This Privacy Policy explains how TAU (“TAU,” “we,” or “us”) collects, uses, and discloses information about you. This Privacy Policy applies when you use our websites, mobile applications, and other online products and services that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, our “Services”), contact our customer service team, and engage with us on social media, or otherwise interact with us.
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of this policy and, in some cases, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our website or providing you with a notification). We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy regularly to stay informed about our information practices and the choices available to you.
We collect information you provide directly to us. For example, you share information directly with us when you create an account, map trees, take pictures, upload data onto our platform, fill out a tree data form, and submit it on our platform. The types of personal information we may collect include your name, display name, username, bio, email address, business information, your content, including your avatar image and photos published by you, and any other information you choose to provide.
In some cases, we may also collect information you provide about others, such as when you map trees belonging to another person or organization and fill out details relating to that person/ organization as required by our platform. We will use this information to fulfill your request and receive this information.
We do not collect payment information through our Services. We rely on third parties to receive and process payments in connection with our Services. Any information you provide to facilitate such a payment is subject to the third-party payment processor’s privacy policy, and we encourage you to review this policy before you provide any information to the payment processor.
We obtain information from third-party sources. For example, we may collect information about you from social networks, accounting services providers, and data analytics providers. Additionally, if you create or log into your TAU account through a third-party platform (such as Apple, Facebook, Google, or Twitter), we will have access to certain information from that platform, such as your name, lists of friends or followers, birthday, and profile picture, in accordance with the authorization procedures determined by such platform.
We may derive information or draw inferences about you based on the information we collect. For example, we may make inferences about your location based on your IP address or infer tree species preferences based on your mapping history.
We use the information we collect to provide, maintain, and improve our Services, which includes publishing and distributing user-generated content, personalizing the information you see, and operating our metered paywall. We also use the information we collect to:
We share personal information in the following circumstances or as otherwise described in this policy:
TAU does not host some of the content displayed on our Services. Users have the ability to post content that is actually hosted by a third party but is embedded in our pages (an “Embed”). When you interact with an Embed, it can send information about your interaction to the hosting third party just as if you were visiting the third party’s site directly. TAU does not control what information third parties collect through Embeds or what they do with the information. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected through Embeds. The privacy policy belonging to the third party hosting the Embed applies to any information the Embed collects, and we recommend you review that policy before interacting with the Embed.
TAU is headquartered in Uganda, and we have operations and service providers in other countries. Therefore, we and our service providers may transfer your personal information to, or store or access it in, jurisdictions that may not provide levels of data protection that
are equivalent to those of your home jurisdiction. We will take steps to ensure that your personal information receives an adequate level of protection in the jurisdictions in which we process it.
You may not access, correct, delete, or export your account information at any time by logging into the Services. Please note that if you wish to make any alterations or delete or export the data uploaded on the platform, please reach out to us at info@treeadoptionuganda.org
If you choose to delete your account, we may continue to retain certain information about you as required by law or for our legitimate business purposes.
In all instances, data on trees mapped by you will be retained as part of our legitimate business purposes
Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually adjust your browser settings to remove or reject browser cookies. Please note that removing or rejecting cookies could affect the availability and functionality of our Services.
You may opt out of receiving certain communications from us, such as digests, newsletters, and activity notifications, by following the instructions in those communications. If you opt-out, we may still send you administrative emails, such as those about your account or our ongoing business relations.
With your consent, we may send push notifications to your mobile device. You can deactivate these messages at any time by changing the notification settings on your mobile device.
Your information is protected by the Data Protection and Privacy Act of 2019. The Act provides for the principles of data collection and privacy which include accountability, fairness, lawfulness, relevancy, transparency, and security safeguard integration
TAU does not sell your personal information.
Subject to certain limitations, you have the right to (1) request to know more about the categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect, use, and disclose about you, (2) request deletion of your personal information, (3) opt out of any sales of your tree data, if we engage in that activity in the future, and (4) not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. You may make these requests by emailing us at info@treeadoptionuganda.org or by completing this web form. We will verify a webform request by asking you to provide identifying information. We will not discriminate against you if you exercise your rights under the law.
If we receive your request from an authorized agent, we may ask for evidence that you have provided such agent with a power of attorney or that the agent otherwise has valid written authority to submit requests to exercise rights on your behalf. This may include requiring you to verify your identity. If you are an authorized agent seeking to make a request, please contact us.
If you are located outside Uganda, additional disclosures will be required under applicable law regarding the processing of your personal data such as physical address and any other form of identification.
When we process your personal data, we will do so in reliance on the following lawful bases:
We store personal data associated with your account for as long as your account remains active. If you put in a request to close your account, we will delete your account data within 14 days. We store tree data collected for legitimate business purposes, including to meet our legal, regulatory, or other compliance obligations.
Subject to certain limitations, you have the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you and to receive your data in a portable format, the right to ask that your personal data be corrected or erased, and the right to object to or request that we restrict certain processing. To exercise your rights, reach out to info@treeadoptionuganda.org
If you have a concern about our processing of personal data that we are not able to resolve, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Authority where you reside.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at info@treeadoptionuganda.org.