This Privacy Policy applies to the Global Development Commons (‘GDC’) (https://www.gdc.unicef.org) (‘site’’), a platform that serves to inform the public about the issues related to United Nations Children’s Fund (‘UNICEF’) and its partners’ areas of work on child-focused programming and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It sets out how we collect, use and store your personal information and what steps we take to protect your information. Taking care of the information you provide is important for UNICEF.

Please read our Privacy Policy carefully before using this site and refer to it regularly to check for updates. By accessing and using this site, you agree to all provisions set forth in this Privacy Policy.

What personal information do we collect through the Portal?

For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” means any information that enables us to identify an individual, directly or indirectly, by reference to an identifier such as name, identification number, location data, online identifier or one or more factors specific to the individual.

We obtain personal information relating to you from various sources described below:

Registration/Account Information

To provide content to this site or comment on a piece of content, you must first register. When registering, you are required to provide certain personal information such as your username, e-mail address and/or phone number.

User-Generated Content and Communications

We collect any information that you provide to us when you write a comment on any piece of content on this site.

If you contact us directly or we contact you and you chose to reply, we may receive additional information about you. For example, when you contact us, we may receive your name, email address, phone number, the contents of a message or attachments that you may send to us, and other information you choose to provide.

Personal Information we collect automatically from your use of the site

When you use this site, UNICEF and its third-party service providers may collect information about you and your device through automated means, such as cookies and web server logs. Cookies are small text files which identify your computer, phone, and other devices to our server. By using this site, you consent to the placement of cookies and similar technologies in your browser in accordance with this Privacy Policy. The information collected in this manner includes your Internet Protocol address (‘IP address’), network location, what browser you are using, device Identification and characteristics, operating system version, language preferences, referring URLs, and information about the usage of this site.

We use this information, for example, to ensure that the site functions properly, to determine how many users have visited certain pages, or to prevent fraud. We use IP address information to derive your approximate location. We also work with analytics providers, such as Google Analytics, which use cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of this site and report on activities and trends. We also work with Disqus which allows for commenting features on this site. These services may also collect information about the use of other websites, apps, and online resources. You can learn more about Google’s practices by going to https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/.

To learn more about the privacy practices of Disqus, please review https://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/466259-privacy-policy

The table below identifies the cookies we may use on this site and explains the purposes for which they are used.  Please note that we may update the information contained in this table from time to time.

If you do not want information to be collected about you through the use of cookies, most browsers allow you to automatically decline cookies or be given the choice of declining or accepting the transfer to your computer of a particular cookie (or cookies) from a particular site. You may also wish to refer to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html for more general information about cookies. If, however, you do not accept our cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of the site. For example, you may not be able to submit content or comments on this site.  

How do we use your personal information collected on the site?

Communications

We will use your personal information to contact you in relation to content submitted by you to this site and user-service or technical-support purposes.

Internal and Service-Related Usage

We may use your personal information for internal and site-related purposes, including to operate, provide, and maintain this site.

Analytics and Improving the Site

UNICEF and its service providers may use the information that is collected on this site, such as your location and your activities on this site, to monitor and analyze usage of this site and to improve and enhance the site.

Aggregate Data

We may de-identify and aggregate information collected through this site for statistical analysis and other lawful purpose, including in promotional or research activities. The results of these activities may be shared with third parties, such as our partners, supporters, educators and researchers through conferences, journals, and other publications.

Legal

We may use your personal information to enforce our Terms of Use of the site to defend our legal rights, and to comply with our legal obligations and internal policies.

With which third parties do we share your personal information?

We may disclose information about you and your experience with the site that we collect through the site to third parties in the following circumstances:

• To third-party service providers who provide services to us, such as website hosting, data analysis, information technology and related infrastructure provisions, and analytics providers to deliver content targeted to your interests and to help us to better understand how you use the site, email delivery, and other services. We will never, however, sell your information to a third party.

• To the UNICEF National Committee in your country to expand outreach and communications.

• We may also disclose your personal information with your permission. We may seek your permission in various ways. For example, we may present you with an “opt-in” prompt when you set up an account or access certain content.

• We will, at our own discretion, sometimes disclose your personal information in order to fulfill a legal requirement, enforce our Terms of Use of the site, or protect anyone’s rights, privacy, safety, or property and for other lawful purposes.

We also retain the right to store your personal information with parties outside of our direct control, such as with the servers or databases of a third-party organization and UNICEF’s partners. We will only transfer your personal information to trusted third parties who provide sufficient guarantees in respect of the technical and organizational security measures governing the processing to be carried out and who can demonstrate a commitment to compliance with those measures. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal information for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal information for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Some of the third parties referred to in this Privacy Policy may be located in countries outside your country of residence. Where we transfer your personal information outside of your country, we take steps to ensure that your information is treated securely and that the means of transfer as well as storage arrangements provide adequate safeguards. You agree to us handling your information in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy and that the obligations imposed by privacy laws in other countries may be less stringent than the requirements established by the privacy laws in your country.

Controlling Your Information

If you have registered an account with us, you can access, edit, download and delete most information associated with your account by logging in and using the account setting page. If you want to delete your account and/or the data you have contributed, you can submit a request to us via the “Delete Account” button. When submitting such a request the system will also automatically send an email to our provider Disqus requesting that the Disqus account associated with your GDC account be deleted. Disqus will then reach out to you via email to validate the request and then process the deletion request. Further information can be found at https://help.disqus.com/commenting/delete-account-or-access-account-data#how-to-request-deletion-of-your-account.

Please note that deleting your account hides all information from public view but does not remove all your information from our servers. If you want to have all your information removed from our servers, please contact gdc@unicef.org for assistance. You may also access, edit and delete individual pieces of your content whether they are in draft or final published format under your account’s profile page. Please note that we have no control over reposts of your content on other sites. Therefore, if we delete your information from our servers it does not guarantee that your information will be deleted from the internet. Both, registered and unregistered users can delete cookies by adjusting their web browser settings. If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive marketing communications from us, please follow the unsubscribe instructions provided in any of the communications. You may also opt out from receiving email from us by sending your request to us by email at gdc@unicef.org. Please be aware that, even after you opt out from receiving marketing communications from us, you may continue to receive administrative messages from us regarding this site.

How long do we keep your information?

We will retain information about you for as long as it is required for the purposes it was collected for and as specified in UNICEF’s retention policies. We use your personal information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements and rights, or if it is not technically and reasonably feasible to remove it. We also retain the right to store your personal information with parties outside of UNICEF’s direct control, such as with the servers or databases of a third-party organization. Otherwise, we will delete your personal information within a reasonable timeframe upon your request.

Is the site secured?

We are committed to protecting your personal information through the implementation of encryption methods, secured login, firewalls, regular security patches and antivirus. However, there is a possibility that third parties may unlawfully intercept or access your personal information or private communications. Although we work hard to safeguard your personal information, we cannot guarantee that your information or communications will always remain private. We also ask that you do your part to safeguard your personal information. Select and protect your password appropriately. Limit access to your account and sign out of your account once you have finished using it.

Third Parties Websites

The site may contain links to other websites that are not covered by this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy applies only to the processing of your personal information by UNICEF in connection with this site. It does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information, or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any site or service to which the site links. The inclusion of a link on this site does not imply endorsement of the linked site or service by UNICEF. Please be aware that the terms of this Privacy Policy do not apply to external websites or external content, or to any collection of data linked to external websites.

Notifications of Changes to the Privacy Policy

We continuously review our security measures and our Privacy Policy and may modify our policies as we deem appropriate. If we make changes to our privacy practices, we will post a notification to our site alerting that the Privacy Policy has been amended. Such changes will be effective immediately upon posting them to the site. For this reason, we encourage you to regularly check our Privacy Policy. The “Last Updated” date at the bottom of this page indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Your continued use of the site following these changes means that you accept the revised Privacy Policy.

Contact Us

Should you have questions or concerns related to privacy and use of personal data on this site, please feel free to contact us at gdc@unicef.org.

Last Updated: 04-June-2020