United Vision ry

1. Privacy Notice for United Vision ry Association

How we handle your personal data · GDPR-compliant

Data Controller

The data controller responsible for your personal data under the GDPR is:

Data Protection Officer

Chairperson: Pardeep Rathore
Email: pardeep@unitedvision.fi

1. Introduction

Thank you for being a part of United Vision ry. Protecting your personal data is a top priority for us. This Privacy Notice explains how and why we collect, store, and process your personal information, in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

2. What Information We Collect

We may collect and process the following personal data:

• Full name
• Address
• Email address
• Contact number
• Membership details
• IP address
• Cookies
• Location (country-level, not specific addresses)
• Device & browser information
• Any other information you voluntarily provide

Special Category Data: We do not intentionally collect special categories of personal data (e.g., health information, race, religion) unless you voluntarily provide it.

3. Legal Basis for Processing Your Data

Under the GDPR, we must have a valid legal basis to process your personal data. We process your data based on the following grounds:

• Contractual necessity: To manage your membership and provide services you have requested.
• Legitimate interests: For purposes such as statistical analysis, research, and improving our services, provided these interests are not overridden by your privacy rights.
• Consent: For sending newsletters or marketing communications, if you have explicitly consented.
• Legal obligation: To comply with legal requirements, such as maintaining financial records.

4. Why We Collect Your Data

Your data is used for purposes including but not limited to:

• Member management
• Sending newsletters or association updates
• Organizing events and activities
• Responding to inquiries or feedback
• Statistical and research purposes

5. How We Store Your Data

Your information is securely stored in our association management system. We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure your data is protected against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

6. How Long We Keep Your Data

We retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Specifically:

• Active Membership: Your data is retained as long as you are a member of the association.
• Post-Membership: Once your membership is canceled, we retain your data for up to 10 years for administrative purposes, after which it will be securely deleted.

7. Your Data Protection Rights

Under GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• The right to access: You can request copies of your personal data.
• The right to rectification: You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• The right to erasure: You can request that we delete your personal data, under certain conditions.
• The right to restrict processing: You can ask us to restrict the processing of your data, under certain conditions.
• The right to object to processing: You can object to the processing of your data, under certain conditions.
• The right to data portability: You can request that we transfer the data we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at the contact details provided below. We may require you to verify your identity before responding to such requests.

8. Cookies

Our website may use cookies to improve user experience. Cookies are small files saved on your browser that help us track your use of our site and enhance your experience. You can modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer.

9. Third-party Links

Our website may contain links to external sites. This privacy notice only applies to our association, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites. We recommend that you review the privacy notices of any third-party sites you visit.

10. Use of Hotjar

We use Hotjar to better understand the needs of our users and to optimize the offering and experience on this website. With the help of Hotjar's technology, we get a better understanding of our users' experiences (e.g., how much time users spend on which pages, which links they click, what they like and what they don't like, etc.) and this helps us to align our offering with the feedback from our users. Hotjar works with cookies and other technologies to collect data about the behavior of our users and their end devices, in particular the IP address of the device (only recorded and stored in an anonymized form during your website use), screen size, device type (Unique Device Identifiers), information about the browser used, location (country only), preferred language for viewing our website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymized user profile. Hotjar is contractually prohibited from selling the data collected on our behalf.

11. International Data Transfers

If your data is transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA), we will ensure it is protected to the same standard as within the EEA, either through the use of specific contracts approved by the European Commission or by ensuring the recipient is located in a country that the European Commission has determined provides adequate protection for your data.

12. Updates to This Notice

From time to time, we may update this notice to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or for other reasons. We encourage you to review this notice periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your data.

13. Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the data we hold about you, or if you wish to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us:

• Email: info@unitedvision.fi
• Phone: +358 41 3277475
• Address: Sturenkatu 11, 00510 Helsinki, Finland

14. Sharing Your Data with EU Programme Partners

Because United Vision delivers projects funded by the European Union under Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps (ESC), we are required by the funding contracts and by Regulation (EU) 2021/817 to share certain participant data with EU programme bodies. We share the minimum data necessary and only for project reporting, monitoring and audit purposes. The recipients are:

• Erasmus+ National Agency in Finland (EDUFI / Opetushallitus): for projects funded under Erasmus+, we report your participation data to EDUFI as required by the funding contract.
• European Commission & EACEA: via the EU systems Mobility Tool+, Beneficiary Module, and the European Solidarity Corps Portal, where participant data is recorded for funding compliance.
• Hosting partner organisations: the partner organisation that hosts you abroad receives your contact details, dietary and accessibility needs, and emergency contact, so they can welcome and support you safely.
• Travel and accommodation providers: airlines and accommodation providers receive only the minimum data needed to fulfil the booking on your behalf.
• Technology service providers: our website host, email service, form delivery provider (Web3Forms), website analytics (Google Analytics via Google Tag Manager) and user-experience analytics (Hotjar). All are bound by GDPR-compliant data processing agreements.
• Public authorities: only when required by law (e.g., tax authority, embassy visa offices, police in case of a safeguarding investigation).

We do not sell your data and we do not use it for any commercial advertising purpose.

15. Your Right to Lodge a Complaint with the Supervisory Authority

In addition to the rights listed in Section 7, under Article 77 of the GDPR you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority if you believe we have handled your personal data unlawfully.

16. Vision Network

Vision Network (network.unitedvision.fi) is a service of United Vision ry for non-profit organisations: they join, get specific facts about them verified, develop their work, and find partners, opportunities and funding. United Vision ry is the data controller for everything in this section. Contact: info@unitedvision.fi, Sturenkatu 11, 00510 Helsinki, Business ID 3389157-5. Vision Network is for adults (18+) acting for an organisation.

16.1 Your account and sign-up

When you sign up an organisation or accept an invitation, we process your name, work email address, your role in the organisation, a securely hashed password, the time you agreed to this notice and, if you turn it on, your two-factor sign-in secret (encrypted) and hashed recovery codes. We record the times of your sign-ins but not your IP address. Your account and your membership of an organisation are needed to give you the service you asked for (GDPR Article 6(1)(b)).

At sign-up we run simple checks, for example whether your email address is at the organisation's own website domain, to decide whether you get access straight away or after a short review by our team. Nobody is refused without a person reviewing it. If you never confirm your email address, the unfinished account and sign-up are deleted after 30 days.

When you sign up, the organisation and your contact details also appear in our list of registrations, so our team can follow up.

16.2 Verifying organisations

We check specific facts about an organisation, including its legal registration, the person acting for it, and its website domain, using official public registers, for example the Finnish Patent and Registration Office, and for other countries the official register of that country, together with documents the organisation provides. For the person acting for the organisation we process their name, role and work email. When a mailbox at the organisation's own domain confirms a one-time link, that confirms the domain. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in preventing impersonation and fraud in the network and protecting the partners and funders who rely on it (Article 6(1)(f)).

Documents. We ask for a document only when a register cannot show a fact, and we always ask for the smallest one that proves it: a registry extract, a signed authorisation letter, or the part of a board decision or minutes that names the person who may act for the organisation. Please send only those pages and black out other people's personal details and anything sensitive, such as health information. We never accept identity cards, passports or personal identity codes. Documents may still contain names of board members or other people; we use them only to check the fact we asked about. Documents are encrypted and stored in Microsoft Azure in the EU (Sweden); only the organisation's members and our reviewers can open them, and every opening is logged. A document is deleted one year after our decision, or one year after upload if never reviewed; only its fingerprint, type, date and our decision remain. Organisations that send us documents about their board members should let those people know.

Decisions and history. Every decision has a written reason. The decision, the facts we checked and a history of changes, which refers to people by a short account number, not by name, are kept while the organisation is a member and for 6 years after, so that we can account for decisions to partners and funders and in case of legal claims. Applications that are rejected or never verified are deleted 6 years after the last decision. When a representative is replaced, the previous person's name and role are removed after 12 months. Verification is decided by people; automatic checks only confirm public register facts about organisations, never who may act for them.

Appeals and concerns. An organisation can ask us to review a decision; the request is kept with the verification record. Anyone can report a concern about an organisation's public page; we keep the report, and the contact email if given, for 36 months after we close it.

16.3 What is public

An organisation can choose to publish a verification page and appear in the public directory. These show which facts we verified and when, and the profile the organisation wrote: mission, themes, countries, programmes and, only if the organisation adds one, a contact email address. Please use a general address, such as info@…, unless the person agrees to have their own address shown. If a network partner, such as an umbrella organisation or national NGO platform working with Vision Network, has confirmed the organisation as its member, the organisation can choose to show “Member of” that network on its page, and the network's page then lists it. Public pages never show documents, reviewers' notes, or members' names. The organisation can turn its page off at any time.

16.4 What other members see

• Partner calls: when you respond to another organisation's call, your name, email address and organisation are shared with that organisation.
• Project spaces: members of the organisations taking part in a project see its details, partners, milestones, results and updates. Changes are shown with the organisation and a short account number, not your name. Do not write personal details about participants or other people in updates or results; results are numbers only.
• Invitations: when an organisation invites another to a project, or our team invites a contact person to join, the invitation is emailed to that organisation's owners and administrators, or to the invited person. Our legal basis is the service you asked for (Article 6(1)(b)) and our legitimate interest in letting organisations work together (Article 6(1)(f)).
• Networks: when an organisation asks a network partner to confirm its membership, the network sees the organisation's name and the request, never its records or its members. A network partner can invite an organisation to Vision Network by email; we keep that address and the organisation's name for 30 days to send the invitation and avoid repeats.

16.5 Development, learning and funding readiness

• Capacity assessment and development plan: answers describe the organisation's practices, are visible only to its members and are kept with the organisation's record. Who last changed an answer is stored as an account number and removed when that person deletes their account.
• Learning record: the Academy resources you mark as started or completed. Visible only to you; your organisation sees only a total count. Learning badges are worked out from it and not stored separately. Deleted when you remove it or delete your account.
• Certificates: when you attend a training United Vision ry runs itself, our team can issue a certificate with your name as it appears on your account, the training and its date. It confirms attendance only. Kept until you delete your account.
• Funding readiness checklists: your organisation's ready or not yet answers, visible only to its members, kept with the organisation's record. Legal basis: the service you asked for (Article 6(1)(b)).

16.6 Organisation index and programme records

To help organisations sign up and to help our team check them, we keep an index of organisations from official open registers. The current list of registers, licences and countries is on network.unitedvision.fi/organisation-data.html. For each organisation we keep only organisation details: name and former names, registration number, legal form, registration date and status, municipality, website domain and activity code. We never keep contact details, street addresses, bank accounts or information about board members or other people, and we never import sole traders or political parties. Our team can search the index; the public can only search it on the sign-up page, limited to one country and at most ten results, with no browsing. A match helps fill in the sign-up form; it never makes anyone the representative of an organisation. An entry is deleted 90 days after it leaves the official register. Some organisation names include a person's name; if you object to an entry, email us and we will hide it. We also look for organisations in the European Commission's public Erasmus+ project lists; a match is shown only after our team confirms it. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in running a verified network (Article 6(1)(f)).

16.7 Pilot registrations and newsletter

Interest registrations from the Vision Network pilot, including organisation details, contact name, email and role, are kept for 6 years after the last update unless they led to membership, in which case they follow the organisation's record. Newsletter subscriptions are kept until you unsubscribe (consent, Article 6(1)(a)).

16.8 Security, logs and cookies

Sign-in sessions are stored in our database in encrypted form and deleted when you sign out, after two hours without activity, or after 12 hours at most. To keep the service secure we keep a staff audit trail and a security log, for example failed sign-ins with a pseudonymised network address, for up to 400 days, short-lived rate-limiting records for 24 hours, and web server request logs, including IP address, page and time, for 30 days. Vision Network uses only cookies that are strictly necessary for signing in, one for members and one for staff; there are no analytics or advertising cookies. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in security (Article 6(1)(f)).

16.9 Service providers and transfers

Vision Network runs on Microsoft Azure in the EU (Sweden), including its databases, document storage and backups, which are kept for 35 days. Emails are sent through Google Workspace. Pages load fonts from Google Fonts and images from our main website, so your browser shares your IP address with those services. Google may process data outside the EU/EEA; this is covered by the European Commission's EU–US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses. We do not sell personal data or use it for advertising.

16.10 How long we keep data

16.11 Your rights

You can see, correct or delete your account data, get a copy of it, object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and ask us to restrict processing. You can delete your account yourself in your account settings. You can also download your account data yourself, and owners and administrators can download their organisation's records through Account → Download your data. For anything else email info@unitedvision.fi; we answer within one month. We may keep a decision in anonymised form where we need it for legal claims. You can complain to the Data Protection Ombudsman at tietosuoja.fi.

16.12 Changes to Vision Network

We add countries, languages and organisation registers step by step; the list of registers is kept on network.unitedvision.fi/organisation-data.html. Before we start any new kind of processing of personal data, for example AI-assisted suggestions, connections to other services that share personal data, or publishing new kinds of personal details, we will update this section and tell members first. We do not use AI to make decisions about people or organisations.

2. Cookie Policy

Every cookie and tracker we use on this website

Cookies are small text files stored by your browser when you visit a website. We use cookies only to (1) make this website work, (2) understand anonymously how visitors use it, and (3) remember your cookie preferences. We do not use cookies for advertising or to track you across other websites.

Cookies and trackers in use

Strictly necessary vs. optional

Strictly necessary cookies are required for the website to function and cannot be disabled — they do not track you between websites. Analytics cookies (Google Analytics, Hotjar) are optional: we ask for your consent before setting them, you can decline, and the website will work normally without them.

How to manage cookies

You can change your cookie preference at any time by clearing your cookies — the consent banner will reappear on your next visit. You can also block cookies entirely in your browser settings:

• Chrome / Firefox / Safari / Edge

Blocking strictly necessary cookies may prevent certain features (e.g., the cookie consent banner, members' login) from working.

Third-party links

Our website may link to external sites (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Flickr, Erasmus+ portals, etc.). This Cookie Policy covers only cookies set by unitedvision.fi — we are not responsible for cookies set by other websites. Please review the cookie notice on each site you visit.

3. Terms of Use

Terms governing your use of the United Vision ry website & services

1. Introduction

By accessing and using the services of the United Vision ry association, you accept and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use our services or access our platform.

2. Modification

We reserve the right to modify these terms at our discretion. Changes will be effective as soon as they are posted on this page. It is the user's responsibility to regularly review these terms.

3. Use of the Platform

Users agree not to use the platform in any way that causes harm, is illegal, or infringes on the rights of others. The content, layout, design, and appearance of this platform are protected by intellectual property rights.

4. User Accounts

Members may need to create an account to access specific features. Users are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of their account information and are responsible for all activities that occur under their account.

5. Limitation of Liability

United Vision ry will not be liable for any indirect, consequential, or incidental damages arising out of the use of our services or platform.

6. Privacy

Your use of our platform is also governed by our Privacy Notice, which can be found in Section 1 above.

7. Termination

We reserve the right to terminate or suspend access to our platform without prior notice for behaviours that breach these terms or are harmful to other users, us, or third parties, or for any other reason.

8. Governing Law

These terms are governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of Finland. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these terms shall be resolved by the competent Finnish courts, with the District Court of Helsinki as the court of first instance.

9. Feedback and Complaints

Users can submit feedback or complaints to info@unitedvision.fi. We aim to address all feedback and complaints promptly and effectively.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms of Use, please contact us:

• Email: info@unitedvision.fi
• Phone: +358 41 3277475
• Address: Sturenkatu 11, 00510 Helsinki, Finland

4. Code of Conduct & Safeguarding

What we expect from everyone connected to our activities

United Vision works with young people, including some who are minors or have fewer opportunities. Our Code of Conduct and Safeguarding Statement applies to everyone involved in our work — volunteers, participants, staff, board members, trainers and partner-organisation contacts. By taking part in our activities you agree to follow these rules and to help us keep everyone safe.

Behaviour expected of everyone

• Treat all participants, staff and partners with respect, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or background.
• Use inclusive, non-discriminatory language at all times.
• Resolve disagreements through dialogue, not aggression or pressure.
• Respect the rules, schedule and instructions of the project and the host country's laws.
• Take care of project equipment, accommodation and the host community.
• Be punctual and reliable in your commitments.

What is not acceptable

Safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults

Some United Vision activities involve minors (under 18) or young people in vulnerable situations. We take safeguarding seriously:

• All staff and volunteers working directly with minors are briefed on safeguarding rules before the activity starts.
• Adults never share sleeping accommodation with unrelated minors.
• One-to-one contact between an adult and a minor is avoided where possible; when necessary, it takes place in visible, public locations.
• Photography and video of minors require written parental consent and are not posted publicly without that consent.
• We have a Designated Safeguarding Lead reachable at info@unitedvision.fi for any concerns about a child's safety or welfare.

Reporting a concern

If you witness or experience any behaviour that breaches this Code, or that concerns you, please report it as soon as possible. We treat all reports confidentially.

• During an activity: speak immediately to the on-site coordinator or trainer.
• At any time: email info@unitedvision.fi with the subject line "Safeguarding concern" or "Code of Conduct concern".
• Anonymous reporting: if you prefer not to be identified, write to us from a generic email account. We will still investigate, although follow-up may be limited.
• If a child is in immediate danger: contact local emergency services (112 in Finland and across the EU) before contacting us.

What happens after a report

1. We acknowledge your report in writing within 3 working days.
2. A nominated Board member (independent of the people involved) investigates fairly, listening to all sides.
3. Where appropriate, we take protective action immediately — separating individuals, suspending an activity, or contacting authorities.
4. We report the outcome to you in writing within 30 working days, unless an external authority asks us to delay communication for investigation reasons.
5. Confirmed breaches result in disciplinary action: written warning, removal from the activity, exclusion from future projects, repayment of project costs already paid in your name, or referral to law enforcement — depending on severity.

Whistle-blower protection

Anyone who reports a concern in good faith is protected from retaliation. Retaliation against a reporter is itself a breach of this Code and will be treated as such, even if the original concern turns out to be unfounded.

Feedback and complaints (non-safeguarding)

For general feedback about our services, projects or communications, please email info@unitedvision.fi. We aim to acknowledge feedback within 5 working days and resolve complaints within 30 working days.

5. Cancellation, Refund & Fee Policy

Short summary · Full policy on a separate page

If you accept a place on a United Vision project and later cannot participate, you must notify us in writing as soon as possible. We process about 80% of cancellations free of charge — but only when the reason is valid and supported by documentation. An administrative fee of up to €200, plus any non-refundable booking costs paid in your name, may apply when a cancellation is unjustified. If you receive an invoice and disagree with it, you can file an appeal within 14 days.