Privacy Policy

Who we are

The Data Controller is TechnoServe, INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, 1777 N Kent Street, Suite 1100, Arlington, VA 22209. We gather and process your personal information in accordance with this privacy notice and in compliance with the relevant data protection Regulation and laws. This notice provides you with the necessary information regarding your rights and our obligations and explains how, why and when we collect and process your personal data.

Our Data Protection Officer is Jeff Chrisfield, Chief Financial Officer. If you have any questions about TechnoServe’s privacy policy or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights,  you can send an email to dpo@tns.org.

Information that we collect

TechnoServe processes your personal information to meet our legal, statutory and contractual obligations and to provide you with our products and services. We will never collect any unnecessary personal data from you and do not process your information in any way, other than as specified in this notice.

The personal data that we collect from you:

Program participants/beneficiaries

The personal data that we may collect or obtain may include your name and date of birth, your contact information such as your address and contact details (including your email and mobile telephone number), nationality, occupation/job title, and country of residence.

The lawful basis for processing your personal data are based on our legitimate interests in order to further our charitable aims of aiding our beneficiaries in the developing world.

We collect information in the following ways

• When you send us an email.
• When you submit your information via an online form.
• When you visit our website.
• When you submit your information to us in paper form.
• Through direct interaction, whether in person or on the phone.
• Publicly available information online.

How we use your personal data

TechnoServe takes your privacy very seriously and will never disclose, share or sell your data without your consent; unless required to do so by law. We only retain your data for as long as it is necessary and for the purpose(s) specified in this notice. Where you have consented to us providing you with promotional offers and marketing, you are free to withdraw this consent at any time.

TechnoServe will use your personal information for several purposes including the following:

• For the performance of any employment, service or supply contracts between us;
• In relation to any correspondence you have entered into with us whether by letter, email, text, social media, message board or any other means;
• For “service administration purposes”, which means that TechnoServe may contact you for reasons related to donations you have made such as your tax status with regard to the completion of commercial or other transactions you have entered into with TechnoServe or the activity or online content you have signed up for;
• For internal record keeping;
• To invite you to participate in surveys or research about TechnoServe or our work (participation is always voluntary);
• For marketing purposes where you have specifically consented to receive marketing communications from us;
• To personalize the way TechnoServe content is presented to you;
• To use IP addresses to identify the location of users, to block disruptive use, to establish the number of visits from different countries;
• To analyze and improve the activities and content offered by the TechnoServe website to provide you with the most user-friendly navigation experience.
• We may also use and disclose information in aggregate (so that no individuals are identified) for marketing and strategic development purposes.

Your Rights

TechnoServe would like to make sure that you are fully aware of your data protection rights.  You have the right to access any personal information that TechnoServe processes about you and to request information about:

• What personal data we hold about you.
• The purposes of the processing.
• The categories of personal data concerned..
• The recipients to whom the personal data has/will be disclosed.
• How long we intend to store your personal data.
• If we did not collect the data directly from you, information about the source.

If you believe that we hold any incomplete or inaccurate data about you, you have the right to ask us to correct and/or complete the information and we will strive to do so as quickly as possible; unless there is a valid reason for not doing so, at which point you will be notified.

You also have the right to request the erasure of your personal data or to restrict processing (where applicable) in accordance with the data protection laws; as well as to object to any direct marketing from us. Where applicable, you have the right to be informed about any automated decision-making we may use.

If we receive a request from you to exercise any of the above rights, we may ask you to verify your identity before acting on the request; this is to ensure that your data is protected and kept secure.

Profiling

TechnoServe does not carry out automated decision-making but we systematically analyze our databases and the information that we hold about you, in order to improve the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and relevance of our communication with you (profiling), you will be informed about this as soon as possible, but at the latest when we contact you as a result of such profiling by reference to this privacy statement.

If you do not wish to be subject to such profiling or wish to update your contact preferences, please email your request to DPO@tns.org.

Sharing and disclosing your personal information

We will only disclose information about you to third parties if we need to comply with our contractual duties or where we are legally obliged to do so, and where possible the personal data will be anonymized. All processors act on our behalf only, third parties process your data in accordance with instructions from us and comply fully with this privacy notice, the data protection laws and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. Examples of third parties we may need to share your data with:

• We may transfer information about you to field offices for purposes connected to the management of the company’s business. 
• Funding partners in relation to our programs.
• Implementation partners in relation to our programs.
• Outsourced providers such as payroll, pension, tax and medical advisors.
• Regulatory bodies such as the IRS.
• Postal addresses may be shared with list brokers and list managers with whom we have reciprocal and/or contractual arrangements.

Where we transfer personal information for the above reasons, we utilize safeguarding measures and mechanisms to ensure that your personal data is always safe and secure such as having a signed agreement in place with all third-party processors.

Safeguarding measures

TechnoServe takes your privacy seriously and takes every reasonable measure and precaution to protect and secure your personal data. We work hard to protect you and your information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure or destruction and have several layers of security measures in place, including:

• Encryption of personal data when transferring.
• Pseudonymisation and aggregation of personal data wherever possible.
• Internal policies and measures which meet the principles of data protection by design and data protection by default.
• Restricted access to personal data based on need (access controls).
• Firewalls & Anti-virus/malware.
• The ability to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability, and resilience of processing systems and services.
• The appointment of a Data Protection Officer.

Consequences of not providing your data

You are not obligated to provide your personal information to TechnoServe however, as this information may be required for us to provide you with our services and meet our legal obligations we will not be able to offer some/all our services without it.

Legitimate interests

As noted in this notice, we occasionally process your personal information under the legitimate interests’ legal basis. Where this is the case, we have carried out a Legitimate Interests’ Assessment (LIA) to ensure that we have weighed your interests and any risk posed to you against our own interests; ensuring that they are proportionate and appropriate.

We use the legitimate interests’ legal basis to monitor and evaluate the development activities of TechnoServe and to process donations and have identified that our principal interest is our objective to further our charitable aims of aiding our beneficiaries in the developing world.

How long we keep your data

TechnoServe only ever retains personal information for as long as it is necessary and we have strict review and retention policies in place to meet these obligations. The precise length of time will depend on the type of data, our legitimate business needs and other legal or regulatory rules that may require us to retain it for certain minimum periods.   Once we have determined that we no longer need to hold your personal data, we will securely delete it.

Where you have consented to us using your details for direct marketing, we will keep such data until you notify us otherwise and/or withdraw your consent.

Marketing

Occasionally, TechnoServe would like to contact you with updates relating to our projects and services or campaigns we are undertaking. If you consent to us using your contact details for this purpose, you have the right to modify or withdraw your consent at any time by using the opt-out/unsubscribe options or by contacting dpo@tns.org.

Cookies

TechnoServe uses first-party and third-party cookies on our website. We use cookies in order to make our Site easier to use, to support the provision of information and functionality to you. For further information please see our Cookie Policy.

How you can contact us with any queries or requests: