Who we are and what this policy covers
Garerano operates an online education business offering entrepreneurship and startup courses to founders across Finland and the wider Nordic region. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and share personal data when you visit garerano.com, apply for a course, subscribe to our newsletter or contact our team by email or telephone.
The data controller responsible for your personal data is Garerano, Lokomonkatu 3, 33100 Tampere, Finland. You can reach us at garerano@hotmail.com or by telephone at +358 50 274 9186 if you have any question about how your information is handled.
We process personal data in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Finnish Data Protection Act and applicable Finnish consumer legislation.
What personal data we collect
We only collect information that is genuinely necessary to deliver our courses, answer your enquiries and keep our business running properly. Depending on how you interact with us, this may include:
- Identity and contact details such as your name, email address, telephone number and city of residence
- Enrolment information, including the course you applied for, your business idea summary and your stated experience level
- Payment and billing details required to process course fees and issue receipts
- Communication records, such as emails, contact form submissions and notes from mentoring calls
- Technical data, including IP address, browser type and pages visited, gathered through standard server logs and analytics
We do not intentionally collect special categories of personal data such as health information, political opinions or religious beliefs, and we ask that you do not include such information in free-text fields.
How we use your data and our legal basis
We process your personal data for the following purposes, each supported by a lawful basis under GDPR:
- Contract performance: to enrol you in a course, deliver the programme, provide mentoring sessions and manage your student account
- Legitimate interests: to improve our curriculum, prevent fraud, keep our website secure and communicate with prospective students who have contacted us
- Consent: to send you marketing emails and newsletter content, which you may withdraw at any time
- Legal obligation: to retain accounting records and comply with Finnish taxation and bookkeeping requirements
We never sell your personal data to third parties, and we do not use your information for automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal effects.
Who we share data with
Your information is shared only with service providers who help us operate the business, and only to the extent necessary. These include our email service provider, payment processor, video conferencing platform and accounting partner. All processors are bound by written data processing agreements and are required to apply appropriate security measures.
Where a provider stores data outside the European Economic Area, we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or an equivalent adequacy mechanism to protect your information.
How long we keep your data
Course enrolment data and mentoring records are kept for three years after your last interaction with us, so that we can provide alumni support and reissue certificates if required. Accounting documents are retained for six years in line with Finnish bookkeeping law. Newsletter subscription data is held until you unsubscribe, plus sixty days for suppression purposes.
Your rights under GDPR
You have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, to request correction of inaccurate details, to request deletion where we no longer have a lawful basis to keep it, to restrict or object to processing, and to receive your data in a portable format. You may also withdraw consent for marketing at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, email us at garerano@hotmail.com and we will respond within thirty days. If you believe we have handled your data improperly, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman in Finland.