1. Who we are
Ajnadayn Institute is the trading name of Maheer Hasan, a sole trader established in England. Ajnadayn Institute specialises in Islamic history and offers courses, book summaries and articles.
We are the data controller for the personal information described in this notice. That means we decide what personal information is collected, why, and how it is used, and we are legally responsible for it.
- Controller
- Maheer Hasan, trading as Ajnadayn Institute
- ICO registration number
- ZC203679
- Telephone
- 07961 609367
- Website
- ajnadayninstitute.co.uk
- Postal address
- Available on request — email us and we will provide it
We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent data protection regulator.
2. What this notice covers
This notice explains how we handle personal information about:
- visitors to ajnadayninstitute.co.uk;
- people who contact us with an enquiry;
- people who subscribe to our mailing list;
- students who book, enrol on or attend our courses.
It does not cover other websites we link to. Those sites have their own privacy notices and we are not responsible for them.
3. The personal information we collect
We deliberately collect as little as possible. We do not operate user accounts or logins on our website, and we do not ask for or store payment card details.
| What we collect | Examples | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Contact details | Name, email address, telephone number | You, when you enquire, subscribe or book |
| Enquiry content | The message you send us, and our replies | You |
| Booking and enrolment details | Course booked, dates, any access or learning needs you choose to tell us about, attendance | You |
| Payment records | Payment reference, amount, date, the name shown on the incoming bank transfer | You and our bank |
| Age confirmation | Your confirmation that you are 18 or over | You, when you book |
| Testimonials | Your first name or full name, and your words, where you have agreed to this | You, with your consent |
| Session recordings | Your voice, your image if your camera is on, your display name, and any question or comment you make during a live session | Recorded automatically during each live class |
| Technical information | IP address, browser type, pages requested, date and time, recorded in our hosting provider's server logs | Automatically, when you visit the site |
We do not buy personal information from third parties, and we do not use tracking or advertising cookies. See our Cookies Policy for details.
4. Why we use your information, and our legal basis for doing so
Under the UK GDPR we must have a lawful basis for everything we do with your personal information. Ours are set out below.
| What we do | Information used | Our lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Reply to your enquiry | Contact details, enquiry content | Legitimate interests — we need to be able to answer people who contact us. Where your enquiry is about booking a course, we also rely on taking steps at your request before entering into a contract. |
| Take your booking, confirm your place, and deliver the course | Contact details, booking and enrolment details | Performance of a contract with you (or, for a student under 18, with their parent or guardian) |
| Record and reconcile your payment | Payment records | Performance of a contract, and compliance with a legal obligation to keep accounting records |
| Keep tax and accounting records | Payment records, invoices | Compliance with a legal obligation (HMRC record-keeping requirements) |
| Send you our newsletter and course announcements | Name, email address | Consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Publish a testimonial | Your name and your words | Consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Record each live session and make it available to your cohort | Session recordings | Performance of a contract — recordings are part of what we provide, so you can catch up on a session you miss |
| Confirm you are eligible to enrol | Age confirmation | Performance of a contract, and legitimate interests in running our courses as an adult learning provider |
| Respond to a serious concern about the welfare of a student | Whatever is relevant to the concern | Legitimate interestsand, where there is a risk to someone's life or health, vital interests |
| Keep the website available, secure and working | Technical information | Legitimate interests in the security and integrity of our website |
| Deal with a complaint, dispute or legal claim | Whatever is relevant | Legitimate interests in defending our position, and compliance with a legal obligation |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered whether our interests are outweighed by your rights, and we have concluded that they are not, because the processing is limited to what is necessary and is what you would reasonably expect. You can ask us for our assessment, and you can object — see section 10.
5. Our courses are for adults
Our courses are open only to students aged 18 and over. We ask you to confirm your age when you book, and we do not knowingly enrol anyone under 18.
We do not direct our website, our mailing list or any of our marketing at children.
If we discover that someone under 18 has enrolled or subscribed, we will cancel the enrolment, refund any fee paid, delete the personal information we hold about them, and remove them from our mailing list. If you believe we hold information about someone under 18, please tell us at info@ajnadayninstitute.co.uk and we will deal with it promptly.
Welfare concerns. If we become seriously concerned about the safety or welfare of a student — for example if someone discloses that they are at risk of harm — we may share information with the emergency services or another appropriate agency without your consent, where it is necessary and proportionate to do so.
5A. Recorded sessions
We record our live sessions and make the recordings available to students on the same course, so that anyone who misses a class can catch up. Zoom will tell you when recording has started.
What this means for you:
- If your camera is on, you will appear in the recording. If you would rather not appear, keep your camera off — you can still take part using your microphone or the chat.
- If you ask a question or speak, your voice and display name will be in the recording.
- Recordings go only to students on your course. We do not publish them, post them publicly, or sell them.
- Students are not permitted to download, share or republish recordings. Our Course Terms and Conditions say so, and we enforce it.
- Recordings are deleted after the retention period in section 9.
- If you have a particular concern about being recorded, email us before the course starts and we will do what we reasonably can to accommodate you.
6. Information that could reveal religious belief
We teach Islamic history and the Islamic sciences. We do not ask you about your religion and we do not record it. We recognise, however, that the fact someone has enrolled on one of our courses could suggest something about their beliefs.
We therefore:
- treat our enquiry, mailing and student lists as confidential;
- never sell, rent or share those lists for marketing;
- do not infer, record or act on any assumption about your religion;
- publish your name only where you have specifically agreed to it, for example in a testimonial.
If we ever needed to ask about religious belief for a genuine reason, we would ask for your explicit consent first and explain why.
7. Marketing
We only send you our newsletter and course announcements if you have asked us to. Every email we send contains a one-click unsubscribe link, and you can also unsubscribe at any time by emailing info@ajnadayninstitute.co.uk.
If you unsubscribe, we keep a minimal record of your email address on a suppression list. This is so that we do not accidentally add you back and email you again. We do not use that list for any other purpose.
We do not sell, rent or share your details with other organisations for their marketing.
9. How long we keep your information
We do not keep personal information for longer than we need it.
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Enquiries that do not lead to a booking | 12 months from our last contact with you |
| Student records — bookings, enrolment, attendance, correspondence | 3 years from the end of your last course |
| Payment, invoice and accounting records | At least 5 years after the 31 January self-assessment submission deadline for the relevant tax year, as HMRC requires |
| Mailing list details | Until you unsubscribe |
| Suppression list — email address only | Indefinitely, so that we can continue to honour your opt-out |
| Session recordings | Available to your cohort while your course is running, then deleted within [[RECORDING RETENTION]] of the final session |
| Age confirmation records | 3 years from the end of your last course, with your student record |
| Records of a welfare concern | Only as long as necessary, and reviewed annually |
| Testimonials | Until you withdraw your consent, or we stop using the testimonial |
| Contact form submissions held by our form provider | 30 days, after which they are deleted automatically. We keep our own copy in our email for as long as set out above |
| Server logs | A short period only. Our hosting plan does not provide long-term log storage |
| Records relating to a complaint, dispute or claim | 6 years from the end of the matter, reflecting the ordinary limitation period |
When a retention period ends, we delete the information or anonymise it so that it can no longer identify you.
10. Your rights
You have the following rights over your personal information. They are not all absolute, and some only apply in particular circumstances.
- Access — ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- Rectification — ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete.
- Erasure — ask us to delete your information, where we no longer have a good reason to keep it.
- Restriction — ask us to pause our use of your information while a concern is resolved.
- Objection — object to our use of your information where we rely on legitimate interests. You can always object to direct marketing, and we will stop.
- Portability — ask us to provide information you gave us in a portable electronic format, where we rely on your consent or on a contract.
- Withdraw consent — where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. This does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.
How to exercise a right. Email info@ajnadayninstitute.co.uk. It is free, and you do not need to use any particular form of words.
How long we take. We will respond within one month. If we reasonably need to confirm who you are, or if your request is unclear and we need to ask you what you want, the month does not start running until we have what we need. If your request is complex or you have made several, we may extend the deadline by up to two further months, and we will tell you if we do.
We may refuse a request, or charge a reasonable fee, if it is manifestly unfounded or excessive. If we refuse, we will tell you why, and we will tell you how to complain.
Automated decisions. We do not make any decisions about you by automated means, and we do not carry out profiling.
11. How to complain
Complain to us first. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please tell us at info@ajnadayninstitute.co.uk, marking your email "Data protection complaint". You have a legal right to complain to us directly under section 164A of the Data Protection Act 2018.
You do not need to use any particular form or wording, and you can complain by email, by telephone or in person. We will:
- acknowledge your complaint within 30 days of receiving it;
- investigate it without undue delay;
- keep you updated while we do; and
- tell you the outcome and what, if anything, we are going to do about it.
Complain to the ICO.You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. The ICO would normally expect you to raise the matter with us first.
- Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
- Helpline: 0303 123 1113
- Post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
You also have the right to seek a remedy through the courts.
12. How we keep your information safe
We are a small organisation and we keep our security arrangements proportionate but serious. We:
- serve our website only over an encrypted connection (HTTPS);
- limit access to personal information to those who need it to teach or administer our courses;
- protect the accounts we use with strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication;
- keep no payment card details at all;
- use reputable providers who maintain recognised security standards; and
- review these arrangements as the Institute grows.
No transmission over the internet is completely secure. If a breach occurs that is likely to cause a risk to your rights, we will report it to the ICO within 72 hours where required, and we will tell you if the risk to you is high.
13. Changes to this notice
We may update this notice. When we make a significant change, we will update the version number and effective date at the top and, where the change materially affects you, we will tell you directly.
Ajnadayn Institute is the trading name of Maheer Hasan, a sole trader established in England. Registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, registration number ZC203679.