At the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), we know that you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and that is why we are committed to respecting your privacy and to helping protect the security of your information. In this Privacy Policy, we describe the information that we collect about you on our website cocoainitiative.org. By visiting our website or using any of our services available on it, you agree that your information will be handled as described in this Policy.

What information do we collect about you and why?
We collect information about you directly from you, automatically through your use of our website or our services, and through third parties.

We also collect data about your use of our Website automatically according to our Cookie Statement.

Information We Collect Directly From You
We collect information from you when you request information from us, interact with us through our contact form, subscribe to our newsletter or otherwise interact with our website. The type of information that we collect from you depends on your particular interaction with our website and may include, without limitation, your name, address, and email address, and any other information that you choose to provide to us.

Information We Collect Automatically
We and our third-party service providers automatically collect information about you through the use of cookies and other tracking technologies (collectively, “cookies”).

We may collect, process and use the following information about you:

  • Details of your visits to our website including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, search activities as well as the page, content, software or resources that you access.
  • Your IP address, web addresses of our websites you arrive from and go to next and information about your connection, including your device’s browser, operating system, platform type and Internet connection speed. We use this information for operational and performance measurement purposes.
  • Details of your history of correspondence with us, requests or inquiries or when you subscribe to our newsletter.
  • Information We Collect About You From Third Parties
  • We may also collect data from third parties we use to analyse your interest in our Website, such as Google Analytics.

How we use your information
We use your information, including your personal information, for the following purposes:

  • To facilitate the features on our website, to communicate with you about your use of our website, to respond to your inquiries, to send you information that you have requested, and for other communication purposes.
  • To keep you updated about our activities. For example, as permitted by applicable law, we may occasionally contact you by e-mail to provide you with information about our activities, events and campaigns that might be of interest to you.
  • To tailor the content and information that we may send or display to you.
  • To better understand how users access and use our website, both on an aggregated and individualized basis, in order to improve our website and respond to user desires and preferences, and for other research and analytical purposes.

When We Disclose Your Information
We do not share your information with non-affiliated third parties for their own marketing purposes. We do share your information as follows:

  • In Response to Legal Process. We also may disclose the information we collect from you in order to comply with the law, a judicial proceeding, court order, or other legal processes, such as in response to a court order or a subpoena.
  • To Protect Us and Others. We also may disclose the information we collect from you where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person, violations of our Terms of Use or this Policy, or as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
  • Legal Purposes. To enforce our Terms of Use; for example, to protect the security of our Website, as required by law or when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights.

Legal Basis for Processing
We have a legal basis to collect, use and share your information. You also have choices about our use of your information as explained further below. We will only collect and process your information when we have a legal basis to do so. Legal basis includes consent (where you have given consent) and legitimate interest. If you have any questions about the legal basis we use to process your information, please contact us at privacy@cocoainitiative.org.

Data retention
We retain your information as long as we have a legitimate interest to process it or as long as you have not withdrawn your consent. This includes data you or others provided to us and data generated or inferred from your use of our website.

Protection of children
The International Cocoa Initiative does not wish to collect over its website personal data from individuals under the age of 18. Individuals under the age of 18 are requested to receive permission from their parent or legal guardian before providing any personal data to ICI through our website.

Transfers to countries that do not provide an adequate level of protection
The International Cocoa Initiative is a Swiss-based foundation with offices in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. ICI’s website is operated on a platform of Digital Ocean, a service provider with a principal place of business in the United Kingdom, and is processed according to applicable data protection and privacy laws.

Accordingly, your personal data will be transferred to and processed in locations outside the country in which you are viewing this Website (the “User Country”). Any data or material sent or uploaded by you will be accessible in countries outside the User Country. If your User Country is within the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or is Switzerland or another country providing an adequate level of data protection, please note that your personal data will also be accessible and processed in countries with a lower level of data protection. In these situations, ICI will ensure (by entering into a written agreement or otherwise) that an adequate level of data protection is maintained by the recipients of your data in accordance with applicable data protection law.

Communication via e-mail
You may communicate with us by e-mail. E-mail messages sent over the Internet are neither confidential nor secure. They may be viewed by third parties, lost, intercepted or altered. E-mails may be transferred across national borders, even if both sender and recipient are located in the same country. ICI will not be liable for any damages suffered in connection with the use of e-mails or any other electronic messaging system when communicating with us.

Opting out of outreach from The International Cocoa Initiative
We may send periodic informational emails (e.g. newsletters) to you. You may opt-out of such communications by following the opt-out instructions contained in the e-mail or by contacting us at privacy@cocoainitiative.org.

  • Right of access – you have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.
  • Right of rectification – you have a right to correct data that we hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • Right to be forgotten – in certain circumstances, you can ask for the data we hold about you to be erased from our records.
  • Right to restriction of processing – where certain conditions apply to have a right to restrict the processing.
  • Right of portability – you have the right to have the data we hold about you transferred to another organisation.
  • Right to object – you have the right to object to certain types of processing such as direct marketing.
  • Right to object to automated processing, including profiling – you also have the right to be subject to the legal effects of automated processing or profiling.
  • Right to judicial review: in the event that the International Cocoa Initiative refuses your request under rights of access, we will provide you with a reason as to why. You have the right to complain as outlined in clause 3.6 below.

All of the above requests will be forwarded on should there be a third party involved in the processing of your personal data.

Please note that if you request us to remove your information, we may retain some of the information for specific reasons, such as to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, and as required by law. Furthermore, some information is never completely removed from our databases because of technical constraints and the fact that we regularly back up our systems. Therefore, not all of your personal information will ever be completely removed from our databases.

Links
Our website may contain links to and from the websites of our members, contributing partners and stakeholders. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for their policies. Please check their policies before you submit any personal data.

Identity and contact details of the Data Controller
If you have any questions about this policy or the use of your personal information, you are always welcome to contact us at privacy@cocoainitiative.org. You will also reach our Data Protection Officer at the same address.

Changes to the Privacy Policy
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time due to changed or updated legislation. All changes to this Privacy Policy are posted on this page and we encourage you to review our Privacy Policy regularly to stay informed.