Our privacy policy
IKYA AS · Version dated 21 October 2026
This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we use it, who can see it, how long we keep it, and what rights you have. It follows the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Norwegian Personal Data Act (personopplysningsloven) and the Norwegian Marketing Control Act (markedsføringsloven).
Studying with IKYA is personal. Some of what you share with us, and with the fellow students who support you, concerns your inner life. We treat that information with particular care, and section 5 explains exactly how.
1. Who we are
IKYA AS (IKYA Center) is the data controller for the personal data described here.
Karenslyst allé 9B, 0278 Oslo, Norway · Organization number NO 924 484 969 · info@ikya.org · +47 401 95 441
For any question about your data, or to use any of the rights in section 13, write to info@ikya.org.
2. What this policy covers
This policy covers www.ikya.org, your student account, our educations and events, our onboarding and Ganapati programs, our student groups, our newsletter, and our contact with you by email, telephone and text message.
It does not cover purchases at IKYAstore.com, which has its own privacy policy: https://ikyastore.com/policies/privacy-policy
3. What we collect
When you enroll in an education: your first and last name, email address, telephone number and postal address; your choice of payment option; and your acceptance of our terms and of the arrangements for contact between students.
When you agree a flexible payment arrangement or ask us to invoice your employer: the arrangement you propose and agree with us, and, where relevant, your employer's name, organization number and invoice address.
When you pay: we do not receive or store your card number. Card payment is handled by Stripe through Wix; we receive confirmation that payment succeeded, the amount and the date. Invoices and payments by bank transfer are recorded in our accounting system.
When you use your student account: your login details, the teachings and materials you have accessed, and your subscription status.
When you take part in a student group on IKYA.org: your member name and profile, and what you post. Other members of that group can see your posts.
When you attend a teaching or workshop: online, Zoom processes your name, email address and connection details, and sessions are recorded. In person, you may appear in photographs or recordings. See section 9.
When you take part in onboarding or the Ganapati program: your answers to our reflection questions, and notes kept by the Onboarding Team and your Ganapati about your study and the goals you set. See section 5.
When you contact us or answer a question we ask: the content of your message. Answers to our post-purchase questions about how you found us are stored with your enrollment and are not anonymous.
When you subscribe to our newsletter or register for an event: your name and email address, and whether you open or click our emails.
When you visit the website: your IP address, browser and device information, and the pages you visit. See section 11.
We do not use your data for automated decision-making or profiling that has legal or similarly significant effects on you.
4. Why we use it, and our legal basis
– Delivering your education (access to teachings, recordings and materials; scheduling; practical messages): performance of our contract with you.
– Sending your crystals and materials, where you do not collect them: performance of our contract.
– Sharing your contact details within your study gatherings and with your Ganapati (section 6): performance of our contract.
– Running the student groups on IKYA.org: performance of our contract.
– Taking payment, issuing receipts and invoices, and following up agreed payment arrangements: performance of our contract, and legal obligation.
– Keeping accounting records: legal obligation under the Norwegian Bookkeeping Act.
– Handling complaints, withdrawals and refunds: legal obligation, and our legitimate interest in handling and defending claims.
– Keeping in touch with you about your study and inviting you to continue (for example, a welcome call or a check-in during the year): our legitimate interest in supporting our students.
– Storing and sharing your onboarding reflections, and Ganapati notes about your inner life and spiritual goals (section 5): your explicit consent.
– Emailing you about our educations and events after you have studied with us or bought from us: our legitimate interest, and markedsføringsloven § 15 for existing customers. You can opt out in every email.
– Emailing you about our offerings otherwise: your consent.
– Using photographs and recordings of you in public material: your consent (section 9).
– Analytics and advertising cookies: your consent (section 11).
– Keeping our website, accounts and records secure: our legitimate interest in protecting our systems and our students.
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed our interest against your rights, and you may object at any time. If you object to our keeping in touch about your study, we stop.
5. Information about your inner life and spiritual goals
Some of what you share with us reveals your spiritual or philosophical beliefs. The law treats this as a special category of personal data, and so do we. It includes:
– your answers to our onboarding reflection questions, such as your intentions, your spiritual experience and your personal spiritual goals;
– notes kept by the Onboarding Team or your Ganapati about your study, your goals and how you are progressing;
– anything personal you choose to tell us about your health or life circumstances.
Your choice. We collect and share this information only with your explicit consent, which you give by ticking a box on the form that asks for it. Giving it is optional. Your enrollment, your access to the teachings and your place in the community never depend on it.
Who can see it. Only:
– the members of our Onboarding Team, who are fellow students in service; and
– if you join the Ganapati program, your own Ganapati, who sees only the students assigned to them.
Nobody else in the community, and nobody outside IKYA, can see it. We never use it for marketing and never publish it.
How it is protected. It is kept in IKYA Center's Google Workspace, and the Onboarding Team and Ganapati open it only through their IKYA Center (ikya.org) accounts, never through personal accounts. Every member of the Onboarding Team and every Ganapati signs a written confidentiality agreement before receiving access, works only on our instructions, and may use your information only to support your study. A Ganapati's access ends when they stop serving as your Ganapati, and every team member's access ends when their role ends.
How long we keep it. We keep your answers and notes for as long as you continue studying with IKYA, so you can follow your own development over the years. We delete them when you finish your studies or when you ask us to.
You can withdraw your consent at any time by writing to info@ikya.org or replying to any of our emails. We will then remove access and delete the information. Withdrawing has no effect on your education.
6. Sharing your details with fellow students
Studying with IKYA means studying alongside other students, and this involves sharing some of your details with them.
Your name, email address and telephone number are shared with your Ganapati, with experienced students supporting mentorship and onboarding, and with the fellow students in the study gatherings you take part in, so that you can contact one another. This is set out in the terms you accept at signup, and accepting it is a condition of enrollment.
Fellow students who receive your details are told that they are confidential, may be used only to support study, and may not be passed on, used for marketing or used for any purpose unconnected with the education. Ganapati and Onboarding Team members are additionally bound by the written agreement described in section 5.
We ask students to respect one another's wishes about how and how often they are contacted. If you receive contact you are unhappy with, write to info@ikya.org and we will address it.
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it for anyone else's marketing.
7. Who else we share it with
We use the following service providers, who process data only on our instructions and under data processing agreements:
– Wix: our website, student accounts, course platform, student groups, forms, contact records, email sending and the website chat
– Stripe: card payments, through Wix
– Zoom: online teachings and workshops
– Google: our email, calendars, documents, forms and spreadsheets (Google Workspace), including the onboarding reflections in section 5; and the analytics and advertising services in section 11
– Tripletex: our accounting system, for invoices and bookkeeping
– Anthropic: Claude, an AI assistant our staff use for administration, such as preparing emails and keeping student records up to date. Our conversations with it are not used to train its models.
– Bring and DHL: delivery of crystals and materials, where posted; they receive your name, address and telephone number
– Our accountant and auditor, for statutory bookkeeping
We may also disclose data where the law requires it, or to establish or defend a legal claim.
8. Transfers outside the EEA
Some of our providers process data outside the EEA, including in the United States. Where that happens, the transfer relies on a European Commission adequacy decision, including the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified, or on Standard Contractual Clauses with additional safeguards. You may ask us which applies to a particular provider.
9. Photographs and recordings
Teachings and workshops at IKYA Center are recorded and photographed, and online sessions are recorded. Recordings are used on the course platform, so students can review teachings, and may be used in our public material and social media.
Onboarding conversations, Ganapati conversations and other one-to-one conversations are recorded only when you agree to it beforehand, and only for a specific learning purpose that we explain to you. Such a recording is treated as information about your inner life (section 5): it is seen only by you, the Onboarding Team and your Ganapati, never published, and deleted with your other study notes.
If you would prefer not to appear in public material, tell the facilitator at any teaching or write to info@ikya.org, and we will keep you out of frame or remove the relevant recordings from public use. You can ask at any time, and it has no effect on your participation.
Recordings of teachings are kept as part of our teaching library. Where you have asked not to appear publicly, we remove the material from public use.
10. Text messages and calls
The Onboarding Team, your Ganapati and our staff may contact you by telephone or text message about your study. Volunteers who have your number are bound by the confidentiality agreement in section 5. We do not use these channels for marketing unless you have agreed to it.
11. Cookies, analytics and advertising
We use cookies and similar technologies in three groups.
Necessary. These are needed for the website to work: keeping you logged in, remembering your basket, security, and the operational logging our website platform uses to keep the site running and detect faults. They are always active and do not require your consent.
Analytics. We use Google Analytics to understand how our website is used, so we can improve it.
Advertising. We use Google Ads to measure our advertising and to show advertising to people who have visited our website.
Analytics and advertising cookies are set only if you consent. When you first visit, you can Accept, Decline All, or choose for yourself under Settings. Declining costs you nothing; the website works the same way.
You can change or withdraw your consent at any time. If you cannot find the cookie settings on the page, clearing the cookies for www.ikya.org in your browser brings the choice back. Turning off cookies in your browser is not the same as withdrawing consent, and we do not treat it as such.
12. How long we keep your data
– Accounting records: five years after the end of the financial year, as the Bookkeeping Act requires.
– Your enrollment and course records, and your record as a former student (name, contact details, the educations you took), so we can welcome you to future educations: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them. After that we keep only a record that you opted out, so we do not contact you again, together with anything we must keep for accounting.
– Onboarding reflections and Ganapati notes (section 5): for as long as you continue studying with IKYA, so you can follow your own development over the years. Deleted when you finish your studies, when you ask us to, or when you withdraw consent.
– Your student account: until you ask us to close it.
– Your posts in student groups: while the group exists, or until you delete them.
– Newsletter data: until you unsubscribe. After that we keep only a record that you unsubscribed, so we do not email you again.
– Enquiries that do not lead to enrollment: twelve months. Correspondence about a purchase is kept with your course record.
– Recordings: as described in section 9.
13. Your rights
You have the right to:
– access the personal data we hold about you, including what your Ganapati or the Onboarding Team has noted;
– correct data that is wrong or incomplete;
– erase your data, where we have no continuing reason to hold it;
– restrict or object to our use of your data;
– receive your data in a portable form;
– withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent. This does not affect what we did before you withdrew it.
Write to info@ikya.org. We answer within one month. We may need to confirm your identity first.
Withdrawing consent to marketing does not affect the practical messages we must send you about an education you have purchased.
14. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, please tell us first at info@ikya.org.
You also have the right to complain to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority: Datatilsynet, Postboks 458 Sentrum, 0105 Oslo · www.datatilsynet.no. If you live in another EEA country, you may complain to your own supervisory authority instead.
15. Security
Your data is held in systems protected by access controls and encryption in transit. Access is limited to the people who need it for their role, and each of them is bound to confidentiality. We review who has access at the start and end of every study year.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach puts your data at risk, we report it to Datatilsynet within 72 hours where the law requires it, and tell you directly if it is likely to put your rights at high risk.
16. Age
Our educations are for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18.
17. Changes to this policy
When we change this policy we update the version date above. Where a change materially affects you, we tell you directly.
IKYA AS · Karenslyst allé 9B, 0278 Oslo, Norway · Organization number NO 924 484 969 · info@ikya.org