IFOAM is pleased that you have visited our website and are interested in our organization, products and services. It is important to us to protect your personal data during handling throughout the entire business process. We want you to feel secure when you visit our Internet pages. In the following, we explain what information IFOAM collects when you visit our website and how this information is used.

Personal data

Personal data is specific information about personal or factual characteristics relating to a certain natural person or a natural person who can be specified. This includes information such as your real name, address, telephone number and date of birth and will only be collected if you provide these data voluntarily. Information which cannot be directly linked to your real identity - such as favorite websites or number of users of a site - is not considered personal data.

Collection and processing of personal data

When you visit our web pages, our web servers always temporarily save for security purposes the connection data of the computer connecting to our site, a list of the web pages that you visit within our site, the date and duration of your visit, the identification data of the type of browser and operation system used as well as the website through which you linked to our site. Additional personal information such as your name, address, telephone number or e-mail address is not collected unless you provide these data voluntarily, e.g. as part of a registration, survey, competition, fulfillment of contract or an information request.

Utilization and passing on of personal data

We use the personal data which you have made available to us exclusively for technical administration of the web pages and to fulfill your wishes and requests - thus primarily for fulfillment of a contract concluded with you or to answer your request. IFOAM does not share, sell, transfer or otherwise disseminate your personal data to third parties, unless this is required for the purpose of the contract or unless you have given express consent to do so. For instance, it may be necessary to pass on your address and order data to our contractors when you order products. Only when you have previously granted your approval or - if so stipulated by legal regulations - have not raised an objection do we also use this data for product-related surveys and marketing purposes.

Information from IFOAM

IFOAM would like to contact you in order to provide you with information about our services, events and new publications. When registering on our web pages, we therefore kindly request that you indicate whether or not you would like to receive direct information material from us. As a customer of IFOAM, you will naturally continue to receive necessary information about important developments in the organization.

Use of cookies

Our web pages do not usually use cookies. Only in exceptional cases are so-called session cookies deposited in your browser's memory in order to store data needed for technical guidance of the session. This data is not personal in nature and is deleted when you close your browser at the latest. If we should need to save personal data on a cookie in exceptional cases, we will request your express permission to do so in advance. We would furthermore like to point out that browsers usually offer functions for administration of cookies.

Security

IFOAM takes all of the necessary technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal data from being lost or misused. For instance, your data is saved in a secure operating environment which is not accessible to the public. Within the context of the IFOAM web shop your personal data is encrypted by Secure Socket Layer technology (SSL) during transmission. This means that an approved encryption procedure is used for communication between your computer and the IFOAM servers if your browser supports SSL. Should you wish to contact IFOAM by e-mail, we would like to point out that the confidentiality of the information sent cannot be guaranteed. The contents of e-mail messages can be read by third parties. We therefore recommend you send us confidential information only by post or fax.

Right to information

Upon written request, we will inform you what personal data (e.g. name, address) we have saved on you.

Contact

If you have questions in regard to the processing of your personal data, please contact the IFOAM data protection team. They are also available to help with information requests, take suggestions or handle complaints.

Disclaimer

IFOAM continually checks and updates the information provided on its website. Despite thorough checks certain data may have changed since posting on the site. The federation can therefore not assume any liability or issue any guarantee for the information provided being current, correct or complete. The same applies to all other web pages to which a person might be directed by hyperlinks. IFOAM is not responsible for the content of the web pages reached via this type of link. IFOAM's name and logo are protected. Therefore it may not be reproduced without the prior consent of IFOAM. The content and structure of the IFOAM website is under copyright protection. As the world wide adoption of Organic Agriculture is IFOAM's goal, we encourage you and grant permission to use the information of this website for that purpose. When doing so we expect you to give credits to IFOAM in the following way: "(c) IFOAM, Charles-de-Gaulle-Str.5, 53113 Bonn, Germany, www.ifoam.org"

Bonn, 15th April 2005