Upon becoming a publisher, a person acknowledges that the worldwide religious organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses (“Jehovah’s Witnesses”)—including the Christian Church of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Colombia, the local congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the local branch office, and similar cooperating organizations of Jehovah’s Witnesses—lawfully uses his or her personal data in accordance with its legitimate religious interests. Publishers willingly provide personal data to their congregation as outlined in the book Organized to Do Jehovah’s Will so that they may participate in religious activities in connection with their worship and so that they may receive spiritual support.—1 Peter 5:2.

Personal data includes a person’s name, date of birth, gender, date of baptism, and contact information as well as information related to his spiritual well-being, field ministry activity, any roles held among Jehovah’s Witnesses, or any data publishers provide as they engage in additional religious activities. The data includes information that would reveal the publisher’s religious beliefs and may also include other sensitive personal data, which they may choose to provide, such as that related to their health, sex life, or about children and adolescents. Use of personal data may mean collecting, recording, organizing, and storing that data, as well as similar operations performed on that data.

The Data Protection Law in this country is the following:

The Law on the Protection of Personal Data (Law 1581 of 2012) and its regulatory decrees.

Under this Data Protection Law, publishers who provide their personal data consent to Jehovah’s Witnesses handling their personal data for religious purposes, including for the following:

• maintaining and administering the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses

• participating in any meeting of a local congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses and in any volunteer activity or project

• choosing to participate in a meeting, an assembly, or a convention that is recorded and broadcast for the spiritual instruction of Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide

• attending to any assignments or fulfilling any other role in a congregation, which includes the publisher’s name and the assignment being posted on the information board at a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses

• maintaining Congregation’s Publisher Record cards

• shepherding and care by elders of Jehovah’s Witnesses (Acts 20:28; James 5:14, 15)

• recording emergency contact information to be used in the event of an emergency

Personal data will be kept only for as long as the purposes stated above or other legitimate purposes apply. If a publisher chooses not to sign the Notice and Consent for Use of Personal Data form and does not authorize the use of their personal data, Jehovah’s Witnesses may not be able to evaluate the publisher’s suitability to fulfill certain roles within the congregation or to participate in certain religious activities.

Jehovah’s Witnesses operate globally. Therefore, publishers’ personal data may be transferred to, may be transited through, or may be stored outside the country in which they are located. This may include countries whose laws provide different levels of data protection, which are not always equivalent to the level of data protection in the country from which the data may be sent. Jehovah’s Witnesses take appropriate measures to guarantee adequate protection for any information so transferred. This may include using agreements such as standard contractual clauses for such transfers. All recipients who are part of the worldwide religious organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses use publishers’ personal data only in accordance with the Global Data Protection Policy of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Publishers have the right to access, to request deletion or restriction of the processing of, to object to the processing of, and to correct any inaccuracies regarding their personal data held by Jehovah’s Witnesses. Publishers also have the right to request proof of the authorization granted and to give or not give sensitive personal data or data regarding children and adolescents. At any time, the data subjects may revoke their consent or request the deletion of the data, when the constitutional and legal principles, rights, and guarantees are not respected in its processing. If publishers withdraw consent for the use of personal data or if publishers request their personal data be deleted, Jehovah’s Witnesses may continue to use some personal data based on their legitimate religious purposes or on another lawful ground provided for in the Data Protection Law. Publishers are aware that they have a right to lodge a complaint with the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce in Colombia.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have adopted various procedural and technical safeguards, in accordance with the Data Protection Law, to protect personal data. Publishers understand that their personal data will be accessed only by a limited number of authorized persons to fulfill the above purposes.

Any requests to the relevant data protection officer may be sent via email to the following address:

DataProtectionOfficer.CO@jw.org

Publishers understand that the identity of and contact information for the data controller in the country in which they reside, and where applicable, of its representative and its data protection officer, can be found on the Data Protection Contacts page of jw.org.

To submit a request, a publisher must provide a scanned copy of the request authenticated by a notary, along with the email address to which the reply must be made. If the request does not include the necessary details, a reply will be given to the person within five working days, asking that he complete the request within a maximum of two months, or it will be understood that he has withdrawn the request. Once the request has been completed and verified, a reply will be made within 10 working days in the case of a query or 15 working days in the case of a complaint, both periods being extendable, or according to the terms established by current law.

It may be that data practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses change from time to time because of changes to certain religious activities, to the law, or in the use of technology. If ever it becomes necessary to change this Use of Personal Data page, those changes will be posted on this page so that publishers are always aware of what information is collected and how it is used. Please check back from time to time for changes to this page.