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What is this Privacy Notice about?

This Privacy Notice explains how we process personal data, primarily in relation with our activities and our website. If you would like more information, please feel free to contact us (sec. 2). “Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, and “processing” means any handling of personal data, such as collecting, storing, using, and sharing it.

Who is responsible for processing your data?

For the data processing, the following organization is the “controller”, i.e., the party that is primarily responsible to ensure compliance with data protection laws (also “we”):

Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining

Maison de la paix, Tower 3

Chemin Eugène-Rigot 2C

P.O. Box 1300

1211 Geneva 1

Switzerland

If you have any questions regarding data protection, please feel free to contact us at the address mentioned above or dpo@gichd.org.

You may provide us with data that relates to other individuals as well (e.g., work colleagues). In this case, we understand that this data is correct and that you act within your rights when sharing it with us. We may not be in direct contact with these individuals and cannot inform them directly about our data processing, but we ask that you to inform these individuals about our data processing (e.g., by pointing them to this Privacy Notice).

How do we process data in relation with our activities?

During our activities, we mainly process personal data for the following purposes:

  • Mine action programs: For monitoring, coordinating, organizing, and evaluating mine action programs, we process several categories of personal data. This might include data such as names, roles, qualifications, location, and (emergency) contact information of field staff, project managers, and local workers, as well as health and safety records related to those individuals. Data on beneficiaries and mine victims could also involve demographic information such as age, gender, and socioeconomic status of affected community members, health data, as well as their feedback or opinions collected through surveys or interviews. Partner and stakeholder data could encompass names, roles, and contact details of individuals representing organizations, governments, or NGOs involved in the program. Additionally, data related to incidents, risk assessments, and safety reports could be processed to ensure the protection of those engaged in mine action activities.
  • Training portal for online courses: To provide access to our online courses through the training portal, we collect personal data such as your name, contact information, affiliation, and login credentials. This data enables us to authenticate your access, track your course progress, provide certificates, and ensure a seamless learning experience. We may also collect information regarding your course preferences and completion history to improve our course offerings and tailor recommendations for future learning opportunities.
  • Workshops, trainings, conferences, and other events: To facilitate your participation in our workshops and events, we may collect and process data such as your name, contact information, affiliation, professional background, former trainings, details on emergency contacts, dietary and other special requirements, travel schedules, financial information, endorsement letters, CVs, photos, disabilities, health information, insurance details, visa information, and passport copies. This information is necessary to manage registrations and organization of the event, facilitate your travels, pay and reimburse expenses, and communicate with you about event-related updates. Information about your participation may also be shared with other participants. Photos and audio-visual recordings may be made during the event which may be used by us for our internal records, on our website on our social media channels and in other promotional materials. Additionally, we may use your contact information to send relevant correspondence, including newsletters, alerts, updates on future events, and other information that align with your interests. You may unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time by clicking the unsubscribe button at the bottom of such correspondence.
  • Engaging with partners and donors: This may include processing contact information, organization affiliations, and communication details to coordinate partnerships, funding, and project implementation.
  • Managing and responding to your communication: When you submit an inquiry, request, or complaint through our website, by e-mail, over the phone, by letter, or other means of communication, we collect the personal data you provide, such as your name, contact details, and any relevant information you include in your message, as well as information about the nature and time of the communication. For your identification, we may also process information about proof of identity. We use this data to manage and respond to your requests in a timely and efficient manner. This allows us to address any concerns, provide the information you seek, or resolve issues related to our activities
  • Entering into and managing contracts: We may process personal data if we are in contact with you in view of a potential contract. This is mostly data you provide to us, e.g., your name, contact details, your affiliation, information collected through forms, or communications. If we enter into a contract with you, we process the data from the onboarding and information on the contract (e.g. the date and the content of the contract). We also process personal data during and after the contract. Examples are information on the purchase of products or services, payments, claims, complaints, returns, data on the termination of the contract and – if there ever should be disputes in relation with the contract – also on these and related proceedings.
  • Newsletter: We may send out alerts or newsletters, which may include advertising for activities and services. When you subscribe to our alerts or newsletters, we process data about your name and e-mail address. You may unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time by clicking the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the newsletter. In addition to your name and e-mail address, we may also process information about whether you open newsletters, and which links you click on. For this purpose, a service provider we use includes invisible images that are loaded from a server via a coded link and transmits related information. This is a common method that helps us assess the effect of newsletters and optimize them. You can object by setting your email program accordingly (e.g. by switching off automatic loading of images).
  • Recruitment: In the context of recruitment, we process personal data provided by individuals applying for positions within our organization either directly or through an applicant tracking system. This data may include your name, contact information, education and employment history, qualifications, references, and any other information you choose to share in your application or CV. We use this data for the purposes of evaluating your suitability for the position, managing the recruitment process, and, where applicable, contacting you for interviews or further discussions. In some cases, we may also conduct background checks or request additional information in accordance with applicable laws. For any application submitted through an applicant tracking system, please also refer to the privacy notice provided by the system.
  • Research and statistical purposes: As part of our commitment to improving the effectiveness and security of humanitarian demining efforts, we may conduct research and analysis to better understand the impact of our programs and to identify areas for future improvement. This may involve processing data such as names, roles, and contact information of stakeholders, participants, and beneficiaries involved in or affected by our activities. Additionally, we may collect feedback through surveys, interviews, or other forms of communication. The insights gained from this research allow us to tailor our strategies, enhance collaboration with partners, and ensure that our interventions meet the needs of affected communities. All data processed for research purposes will be anonymized as soon as possible.

For partners that are companies, organizations, or governments, we process less personal data because data protection law only applies to data of individuals. However, we process data of individuals with whom we are in contact, e.g. name, contact details, professional details and details from communications, and details about management persons, etc. as part of the general information about partners with which we cooperate.

How do we process data in relation with our website?

For technical reasons, every time you use our website, some data is collected that is temporarily stored in log files (log data), in particular the IP address of the device, information about the internet service provider and the operating system of your device, information about the referring URL, information about the browser used, date and time of access, and content accessed when visiting the website. We use this data to provide our website, to ensure security and stability, to optimize our website and for statistical purposes.

Our website also uses cookies. These are small files that your browser saves on your device. This allows us to separate individual visitors from others, but usually without identifying visitors. Cookies may also include information about content accessed and the duration of the visit. Certain cookies (“session cookies”) are deleted when the browser is closed. Others (“persistent cookies”) are stored for a certain period of time so that we can recognize recurring visitors.

You can configure your browser in the settings so that it blocks or deletes certain cookies and other stored data. You can find out more about this in the help pages of your browser (usually under “privacy”).

Cookies and other technologies may also be used by third parties that provide services to us. These may be located outside of Switzerland and the EEA (for more information, see sec. 8). For example, we use analytics services so that we can optimize our website. Cookies and similar technologies from third-party providers also enable them to target you with individualized advertising on other websites as well as on social networks that also work with this third party and to measure how effective advertisements are (e.g., whether you arrived at our website via an advertisement and what actions you then take on our website). The relevant third-party vendors may record website usage for this purpose and combine their records with other information from other websites. They can record user behavior across multiple websites and devices to provide us with statistical data. The providers may also use this information for their own purposes, e.g. for personalized advertising on their own website or other websites. If a user is registered with the provider, the provider can assign the usage data to the relevant person.

We use Google Analytics on our website, an analysis service provided by Google LLC (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA, USA) and Google Ireland Ltd (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland). Google collects certain information about the behavior of users on the website and about the end user device. The IP addresses of visitors are shortened in Europe before being forwarded to the USA. Google provides us with evaluations based on the recorded data, but also processes certain data for its own purposes. Information on the data protection of Google Analytics can be found here, and if you have a Google account yourself, you can find further details here.

How do we process data via social media?

We operate our own presences on social networks and other platforms (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, X,  Bluesky, YouTube, Vimeo). If you communicate with us there or comment on or redistribute content, we collect information about such interaction which we use primarily for communication with you, for marketing purposes and for statistical evaluations (see sec. 3 and 6). Please note that the provider of the platform themself also collects and uses data (e.g. on user behavior), possibly together with other data available to them (e.g. for marketing purposes or to personalize the platform content). Insofar as we are jointly responsible with the provider, we enter into a corresponding agreement, about which you can obtain information from the provider.

What are other processing purposes?

Typical (though not necessarily frequent) cases are as follows:

  • Compliance with legal requirements: We may disclose information to authorities as required by law or to comply with internal regulations.
  • Prevention: We process data to prevent crime and other misuse, for example fraud prevention or for internal investigations.
  • Legal proceedings: Where we are involved in legal proceedings (e.g. court or administrative proceedings), we process data such as information about other parties to the proceedings and individuals involved such as witnesses and disclose data to such parties, courts, and authorities, possibly also abroad.
  • IT security: We also process data for monitoring, controlling, analyzing, securing, and assessing our IT infrastructure, as well as for backups and archives.
  • Other purposes: We process data to the extent necessary for other purposes such as training and education, administration (e.g. accounting, enforcement and defense of claims, evaluation and improvement of internal processes, acquisition or sale of receivables, and safeguarding other legitimate interests.

How do we work with service providers?

We may share personal data with various third-party providers from whom we receive services, especially IT services (examples are providers of hosting or data analysis services), shipping and logistics services and services from banks, the post office, consultants and advisors, travel agencies, hotels, airlines, event managers, conferencing services, interpreters, caterers, security services, etc. In relation with service providers for our website, please see sec. 4.

Can we disclose data abroad?

The recipients of data are not all located in Switzerland, in particular certain service providers (especially in IT). These providers may have locations within the EU or the EEA, but also in other countries worldwide, e.g., in the USA. We may also share data with authorities abroad if we are legally compelled to do so or, for example in relation with legal proceedings (see sec. 6). Not all these countries have an adequate level of data protection. We therefore use appropriate safeguards, in particular the EU standard contractual clauses, which can be found here. In certain cases, we may share data abroad without such safeguards, as permitted under applicable data protection law, e.g., with your consent or where the disclosure is necessary for the performance of the contract, for the establishment, exercise, or enforcement of legal claims or for overriding public interests.

How long do we process personal data?

We process your personal data as long as it is necessary for the purpose of processing (in the case of contracts, usually for the duration of the contractual relationship), as long as we have a legitimate interest in storing it (e.g. if in order to enforce legal claims, for archiving and or to ensure IT security) and as long as data is subject to a statutory retention obligation (for certain data, for example, a ten-year retention period applies). After these periods have expired, we delete or anonymize your personal data.

What else should be considered?

Depending on the applicable law, data may only be processed based on legal grounds. This does not apply under the Swiss Data Protection Act, but it does under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to the extent it is applicable. In this case, our processing is based on a necessity to prepare for and perform contracts (sec. 3), to safeguard legitimate interests of us or third parties, e.g. statistical evaluations (sec. 3) or for marketing purposes (sec. 3), that it is required or permitted by law, or that you have provided separate consent. The relevant provisions are article 6 and 9 GDPR.

You are not under an obligation to provide data to us, except in some cases such as when it is required to comply with a contractual obligation). However, we must process data for legal and other reasons when we conclude and execute contracts. The use of our website would also not be possible without some data processing (see sec. 4).

What are your rights?

You have certain rights, subject to conditions and restrictions under applicable law:

  • You may request a copy of your personal data and further information about our data processing;
  • You may object to our data processing, especially in relation with our newsletter;
  • You may have incorrect or incomplete personal data corrected or completed or supplemented by a note of dispute;
  • You may request receipt of the personal data that you have provided to us in a structured, common and machine-readable format;
  • You may revoke your consent at any time if we process data based on your consent. The revocation is only valid for the future, and we reserve the right to continue to process data based on another basis in the event of a revocation.

If you wish to exercise such a right, please feel free to contact us (cf. sec. 2). We will usually have to verify your identity (e.g. by means of a copy of your ID card). You are also free to file a complaint against our processing of your data with the competent supervisory authority, in Switzerland the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).

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