Privacy & Cookies Policy

1. Who we are

RURALITIES is a cross-national 5-year long Coordination and Support Action (01/10/2022- 30/09/2027), supported by the European Union within the framework of the Horizon Europe programme.

The project delivers an ecosystem-enhancing and climate action driven expertise and learning framework organised in hubs e.g., the ‘RURALITIES’, comprising a series of innovative methodologies with the learner at its core, supported by a comprehensive network of living labs, and a blockchain-based digital platform combining the Internet and wireless technologies, to assist engage, connect and empower actors.

Within the framework of RURALITIES project, accessible from https://www.ruralities-project.eu/ , one of our main priorities is the privacy of our visitors. This Privacy and Cookies Policy document contains types of information that is collected and recorded by RURALITIES project and how we use it. If you have additional questions or require more information about our Privacy and Cookies Policy, do not hesitate to contact us.

The partners of the RURALITIES consortium, listed below, process certain types of personal data for the purposes of the project. Each partner is responsible for the personal data they collect and process during their activities under the framework of the project:

For further information, we can be contacted at: info@ruralities-project.eu

2. How we collect personal data?

We collect personal data both directly and indirectly:

Directly. We obtain personal data directly from individuals in a variety of ways, including but not limited to the following cases:

• an individual subscribes to our newsletter/s;
• an individual registers to attend meetings and events we host and during attendance at such events;
• we establish cooperative relationships with an individual;
• we provide professional services pursuant to our contract with the European Commission;
• an individual participates in an interview or survey organized by us.

Indirectly. We obtain personal data indirectly about individuals from a variety of sources, including:

• our research partners;
• our networks and contacts;
• public and open data sources such as public registers, news articles and internet searches;
• social and professional networking sites (e.g., LinkedIn).

3. What type of data we collect?

We only collect the data that are necessary for the smooth implementation of our project. These data fall into the following categories:

• contact details (name/ surname, e-mail address, street address, mobile phone number, land line phone number);
• professional information (job title, organization, field of expertise);
• demographics (e.g., age, gender, nationality);
• information about what a person knows or believes.
• videos and photos (from people that attend our events).
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4. Basis of lawful processes

We process personal data on the following legal bases:

Legal obligations – for processing activities required for compliance both with applicable national and European legislation as well as with the specific legal and regulatory framework of the Horizon Europe Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the European Union.

Consent – for processing activities such as organization of surveys and interviews, completing of questionnaires and dissemination of project’s results.

Contractual obligations – for processing activities such as reporting to the European Commission and complying with project’s publicity obligations.

5. What we do with your personal data?

We process your personal data with the purpose of:

• Conducting research (e.g., interviews, surveys);
• Dissemination our project’s results to different types of stakeholder;
• Sending invitations and providing access to guests attending our events and webinars;
• Administering, maintaining, and ensuring the security of our information systems, applications, and websites;
• Processing online requests or queries, including responding to communications from individuals;
• Complying with contractual, legal, and regulatory obligations.

6. How we secure your personal data when we process it?

We continuously apply a personal data risk assessment process to identify, analyze, and evaluate the security risks that may threat your personal data. Based on the results of this risk assessment, we define and apply a set of both technical and organizational measures to mitigate the above security risks, including but not limited to:

• Data Protection Policies to guide our personnel when processing your data;
• Written contracts with organizations that process personal data on our behalf;
• Non-Disclosure Agreements with our personnel;
• Back up process, antimalware protection, access control mechanisms, etc.
• Some of our partners have appointed a Data Protection Officer.

7. Do we share personal data with third parties?

We may occasionally share personal data with trusted third parties to help us deliver efficient and quality services. When we do so, we ensure that recipients are contractually bound to safeguard the data we entrust to them before we share the data. We may engage with several or all the following categories of recipients:

• Parties that support us as we provide our services (e.g., cloud-based software services such as Dropbox, Microsoft SharePoint, Google);
• Our professional advisers, including lawyers, auditors, and insurers;
• Dissemination services providers (e.g., MailChimp);
• Law enforcement or other government and regulatory agencies or other third parties as required by, and in accordance with applicable law or regulation;
• The European Commission according to our relevant contractual obligations.

RURALITIES project’s Privacy Policy does not apply to other advertisers or websites. Thus, we are advising you to consult the respective Privacy Policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information. It may include their practices and instructions about how to opt-out of certain options. You can choose to disable cookies through your individual browser options. To know more detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers, it can be found at the browsers’ respective websites.

8. Do we transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area?

We do not own file servers located outside the European Economic Area (EEA). However, some partners may use cloud and / or marketing services from reputable providers such as SharePoint, DropBox, MailChimp, Google, etc., situated both inside and outside the EEA. We always check that such providers comply with the relevant GDPR requirements before start using their services.

9. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

We are a Data Controller of your information and will retain your personal information only for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use your information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our policies. If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), you have certain data protection rights. If you wish to be informed what Personal Information we hold about you and if you want it to be removed from our systems, please contact us. In certain circumstances, you have the following data protection rights:

• The right to access, update or to delete the information we have on you
• The right of rectification
• The right to object
• The right of restriction
• The right to data portability
• The right to withdraw consent

10. Log files

RURALITIES project follows a standard procedure of using log files. These files log visitors when they visit websites. All hosting companies do this and a part of hosting services’ analytics. The information collected by log files include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date and time stamp, referring/exit pages, and possibly the number of clicks. These are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable. The purpose of the information is for analysing trends, administering the site, tracking users’ movement on the website, and gathering demographic information.

11. Privacy Policies

You may consult this list to find the Privacy Policy for each of the advertising partners of RURALITIES project. Third-party ad servers or ad networks uses technologies like cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons that are used in their respective advertisements and links that appear on RURALITIES project, which are sent directly to users’ browser. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. These technologies are used to measure the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns and/or to personalize the advertising content that you see on websites that you visit. Note that RURALITIES project has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

12. Children information

Another part of our priority is adding protection for children while using the internet. We encourage parents and guardians to observe, participate in, and/or monitor and guide their online activity. RURALITIES project does not knowingly collect any Personal Identifiable Information from children under the age of 13. If you think that your child provided this kind of information on our website, we strongly encourage you to contact us immediately and we will do our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.

13. Online Privacy Policy Only

Our Privacy Policy applies only to our online activities and is valid for visitors to our website with regards to the information that they shared and/or collect in RURALITIES project. This policy is not applicable to any information collected offline or via channels other than this website.

14. Do we use cookies?

Our websites use cookies. Where cookies are used, a statement will be sent to your browser explaining the use of cookies. To learn more, please refer to our cookie policy.

Cookies are small text files which are saved on your computer, mobile phone or tablet. They allow the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login, language, font size and other display preferences) so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you come back to the site. You can control and/ or delete cookies as you wish. If you do this, however, you may need to manually adjust your preferences every time you visit a site. For more information on how to manage cookies, please visit: http://www.aboutcookies.org/

We use tools like Google Analytics to better understand how visitors interact with our website. This provides us with important information to enable the site to work better. The information collected is not linked to your personal data. For more information on the cookies set by Google Analytics, please visit: http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/concepts/gaConceptsCookies.html

The following cookies are necessary and are always enabled:

The following cookies are for analytics and are optional:

15. Consent

By using our website, you hereby consent to our Privacy Policy and agree to its terms.