Our privacy policy

Introduction and general terms

Tropical Permaculture Guidebook promises to take great care with your personal data, and we commit to protecting any personal information we obtain about you, whether you are a financial supporter, shopper, volunteer or campaigner.

This Privacy Policy sets out how and why we obtain, use and protect personal information if you interact with us in one of these roles.

Who we are

The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook International Edition is developed by Timor-Leste NGO Permatil (Permaculture Timor-Leste) and Disruptive Media (Design and strategic communications for the NFP/NGO sector).

Why we hold and process supporters’ personal data

We hold and process supporters’ personal data for a number of reasons:

To keep a record of donations made and actions taken by our supporters and our communications with them
To send our supporters marketing information about our projects, fundraising activities and events where we have their consent or are otherwise allowed to
To support volunteers, participating in fundraising events or other activities
To record campaigning actions by supporters
To support community based fundraising and campaigning
To fulfil contractual obligations entered into with supporters e.g. online purchases or crowdfund prizes
To comply with legal obligations
To manage our organisation
To ensure we do not send unwanted information to supporters or members of the public who have informed us they do not wish to be contacted

These reasons are underpinned by a “legal basis” under GDPR. We outline in the next section what these are for our main activities.

Explaining the legal bases we rely on

The law on data protection sets out a number of different reasons for organisations to collect and process your personal data: When collecting your personal data, we will always make clear to you which data is necessary for a particular purpose.

The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook relies on the following legal bases in our marketing activities:

Consent

Wherever possible, we will ask for your consent to send you marketing information. We will do this through a clear statement of what you will receive and allow you to select only those channels that you wish to hear from us by.

For example, if you donate online, you will be asked whether you would like us to keep in touch about our project, fundraising activities and events. You will also be asked which email you would like us to use to contact you.

Legitimate interest

In specific situations, we process your data to pursue our legitimate interests in ways which might reasonably be expected and which do not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests. Tropical Permaculture Guidebook’s use of legitimate interest includes the following:

Sending direct marketing information by email, to keep our supporters updated our projects, fundraising activities and events. We will only do this where we have reason to believe that this information will be of interest. We make it easy for you to opt out, see How to control what we send you or request we update your personal information

Where you have bought items or made a donation on our online shop we may email you to tell you about other relevant offers. All such emails will include a simple opt out mechanism.

If you have opted in to The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook emails we may use your details to link to your account on Facebook or other social media site in order to serve you Tropical Permaculture Guidebook content.

We analyse your previous support of The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook in order to offer relevant ways of supporting The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook in the future.

To help identify businesses who may wish to support The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook, we send emails to individuals where relevant to their job, for instance, people working in Corporate Social Responsibility.

“Legitimate Interests” means the interests of the Permaculture Guidebook in conducting and managing our work in delivering our aims to enable us to give you the best service/products and the best and most secure experience. For example, we have an interest in making sure our communication is relevant for you, so we may process your information to send you communications that are tailored to your interests. It can also apply to processing that is in your interests as well. For example, we may process your information to protect you against fraud when transacting on our website, and to ensure our websites and systems are secure.

When we process your personal information for our legitimate interests, we make sure to consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative), and your rights under data protection laws. Our legitimate business interests do not automatically override your interests – we will not use your Personal Data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). If you have any concerns you have the right to object to processing that is based on our legitimate interests.

When and why we will send you personalised marketing communications

The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook will only contact you for marketing purposes – for example keep you up to date on our work, or let you know of ways in which you can support that work – where we have your consent or we are otherwise allowed to do so (see Other circumstances in which you may receive marketing information from The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook).

We will make it easy for you to tell us if you would like to receive marketing communications from us and hear more about our work and the ways in which email you would like to receive this information to. We will not send you marketing material if you tell us that you do not wish to receive it. There are a variety of ways you can do this, see How to control what we send you or request we update your personal information.

You can update or withdraw your consent at any time.

How and when we collect information about you

The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook may collect your personal data in the following circumstances:

a) When you give it to us DIRECTLY
You may give us your personal data directly when you make a donation, sign up at one of our events, take part in a campaigning action, purchase products or make a donation on the Tropical Permaculture Guidebook online shop, when you communicate with us via email or on our website.

b) When you give it to us INDIRECTLY
Sometimes your personal data is collected by an organisation working on our behalf (for example a community organization promoting our guidebook) but as they are acting on our behalf we are the “data controller” and responsible for the security and proper processing of that data.

c) When you access The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook’s Social Media
We might also obtain your personal data through your use of social media such as Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, depending on your settings or the privacy policies of these social media and messaging services. To change your settings on these services, please refer to their privacy notices, which will tell you how to do this.

d) When the information is publicly available
We may also gather information if your activities relate to our work – for instance, if you are a public figure such as a Member of Parliament or you represent an organisation which we work with or which is related to one of our projects we may gather information about you in order to inform our campaigning and make decisions – for instance, whether we engage with you to seek your support for our work, ask your constituents to write to you, or choose to work you in another way.

e) When we use cookies
Cookies are a useful way for us to understand how supporters use our website. When you visit our web site we will collect data from your computer or other device such as a smart phone or tablet through the use of “cookies”. Cookies are created by your web browser when you visit our website. Every time you go back to the Tropical Permaculture Guidebook website, your browser will send the cookie file back to the website’s server. They improve your experience of using our website, for example, by remembering your preference settings so that you are presented with information likely to be most relevant to you, and by measuring your use of the website to enable us to continuously improve our website to ensure that it meets your needs. Cookies can also be used to show you relevant The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook content on social media services such as Facebook – these are known as “retargeting'” or “advertising” cookies. For information on the types of cookies we use, how we use them and how you can control your cookie preferences, see The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook’s cookie policy.

If you visit our website as an anonymous visitor (e.g. you switch off cookies), The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook may still collect certain information from your browser, such as the IP address (an IP address is a number that can uniquely identify a computer or other internet device).

The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook website contains hyperlinks to websites owned and operated by other organisations. These third party websites have their own privacy policies, including policies on their use of cookies, and we urge you to review them. They will govern the use of personal information you submit or which is collected by cookies whilst visiting these websites. We cannot accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of such third party websites and your use of such websites is at your own risk.

What information might The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook collect about you?

We only collect personal data relevant to the type of transactions or interaction you have with the Tropical Permaculture Guidebook. Whatever your interaction with us this information will be minimal and linked to the purpose for which we need it.

For example, when you contact The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook to make a donation, purchase an item online, or sign up to any of The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook’s activities or online content (such as newsletters or updates) or you telephone, email, write to or text The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook, or engage with The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook via social media channels, we may receive and retain personal information.

In these cases we are likely to process details such as your name, email address, postal address, telephone or mobile number, bank account details to process donations.

How will The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook use your personal data?

The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook will use your personal information for the following purposes:

a) For administrative reasons, including:

“service administration”, which means that The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook may contact you for reasons related to administering any donations you have made, the completion of commercial or other transactions you have entered into with The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook or the activity or online content you have signed up for;
to confirm receipt of donations (unless you have asked us not to do this), and to say thank you and provide details of how your donation might be used. for example if you donate via email you will receive a “bounce back” email message;
in relation to correspondence you have entered into with us whether by letter, email, text, social media, message board or any other means, and to contact you about any content you provide;
for internal record keeping so as to keep a record of your relationship with us;
to communicate with The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook volunteers – to support you in your designated role or administer that role and our organisation;
to use IP addresses to identify the location of users, to block disruptive use and to establish the number of visits from different countries;
to protect our staff and those with whom we work, or to prevent crime and dishonesty.

b) For marketing and fundraising reasons (see ‘5. When and why we will send you personalised marketing communications’).

c) For market research

to invite you to participate in surveys or research about The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook or our work (participation is always voluntary);
to analyse and improve the activities and content offered by the Tropical Permaculture Guidebook website to provide you with the most user-friendly navigation experience. We may also use and disclose information in aggregate (so that no individuals are identified) for marketing and strategic development purposes.

Will The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook share your personal information with anyone else?

We will only use your information within The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook for the purposes for which it was obtained. The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook will not, under any circumstances, share or sell your personal data with any third party for their own marketing purposes, and you will not receive marketing from any other companies, charities or other organisations as a result of giving your details to us.

Facebook and other social media sites

We may also use your email address and phone number to match to your account on Facebook or other social media sites in order to show you The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook content while using these services. We only do this where you have opted in to marketing emails or phone calls and we keep your data secure by encrypting it. No data we hold about you is retained by the third party.

In addition, we may also use your email address and phone number to link to Facebook or other social media sites in order to identify other users of these sites whom we believe would be interested in The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook, and we may then show them The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook content. No data we hold about you is retained by the third party.

There are two ways to prevent this use of your data, you can either update your preferences at The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook by opting out of the relevant channel of communication or you can do this via the social media site:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/help/568137493302217
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/62931

Updating your preferences with The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook will not guarantee that you never see The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook content on social media, since the social media site may select you based on other criteria and without your data having been provided by The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook.

Where legally required

We will also comply with legal requests where disclosure is required or permitted by law (for example to government bodies, statutory bodies, or law enforcement agencies for tax purposes, where it is in the public interest, or the prevention and detection of crime, subject to appropriate protection in law).

How long will The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook keep your personal information?

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, for example we will keep a record of donations for at least seven years to comply with taxation rules.

If you request that we stop sending you marketing materials we will keep a record of your contact details and appropriate information to enable us to comply with your request not to be contacted by us.

Where you contribute material to us, e.g. user generated content or in response to a particular campaign, we will only keep your content for as long as is reasonably required for the purpose(s) for which it was submitted unless otherwise stated at the point of generation.

How to control what we send you or request we update your personal information?

The accuracy of your information is really important to us. We want to ensure that we are able to communicate with you in ways that you are happy with, and to provide you with information that is of interest.

If you wish to change how we communicate with you, or update the information we hold, please contact us.

Email – You can opt out of marketing emails at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any marketing email from The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook.

How The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook keeps your data safe

We ensure that there are appropriate technical controls in place to protect your personal details.

The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook’s use of cookies

For information on the types of cookies we use, how we use them and how you can control your cookie preferences, see Tropical Permaculture Guidebook’s cookie policy.

Your rights over your personal data

You have a variety of rights in respect of your data, including the rights to see, update, restrict, object to the use of or withdraw use of your data. In particular, depending upon why we hold your data, you may have the right to request:

That we stop using your personal data for direct marketing (either through specific channels, or all channels).
That we delete your personal data from our systems (this is known as the “Right to be Forgotten”).
That we no longer process your data automatically to decide whether particular marketing activities are likely to be of interest, or suggest an appropriate donation level based on your previous donation history. This is known as profiling, and helps us to ensure that our marketing is relevant and appropriate.

You can contact us to request to exercise these rights at any time, see How to control what we send you or request we update your personal information for details of how to get in touch.

Opting out of direct marketing

You have the right to stop the use of your personal data for direct marketing activity through all channels, or selected channels. We will always comply with your request.

Where we are sending you direct marketing on the basis of our legitimate interest, you can also ask us to stop. In the case of postal marketing sent on this basis, we will always comply with your request to opt out. Similarly, where we send email marketing on a soft opt in basis (see How and when we collect information about you), we will also comply with all requests to opt out.

How to find out more, or make a complaint about The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook’s approach to data protection

If you would like more information, to update your details or have any questions about this policy, please contact our team by email at hello@permatilglobal.org

If you think your data protection rights have not been respected, you can contact your national data protection authority which oversees data protection law.

Changes to The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook’s privacy policy

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time so you may wish to check it each time you submit personal information to The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook. The date of the most recent revisions will appear on this page. If you do not agree to these changes, please do not continue to use the Tropical Permaculture Guidebook website to submit personal information to The Tropical Permaculture Guidebook. If material changes are made to the Privacy Policy we will notify you by placing a prominent notice on the website.