). When it is no longer needed, we delete it or make it anonymous.

Your choices

• You can see and update much of your information yourself when signed in, under My Profile.
• You can ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you or your child, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it where we do not need to keep it.
• You can ask us to stop sending you emails that are not about your enrolment, payments or bookings.

Contact us or make a complaint

If you have a question about this policy, want to see or correct your information, or are worried about how we have handled it, please contact us. We will reply as soon as we can, usually within 30 days.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our activities or the website change. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.