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Privacy Policy

V.1 [Last updated on September 2025]

The Vulture Conservation Foundation (“VCF“, “we“, “us“, “our“, “Organisation“), is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) committed to the conservation of Europe’s vulture species. It is the coordinating beneficiary of the WildLIFE Crime Academy project. 

Thank You for choosing to learn more about our project and wildlife crim by visiting www.wildlifecrimeacademy.eu (the “Website”). 

The purpose of this Website includes, but is not limited to: 

  1. Detailing our work and project activities,
  2. Raising awareness about wildlife crime and its impacts,
  3. Sharing project deliverables for transparency and accountability, 
  4. Sharing relevant news and resources, and
  5. Providing a secure, password-protected Knowledge Exchange Platform (“Platform”) for registered and approved individuals to collaborate, exchange information, and access training materials.

We here at the VCF greatly appreciate the support of individuals like You to carry out our vital conservation work. That is why we wish to be completely transparent about why we need the personal details we request when engaging with us and how we will use them. We are committed to protecting Your personal information and Your right to privacy. If You have any questions or concerns about this privacy notice, or our practices with regards to Your personal information, please send us an email.

In this privacy notice, we seek to explain to the User (“User“, “You“, “Your” means a person, organization or entity accessing or using the Website) in the clearest way possible what information we collect, how we use it and what rights You have in relation to it when You visit our Website or the Knowledge Exchange Platform, and more generally, use any of our Services (the “Services“, which include the Website). Please take some time to read through it carefully, as it is important. If there are any terms in this privacy notice that You do not agree with, please discontinue use of our Services immediately.

The Knowledge Exchange Platform involves additional data processing activities, including user registration, management of individual profiles, role-based access to training materials and forum discussions, and interaction between Users. This privacy notice therefore includes specific information on how personal data is collected, stored, shared, and protected within the Platform.

Please take some time to read through it carefully, as it is important. If there are any terms in this privacy notice that You do not agree with, please discontinue use of our Services immediately.

This privacy notice applies to all information collected through our Services, as well as, any related Services, communication or events. 

WHAT DATA DO WE COLLECT?

Personal information You disclose to us:

We collect personal information that You voluntarily provide to us when You express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and Services, when You participate in activities on the Website, when You register for the knowledge exchange platform, when you participate in a training course or otherwise when You contact us.

The personal information that we collect depends on the context of Your interactions with us and the Website, the choices You make and the products and features You use. The personal information we collect may include the following:

Personal Information Provided by You:

We collect names; phone numbers; email addresses; mailing addresses; contact preferences; country of residence; profession or role; cohort or training level; and other similar information.

Knowledge Exchange Platform-Specific Data:

**When registering for or using the WildLIFE Crime Academy platform, we also collect data required to create and manage Your profile, such as:

  1. name, country, email address,
  2. profession and expertise area,
  3. cohort assignment,
  4. training level achieved,
  5. t-shirt size (visible only to admins),
  6. ID card number or other form of identification (visible only to admins),
  7. profile biography,
  8. activity history within the platform, including posts, uploads, and feedback.**

Certain parts of Your profile information may be visible to other registered users, for example, your name, country, training level, and professional expertise, to enable interaction, collaboration, and learning within the platform. Sensitive fields such as ID card number and t-shirt size will remain strictly private and visible only to administrators.

HOW DO WE COLLECT DATA?

You directly provide Our Company with most of the data we collect. We collect data and process data when You:

  1. Voluntarily complete a survey or provide feedback via email.
  2. Use or view our Website via Your browser’s cookies.
  3. Subscribe to become part of our mailing list.
  4. Register for either physical or virtual events (i.e. training courses) we organise.
  5. Register and create a profile for the WildLIFE Crime Academy platform via a secure, private registration link.
  6. Interact with other users on the password-protected platform, for example, by posting messages in the forum, uploading documents or images, or providing course feedback.

All personal information that You provide to us must be true, complete and accurate, and You must notify us of any changes to such personal information.

Information automatically collected

Our Company may also receive Your data automatically and indirectly from the following source:

  1. Google Analytics tracks Users and collects data about their behaviour to provide insights such as how many Users You have, where they are from, and which pages they click on. Read how Google Analytics process and collect data. If You don’t want Your data to be used by Google Analytics, You can opt-out.
HOW DO WE USE YOUR DATA?

We use the information we collect or receive:

  1. To create and manage Your platform account: Your personal information will be used to create, approve, and manage Your user profile and access rights within the WildLIFE Crime Academy platform. This includes controlling access to certain resources, forum threads, and learning materials based on Your role and training level.
  2. To send administrative information to You: We may use Your personal information to send You product, Service and new feature information and/or information about changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
  3. To protect our Services: We may use Your information as part of our efforts to keep our Website safe and secure (for example, for fraud monitoring and prevention).
  4. To enforce our terms, conditions and policies for business purposes, to comply with legal and regulatory requirements or in connection with our contract.
  5. To enable interaction and collaboration between Users: Certain profile information such as Your name, country, training level, and expertise area will be visible to other approved platform participants and teachers to facilitate learning, networking, and discussion in the forum. Users may share messages, documents, images and other media within the platform.
  6. To respond to legal requests and prevent harm: If we receive a subpoena or other legal request, we may need to inspect the data we hold to determine how to respond.
  7. To send You informational communications: We may use the personal information You send to us for our communication purposes, if this is in accordance with Your contact preferences. For example, when expressing an interest in obtaining information about our us or our Website, subscribing to the newsletter or otherwise contacting us, we will collect personal information from You if You give us Your consent. You can update Your preferences or unsubscribe from the email list by clicking the relevant hyperlinks found in the footer of the emails we send to You.
  8. We use Flodesk for our email marketing service. By clicking to subscribe to our mailing list, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Flodesk for processing. You can learn more about Flodesk’s privacy practices here. You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us or by contacting us. We will treat your information with respect.
  9. Deliver targeted campaigns to You. We may use Your information to develop and display personalised content and campaigns tailored to Your interests and/or location and to measure its effectiveness.
  10. For other purposes. We may use Your information for other purposes, such as data analysis, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our campaigns and to evaluate and improve our Website, communication and Your experience. We may use and store this information in aggregated and anonymised form so that it is not associated with individual end Users and does not include personal information. We will not use identifiable personal information without Your consent.
WILL YOUR INFORMATION BE SHARED WITH ANYONE?

We only share information with Your consent, to comply with laws, to provide You with Services, to protect Your rights, or to fulfil business obligations.

Platform administrators, moderators, and designated teachers will have access to certain user data to manage profiles, assign access levels, evaluate participant progress, and moderate forum discussions. These individuals are bound by confidentiality obligations.

HOW DO WE STORE YOUR DATA?

The VCF securely stores Your data on password-protected computer systems.

  1. All sensitive personal data related to the WildLIFE Crime Academy platform is stored securely and access is strictly limited to authorised administrators, moderators, and designated teachers.
HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?

We keep Your information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this privacy notice unless otherwise required by law.

If You request account deletion or withdrawal from the WildLIFE Crime Academy platform, Your personal data will be deleted within a reasonable period, except where retention is legally required.

However:

  1. Content You have contributed to the platform, such as forum posts, uploaded documents, evaluation feedback, or shared resources, may not be automatically deleted when Your account is removed.
  2. Depending on technical feasibility and project requirements, such contributions may either remain visible to other users or be anonymised so that they are no longer linked to You personally.
  3. We will always take steps to limit access to any remaining data to what is strictly necessary.
  4. We may also retain certain records or logs where necessary for security, auditing, reporting, or compliance purposes, but only for as long as required by law or our legitimate project obligations.
DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?
We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 18 years of age.
MARKETING

The VCF would like to send You information about the work and campaigns relevant to our project that we think You might be interested in, as well as those of our relevant partners.

If You have agreed to receive marketing (such as email newsletter), You may always opt out at a later date.

WHAT ARE YOUR DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS?

Our Organisation would like to make sure You are fully aware of all of Your data protection rights. Every User is entitled to the following:

The right to access – You have the right to request Our Organisation for copies of Your personal data. We may charge You a small fee for this Service.