Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy
for ACROS-Cities
(“we”, “us”, “our”) – a project under UN-Habitat

1. Who we are
Your privacy on the Internet is of utmost importance to UN-Habitat. This privacy statement applies to all ACROS-Cities sites (i.e., all sites within the acros-cities.org domain) and describes what information is made available to ACROS-Cities and third parties when you visit our website, and how we use and store that information.

By accessing this site, certain information about you (for example your Internet protocol (“IP”) address, navigation through the site, the software used, time spent, and similar information) will be stored on our servers. These data will not specifically identify you unless you voluntarily provide such information to us.

Any information you voluntarily disclose to ACROS-Cities by using the website (such as via forms) is held with the utmost care and security, and will not be used in ways other than as set out below.

2. Anonymous website usage
By accessing the ACROS-Cities website, general browsing data from standard server logs — for example IP address, navigation through the ACROS-Cities site, domain name, browser type, software used, time spent, and other similar information — will be stored.
This information will be used internally only for website traffic analysis, trend-monitoring and to improve the usefulness of the site. It is not connected with any personal information.
However, if you have registered with ACROS-Cities through the site (for example by filling in a form), the information we collect about your normal web usage may be identifiable to you.

3. Collection and use of personally identifiable information
Providing personal information on the ACROS-Cities website is your choice. If you choose not to provide it, you can still browse and use the website, but you will not be able to carry out certain actions (such as registering for a newsletter or providing feedback through a form).
When you undertake certain actions on our website — such as signing up for our email newsletter, registering your interest in a research activity, submitting a request or query — you may knowingly provide us with personal information (such as your name, email address, postal address, professional affiliation, or other information).
We may use this personal information you voluntarily provide us to:

  • Contact you either in response to your query or suggestion, or to provide you with relevant services and information (such as newsletters, documents, publications, etc.) that we deem may be of interest to you.

4. What if you don’t want to provide personal information?
If you do not wish to provide personal information, you can still browse and use the ACROS-Cities website. However, you will not be able to carry out those actions which require personal data (for example, registering for a newsletter, submitting a form).

5. Cookie Policy
Aside from the personal information that you actively disclose to us, ACROS-Cities may also collect and store anonymous information about your browsing behaviour when you visit our website through the use of cookies. By using the ACROS-Cities website, you agree that we can place the types of cookies described below on your computer, mobile phone or other device and use such information in accordance with this Cookie Policy.

What are cookies?
Cookies are small data files (made up of letters and numbers) placed on your computer or other mobile device when you access the ACROS-Cities website. We use cookies to collect information about you to the extent necessary to ensure our website’s functionality and performance, as well as for the purpose of targeting our audience and tailoring content we offer to the public — both on our website and elsewhere.
We may send cookies when you visit the site, respond to online surveys or polls, or request information. Accepting the cookies used on the ACROS-Cities website does not give us access to your personally identifiable information, but we can use the cookies to, for example, identify your computer or from where you are visiting the website.

Disabling cookies
If you do not wish to have cookies installed on your computer or other device, you can set your browser to notify you before you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it. You can also set your browser to disable cookies entirely. Note that if you disable cookies, some areas of the ACROS-Cities website may not function properly.

How cookies are used on the ACROS-Cities website
We use cookies for the following reasons:

  • To improve your experience on our website – Cookies enable us to ensure we provide content that is relevant to your interests while avoiding content that is not relevant. For example, cookies can tell us if you have already filled in a form so we don’t present it again.

  • To understand how the website and our other communication efforts are performing – Cookies help provide anonymous statistics about how many users visit our website, where they came from and how they interact with it. This information is valuable so we can see which pages and content are most popular and modify accordingly.

  • To improve the relevance of our campaign messages displayed to you after you leave the website – Cookies may help ensure you receive personalised messaging or advertising banners from our communications or from our advertising services when you browse other websites, based on what you interacted with on our website. None of ACROS-Cities’ commercial partners providing such services collect or use any personally identifiable information without your prior explicit consent.

  • Advertising performance – We may use cookies provided by online measurement platforms (for example Google Analytics, DoubleClick, or others) in order to identify how many people come to our website from different sources, which campaign messages have been most effective in driving people to our website.

Third-party cookies
Some of the cookies you may receive when visiting the ACROS-Cities website are not directly related to ACROS-Cities. For example, if you visit sections of our website that contain embedded content, social-media “like” buttons, or external web fonts, you may receive cookies delivered from those external websites. We also may use third-party cookies for targeted advertising and tracking our website awareness and communications performance.
ACROS-Cities does not govern the settings or use of these third-party cookies, so we suggest that you visit those websites for more information about their cookies and applicable privacy policies. ACROS-Cities is not responsible for the privacy of data collected by websites or social services/networks that it does not own or manage.

6. Security
We do not sell or share any personally identifiable information you volunteer on the ACROS-Cities website to any third party without your prior consent. We do, however, share some user information with our partners and UN-Habitat country/regional offices so that the ACROS-Cities family can respond to your needs.
Any information provided to ACROS-Cities by users of the website is held with utmost care and security, and will not be used in ways other than as set forth in this Privacy Policy, or in any site-specific policies, or in ways to which you have explicitly consented. ACROS-Cities employs a range of security techniques and measures to protect the information maintained in our system from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, alteration or destruction. However, ACROS-Cities assumes no responsibility for the security of information beyond what is within our control.

7. Links to other sites and uploading Content to Social Networks – Disclaimer
ACROS-Cities websites may contain links to other sites external to the acros-cities.org domain. ACROS-Cities assumes no responsibility for the privacy practices, terms of use or the content of such external sites.
If you upload content to a social network and then tag ACROS-Cities, your submission will be subject to that social network’s terms of use and privacy policy. ACROS-Cities assumes no responsibility for the terms of use, privacy practices or content of those social networks or websites.

8. Notification of change of Privacy Policy
If ACROS-Cities decides to change its Privacy Policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect and how we use it.

9. Your Consent
By visiting our website you consent to our collection and use of your personal and other information as described in this Privacy Policy.