Privacy Policy

Open Design is organised by the team at Ushahidi alongside our partners Adobe & Designit.

Our website address is: https://opendesign.ushahidi.com.

Adobe’s fund for design has funded Ushahidi’s Open Design project for it’s 1st iteration.

Ushahidi creates technology and projects to help people raise their voice and those who serve them to listen and respond better.

Ushahidi Inc is incorporated in Florida, USA.

Privacy enquiries can be sent to privacy@ushahidi.com and personal data requests can be made to data@ushahidi.com.

Ushahidi is committed to protecting your privacy. Please see an extended Ushahidi privacy policy for more information.

It is your right to be informed about how Ushahidi manages your personal information. We’re providing this Privacy Policy to explain how we collect, receive, use, store, share and disclose your data through our Services. To make this policy easier to read, the Sites, our services, platforms, and Apps are collectively called the “Services.” If you have any questions about your personal data and our policies, please email privacy@ushahidi.com

This Privacy Policy does not apply to any Third-Party Services (as defined below), even if they are accessible through our Services. Also, please note that unless we define a term in this Privacy Policy, all capitalized terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms of Service. So, please make sure that you have read and understand our Terms of Service.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it.

Data Collected or Received from You

Our primary goals in collecting information are

Personally Identifiable Information. If you use our services we may collect certain information that can be used to identify you, such as your name, email address, profile photo, location and phone number (“PII”).

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Open design uses Mailchimp to organise a mailing list for Open Design. The Open Design mailing list will never send promotional emails, spam or anything unrelated to Open Design. We will never sell or give your data to another organisation not affiliated with Open Design.

You can opt-out of the Open Design mailing list at any point.

Like many website owners and operators, we collect certain information when you visit one of our Sites or use our Services, even when you are not logged in. We use automated data collection tools such as Cookies and Web Beacons to collect certain information.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

“Cookies” are small text files that are placed on your hard drive by a Web server when you access our Services. We may use both session Cookies and persistent Cookies to identify that you’ve logged in to the Services and to tell us how and when you interact with our Services. We may also use Cookies to monitor aggregate usage and web traffic routing on our Services and to customize and improve our Services. Unlike persistent Cookies, session Cookies are deleted when you log off from the Services and close your browser. Although most browsers automatically accept Cookies, you can change your browser options to stop automatically accepting Cookies or to prompt you before accepting Cookies. Please note, however, that if you don’t accept Cookies, you may not be able to access all portions or features of the Services. Some third-party services providers that we engage (including third-party advertisers) may also place their own Cookies on your hard drive. Note that this Privacy Policy covers only our use of Cookies and does not include use of Cookies by such third parties.

“Web Beacons” (also known as Web bugs, pixel tags or clear GIFs) are tiny graphics with a unique identifier that may be included on our Services for several purposes, including to deliver or communicate with Cookies, to track and measure the performance of our Services, to monitor how many visitors view our Services, and to monitor the effectiveness of our advertising. Unlike Cookies, which are stored on the user’s hard drive, Web Beacons are typically embedded invisibly on web pages (or in an e-mail).

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Open Design uses Google analytics to monitor our site metrics and traffic.

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Information Sent by Your Mobile Device. We collect certain information that your mobile device sends when you use our Services, like the manufacturer, model, operating system, and version of your device, as well as information about your use of our Services. We use this information in order to debug flaws in our software, identify device profiles we need to better serve, and identify versions of our software we need to support.

Ushahidi uses your data in various ways to provide our Services to you. The use of this data depends on how you interact with our Services.

Under Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the General Data Protection Regulation or “GDPR,” we rely on the following legal basis to process personal data:

Processing your data is done with your explicit consent. You provide your consent by signing a contract or agreeing to a check-boxes that describe how your data will be used. We do not use opt-out methods for gaining consent.

Processing your data is required by a contract. Your personal data may be used to take next steps in entering into a contract. When you enter into contract, your personal data may be used to fulfill contractual obligations.

Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation according to Applicable Laws and Regulations.

Under Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the General Data Protection Regulation or “GDPR”, you have the right to:

If you would like to exercise any of your rights, please email data@ushahidi.com. If you are not an EU citizen, we will still honor these rights wherever possible.

Please note for multiple requests within a short time-frame or requests for the same information, we may charge you an admin fee. If a third-party is making a request on your behalf, we will require proof of your permission before acting. All requests will be processed and completed within one month.

We offer you choices regarding the collection, use and sharing of your PII and we’ll respect the choices you make. Please note that if you decide not to provide us with the PII that we request, you may not be able to access all of the features of the Services.

Opt-Out. We may periodically send you free newsletters and e-mails that directly promote our Services. When you receive such promotional communications from us, you will have the opportunity to “opt-out” (either through your Account or by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in the e-mail you receive).

We do need to send you certain communications regarding the Services and you will not be able to opt out of those communications – e.g., communications regarding updates to our Terms of Service or this Privacy Policy or information about billing.

If you would like to delete your account completely, contact us at data@ushahidi.com.

Modifying Your Information. If you have an Account, you can access and modify the PII associated with your Account. You can also delete your Account at any time. Editing your content or deleting your Account may alter the displayed state of the content, but will not permanently delete the content from our Services and some information may remain in archived/backup copies for our records or as otherwise required by law. If you would like your data permanently deleted contact us at data@ushahidi.com.

We take reasonable administrative, physical and electronic measures designed to protect the information that we collect from or about you (including your PII) from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. Please be aware, however, that no method of transmitting information over the Internet or storing information is completely secure. Accordingly, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of any information. For more information about how we keep your data secure see our Data Security documentation.

Your contact information data is maintained as long as the user exists. If the user is deleted by the user or administrator, all their data is removed. Data may remain in offline backups indefinitely.

If you contact our support team – through support@ushahidi.com or the in application chat – we retain those messages indefinitely, unless you request we delete them.

Additional information given to us by yourselves is given freely and maintained in secure online properties

Our Services may contain links to websites and services that are owned or operated by third parties (each, a “Third-Party Service”). Any information that you provide on or to a Third-Party Service or that is collected by a Third-Party Service is provided directly to the owner or operator of the Third-Party Service and is subject to the owner’s or operator’s privacy policy. We’re not responsible for the content, privacy or security practices and policies of any Third-Party Service. To protect your information we recommend that you carefully review the privacy policies of all Third-Party Services that you access.

Your PII may be transferred to, and maintained on, computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. If you’re located outside the United States and choose to provide your PII to us, we may transfer your PII to the United States and process it there.

Our Services are not directed to children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect PII from children under 16. If we learn that we have collected PII of a child under 16 we will take steps to delete such information from our files as soon as possible.

We welcome feedback, comments and suggestions for improvements to the Services (“Feedback”). You can submit Feedback through the “Contact Us” links or emails provided on our Sites. For general feedback on any of our Services, you can also use support@ushahidi.com. You grant to us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, fully-paid, royalty-free, sublicensable and transferable license under any and all intellectual property rights that you own or control to use, copy, modify, create derivative works based upon and otherwise exploit the Feedback for any purpose.

Ushahidi’s “Mission” is to help disadvantaged communities raise their voice and those who serve them to respond better. We accomplish our mission by building crowdsourcing tools to facilitate data collection, management and response. While our Services are highly customizable such that they may be used for other undertakings, your use of our Services must be in furtherance of our Mission, unless Ushahidi has expressly agreed otherwise in writing.

For purposes of these Terms: (i) “Content” means any information, content (including without limitation, text, images, video, maps, etc.), or material that is posted, submitted to or otherwise made available through the Services; and (ii) “User Content” means any Content that Account holders (including you) and those submitting Content to or through your Account (including End Users if you are a Primary Account Holder) provide to be made available through the Services. Content includes without limitation User Content. For the avoidance of doubt, if you are a Primary Account Holder, “your User Content” also refers to the User Content of your End Users.

You may only submit Content that is relevant to our Mission and the particular Service utilized. We will determine what is unacceptable Content on a case-by-case basis, in our sole and absolute discretion. We reserve the right to change these standards at any time. We also reserve the right, at any time and without prior notice, to remove or disable access to any Content, that we consider, in our sole discretion, to be in violation of these Terms or otherwise harmful to the Services.

Ushahidi does not claim any ownership rights in any User Content and nothing in these Terms will be deemed to restrict any rights that you may have to use and exploit your User Content. Subject to the foregoing, Ushahidi and its licensors exclusively own all right, title and interest in and to the Services and Content, including all associated intellectual property rights. You acknowledge that the Services and Content are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws of the United States and foreign countries. You agree not to remove, alter or obscure any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary rights notices incorporated in or accompanying the Services or Content.

By making any User Content available through the Services (and, if you are a Primary Account Holder, by allowing your End Users to make User Content available through the Services), you hereby grant to Ushahidi a non-exclusive, transferable, sublicenseable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, copy, modify, create derivative works based upon, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform and distribute your User Content in connection with operating and providing the Services and Content to you and to other Account holders.

You are solely responsible for all your User Content. You represent and warrant that you have all rights that are necessary to grant us the license rights in your User Content under these Terms. You also represent and warrant that neither your User Content, nor your use and provision of your User Content to be made available through the Services, nor any use of your User Content by Ushahidi on or through the Services will infringe, misappropriate or violate a third party’s intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy, or result in the violation of any applicable law or regulation.

You can remove your User Content by specifically deleting it. However, in certain instances, some of your User Content (such as posts or comments you make) may not be completely removed and copies of your User Content may continue to exist on the Services. We are not responsible or liable for the removal or deletion of (or the failure to remove or delete) any of your User Content.

Subject to your compliance with these Terms, Ushahidi grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to download, view, copy, display and print the Content solely in connection with your permitted use of the Services.

Your data is stored in secure servers of third-party services. We regularly monitor security breaches.

If we get news of a security breach in our third-party systems. We will:

Please contact us at privacy@ushahidi.com if you have any questions about our Privacy Policy.