Your privacy on the Internet is of utmost importance to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (“UN-Habitat”). This privacy statement describes UN-Habitat’s policy concerning the gathering and sharing of visitors’ information through the UN-Habitat website. It applies to all “UN-Habitat sites” – that is, all sites within the “UN-Habitat.org” domain, UN-Habitat country sites and endfistula.org (hereinafter together referred to as the “UN-Habitat website” or “our website”).
This privacy policy describes what information is made available to UN-Habitat and third parties when you visit the UN-Habitat website, and how UN-Habitat uses and stores that information. Any information voluntarily disclosed to UN-Habitat by users of UN-Habitat website is held with the utmost care and security and will not be used in ways other than as set forth in this privacy policy.
By accessing this site, certain information about the User, such as Internet protocol (IP) addresses, navigation through the Site, the software used and the time spent, along with other similar information, will be stored on our servers. These will not specifically identify the User.
The information will be used internally only for web site traffic analysis. If the User provides unique identifying information, such as name, address and other information on forms stored on this Site, such information will be used only for statistical purposes and will not be published for general access. The UN-Habitat, however, assumes no responsibility for the security of this information.
Anonymous website usage
By accessing the UN-Habitat website, general browsing data from standard server logs, such as Internet protocol (“IP”) addresses, navigation through the UN-Habitat website, domain name, browser type, the software used and the time spent, along with other similar information, will be stored.
This information will be used to analyze trends and usage of the UN-Habitat website and to improve the usefulness of the site. It is not connected with any personal information. However, if you have registered with UN-Habitat in connection with any activity on the UN-Habitat website, the information we collect about your normal web usage will be identifiable to you.
Collection and use of personally identifiable information
Providing personal information is your choice. When you undertake certain actions on our website, such as donating, signing up for our email newsletter, or filling in a form to register your interest in our activities, you knowingly provide us with personal information about you, such as your name, email address, postal address and other information. This information is collected only with your knowledge and permission, and is kept in various UN-Habitat databases. If you are making a donation through the UN-Habitat website, you may be asked to provide your credit card details.
UN-Habitat sites with specific requirements to collect personal information may publish a privacy policy specific for that site. In these cases, the site-specific policies will be complementary to this UN-Habitat privacy policy, but will give additional details for that particular use.
We may use the personal information you voluntarily provide to:
Contact you – either in response to a query or suggestion, or to provide to you relevant services and information (such as newsletters, documents, publications etc.) that we deem may be of interest to you. This may include marketing and fundraising appeals from time to time. If you would not like your data to be used in this way, please send your query here and select “individual giving”.
What if I don’t want to provide personal information?
Providing personal information on the UN-Habitat website is optional. If you choose not to provide personal information, you can still browse and use the UN-Habitat website, but you will not be able to carry out certain actions such as registering for a newsletter or applying for a job.
Opting out and changing your information
Users who provide an email address and/or donate via the UN-Habitat website and opt in to receive email communication from UN-Habitat may receive UN-Habitat electronic newsletter and other email updates. We occasionally also communicate via direct mail, phone and SMS. Each email sent by UN-Habitat includes an option to remove your address from the mailing list. You may also request assistance here and select “individual giving”.
Cookie Policy
Aside from the personal information that you actively disclose to us for a specific purpose, UN-Habitat may also collect and store anonymous information about your browsing behaviour when you visit our website, through the use of cookies. By using the UN-Habitat website, you agree that we can place the types of cookies set out below on your computer, mobile phone or handheld device and use such information in accordance with this Cookie Policy.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small data files made up of letters and numbers placed onto your computer or other mobile devices when you access the UN-Habitat website. UN-Habitat uses cookies to collect information about you to the extent necessary to ensure its website’s functionality and performance as well as for the purpose of targeting its audience and tailoring the content offered to the public both on its website and elsewhere. We send cookies when you visit the UN-Habitat websites, respond to online surveys or polls, or request information. Accepting the cookies used on the UN-Habitat website does not give us access to your personally identifiable information, but we can use the cookies to, for example, identify your computer or from where you are visiting the UN-Habitat website.
Disabling cookies
If you do not wish to have cookies installed on your computer or mobile device, you can set your browser to notify you before you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it. You can also set your browser to turn off cookies. If you do so, however, some areas of the UN-Habitat website may not function properly.
How cookies are used on UN-Habitat website
UN-Habitat wishes to be transparent with users about how cookies are used, so that you are clear on how your privacy is protected when visiting the UN-Habitat website.
We use cookies for the following reasons:
- To improve your experience on our website – Cookies enable us to ensure that we are providing you content that is relevant to your interests while deprioritising content that is not relevant to you. For example, cookies can tell us if you have shown interest in learning about a specific emergency or campaign, so we could ensure that the next time you visit the UN-Habitat website, information about this emergency or campaign is prioritised over other content. In the same way, cookies can tell us if, for instance, you have filled in a UN-Habitat form or signed a petition, so that we don’t present this to you the next time you visit our website. Cookies can also provide us with an understanding about other factors relating to your visit that can help us to enhance your website experience, such as: which part of the world you are visiting from, if you came to the site because of an email or social media post we sent you, or whether your website browser supports the different technologies used on the UN-Habitat website.
- To understand how UN-Habitat website and other communication efforts are performing – Cookies help to provide us with anonymous statistics that tell us about how many users visit our website, where they came from and how they interact with it. This information is very useful for us to be able to see which pages and content on the UN-Habitat website is most popular so that we can modify it accordingly. Data gathered through cookies can also help us understand how our other activities, such as social media/network content and emails affect the use of the UN-Habitat website.
- To improve the relevance of UN-Habitat campaign messages displayed to you after you leave our website – Cookies can help us to ensure that you receive personalised advertising banners from advertising services when you browse other websites, based on the content you interacted with on the UN-Habitat website. For example, cookies can tell us if you visit a web page about a particular humanitarian emergency, so that campaign messages about this particular emergency can be displayed to you when you visit another website. None of UN-Habitat commercial partners providing such services collect or use any personally identifiable information.
- Advertising performance - We want to monitor our advertising spend carefully to make sure that we are being as cost-effective as possible. UN-Habitat uses cookies provided by online measurement platforms such as Google Analytics and DoubleClick in order to identify how many people come to our website from different websites that host our media campaigns, which campaign messages have been most effective at driving people to the UN-Habitat website, and what actions people undertake after clicking on one of our ads.
- Reach you on social channels and identify more supporters who want to help women and girls around the world - Through cookies and email address, we can target messages for you on our social media platforms and identify other people on the Internet who are most likely to support UN-Habitat work and support women and girls around the world. This may include uploading an encrypted list of email addresses to social media services. This data is not stored or reused by the provider and is only held for the duration of the matching process.
Third party cookies
Some of the cookies you may receive when visiting UN-Habitat website are not related to UN-Habitat. For example, if you visit sections of the UN-Habitat website that contain embedded content, or contain a plugin such as a social media “like button”, you may receive cookies delivered from these websites. As detailed above, we also use third-party cookies for targeted advertising services and for tracking our website awareness-raising and communications performance.
UN-Habitat does not govern the settings or use of these third-party cookies, so we suggest that you visit these websites for more information about their cookies and applicable privacy policies.
UN-Habitat is not responsible for the privacy of data collected by websites or social services/ networks that it does not own or manage, even if these link to the UN-Habitat website. Modern web browsers provide the ability to disable all cookies or only third-party cookies.
User-Generated Content
UN-Habitat may ask its stakeholders and community to share their photos and videos with the public on the UN-Habitat website. This type of material is generally defined as user generated content.
Visitors of the UN-Habitat website acknowledge that such content is treated as being non-proprietary and non-confidential. If you send this material to us, either via email, by tagging content on a social network, or via a specifically designed upload site, you are granting UN-Habitat the irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide right to use, reproduce, modify and publish such material elsewhere in its websites and publications. Furthermore, you grant UN-Habitat the right to use the name that you submit in connection with such material. However you still own and can continue to use your content as you like including the ability to also allow others to use it.
If you upload or share your material with the UN-Habitat website or social media account, it might be used by any UN-Habitat websites or social media accounts across the globe.
When we ask our community to share content with us, we explain how we intend to use the content. Mostly, we will re-share content on our social media channels or on our websites. If it is particularly strong, we may use content shared with us on UN-Habitat promotional materials. In those cases, we will attempt to contact you to discuss whether you agree for it to be used, and to ask whether and how you would like to be credited.
UN-Habitat does not pay for nor does it generate any revenue from selling or licensing individual pieces of user generated content.
If you upload content to the UN-Habitat website or an official UN-Habitat social media account, we will be able to see certain information, for example in the EXIF data supplied when you submit photographs, we can see which type of camera you used, the time/date stamp, and location if that is available. This information might be used to perform verification checks.
Responsibilities for User Generated Content
When you submit content to or share material with UN-Habitat, you must only submit/share your own original content. If your content contains the work(s) of others (e.g. music, images and/or video) you represent and warrant that you have obtained the necessary rights or permissions to use that material, and that such material, does not violate any third party rights.
If your content clearly identifies anyone else you will need to ensure that the persons concerned have consented to the content being used by UN-Habitat. Where your content clearly identifies children under the age of 18 years, you must ensure that their parent(s) or adult(s) who are caring for them has/have provided their consent as set out above.
UN-Habitat also requires that you do not submit or share any material or information:
i. That is knowingly false or misleading, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, threatening or invasive of a person's privacy or unlawful in any way;
ii. Which you do not own or for which you have not obtained all necessary licenses and/or approvals as may be required by law;
iii. Which is technically harmful (including, without limitation, files that contain viruses, corrupted files or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another’s computer); or
iv. Impersonating any person or entity, or falsely stating or otherwise misrepresenting your affiliation with anyone or any entity.
v. Deleting any author attributions, legal notices or proprietary designations or labels in any file that is uploaded;
vi. Falsifying the origin or source of software or other material contained in a file that is uploaded;
vii. Advertising or offering to sell any goods or services, or conducting or forwarding surveys, contests or chain letters, or downloading any file posted by another user of the UN-Habitat website that you know, or reasonably should know, cannot be legally distributed in such a manner.
Any inappropriate content will be rejected or removed from the UN-Habitat website and social media accounts. If in doubt, please do not share your content with UN-Habitat.
You shall indemnify, hold and save harmless, and defend, at your own expense, UN-Habitat, its officials, agents, servants and employees from and against all suits, claims, demands, proceedings, losses and liability of any nature or kind, including their costs and expenses, arising out of or in connection with your generated user content.
UN-Habitat is entitled to reveal your identity (or any information which it has about you) to any third party who is claiming that any of that material violates any of their rights or to any government or regulatory authority that may request UN-Habitat to do so.
Security
We do not sell or share any personally identifiable information volunteered on the UN-Habitat websites to any third party without prior consent. We do, however, share some user information with our partners and local country offices so that the whole UN-Habitat family can respond to your needs. Any information provided to UN-Habitat by users of the UN-Habitat website is held with the utmost care and security, and will not be used in ways other than as set forth in this privacy policy, or in any site-specific policies, or in ways to which you have explicitly consented. UN-Habitat employs a range of techniques and security measures to protect the information maintained on our system from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, alteration, or destruction.
However, UN-Habitat assumes no responsibility for the security of information.
Links to other sites and uploading Content to Social Networks– Disclaimer
UN-Habitat websites may contain links to other sites external to the UN-Habitat domain. UN-Habitat assumes no responsibility for the privacy practices, terms of use or the content of such sites.
If you upload content to a social network and then tag UN-Habitat, your submission will be subject to that website’s terms of use and privacy policy. UN-Habitat assumes no responsibility for the terms of use, privacy practices or the content of such social networks and websites
Notification of change of privacy policy
If UN-Habitat decides to change its privacy policy, UN-Habitat will post those changes to this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect and how we use it.
Your Consent
By visiting our website you consent to our collection and use of your personal and other information as described in this Privacy Policy.
Contact us
If you have any questions or concerns about this UN-Habitat privacy policy, please use the information at the following URL to contact us: https://unhabitat.org/contact.