Privacy, cookies,
and booking principles.

Academy identity

Mă-Kè Permaculture Academy is based at Vila Pinheiro in Bairradas, Central Portugal. It provides online regenerative learning programmes, including the Permaculture Design Certificate.

The public website is makepermaculture.com. Enquiries can be made through the course enquiry form.

Privacy notice

Information we collect

Depending on your relationship with the academy, we may collect your name, email address, telephone number, country or time zone, course interest, preferred start period, experience, communications, account and profile details, enrolment records, learning activity, submitted work, teacher feedback, and certification evidence.

Why we use it

We use personal information to answer enquiries, administer applications and enrolments, provide secure learning accounts, deliver and assess courses, communicate about learning and operations, maintain academic records, protect the service, and meet legal or accounting obligations. Optional course news is sent only where consent has been given.

Services that process information

The academy uses Hostinger for website hosting, Supabase for authentication and database services, and Resend for transactional email delivery. These providers process information only as needed to provide their services under their own contractual and security arrangements.

Retention and security

Enquiry information is kept only while it remains useful for responding and legitimate follow-up. Learning, assessment, payment, and certificate records may need to be retained for longer to support academic integrity, certification, accounting, and legal obligations. Access is restricted by role, and secure account information is not placed in ordinary notification emails.

Your choices and rights

You may ask to access, correct, export, restrict, or erase personal information where the applicable law permits. You may withdraw optional marketing consent at any time. You may also raise a concern with Portugal's data protection authority, the Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados. The European Commission explains the EU data protection framework.

Cookie information

This site uses cookies. You can accept all cookies or accept only essential cookies using the notice shown on the site, the controls below, or the Cookie preferences link in any footer.

The platform uses essential first-party cookies and local preference storage needed to remember your choice, keep the site secure, and support signed-in learning and administration workspaces. We do not use advertising cookies.

When a user signs in, the platform sets strictly necessary, secure session cookies so that authentication can work and the account remains protected. These cookies are not used for marketing. The access cookie lasts for the current authenticated session period. The refresh cookie may remain for up to 30 days so an authorised session can be renewed. Signing out clears both cookies. Blocking them will prevent the protected learning and administration workspaces from functioning.

Google Analytics 4 is an optional analytics service used to understand course interest, checkout journeys and learning progress. It is not loaded and sends no data until you select Accept all cookies. If it is activated, Google receives limited page, course and ecommerce event details and the technical information normally associated with a web request. We do not send names, email or postal addresses, NIFs, Stripe identifiers, account or database identifiers, or enquiry and learning-response content to Google Analytics.

You can select Accept only essential cookies or change your preference at any time. Withdrawing optional consent prevents further analytics collection and removes Google Analytics cookies from this site where the browser permits it.

Booking principles and terms

• An enquiry or expression of interest is not a booking and creates no obligation to pay.
• A place is not confirmed until the academy has accepted the booking under the course-specific terms.
• Dates, capacity, tuition, inclusions, exclusions, accessibility discussions, and the support period will be stated before payment.
• The Foundation Course Free Study Pathway costs €0 and provides 28 days of access from free enrolment. Its optional Assessed Pathway is a one-time gross payment of €50, including tax where applicable, and provides 60 days of access from successful purchase plus tutor assessment of one introductory design. Free Study is offered worldwide, while the paid route remains subject to concrete Stripe processing, sanctions, legal and transaction-specific tax constraints. A Free-to-Assessed upgrade preserves learning progress and begins a 60-day paid period. If revisions are requested, the submission-bound deadline is the later of ordinary access expiry or 14 days after the recorded decision. Ordinary learning access still ends after 60 days; any remaining time provides only design, feedback, revision instructions and resubmission access. Payment does not guarantee successful completion or a certificate; certificate eligibility follows tutor approval. The current immutable Foundation Course Enrolment Agreement contains the complete terms.
• The Online PDC is offered to eligible private customers resident in mainland Portugal at VAT-inclusive totals of €295 Solidarity, €395 Standard, and €495 Supporter. Each fee includes 23% VAT and provides the same course access, tutor support, assessment standard, and certificate eligibility. The current Online PDC Customer Agreement contains the complete course-specific terms.
• An Academy-issued promotion or sponsored-access code may reduce the amount payable. Its conditions and resulting VAT-inclusive total will be shown before payment.
• Standard Online PDC access lasts for six calendar months from successful payment unless an extension is recorded by the Academy.
• Students are responsible for providing accurate information and for completing any agreed payment or learning obligations.
• Available payment methods and the final amount will be shown before payment. Card payments are processed securely by Stripe; full card details are not stored in the academy database.
• The academy may make proportionate changes where weather, safety, tutor availability, technology, or circumstances beyond reasonable control require them. Material changes will be communicated promptly.

Cancellation and refunds

No cancellation charge applies to an enquiry because an enquiry is not a booking. Before accepting payment, the academy provides the cancellation, transfer, deferral and refund rules for the selected course. The Online PDC Customer Agreement includes the current withdrawal, early-supply, cancellation and refund terms for that course.

Those course-specific terms will explain any statutory withdrawal right that applies, what happens if a student asks for digital or teaching services to begin during a withdrawal period, and how any value already supplied may affect a refund. Nothing in the booking terms will remove rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.

If the academy cancels a course, the course-specific terms will explain the available transfer or tuition-refund options. Unless those terms expressly state otherwise, students remain responsible for equipment, connectivity, insurance, and other independent or consequential costs.

Questions, corrections, or requests

Use the course enquiry form for course, privacy, account, accessibility, or booking questions. Existing students should use the secure learning platform for communications affecting assessment or completion so that the conversation remains with their learning record.