Privacy Policy

Freerice is an initiative of the World Food Programme (WFP). WFP is an international organization of the UN system. It is committed to the privacy of individuals in accordance with its own rules and regulations, including on personal data protection. WFP acts as the controller of all personal data collected in accordance with this Privacy Policy, and can be contacted as set out below in Section 16.

1. Scope of Policy

This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, process, and disclose your information, including personal information, in conjunction with your access to and use of the Freerice websites and/or use of our Freerice application (the "User").

Our website and/or the app are referred to as the "Service". By using this Service, you agree to the privacy policy outlined herein.

2. Information We Collect

We collect information in order to provide and improve our Service, to administer your use of the Service and to enable you to enjoy and easily navigate our Service.

When you use the Service or engage in certain activities, such as downloading the app, requesting services or information, or contacting us directly, we may ask you to provide some or all of the following types of information:

  • Installing the app or using the web service: If you use the Service without an Account, you do not enter personal information (please see below for information which is collected automatically). If you create an email-based Account, we will request your username and email address.
  • Communications with us: We may collect personal information from you such as email address, first and last name when you choose to request information about our Service, request to receive customer or technical support, or otherwise communicate with us directly or through Third Parties.
  • User-generated content: You can customize and create certain content such as group names.
  • In addition to the information you choose to provide to us, we and our service providers also use standard technologies to automatically collect certain additional information. If you are above the age of 16, we automatically record certain information about how you use our Service. This may include information such as a User's Internet Protocol (IP) address, cookie identifiers, Advertiser ID, and other device identifiers that are automatically assigned to your computer or device when you access the Internet, operating system, country, languages and locales, hardware type, the pages or features of our Service to which you browsed and the time spent on those pages or features, the links on our Services that you clicked on and other statistics. We use such data to administer the Service and we analyze (and may engage third parties to analyze) such data to improve, customize and enhance our Service by expanding features and functionality and tailoring them to individuals' needs and preferences. If you are below the age of 16, these collectors are disabled.

3. Information from Other Sources

We may receive information about you from third parties. For example, if you access our Services through an application of a third party, such as the App Store/Google Play Store or a Social Networking Service ("SNS"), we may collect such information about you from that third-party application that you have made public via your privacy settings therein. Information we collect through third-party applications may include your name, your SNS user identification number, your SNS user name, profile picture and your email address.

We will never post anything to a SNS without your permission.

4. How We Use Your Information

On mobile devices and on the web, we do not activate any advertising SDK or any third party social network SDK if the user is under 16 years old. No third party advertisements are shown or can be shown to any user under 16. The only third-party APIs that are activated are Google Analytics (Firebase on mobile devices), and Usabilla on the desktop version.

For users above the age of 16, we acquire, hold, use, and process personal information for a variety of business purposes, including:

  • to provide, personalise, and improve your experience with the Service, for example by providing customised, personalised, or localised content, recommendations, features, and advertising related to the Service on or outside of the Service;
  • to ensure technical functionality of the Service, develop new features and services, and analyse your use of the Service, including your interaction with the mobile application, advertising, products, and services that are made available, linked to, or offered through the Service;
  • to communicate with you for Service-related or research purposes including via emails, notifications, or other messages, which you agree to receive;
  • to communicate with you, either directly or through one of our partners, for marketing and promotional purposes via emails, notifications, or other messages, consistent with any permissions you may have communicated to us; in the section User Access and Control below, we inform you of the controls you can use to opt out from receiving certain messages;
  • to enable and promote the Service and other relevant services or products, either within or outside the Service, including features and content of the Service and products and services made available through the Service.

5. Sharing Personal Information with Third Parties

We use technical service providers which may operate the technical infrastructure that we need to provide the Service, in particular providers which host, store, manage, and maintain the application, its content and the data we process.

We use technical service providers to help us communicate with you, as described in Section "How We Use Your Information" of this Policy.

If you are over 16, we use marketing and advertising partners to show you more tailored advertising.

6. Cookies, Third-Party Software Development Kits and Tracking

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the User's device containing information about the device. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while using the Service. By setting a cookie, Freerice will remember the User the next time he/she visits the Service. The User is always free to decline our cookies if his/her browser permits, although in that case he/she may not be able to use certain features of the Service and may be required to re-enter information more frequently to use certain features of the Service.

If you are above 16 years old, we ask for your consent on several cookie-related issues via the QuantCast Consent Framework (the message that appears after you enter your age). You are free to adjust these parameters, deny them all, and can adjust them at any time from the /about page.

We use third-party software development kits ("SDKs") as part of the functionality of our Service. Third-party SDKs may allow third parties including advertisers to collect your personal information to provide content that is more relevant to you.

As specific in section 4 above, on mobile devices and on the web, we do not activate any advertising SDK or any third party social network SDK if the user is under 16 years old. No third party advertisements are shown or can be shown to any user under 16. For users under 16, the only third-party APIs or SDKs that are activated are Google Analytics (also known as Firebase on mobile devices), and Usabilla on the desktop version. For users over 16, MoPub is used to serve advertisements and QuantCast is used to manage cookie consent on the web.

We use Google Analytics, an analysis service operated by Google LLC, (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, "Google"). For this purpose, Google places a cookie on your device when you visit our web pages. This makes it possible to recognize your browser and to analyze your usage of our web pages on our behalf.

Google normally anonymizes your IP address within the EU or the EEA, before the data about your website usage are transmitted to the USA. Google has submitted to the EU-US Privacy Shield for the exceptional cases, in which personal data are transmitted to the USA, to ensure a reasonable level of data protection. More detailed information is available here: https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework . The IP address transmitted from your browser in connection with Google Analytics is not merged with other Google data.

You have the option to prevent the use of your data at any time by installing the plug-in offered by Google. This plug-in is available at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

7. User Access and Control of Personally Identifiable Information

If you would like to access, review, correct, update, suppress, transfer (right to data portability), delete or otherwise limit our use of your personal information we have collected, you may contact us using the mechanisms provided below. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable.

If you are over 16, you may also opt out of the advertising consent (handled by QuantCast) by visiting the Freerice "about" page and clicking on the "you can change your privacy settings" link. If you are under 16 you are automatically opted out.

If you are over 16, you may opt out of the advertising consent on the Freerice mobile applications by reinstalling the app and selecting "no" when the advertising consent prompt appears from MoPub.

You may opt out of having your personal information used or disclosed for certain purposes.

If you no longer want to receive marketing-related emails from us on a going-forward basis, you may opt out of receiving such communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email when they are sent to you.

9. Data Retention

We retain data for limited periods when it needs to be kept for legitimate business or legal purposes.

10. Children

The Service is directed to a mixed audience, including children under 16. We do not collect personal information from children under 16. More information on the services deactivated for users under 16 can be found in sections 4, 5, and 6.

11. Security

To protect your personal data from unauthorized access and abuse we have implemented technical and organizational security measures. We check these security measures regularly and adapt them, as necessary, to the state of technological progress. Our infrastructure is served via HTTPS, so that your smartphone or browser only communicates with our server over a secure channel.

12. Location of Storage

Please note that WFP is an international organisation so that your personally identifiable information may be processed also outside of the European Economic Area or outside any other area you might be located in when using the Service.

13. Notification of Changes

This privacy policy may change from time to time. Changes will be posted within the Service so Users are always aware of what information is collected and how it is used. Please make sure you read any such notice carefully. If you do not wish to continue using the Service under the new version of the Privacy Policy, please contact us through WFP.Freerice@wfp.org

14. Disclaimer – Links to other Sites and links to advertising

The Service contains hypertext links to other services. The World Food Programme assumes no responsibility for those services including the privacy practices or the content of such web sites.
The Service contains sponsored messages from third parties for users above the age of 16. We block all inappropriate industries and advertisers in advance, but if you see any advertisement you feel is inappropriate, please contact us immediately at WFP.Freerice@wfp.org and we will review, and if necessary, block the advertiser or connected ad network.

15. Privileges and Immunities

Nothing in or relating to this privacy policy or this Service shall be deemed a waiver of any of the privileges and immunities of the WFP under the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations and the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies.

16. Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy, please contact us at:

World Food Programme
Via Cesare Giulio Viola 68
00148 Rome, Italy
Tel: +39–06–65131
Fax: +39–06–6590632
E-mail: WFP.Freerice@wfp.org

Last modified: 14 October 2020