This is the privacy notice for www.globalwitness.org (Site) and any other sites and services operated by us. The Site and services are operated by Global Witness (we, us and our).
This notice describes how and why Global Witness uses your personal information, how we protect your privacy and your rights regarding this information.
We have updated this notice to take account of changes in legislation and to give a clear explanation about how Global Witness collects and uses your personal information.
We are committed to protecting your privacy online whilst providing a personalised and valuable experience. Collecting personal information is important so that we can meet the expectations and needs of our supporters and partners. It is also a legal requirement for some of the things Global Witness does such as processing donations. We take care to ensure that we use your personal data in accordance with applicable laws.
The legal basis for Global Witness to process your personal information process depends upon the circumstances in which we collect and use this data. In most cases our processing of your personal information will fall into one of the following categories:-
- Consent: where you have agreed that your personal data may be used for a particular purpose or purposes such as email updates about GW’s work
- Contractual necessity: where the processing of your personal information is necessary to carry out the performance of a contract with you
- Legal obligation: where the processing of your personal information is necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation such as auditing of donations
- Legitimate interests: in relying on this exemption we will determine how to process your data in a way that fits with Global Witness’s legitimate interests and yet is proportionate in relation to any privacy issues
How we collect your personal information and contact you
When you visit the Site we may collect and process the following information about you:
- information (such as your name and email address) or communications preferences that you provide by completing forms on the Site, such as when you register for our newsletter
- if you make a donation we may collect and process information about you (such as your title, name and email address, postal address and telephone number, gift aid status, contact preferences, donation amount and regular donation information) that you provide by completing forms on the Site or by giving a donation
- communications you send to us, for example to report a problem or to submit queries, concerns or comments regarding the Site or its content
You are under no obligation to provide any such information. However, if you choose to withhold requested information, we may not be able to provide you with certain services.
When you visit the Site, we may automatically collect additional information about you, such as the type of internet browser you use, any website from which you have come to the Site and your IP address (the unique address which identifies your computer on the internet) which is automatically recognised by our web server. This information is only used to assist us in providing an effective service on the Site and to collect broad demographic information for aggregate use.
Administrative purposes: we may also occasionally need to contact you for administrative purposes using the contact details that you have given us - for example, in relation to Gift Aid claims or to post you a publication that you have requested.
We may collect information about you by email, when you fill in forms on the website, by telephone or by post.
Cookies and similar technologies
A cookie is a small piece of information which is sent to your browser and stored on your computer's hard drive, mobile phone or other device. Cookies do not damage your computer. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie. This enables you to decide if you want to accept it or not. You can also manage whether you accept analytics and third party cookies on our site. However, some of the services and features offered through our website may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. More information on our cookie policy.
We occasionally participate in Facebook’s Custom Audience and Lookalike Audience programs, which enable us to display our content to our existing or potential supporters on Facebook. This enables us to use our promotional budgets much more efficiently. We provide personal information such as your email address to Facebook who securely encrypt it. That personal information is then deleted by Facebook if it does not match with a Facebook account or once they confirm you have an account.
For more information, please see: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/744354708981227 and https://www.facebook.com/business/help/365463786964246
If you do not wish your information to be used in this way please contact us at [email protected]
Uses made of your information
We will use the information you provide to:
- email you with information, where you have provided us with your email address and consent
- enable us to provide you with the services, event invitations, newsletters and information about us and our fundraising campaigns offered through the Site and which you request
- audit the downloading of data from the Site
- improve the layout and/or content of the pages of the Site and customise them for users
- identify visitors to the Site
- carry out research on our users' demographics
- We may use other publicly available information to ensure that we hold relevant information about you
- We provide our supporters with the opportunity to express their preferences about communications they receive
- We keep a record of any donations you have made to us, events you have attended, emails we have sent you and any forms you have filled out on our site. We may also keep a record of your interests, so that we contact you with information about the most relevant campaigns.
- We may also use profiling and analysis techniques to target our campaigning and fundraising communications. This may include analysing responses to previous projects, campaigns and fundraising appeals and/or researching publicly available information so that we can tailor communications appropriately and reach the right audience
- We may also use commercially available information such as postcode data to analyse geographic and demographic trends
- We may use your personal data together with publicly available information to carry out due diligence checks related to your donation, or potential as a donor. We do this in order to comply with ethical, legal and regulatory standards
- If you volunteer for us or apply for a job with us, we use information necessary for us to process your application and assess your suitability (such as employment status, previous experience, unspent criminal convictions)
Applications to vacancies
If you apply to a vacancy, either for employment, volunteering or an internship,, we use information necessary for us to process your application and assess your suitability (such as employment status, previous experience, unspent criminal convictions). Global Witness collects a range of information about you in relation to recruitment. This includes:
- your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number
- details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history
- information about your current level of remuneration, including benefit entitlements
- whether or not you have a disability for which the organisation needs to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process
- information about your entitlement to work in our office locations
- equality and diversity personal data.
We may collect this information in a variety of ways. For example, application forms, CVs or resumes, obtained from your passport or other identity documents provided by you, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment.
Your information may be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment process. This includes members of the HR and recruitment team, interviewers involved in the recruitment process, where it is necessary for the performance of their roles.
Equality and diversity personal data is for independent monitoring purposes only.
We will inform you prior to seeking your personal data from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers.
Data will be stored securely on your application record and on other IT systems (including email).
If your application for employment is unsuccessful, the organisation will hold your data on file for 6 (six) months after the end of the relevant recruitment process.
If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your Human Resources file (electronic and paper based) and retained during your employment.
Information sharing
We do not sell your details to anyone. We do not make cold telephone calls to members of the public and we do not purchase information in order to do so.
We may disclose aggregate statistics about visitors to the Site in order to describe our services to prospective partners and other reputable third parties and for other lawful purposes.
We may disclose your personal information to external providers of the services we offer through the Site, processing donations, fulfilling requests for information, receiving and sending communications, updating marketing lists, analysing data, hosting events and webinars, providing support services or in other tasks, from time to time. Our agents and contractors will only use your information to the extent necessary to perform their functions.
We may disclose your personal information if required or permitted to do so by law or if we believe that such action is necessary to prevent fraud or cyber crime or to protect the Site or the rights, property or personal safety of any person.
Child safety
Protecting the safety of children when they use the internet is very important to us. We recommend that children receive permission from their parent or guardian before gaining access to the Site or sending personal information to us or anyone else online.
External links
The Site may, from time to time, contain links to external sites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of such sites.
Donations processing
Donations made via the Site are made through one of our payment gateway providers, GoCardless or Stripe (as will be made clear at the point of donation). You will be providing credit or debit card information directly to either GoCardless or Stripe which operate a secure server to process payment details, encrypting your credit/debit card information and authorising payment. Information which you supply to either GoCardless or Stripe is not within our control and is subject to GoCardless or Stripe's own privacy policy and terms (as applicable) and which are available on the applicable site.
Security
We place great importance on the security of all personally identifiable information associated with our users. We have security measures in place to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal information under our control. Our security measures and privacy policy are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorised personnel have access to personal information. Whilst we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of information will never occur, we use all reasonable efforts to prevent it.
You should bear in mind that submission of information over the internet is never entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via the Site whilst it is in transit over the internet and any such submission is at your own risk.
It is advisable to close your browser when you have finished your user session to help ensure others do not access your personal information if you use a shared computer or a computer in a public place.
Storage of your information
Information that you submit via the Site is sent to and stored on secure servers. It will only be stored for as long as we legitimately need it or as required by the law.
Information submitted by you may be transferred by us to our other offices and/or to the third parties mentioned in the circumstances described above (see Information sharing), which may be situated outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and may be processed by staff or service providers operating outside the EEA. We take steps to ensure that any data transfers outside the EEA are compliant with relevant data protection legislation and that your personal information is protected by appropriate security measures.
Your data protection rights
You have rights under data protection legislation, some of which are outlined below:
- You have a right to request a copy of certain personal information held about you and details about how it is being used
- Where we are processing data based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw consent at any time
- You have the right to ask us to change your personal information if it is incomplete or inaccurate
- You have the right to request the deletion or removal of your personal information in certain circumstances, including where it is no longer necessary for us to hold it for the purposes for which we are processing it
- In some circumstances, you have the right to restrict our processing of your data
- You have the right to move, copy or transfer your personal information easily and safely from one IT environment to another, in some circumstances
- You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests (as described above) including profiling activity and “direct marketing
- You have the right to prevent your data being used for direct marketing purposes
We may not be able to comply with a request as listed above; these rights are subject to exceptions, for example where we are processing data for journalistic or literary purposes. Other exceptions include where the use of the personal data is in connection with the prevention and detection of crime or where it is legally privileged.
For more detail about these rights and exemptions, please read the guidance issued by the Information Commissioner.
Please submit any questions, concerns or comments you have about this privacy notice or any requests concerning your personal data by email to [email protected] or write to us at:
Global Witness, 55 Ludgate Hill, London EC4M 7JW
We will update this notice from time to time by changing it on the Site. For example we may amend this notice to reflect relevant changes to legislation. This privacy notice was last updated on 6 May 2021.