Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

This website is operated by Guild of Educators in TESOL International (“GET International”, “we”, “us”), a Philippine organisation providing TESOL training, professional membership and scholarly publishing. For the purposes of the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173) and, where it applies, the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation, GET International is the personal information controller (data controller) for the data described here.

Contact: tesol8international@gmail.com · 9036 Tinejero Brgy. Pulilan, Bulacan
Data Protection Officer: tesol8international@gmail.com — write to us with “Data Privacy” in the subject line.

2. What we collect

Information you give us

• Account details — first name, last name, email address, and a password (stored only as a secure one-way hash, never in readable form).
• Google sign-in — if you sign in with Google, we receive your Google account identifier, name, email and profile photo. We never receive your Google password.
• Profile information — optional profile photo, biography, affiliation and ORCID identifier if you choose to add them.
• Messages — anything you send through the contact form, course discussions, or the support chat.
• Research authorship — if you claim authorship of a paper, the claim and any supporting note you provide.
• Membership applications — submitted through an external Google Form (see section 5) and any proof of payment you send us.

Information we generate as you use the site

• Learning records — enrolments, lesson progress, quiz attempts and scores, and certificates issued.
• Transaction records — what you purchased, the amount, currency and reference number. We never see or store your full card details — payments are handled by our payment processor (section 5).
• Technical and security logs — your IP address, browser/device user-agent string, the pages and actions requested, and timestamps. We use these to keep accounts secure, investigate abuse, and maintain an administrative audit trail.
• Visitor counts — we record IP addresses to count unique visitors. Under both RA 10173 and the GDPR an IP address is personal data, which is why it is disclosed here.

3. Why we use it, and our lawful basis

Purpose	Lawful basis
Creating and running your account; delivering courses, quizzes and certificates	Performance of a contract with you
Taking payment and issuing receipts	Performance of a contract; legal obligation (tax/accounting records)
Replying to your enquiries and support messages	Legitimate interests (responding to you)
Security logging, fraud prevention and administrative audit trail	Legitimate interests (protecting the service and its users)
Analytics and audience measurement	Your consent — set through the cookie banner and withdrawable at any time
Publishing research metadata, author names and affiliations	Legitimate interests in scholarly publishing; consent where the person is identifiable
Publishing graduate profiles and photographs	Your written consent, which we keep on file and which you may withdraw

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time — that will not affect processing carried out before you withdrew.

4. Cookies and tracking

We use a small number of strictly necessary cookies to run the site, and — only if you agree — analytics cookies to understand how the site is used. Analytics do not run until you accept them. Full detail, including a list of cookies and how to change your mind, is in our Cookie Policy.

5. Who we share data with

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with the service providers below, and only as needed:

Provider	What they handle	Where
PayMongo	Card and e-wallet payment processing. They receive your payment details directly; we receive only the result and a reference.	Philippines
Hostinger	Website and database hosting.	EU / international data centres
Google — Analytics	Anonymised audience measurement, only with your consent.	International
Google — Sign-In	Optional login. Only if you choose it.	International
Google — Forms	Membership application forms. Data you type into that form is collected by Google on our behalf.	International
YouTube (Google)	Embedded lesson videos, loaded in privacy-enhanced mode.	International

We may also disclose data where the law requires it, to establish or defend legal claims, or to protect the rights and safety of our users.

6. International transfers

GET International is based in the Philippines and serves learners and members worldwide, so your data may be processed outside your country — including by the providers listed above. Where data originating in the EU/UK is transferred, we rely on the providers' standard contractual clauses or equivalent safeguards. Under RA 10173 we remain accountable for personal data transferred to third parties acting on our behalf.

7. How long we keep it

• Account and learning records — for as long as your account is open, and for a reasonable period afterwards so that certificates and academic records remain verifiable.
• Transaction records — retained as required by Philippine tax and accounting rules.
• Administrative audit logs — pruned on a rolling schedule; older entries are deleted automatically.
• Messages and enquiries — kept only as long as needed to deal with the matter.
• Published research — scholarly records (author names, affiliations, articles) are part of the permanent scientific record and are normally retained indefinitely.

8. Your rights

Under RA 10173 you have the rights to be informed; to access; to object; to erasure or blocking; to damages; to rectification; and to data portability. If you are in the EU/UK, the GDPR gives you equivalent rights, including the right to restrict processing.

To exercise any of these, email tesol8international@gmail.com. We will respond within the period the law allows (30 days under RA 10173; one month under the GDPR). We may need to verify your identity first. You can also delete most profile information yourself from your dashboard settings.

9. How we protect your data

• Traffic is encrypted in transit (HTTPS), and passwords are stored only as salted one-way hashes.
• Administrative access is role-restricted, and administrative actions are recorded in an audit trail.
• Deleted records are retained in a recoverable state for a limited period so that accidental deletion can be reversed.
• Uploaded files are restricted by type and size, and the upload area cannot execute code.

No online service can promise perfect security, but we take these measures seriously and review them regularly.

10. Children

This site is intended for adults and for education professionals. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18 without the consent of a parent or guardian. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

11. Complaints

Please raise any concern with us first — we would rather fix it directly. You also have the right to complain to the Philippine National Privacy Commission (privacy.gov.ph), or, if you are in the EU/UK, to your local data protection supervisory authority.

12. Changes to this policy

We will update this page when our practices change and revise the “Last updated” date above. If a change materially affects your rights, we will give notice on the site or by email.