Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is meant to help you understand what information we collect, why we collect it and how you can update, manage your information. This updated version of our Privacy Policy takes effect on 25 May 2018. See the current version of the policy. This is important; we hope you will take time to read it carefully.

  1. We are International Yacht Training Worldwide (IYT), mailing address is Suite 482, 9-3151 Lakeshore Road, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, V1W 3S9. This policy sets out how we handle your personal information if you’re an IYT user or visitor to our Sites. It applies across IYT Elements, IYT ELearning system, IYT Sites (iytnet.com, iytworld.com, iytinteractive.com, iyt-online.com, globalyachtclub.ca).
  2. When we say ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘IYT’ it is because this is who we are and we own and manage the Sites.
  3. When we say ‘policy’ we’re talking about this privacy policy. If we say ‘user terms’ we are talking about the rules for using each of the Sites and each product makes them separately available and seeks consent to them separately to this policy.

The type of personal information we collect

  1. We collect certain personal information about visitors and users of our Sites.
  2. The most common types of information we collect include things like: user-names (or member names), email addresses, IP addresses, other contact details, photos, payment information such as payment agent details, transactional details, tax information, support queries, forum comments, content you direct us to make available on our Sites (such as item descriptions) and web analytics data. We will also collect personal information from school and instructor applications (such as, your CV, the application form itself, qualifications, seatime). In our sites/database we do not store/collect highly sensitive information such as your debit/credit card, bank account.
  3. Information that is not shared publicly.
  4. The following data will not be publicly displayed or revealed to other users:
  • Any payment information you provide;
  • Your password details;
  • Your IP address;
  • Your phone number;
  • Your date of birth and other identity verification documentation (for creators);
  • Private profile information, in accordance with your preferences; and
  • Communications you send to us (for example, when you ask for support, send us questions or comments, or report a problem).

How we collect personal information

  1. We collect personal information directly when you provide it to us, automatically as you navigate through the Sites, or through other people when you use services associated with the Sites.
  2. We collect your personal information when you provide it to us when you complete membership registration and buy or provide services on our Sites, subscribe to a newsletter, email list, submit feedback, enter a contest, fill out a survey, or send us a communication.
  3. Personal information we collect about you from others
  4. Although we generally collect personal information directly from you, on occasion, we also collect certain categories of personal information about you from other sources. In particular:
    • financial and/or transaction details from payment providers located in the US in order to process a transaction;
    • information from the schools associated with us.
    • third party service providers (like Google, Facebook) who are located in the US or UK, which may provide information about you when you link, connect, or login to your account. We do that for SEO, Social media updates. The information varies and is controlled by that service provider or as authorized by you via your privacy settings at that service provider; 

How we use personal information

We will use your personal information:

  1. To fulfil a contract, or take steps linked to a contract: in particular, facilitating and processing transactions that take place on the Sites, like where you purchase an item (course, subscription, IYT products) from us.
  2. Where this is necessary for purposes which are in our, legitimate interests. These interests include:

1. operating the Sites;
2. providing you with services described on the Sites;
3. verifying your identity when you sign in to any of our Sites;
4. responding to support tickets, and helping facilitate the resolution of any disputes;
5. updating you with operational news and information about our Sites and services e.g. to notify you about changes to our Sites, website disruptions or security updates;
6. carrying out technical analysis to determine how to improve the Sites and services we provide;
7. monitoring activity on the Sites, e.g. to identify potential fraudulent activity and to ensure compliance with the user terms that apply to the Sites;
8. managing our relationship with you, e.g. by responding to your comments or queries submitted to us on the Sites or asking for your feedback or whether you want to participate in a survey;
9. managing our legal and operational affairs (including, managing risks relating to content and fraud matters);
10. training IYT staff about how to best serve our user community;
11. improving our products and services.
12. providing general administrative and performance functions and activities; and
13. processing your school/instructor application to IYT.
14. A minimal information such as IYT ID, photo is shown in the associated school profile. 

iii. Where you give us consent:

1. providing you with marketing information about products and services which we feel may interest you; providing you with product updates, IYT updates through Campaign mailers using Mailchimp 
2. customising our services and websites, like advertising that appear on the Site – where this involves the use of cookies or similar technologies – in order to provide a more personalised experience.

iv. For purposes which are required by law.
v. For the purpose of responding to requests by government, a court of law, or law enforcement authorities conducting an investigation.

When we disclose your personal information

We will disclose personal information to the following recipients:
1. Companies/sites that are in the IYT group which are located in Canada;
2. Providers/Authors of any items or services made available to you, so they can facilitate support, who maybe located in any of the countries our products are available in; 
3. subcontractors and service providers who assist us in connection with the ways we use personal information (as set out above), in particular: website hosting providers which are located in Canada, US; technical and customer support services which are located in Canada, US and India;  marketing and analytics services which are located in the US, Canada; security and fraud prevention services which are located in the US; subscription management services which are located in the Canada; payment processing services which are located in the US, Canada and operational tooling services which are located in the US. Noting that our subcontractors and services providers may also transfer and access such information from other countries in which they have operations.
4. our professional advisers (lawyers, accountants, financial advisers etc.) which are located in Canada, UK, US;
5. regulators and government authorities in connection with our compliance procedures and obligations;
6. a third party to respond to requests relating to a criminal investigation or alleged or suspected illegal activity;
7. a third party, in order to enforce or defend our rights, or to address financial or reputational risks;
8. a rights holder in relation to an allegation of intellectual property infringement or any other infringement; and
9. other recipients where we are authorised or required by law to do so.

Where we transfer and/or store your personal information: 

We are based in Canada so your data will be processed in Canada and the US. Some of the recipients we have described in section "When we disclose your personal information" above, and to whom we disclose your personal information, are based outside Canada in places US, India. We do this on the basis of your consent to this policy. In order to protect your information, we take care where possible to work with subcontractors and service providers who we believe maintain an acceptable standard of data security compliance.

How we keep your personal information secure

We take security seriously, and the security of your personal data is important to us. We follow industry-standard practices to protect the data we collect and maintain. We store personal information on secure servers that are managed by us and our service providers, and occasionally hard copy files that are kept in a secure location in Canada. Certain amount of personal information in files are maintained in high security under Amazon and Dropbox with no access to any outside party other than IYT Staff and contractors. Personal information that we store or transmit is protected by security and access controls, including username and password authentication, two-factor authentication, and data encryption where appropriate. We always work hard to apply best security protocols but in real grounds, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure, so IYT cannot guarantee its absolute security.

How you can access your personal information

You can access some of the personal information that we collect about you by logging in to your account. You also have the right to make a request to access other personal information we hold about you and to request corrections of any errors in that data. You can also close the account you have with us for any of our Sites at any time. To make an access or correction request, contact our privacy champion using the contact details at the end of this policy.

Marketing Choices regarding your personal information

Where we have your consent to do so (e.g. if you have subscribed to one of our e-mail lists or have indicated that you are interested in receiving offers or information from us), we send you marketing communications by email about products and services that we feel may be of interest to you. You can ‘opt-out’ of such communications if you would prefer not to receive them in the future by using the “unsubscribe” facility provided in the communication itself.

You also have choices about cookies, as described below. By modifying your browser preferences, you have the choice to accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set, or to reject all cookies. If you choose to reject cookies parts of our Sites may not work properly in your case.

Cookies and web analytics

For more information about how we use cookies see our cookie policy here and for more general information on cookies, see http://www.allaboutcookies.org.

When you visit our Sites, there’s certain information that’s recorded which is generally anonymous information and does not reveal your identity. If you’re logged into your account some of this information could be associated with your account. We’re talking about the following kinds of details:

1. your IP address or proxy server IP address’;
2. domain name you requested;
3. the date and time of your visit to the website;
4. the length of your session;
5. the pages which you have accessed;
6. the number of times you access our site within any month;
7. the product URL you look at and information relating to it;
8. the website which referred you to our Sites; and
9. the operating system, browser which your computer uses.

Information about children

Our Sites are not suitable for children under the age of 16 years, so if you are under 16 we ask that you do not use our Sites or give us your personal information (if you are a young tech wiz, please direct your nearest responsible adult to use the Sites for you!). If you are from 16 to 18 years, you can browse the Sites but you’ll need the supervision of a parent or guardian to become a registered user. It’s the responsibility of parents or guardians to monitor their children’s use of our Sites.

Information you make public or give to others

If you make your personal information available to other people, we can’t control or accept responsibility for the way they will use or manage that data. There are lots of ways that you can find yourself providing information to other people. For example, when you post a public message on a forum thread, share information via social media, or make contact with another user whether via our Sites or directly via email. Before making your information publicly available or giving your information to anyone else, think carefully. If giving information to another user via our Sites, ask them how they will handle your information. If you’re sharing information via another website, check the privacy policy for that site to understand its information management practices as this privacy policy will not apply.

How long we keep your personal information

We retain your personal information for as long as is necessary to provide the services to you and others, and to comply with our legal obligations. If you no longer want us to use your personal information or to provide you with the IYT services, you can request that we erase your personal information and close your IYT account. Please note that if you request the erasure of your personal information we will retain information from deleted accounts as necessary for our legitimate business interests, to comply with the law, prevent fraud, collect fees, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with investigations, enforce the terms of service and take other actions permitted by law. The information we retain will be handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

When we need to update this policy

  1. We will need to change this policy from time to time in order to make sure it stays up to date with the latest legal requirements and any changes to our privacy management practices.
  2. When we do change the policy, we’ll make sure to notify you about such changes, where required. A copy of the latest version of this policy will always be available on this page.

How you can contact us

If you have any questions about our privacy practices or the way in which we have been managing your personal information, please contact our privacy champion in writing at PO Box Suite 482, 9-3151 Lakeshore Road, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, V1W 3S9 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We’re really glad you made it to the end of the privacy policy, because knowing this stuff is the best way to understand how your personal information is used and how to best manage it!

If you’re a user or visitor in the European Economic Area these rights also apply to you:

For the purposes of applicable EU data protection law (including the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”), we are a ‘data controller’ of your personal information.

How you can access your personal information

  1. You are also entitled to ask us to port your personal information (i.e. to transfer in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, to you), to erase it, or restrict its processing. If a user would like profile data export or profile deletion please use this form. You also have rights to object to some processing that is based on our legitimate interests, such as sending product updates, and, where we have asked for your consent to process your data, to withdraw this consent as more fully described below.
  2. These rights are limited in some situations – for example, we can demonstrate that we have a legal requirement to process your personal information. In some instances, this means that we may retain some data even if you withdraw your consent.
  3. Where we require your personal information to comply with legal or contractual obligations, then provision of such data is mandatory: if such data is not provided, then we will not be able to manage our contractual relationship with you, or to meet obligations placed on us. In all other cases, provision of requested personal information is optional.

If you have unresolved concerns, you also have the right to complain to data protection authorities. The relevant data protection authority will be the data protection authority of the country: (i) of your habitual residence; (ii) of your place of work; or (iii) in which you consider the alleged infringement has occurred.

Both personal information and personal data have the same meaning in the context of this Privacy Policy.
IYT Privacy Policy, effective date 25 May 2018

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