Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Co-Pod is an App for recording and disseminating information about cocoa farming practices, with the goal of supporting implementation of climate-smart agriculture in the cocoa supply chain. It is operated by the University of Dundee, Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC) Ghana, Flumens and UKCEH (The Partners). The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) is the data controller.

• UKCEH is an independent, not-for-profit research institute and is a registered Charity in England & Wales (number 1185618) and in Scotland (number SC049849), and a registered Company Limited by Guarantee in England & Wales (number 11314957).

UKCEH is the controller for all processing of personal data for the purposes of allowing farmers to track information over time and linking farm-level information to cocoa yield. The main UKCEH Privacy Notice is here.

2. Why are we collecting your information?

UKCEH collects the minimal personal data to run the Co-Pod app features and to communicate with you. When using the Co-Pod App, we will retain the personal data you provide.

The personal data about you that we may collect includes:

• Name
• District/Community
• Tenure arrangement
• Phone number
• Gender (Optional)
• Photographs of self and farm (Optional)

• Location and farm area, as determined through the Farm Boundary Tool
• Cocoa yield
• Additional voluntary fields of agricultural and ecological interest, specific to your farm (including but not limited to shade trees, pest and disease occurrence, management practices such as weeding, pruning and chemical applications and dates of these activities)

In data protection terms we are using the ‘lawful basis’ of ‘consent’ & ‘legitimate interest’ for collecting, processing and sharing your personal data.

All data held by UKCEH is compliant with UK data protection legislation and the basis on which we process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, is covered by the UKCEH privacy notice.

We use this information to support our work in various ways including monitoring performance, improving design, protecting against malicious behaviour, and supporting funding applications.

3. How are we storing your information and will we share it?

All the personal data that we collect will be stored securely in a Google Cloud database for as long as the life of this project or extension through ongoing projects; the data gathered over time will improve our ability to feedback to users about the efficacy of farm practices and impacts of varying environmental conditions as we learn more from your data.

When the Co-Pod mobile application project and any ancillary projects cease, we will then delete the personal information we hold about you.

Personal information you provide us with may be shared with:

• The Partners

Other than as set out above, and except where we have a legal obligation to so do, we will not share your personal data with anyone else, and we will always adhere to current UK Data Protection Legislation.

4. Your rights and legal purpose

The GDPR (General Data Protection) clearly defines individual’s rights for your data. We are collecting and processing this data under Legitimate Interest & Consent. Your rights, are as follows:

• Right to access, view, and edit information in a timely manner.
• Right to be forgotten, which means being deleted from our records (you can contact the Co-Pod project team at any time and request that your details be deleted).

If you have any concerns about how your personal data is being used, we will try to answer any questions you have. The UKCEH Data Protection Officer can be contacted at cehdataprotection@ceh.ac.uk. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. You also have the right to an effective judicial remedy against decisions of the Information Commissioner’s Office.

5. Deletion of Data

We will retain only the personal data necessary for us to effectively operate the Co-Pod app. We will review the personal data we manage annually and delete any data we deem is no longer required. Any personal data provided to us for inclusion on the Co-Pod app database will be shown there until either we or the party concerned decide otherwise. In such situations, we may consider it necessary to retain some data to maintain communication with the party involved, or to reactivate a web page. However, we will not retain such data for more than 1 year. Data relating to any personal accounts linked with the Co-Pod app, e.g. the accounts of online forum members, will be retained until said account is no longer required.

This Privacy Notice may be updated from time to time. If changes are made to this Privacy Notice in the future, users will be notified, with access to the updated version.