GDPR Privacy Statement
Effective Date: January 2026
The Couples Institute® (“The Couples Institute”) owns and operates this www.couplesinstitute.com website business. All references to “we”, “us”, or “our” shall be construed to mean The Couples Institute®.
The Couples Institute® will be acting as the “Controller” of the personal data you provide to us. This includes your personal contact information and the contact information of your affiliated organization.
WHY WE NEED YOUR DATA
We need to know your basic personal data consisting of contact information for purposes of responding to your inquiry on our Contact Us web page and similar web pages.
In addition, we need to know your personal data to send you emails for other specific purposes only if you have explicitly given your consent to receive these emails.
We also track how you interact with our website and emails (such as which pages you visit, which emails you open, and which links you click). This helps us understand what types of content and messages you prefer, so we can send you more relevant information and offers rather than content that doesn't interest you.
LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING
We process your personal data based on the following legal grounds under GDPR Article 6:
Consent — For marketing communications, email newsletters, and non-essential cookies. You may withdraw consent at any time.
Contractual Necessity — To process purchases, deliver digital products and courses, manage your membership access, and provide customer support.
Legitimate Interests — For website security, fraud prevention, analytics to improve our services, and direct marketing to existing customers (where these interests are not overridden by your rights).
Legal Obligation — To comply with applicable laws, tax requirements, and regulations.
WHAT WE DO WITH YOUR DATA
Your personal data is processed by our personnel located in Menlo Park, California, USA; however, for purposes of hosting, maintenance, and service delivery, your personal data may be processed by the following sub-processors:
Customer Relationship Management & Email Marketing:
- Keap — CRM and email marketing automation
Analytics & Tracking:
- Google Analytics 4 — Website analytics
- Cometly — Marketing attribution
- Metorik — Ecommerce reporting
- Jetpack (Automattic) — Site statistics, security, and backups
User Experience & Optimization:
- Plerdy — Heatmaps and session recording
- NitroPack — Website performance optimization
Consent Management:
- CookieYes — Cookie consent management
Advertising & Remarketing:
- Meta (Facebook/Instagram) — Advertising, conversion tracking, and Custom Audiences
- Google Ads — Advertising and conversion tracking
- Google Tag Manager — Tag management
Ecommerce, Payments & Membership:
- WooCommerce — Ecommerce platform
- Authorize.net — Payment processing
- Wishlist Member — Membership and course access management
Content Delivery:
- Google (YouTube) — Video embedding
- Wistia — Video hosting
- Vimeo — Video hosting
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) — Media storage
Note on Content Delivery Services: When you view embedded videos or content from third-party platforms (such as YouTube, Wistia, or Vimeo), those platforms may collect information about your interaction with their content through their own cookies and technologies. We do not actively share your personal data with these services; however, your browser may transmit data directly to them when you interact with embedded content. These services are governed by their own privacy policies.
Except for the sub-processors listed above, we won't share your personal information with third parties outside our organization unless authorized by applicable law.
If we are acquired by another party, we will share your personal data with the acquiring party.
SOURCES OF DATA
We collect personal data directly from you when you:
- Fill out forms on our website
- Purchase products or courses
- Subscribe to our email list
- Contact us for support
We may also receive your personal data from:
- Partner organizations — We occasionally receive contact information from professional training organizations who share their subscriber lists for co-marketing purposes. If you received communications from us and did not directly subscribe, your information may have come from a partner organization.
- Advertising platforms — When you interact with our advertisements on Meta (Facebook/Instagram), we may receive information about your interaction with those ads.
- Meta Custom Audiences — We may upload hashed email lists to Meta to create Custom Audiences for advertising purposes. This allows us to show relevant ads to existing subscribers and customers on Facebook and Instagram.
If you are from outside the U.S., understand that you are sending PII and Usage Data to the United States where our servers are located. That information may be then transferred within the U.S. or back out of the U.S. to other countries outside of your country of residence. These countries may not necessarily have data protection laws as comprehensive or protective as those in your country of residence; however, our collection, storage, and use of your PII and Usage Data will at all times be governed by this Privacy Policy.
INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS
If you are from outside the U.S., understand that you are sending personal data to the United States where our servers are located. That information may be transferred within the U.S. or to other countries outside of your country of residence.
These international transfers are conducted pursuant to:
- Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the European Commission
- The sub-processor's participation in approved data transfer frameworks
- The sub-processor's binding corporate rules or equivalent safeguards
These countries may not have data protection laws as comprehensive or protective as those in your country of residence; however, our collection, storage, and use of your personal data will at all times be governed by this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection law.
HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR DATA
We will not retain your personal data for longer than required for the purpose for which it was collected. This means that we will keep your personal information:
- For as long as required by law (such as tax records)
- Until we no longer have a valid reason for keeping it
- Until you request us to stop using it
Specific retention periods:
- Marketing contacts: While you remain subscribed; minimal data retained after unsubscribe to honor your opt-out request
- Purchase records: 7 years for tax and legal compliance
- Website analytics: Aggregated and anonymized after 26 months
- Support inquiries: 3 years after resolution
When we delete your personal data from our active databases, it will remain in our backup systems until those backups cycle out (typically 30-90 days).
WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS
Under the GDPR, you have the right to:
- Access — Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
- Rectification — Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
- Erasure (“Right to be Forgotten”) — Request deletion of your personal data (Note: We may retain certain data where required by law or for legitimate business purposes such as fraud prevention or honoring opt-out requests)
- Restriction — Request that we limit how we use your data
- Data Portability — Request your data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format (such as CSV or JSON) that can be transferred to another provider
- Object — Object to processing of your data for direct marketing or based on legitimate interests
- Withdraw Consent — Withdraw your consent at any time where processing is based on consent
To exercise any of these rights: Contact us using the information below. We will respond to your request within 30 days. We may request identification to verify your identity before processing your request.
If you provide a notice to us regarding the exercise of any of the above rights, we will forward your notice to other authorized parties which are holding and processing your personal data, where appropriate.
COMPLAINTS
f you wish to raise a complaint regarding how we have processed your personal data, you can contact us using the information below, and we will investigate the matter.
If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law, you have the right to lodge a complaint with:
- The data protection authority in the country in which you reside
- For UK residents: The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
- For EU residents: Your national Data Protection Authority
HOW TO CONTACT US
The Couples Institute® 445 Burgess Drive, Ste 150 Menlo Park, CA 94025
Phone: 650-327-5915
Email: admin@couplesinstitute.com
For data protection inquiries, please include “GDPR Request” in your email subject line.
View our full Privacy Policy here: https://www.couplesinstitute.com/privacy-policy/
Last updated: January 2026
View our full Privacy Policy here.