Privacy Policy

The Institute for Jewish Continuity (“IJC,” “we,” “us”) operates this Torah-content platform featuring the classes of Rabbi Shmuel Silber. This policy explains, in plain English, what information we collect, why, and the choices you have. It applies to visitors and to members who create an account.

Information we collect

• Account information. When you create an account we store your name, email address, and — if you sign up with a password — a securely hashed password. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email, and profile photo from Google. We never receive or store your Google password.
• Learning activity. Once accounts and related features are enabled, we may store your watch history and playback position, the videos you like or save, and the series or topics you follow, so we can offer resume-where-you-left-off, personalized recommendations, and notifications.
• AI chat.If you use the “Ask” assistant, we store your questions and the answers to provide the feature, show your history, and prevent abuse. We do not sell chat content or use it to train third-party models.
• Payments. Donations, sponsorships, and any paid features are processed by Stripe. We receive a record of the transaction (amount, date, and a Stripe identifier) but never see or store your full card number.
• Technical data. Like most websites, our servers and error-monitoring tools log basic technical information such as IP address, browser type, and pages requested, used to keep the site secure and working.

How we use your information

• To provide the platform: authenticate you, remember your place, and deliver features you use.
• To send you email you have asked for — account confirmations, password resets, and notifications you have opted into.
• To process donations, sponsorships, and any purchases, and to issue receipts.
• To protect the platform against abuse, fraud, and technical failures.

Email and notifications

We send transactional email (such as confirming your address or resetting your password) as part of operating your account. Optional notifications — for example when a series you follow publishes a new shiur — are controlled by you from your account settings, where you can turn them off at any time.

Sharing

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with service providers who help us run the platform — for example our database and hosting provider, Stripe for payments, Google for sign-in, and our email provider — and only to the extent needed to perform those services, or when required by law.

Your choices and rights

• You can update your name and notification preferences from your account page.
• You can change your password or sign out of all devices at any time.
• Export your data. From the “Privacy & data” section of your account settings you can download a complete copy of your account data — your profile, watch history, likes, saved and hidden items, followed series, notifications, AI chat conversations, and giving records — as a JSON file, at any time.
• Delete your account. The same section lets you permanently delete your account. This removes your profile and sign-in, your watch history and resume points, your likes, saved queue and hidden items, your followed series and notifications, and your AI chat conversations.

Data retention and security

We keep your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the platform and meet legal and accounting obligations, then delete or anonymize it. We use industry-standard measures to protect your data, though no method of transmission or storage is completely secure.

What we keep after you delete your account. As a nonprofit, we are required to retain records of donations and sponsorships for bookkeeping, tax, and audit purposes. When you delete your account, these financial records are anonymized— kept as amounts and dates but no longer linked to you, with private notes removed. If you published a public dedication on a shiur (for example “in memory of…”), that dedication remains visible on the shiur page as it was intended, but is no longer connected to your account. If you have an active monthly sponsorship, cancel it before deleting your account.

Children

The platform is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “last updated” date above and, for material changes, provide a more prominent notice.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email info@rabbisilber.com or visit our contact page.