Freedom of Opinion and Expression Coalition Privacy Policy
The Freedom of Opinion and Expression Coalition undertakes to maintain the highest level of privacy possible for all participants in its activities, beneficiaries of its services, and Coalition members to the fullest extent possible, whether online or offline.
Recognizing that online activities may pose higher risks of privacy violation, the Coalition shall make all necessary and reasonable efforts to limit these risks. The present privacy policy spells out the measures adopted by the Coalition to protect privacy, keeping in mind that its efforts may be hampered by certain circumstances.
This policy shall apply to all participants in the Coalition’s activities, beneficiaries of its services, and all Coalition members, including employees, speakers, and attendees at all virtual and physical platforms.
Personal Data Processing
Personal data refers to any data that may be used to identity a specific individual.
As part of the Coalition’s activities, some personal data may be collected when individuals register to attend a certain activity and/or during their participation in an activity.
Personal data includes but is not limited to:
• Name
• Email address
• Affiliation, if any
• Place of residence
• Gender
Such data shall be used to the minimum extent necessary for organizing endeavors and activities, including correspondence, schedules, and internal record-keeping, such that individuals’ personal data is not sold, shared, or disclosed to third parties without the former’s prior express written consent.
In addition, personal data shall not be shared on any of the Coalition’s social media pages, promotional material, platforms, or other publicly available documents without prior express written consent. Only a small number of the Coalition’s employees shall have access to individuals’ personal data, noting that all employees shall adhere to the Coalition’s present privacy policy and Code of Conduct, which prohibit the sharing of any personal data without prior express written consent to do so.
In terms of sharing personal data with Lebanese and foreign public agencies, the Coalition shall comply with applicable Lebanese laws with regard to responding to an official request or judicial decision, provided that such laws, requests, and judicial decisions are in compliance with the International Human Rights Law, particularly with the adopted standards for ensuring the right to privacy, with a view to ensuring justice.
Before implementing any activity, the Coalition shall distribute prior express written consent forms to all participants, speakers, or session moderators before the scheduled event, so as to obtain their consent to the use of their personal data and permission to share such data with third parties. The form also includes different choices to determine the level of privacy expected from the Coalition by individuals, such as using pseudonyms or turning off the camera during sessions.
All reasonable measures shall be taken to meet the needs of attendees. In the event that the Coalition is unable to do so, the attendees will be notified before the session.
The Coalition prohibits any audio and video recordings of the sessions without prior express written consent from the Coalition, the speakers, and the session moderators. It shall be permissible to take notes and record statements in writing only, provided that any personal data is withheld. Stressing that the Coalition cannot completely control the behavior of all attendees, should any unauthorized recordings appear on the internet, the Coalition shall make all necessary efforts to remove such content.
Participants, speakers, and session moderators shall enjoy the following rights:
• Right to access: You have the right to access the personal data the Coalition has collected about you.
• Right to rectification: You have the right to request that the Coalition correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request that the Coalition complete any information you believe to be incomplete.
• Right to erasure: You have the right to have your personal data erased under certain circumstances.
• Right to restrict processing: You have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data under certain circumstances.
• Right to object to processing: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data under certain circumstances.
• Right to data portability: You have the right to request that the Coalition transfer the personal data it holds about you to another institution or to yourselves directly, under certain circumstances.
Services provided by third parties:
The Coalition may seek other service providers to perform certain functions when hosting events, such as registration platforms for activities and platforms dedicated for online activities. With respect to the contractual relationship between the Coalition, in its capacity as the activity organizer, and the service provider, the Coalition shall retain ownership of the personal data provided by individuals as part of their participation in the Coalition’s activities. The Coalition shall also seek to ensure, to the maximum extent possible, that such data is neither managed nor processed inappropriately.
The Coalition shall also seek service providers that share its commitment to ensuring privacy and digital security, but this does not mean that the Coalition controls the privacy policies adopted by such service providers.
Below are the privacy policies of the platforms and tools used by the Coalition:
• Venueless
• Paperform
Other Social Media Channels
The Coalition uses the following social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Any interactions on such platforms shall be subject to the privacy policies adopted by each platform and agreed upon by the users when subscribing to the said platforms. Therefore, the Coalition recommends reviewing these privacy policies (attached below) and checking your privacy settings on each platform.
Cookies
Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard Internet log information and visitor behavior information. When you visit our website, we may collect information from you automatically through cookies or similar tools.
We use cookies in a number of ways in order to improve your experience on our website. This includes:
• Keeping you logged in
• Understanding how you use our website
• Collecting your demographic data
There are several different types of cookies; our website used the following:
Function: We use cookies to identify you on our website and to save your pre-set preferences. This can include your language preference and geographical location. A combination of our own cookies and third-party cookies is used.
You can set your browser not to accept cookies. You can learn how to remove cookies from your browser by accessing this link. However, in a few cases, some of our website features may not function as a result.
Changes to the Privacy Policy
The Coalition may update or amend the present privacy policy at any time. The Coalition shall have the right to do so without prior notice, noting that such changes shall be announced at the start of any amendment to the policy, as well as after the amendments are made and the policy is published in its final version on the Coalition’s social media channels and website. Subscribers to the Coalition’s mailing list will also be notified of such changes.
