PRIVACY POLICY

Effective from: 1st February, 2024

Transparency is key in data protection. In this privacy policy, we raise your and your parents’ awareness of data protection risks, consequences, safeguards, and rights by:

• Telling you what we are doing with your personal data;
• Being open about the risks and safeguards involved; and
• Letting you know what to do if you are unhappy.

This policy will help you to make informed decisions about what personal data you wish to share with us. You can always contact us if you have any questions on how we handle your personal data. Here are the contents of this privacy policy:

1. WHO ARE WE?

We are called The Earth Foundation. We are based in Switzerland, at the following address: Boulevard du théâtre 5, 1204 Genève, Switzerland. We have a registration number that is CHE-439.560.973.

We are the owners of this website. It means that we make all decisions about its design and control what personal data you can submit through this website. We also decide how your data is used.

2. WHAT IS THIS WEBSITE ABOUT?

This website is used to invite you to participate in a global competition entitled ‘The Earth Prize’ and win our incredible environmental sustainability prize. You can access the website worldwide. On the website, you can find the following information:

• A presentation of The Earth Prize;
• The official rules applicable to The Earth Prize competition; and
• A form that allows you to register for the competition.

All registered and verified users have access to:

• The Earth Prize Submissions Portal;
• The Earth Prize Mentorship Portal; and
• The Earth Prize Learning Platform.

This privacy policy applies to this website only. If you click on a link that brings you to another website, this privacy policy stops being relevant. This means that you have to check what the owner of that other website that you visit says about its data protection practices. For example, if you go to a social media website from this website, the privacy policy of that social media website applies. We are not responsible for other websites because we do not own or control them.

3. CAN YOU USE THE WEBSITE?

• You can use this website only if you are older than 13.
• If your age is between 13 and 18, you have to ask your parent or another adult who is responsible for taking care of you a permission to use the website. We may ask your parent or the person who allows you to use the website to verify the permission.
• If you are older than 18, you can freely use this website.

4. WHAT DATA DO WE COLLECT FROM YOU AND WHAT DO WE DO WITH IT?

We always strive to make sure that no excessive data is asked on this website. So, we collect your personal data only if it is necessary. Below, you can find an explanation of the types of personal data that we collect, the purposes for which we use it, and the legal basis that allows us to ask you for the data. We do not use your data for other undisclosed purposes, unless you explicitly agree with it. So, here we go:

• When you register as a student, we ask you for your: first name; last name; email address; date of birth; gender; name of school/academic program; city/country; teacher’s name; teacher’s email; your parent’s or legal guardian’s email; if you have previously participated in The Earth Prize; how you heard about The Earth Prize competition, and your password. You will also be asked to confirm your age. We use such information to enable your participation in The Earth Prize and assess your eligibility to participate in it. We will also send you or your parent/legal guardian important information about the competition, your participation, and other relevant details. If you do not want to participate in The Earth Prize, it is fine — you don’t have to verify your account which means that you will not be registered for the competition. Your email address will also be added to our Newsletter mailing list to keep you updates on The Earth Prize news.
• There will be an “unsubscribe” link in each email that you receive. However, please keep in mind that, if you opt-out, you may miss important information about The Earth Prize. We will keep your personal data until you unsubscribe from our notices. The legal bases on which we rely are: ‘our contract with you’ and ‘pursuing our legitimate interests’ (to organise The Earth Prize and comply with the applicable laws).
• When you register as a parent, we collect: your first name and last name; your child’s name, and email address; your city/country; and information on whether your child is home schooled. We use such information to invite your child to and their teacher (if applicable) to participate in The Earth Prize competition. Your email address will also be added to our Newsletter mailing list to keep you updated on The Earth Prize news. There will be an “unsubscribe” link in each email that you receive. You can click on it to unsubscribe.We will keep your personal data until you unsubscribe from our notices. The legal bases on which we rely are:‘our contract with you’ and ‘pursuing our legitimate interests’ (to organize The Earth Prize).
• When you register as a teacher, we collect: your first name and last name; gender; name of your school; address of the school; email address; city/country if you have previously participated in The Earth Prize; how you heard about The Earth Prize competition, and password. We use such information to enable your participation in The Earth Prize and assess your eligibility to participate in it. We will use your email to send you important information about the competition, your participation, and other relevant details. Your email address will also be added to our Newsletter mailing list. There will be an “unsubscribe” link in each newsletter that you receive. You can click on it to unsubscribe. However, please keep in mind that, if you opt-out, you may miss important information about The Earth Prize. We will keep your personal data until you unsubscribe from our notices. The legal bases on which we rely are: ‘our contract with you’ and ‘pursuing our legitimate interests’ (to organize The Earth Prize).
• When you contact us by email or by using the contact forms available on the website, we collect your first name, last name, email address, school/organization name and any information that you decide to include in your message. We use such data to respond to your questions, comments, and provide you with the requested information. We will keep your details until you stop communicating with us. As soon as our communication is completed, we will delete your personal data. The legal bases: ’pursuing our legitimate interests’ (that is, to promote The Earth Prize) and ‘your consent’ (for optional personal data that you decide to provide by yourself, although we do not ask for it).
• When you browse our website, we or our analytics partners that you can find below collect your approximate location (via your IP address) and cookie-related data. We use such information to analyze the technical side of the Website and secure it. For more information on our use of cookies, please refer to our Cookie Policy. We keep this data as long as analytics records are necessary for our activities or you withdraw your consent. The legal bases: ‘pursuing our legitimate interests’ (to be more precise, to analyze and protect the website) and ‘your consent’ (for cookie-related data).
• When you submit feedback, we keep records of any questions, complaints, recommendations, or compliments made by you and the response. To ensure the anonymity, we remove all personal data that is not necessary for keeping such records.
• When you receive our message by email, that message may contain tracking pixels that allow us to analyze our marketing campaigns. For example, we may see whether you opened the message and what links you click on. We use such information to analyze what content is important and interesting for you. The legal basis:‘pursuing our legitimate interests’ (to analyze and grow the website).

If you decide to refuse to give us your personal data when we ask for it, we may not be able to send you information about The Earth Prize, answer your questions, or ensure the best user experience on the Website.

We do not need to know about your private life. Therefore, we do not collect any sensitive data from you, such as information about your health, religion, political beliefs, sexual life, race, or participation in specific associations like professional or trade association. If you decide, at your own discretion, to provide such data to us, it means that you want us to know about it and agree that we will have access to this sensitive data.

5. WHAT TECHNICAL INFORMATION DO WE GET ABOUT YOU?

When you browse this website, you automatically generate certain technical data. Such data is not personal data. For example, we may see:

• What you do on the website, at white time you access it, what pages you view, what information you choose to read, and how you click on the website;
• From what other website you came to this website;
• To which websites you leave;
• What browser and device you use; and
• How you behave online.

All this data listed above is used to analyze what kind of users are attracted to this website and what parts of the website they find interesting, and to ensure that you browse on the website securely.

If this technical data is combined with your personal data, it will automatically become personal data and we will treat it accordingly.

6. HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE WITH YOU?

If we have your email address and it is necessary to contact you, we will send you important messages, such as updates regarding your participation in The Earth Prize. Your email address will also be used to send you our Newsletters. You can always refuse any further communication from us by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link in our messages, unless we need to send you important transactional emails. If you need any assistance, you can always contact us and we will remove you from our database.

7. WHO ELSE HAS ACCESS TO YOUR DATA?

Sometimes, we need to choose a partner that will help us to organize The Earth Prize, maintain the Website, answer your questions, or support us in any other way. Such partners are called data processors because they do the things that we ask them to do. Sometimes, such partners will need to peek into your personal data as well. For example, we need to engage an email or hosting service provider or a developer to help us with the website. It will happen only if it is strictly necessary and they follow our rules and instructions that are listed in a special data processing contract that we conclude with them. We choose our data processors very carefully and make sure that they are secure and grant a high level of protection to your personal data. It is also important that they do not use your data for other purposes. We have chosen the following partners as our data processors:

• The database service provider okta.com located in the United States;
• The mentorship portal incognitodesk.com located in the Canada;
• The application submission platform apply.surveymonkey.com located in the United States;
• The email sending service mailjet.com located in France;
• The newsletter mailing service sendinblue.com located in France;
• The analytics service provider analytics.google.com located in the United States; and
• Our independent contractors and consultants that work for us.

The technical data about your use of this website does not allow you to identify you — it is not personal data. Thus, we can pass it on to our partners as well.

We do not sell your personal data or pass it to others for advertising or marketing purposes.

Sometimes (on very rare occasions), a public authority may ask us to disclose information about the users of our website. If we receive such a request, we will need to comply with it. This means that your personal data may be disclosed to authorities for law enforcement purposes.

If we decide to change the owner of this website, we will give your details to the new owner. This is necessary to further operate the website. We will inform you about such a change by sending a notification. The new owner will need to comply with this privacy policy as well.

8. WHERE DOES YOUR PERSONAL DATA GO?

We are based in Switzerland. Thus, the main activities that include your personal data take place in Switzerland as well. If our data processor is located in another country (you can look into it just above), your personal data will need to be sent to that country. This means that your data travels from your own country to Switzerland, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

The laws in these countries may differ. We understand that and, therefore, we make sure that the strictest data protection standards guard your personal data even in the countries where the laws are not that strict. To ensure the proper protection of your personal data, we sign special data processing agreements with our data processors. In those agreements, we instruct them what they can and cannot do with your data.

9. HOW DO WE PROTECT YOUR DATA?

We implement special information security measures that protect your personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access and disclosure. Such measures include secured networks, strong passwords, limited access to your personal data by our staff, removal of personal data (when possible), carefully selected data processors, and regular audits.

Although we put our best efforts to protect your personal data, the Internet is never entirely secure. There is always a danger that a hacker may destroy, lose, leak, falsify, or steal your personal data from this website or any other website on the Internet. In case a serious breach occurs, we will take care of it as required by law.

10. HOW CAN YOU MANAGE YOUR PERSONAL DATA?

You are the owner of your data. Thus, you have the right to control how we handle your personal data. To be more precise, you can ask us to do the following:

• Give you a copy of your personal data that we store in our systems and a list of purposes for which we use it;
• Edit inaccurate personal data that we hold about you;
• Delete your personal data from our systems;
• Restrict the ways in which we use your personal data;
• Provide you with a copy of your personal data in a file that you can move to another processor;
• Stop using your personal data at all; or
• Withdraw your consent, if you have provided one.

If you would like to exercise any of your rights, please contact us. In your message, you must explain your request in detail. We have the right to ask you to help us to identify you to make sure that it is actually you. We will answer your request within a reasonable time frame but no later than 30 days.

If you are not happy with our answer, please let us know — we will do everything that we can to help you. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority that takes care of such complaints.

11. WHAT IF SOMETHING CHANGES?

If we decide to change this privacy policy, we will inform you about the intended changes, if we have your contact details. You can always find the date on which this policy was changed at the top of it. This policy will also be published on the website at all times. So, you can easily consult it whenever necessary. In case we decide to terminate this policy, we will let you know as well.

12. HOW TO CONTACT US?

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, your rights, or any other matters regarding your personal data, please contact us by using the following contact details: