EarthLungs’ Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy for EarthLungs

Introduction
Earthlungs is a community of forest-focused not-for-profit organisation that leverages communities living around and adjacent to public gazetted forests under the management of KFS (Kenya Forest Service). We partner with Community Forest Associations (CFAs) desirous to rehabilitate, reforest, conserve, and restore degraded forest land to healthy indigenous forest ecosystems. This involves handling various personal data while prioritizing privacy and security in line with Data Protection Laws.
We collect, use, protect, share, and store your personal information when you interact with our services. This notice applies to all personal information collected and managed by Earthlungs in its activities.
This Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of Your information when You use the Service and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You.
We use Your Personal data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Please read this Privacy Policy together with our Terms and Conditions.
We value your privacy and ensure your personal data is secure.

Interpretation and Definitions

Interpretation

The words in bold of which the initial letter is capitalized have meanings defined under the following conditions and the following definitions shall have the same meaning regardless of whether they appear in singular or in plural.

Definitions

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy:

“Account” means a unique account created for you to access our Service or parts of our Service.
“Affiliate” means an entity that controls, is controlled by or is under common control with a party, where “control” means ownership of 50% or more of the shares, equity interest or other securities entitled to vote for election of directors or other managing authority.
“Company” (referred to as either “Earthlungs”, “We”, “Us” or “Our” in this Agreement) refers to EarthLungs Reforestation Foundation, Palm Court, Waiyaki Way Service Lane next to Dunhill Towers.
“Consent” means the manifestation of express indication of the data subjects’ agreement to the processing of their personal data.
“Cookies” are small files that are placed on Your computer, mobile device or any other device by a website, containing the details of Your browsing history on that website among its many uses.

“Data”means information which is processed by means of equipment in response to instructions.

“Data controller”means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purpose and means of processing of personal data.

“Data localization” means that data collected on a country’s residents to be retained and / or processed in that country.

“Data processor” means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the data controller.

“Data protection”means the fair and proper use of information about people, clients or suppliers. It is a fundamental right to privacy.

“Data Protection Laws”means the Right to Privacy under Article 31 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, the Data Protection Act, 2019 and the attendant Regulations, as well as other Data protection legislation in other jurisdictions in the world.

“Data subject”means an identified or identifiable natural person who is the subject of personal data.

“Device” means any device that can access the Service such as a computer, a cell phone or a digital tablet.
“Personal Data” is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual.

“Processing”means any operation performed on personal data including collecting, organization, storage, retrieval, transmission, erasure, and deletion.

“Pseudonymization” means the processing of personal data to make it non-attributable to a specific data subject unless one uses additional information.

“Sensitive Personal Data”means special category personal data that need more protection due to their sensitivity e.g., health status, ethnic or social origin, race, family details, biometric data, etc.

“Service”refers to the Website.

“Service Provider” means any natural or legal person who processes the data on behalf of Earthlungs. It refers to third-party companies or individuals employed by Earthlungs to facilitate the Service, to provide the Service on behalf of Earthlungs, to perform services related to the Service or to assist Earthlungs in analyzing how the Service is used.

“System users” means a natural person authorized to access a system by way of login using username and password.

“Systems / Portal / Website” means Earthlungs website.

“Third parties” means entities and agents authorized by Earthlungs

“Usage Data” refers to data collected automatically, either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).
“we” or “us”, “our” and “ours” means Earthlungs. The word “includes” means that what follows is not necessarily exhaustive and therefore the examples given are not the only things/situations included in the meaning or explanation of that text.
“Website” refers to EarthLungs, accessible from www.earthlungs.org
“You” means the person subscribing to, accessing or using the Service, or other legal entity on behalf of which such person accessing or using the Service, or accessing our portal and includes any person who accesses any of the services you have subscribed to as applicable.

Collecting and Using Your Personal Data

Collection of Information

We collect your personal information with your knowledge and consent when you do any of the following (please note that this list is not exhaustive):

Register on the Earthlungs portal;
Subscribe to the Earthlungs portal Short Message Service (SMS), email, or social media platforms;
Request EARTHLUNGS for more information about our Earthlungs portal or contact EARTHLUNGS with a query or complaint;
Respond to or participate in a survey;
We may collect your information when you interact with us as a supplier, supplier employee, or government employee as prescribed in this Privacy Policy;
We also collect information when you visit any of our premises.

personally identifiable information

While using Our Service, we may ask You to provide Us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify You. Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:

Email address
First name and last name
Phone number
Usage Data

Collection of Personal Data from Children
We do not onboard minors (any person under 18 years of age) except where you additionally register on their behalf as their parent and/or legal guardian. If you allow a child to use our services, you should be aware that their personal information could be collected as described in this Privacy Policy. If We become aware that We have collected Personal Data from anyone under the age of 18 without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from Our servers.
In instances where a child’s personal data is required to be processed, a parent or guardian shall sign a consent form.

Data We Collect About You

The information we collect and store about you includes but is not limited to the following:
Your identity information, including your name, gender, address, geotag location, date of birth, email address, and mobile/phone number;
Identity data: Name, Citizenship/Nationality, and proof of Nationality (i.e., National ID/Passport number/alien ID number);

Taxpayer details, i.e., Personal Identification Number (PIN);

Technical data such as IP Address, login data, browser types, and time zones;
Professional Body membership number or license;
Bank details such as bank account numbers and SWIFT codes or other banking information;

Transactional and financial data/information when you use our service;
Aggregated data derived from your personal data but not considered personal data in law, as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity, e.g., Business Registration Number and practicing License number;
When you contact us either through a phone call or interact with us through social media, email (we may record your conversations, social media, or other interactions with us);
We maintain a register of visitors in which we collect and keep your personal data such as names, company/institution details, telephone number, and National ID number.

Usage Data
Usage Data is collected automatically when using the Service.
Usage Data may include information such as Your Device’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.
When You access the Service by or through a mobile device, we may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device You use, your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of Your mobile device, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser You use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.
We may also collect information that Your browser sends whenever You visit our Service or when You access the Service by or through a mobile device.

Tracking Technologies and Cookies
We may store some information (using “cookies”) on your computer when you visit our websites. This enables us to recognize you during subsequent visits. The type of information gathered is non-personal (such as: the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your computer, the date and time of your visit, which pages you browsed and whether the pages have been delivered successfully.
We may also use this data in aggregate form to develop customized services – tailored to your individual interests and needs. Should you choose to do so, it is possible (depending on the browser you are using), to be prompted before accepting any cookies, or to prevent your browser from accepting any cookies at all. This will however cause certain features of the web site not to be accessible.

We use Cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on Our Service and store certain information. Tracking technologies used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze Our Service. The technologies We use may include:

Cookies or Browser Cookies. A cookie is a small file placed on Your Device. You can instruct Your browser to refuse all Cookies or to indicate when a Cookie is being sent. However, if You do not accept Cookies, you may not be able to use some parts of our Service. Unless you have adjusted Your browser setting so that it will refuse Cookies, our Service may use Cookies.
Web Beacons. Certain sections of our Service and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit Earthlungs, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of a certain section and verifying system and server integrity).

Cookies can be “Persistent” or “Session” Cookies. Persistent Cookies remain on Your personal computer or mobile device when You go offline, while Session Cookies are deleted as soon as You close Your web browser. You can learn more about cookies on TermsFeed website

We use both Session and Persistent Cookies for the purposes set out below:

Necessary / Essential Cookies

Type: Session Cookies

Administered by: Us

Purpose: These Cookies are essential to provide You with services available through the Website and to enable You to use some of its features. They help to authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of user accounts. Without these Cookies, the services that You have asked for cannot be provided, and We only use these Cookies to provide You with those services.

Cookies Policy / Notice Acceptance Cookies

Type: Persistent Cookies

Administered by: Us

Purpose: These Cookies identify if users have accepted the use of cookies on the Website.

Functionality Cookies

Type: Persistent Cookies

Administered by: Us

Purpose: These Cookies allow us to remember choices You make when You use the Website, such as remembering your login details or language preference. The purpose of these Cookies is to provide You with a more personal experience and to avoid You having to re-enter your preferences every time You use the Website.

For more information about the cookies we use and your choices regarding cookies, please visit our Cookies Policy or the Cookies section of our Privacy Policy.

Lawful Basis for processing your information

We will process your personal information based on any of the lawful basis provided for under the Data Protection Law:

The performance of a contract;
Public interest

Earthlungs’ legitimate business interests;

Compliance with a mandatory legal obligation;
Consent you provide;
Sharing information with public authority;

Your vital interest.

Retention of Information

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, the need to comply with our internal policy and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements. Anonymized information that can no longer be associated with you may be held indefinitely.

Use of Information

The Earthlungs website only uses and discloses personal information in accordance with existing laws and regulations such as the Data Protection Act, 2019. Personal information may be used and/or disclosed for lawful purposes connected with our activities.

Earthlungs may use Personal Data for the following purposes:

To provide and maintain our Service, including to monitor the usage of our Service.
To manage Your Account: to manage Your registration as a user of the Service. The Personal Data You provide can give You access to different functionalities of the Service that are available to You as a registered user.
For the performance of a contract: the development, compliance and undertaking of the purchase contract for the products, items or services You have purchased or of any other contract with Us through the Service.
To contact You: To contact You by email, telephone calls, SMS, or other equivalent forms of electronic communication, such as a mobile application’s push notifications regarding updates or informative communications related to the functionalities, products or contracted services, including the security updates, when necessary or reasonable for their implementation.
To provide You with news, special offers and general information about other goods, services and events which we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about unless You have opted not to receive such information.
To manage Your requests: To attend and manage Your requests to Us.
For business transfers: We may use Your information to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Data held by Us about our Service users is among the assets transferred.
For other purposes: We may use Your information for other purposes, such as data analysis, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and to evaluate and improve our Service, products, services, marketing and your experience.

We may share Your personal information in the following situations:

With Service Providers: We may share Your personal information with Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service, to contact You.
For business transfers: We may share or transfer Your personal information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of Company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of Our business to another company.
With Affiliates: We may share Your information with Our affiliates, in which case we will require those affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy. Affiliates include Our parent company and any other subsidiaries, joint venture partners or other companies that We control or that are under common control with Us.
With business partners: We may share Your information with Our business partners to offer You certain products, services or promotions.
With other users: when You share personal information or otherwise interact in the public areas with other users, such information may be viewed by all users and may be publicly distributed outside.
With Your consent: We may disclose Your personal information for any other purpose with Your consent.

Retention of Your Personal Data
- Earthlungs will retain Your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use Your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

Earthlungs will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of Our Service, or We are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.

Transfer of Your Personal Data

Your information, including Personal Data, is processed at Earthlungs’ operating offices and in any other places where the parties involved in the processing are located. It means that this information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of Your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from Your jurisdiction.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by Your submission of such information represents Your agreement to that transfer.

Earthlungs will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of Your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of Your data and other personal information.

Delete Your Personal Data

You have the right to delete or request that We assist in deleting the Personal Data that We have collected about You.

Our Service may give You the ability to delete certain information about You from within the Service.

You may update, amend, or delete Your information at any time by signing in to Your Account, if you have one, and visiting the account settings section that allows you to manage Your personal information. You may also contact Us to request access to, correct, or delete any personal information that You have provided to Us.

Please note, however, that We may need to retain certain information when we have a legal obligation or lawful basis to do so.

Disclosure of Your Personal Data

Any disclosure of your information shall be in accordance with applicable law and regulations. Earthlungs shall assess and review each application for information and may decline to grant such information to the requesting party. Disclosures may still be made under the following sets of circumstances: –

Business Transactions

If Earthlungs is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, Your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before Your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.
Where necessary data sharing and data processing agreements will be executed before sharing or disclosure; We shall not release any information to any individual or entity that is acting beyond its legal mandate.

Other legal requirements

Earthlungs may disclose Your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

Comply with a legal obligation
Protect and defend the rights or property of Earthlungs
Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
Protect the personal safety of Users of the Service or the public
Protect against legal liability
- Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, we may disclose your information to:
Law-enforcement agencies, regulatory authorities such as the Office of the Attorney General and Commission on Administrative Justice, Kenya Revenue Authority, courts or other statutory authorities in response to a demand issued with the appropriate lawful mandate and where the form and scope of the demand is compliant with the law.
Our service provider, software developers or agents who are involved in delivering Earthlungs website;
Fraud prevention and Anti money laundering agencies, credit-reference agencies such as Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), Financial Reporting Centre (FRC), Asset Recovery Authority, Directorate of Criminal Investigation.
Compliance with the Companies (Beneficial Ownership Information) (Amendment) Regulations 2022
Publicly available and/or restricted government databases to verify your identity information in order to comply with regulatory requirements;
Survey agencies that conduct surveys on behalf of Earthlungs;
Any other person that we deem legitimately necessary to share the data with.

Technical and Organizational Safeguards

Earthlungs has put in place technical and operational measures to ensure integrity and confidentiality of your data via controls around:

Technical Safeguards:

Firewalls- internal and external
System user access control

Business continuity plan

Cryptography
Two-factor authentication
Use valid secure socket layer certificates

Secure access through Virtual Private Network
Primary and disaster recovery sites for business continuity

Third party system audits
Monitoring and compliance
Anti-virus
1. Organizational Safeguards:
Data protection policies
Incident response plan

Data protection officer

Controlled physical access to computing environment
Password policy
Continuous training and capacity building of staff

Information classification
Physical and environmental security

Security of Your Personal Data

The security of Your Personal Data is important to Us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While We strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect Your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

The Use of Hyperlinks & Links to Other Websites
- The Earthlungs website may provide hyperlinks to other locations or websites on the Internet. These hyperlinks lead to websites published or operated by third parties who are not affiliated with or in any way related to us and have been included in our website to enhance your user experience and are presented for information purposes only.

We do not endorse, recommend, approve or guarantee any third-party products and services by providing hyperlinks to an external website or webpage and do not have any cooperation with such third parties unless otherwise disclosed. We are not in any way responsible for the content of any externally linked website or webpage. By clicking on a hyperlink, you will leave the Earthlungs website and accordingly you shall be subject to the terms of use, privacy and cookie policies of the other website that you choose to visit.

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by Us. If You click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise You to review the Privacy Policy of every site You visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third-party sites or services.

Your Rights
- Subject to legal and contractual exceptions, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. These are listed below:

Right to be informed that we are collecting personal data about you;
Right to access personal data that we hold about you and request for information about how we process it;
Right to request that we correct your personal data where it is inaccurate or incomplete;
Right to request that we erase your personal data noting that we may continue to retain your information if obligated by the law or entitled to do so;
Right to object and withdraw your consent to processing of your personal data. We may continue to process if we have a legitimate or legal reason to do so;
Right to request restricted processing of your personal data noting that we may be entitled or legally obligated to continue processing your data and refuse your request;
Right to request transfer of your personal data in [an electronic format].
Right to ask us not to use information about you in a way that allows computers to make decisions about you and ask us to stop.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer at Earthlungs through info@earthlungs.org or (+254) 020 2400450. Verification and authentication of the identity of requester shall be done to avoid unauthorized access to the personal data.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within reasonable time specified in the Data Protection Laws. Occasionally it could take us longer if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

Changes to this Privacy Policy
- We may update Our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify You of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

We will let You know via email and/or a prominent notice on Our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us
- If you would like to contact us on any topics in this privacy policy, you can email us on info@earthlungs.org or submit a request via our digital platforms.

As a Data Controller and Processor, below are the contact details of our Data Protection Officer:

Data Protection Officer
Earthlungs
Palm Court, Waiyaki Way, Westlands
P.O. BOX 74 – 00629,
Diamond Plaza, Nairobi

info@earthlungs.org

Complaints Handling Mechanism

If we are unable to adequately address any concerns you may have about processing of personal data, you have the right to lodge a formal complaint with the Office of the Data Protection Commission. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ODPC, so please contact Earthlungs in the first instance.

Non-Compliance with this Privacy Policy

Earthlungs shall have the right to terminate any agreement with you for failure to comply with the provisions of this Privacy Policy and reject any application for information contrary to this Privacy Policy.

Amendments to this Privacy Policy
Earthlungs reserves the right to amend or modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If Earthlungs amends this Privacy Policy, you can access the most current version of the privacy statement by clicking this link Privacy Statement so that you will always know how your personal information is being used or shared.
Any amendment or modification to this Privacy Policy will take effect from the date of notification on the Earthlungs website.