Welcome to Civocracy! We invite you to use our platform and website, but please note that this invitation is subject to your agreement with the Terms of Use detailed below.
Our Terms of Use apply to Civocracy’s platform located at www.civocracy.org as well as Civocracy’s website located at www.civocracy.com.
Acceptance and revision of Terms of Use
By creating a user profile on Civocracy’s platform, Users expressly agree to the Terms laid out in this notice.
The Terms of Use are regularly updated in accordance with regulatory and technical changes relating to the product and services provided by Civocracy.
Civocracy informs Users of any updates that may be made to these general conditions of use. In the event of changes, Civocracy asks the User to accept the updated Terms of Use.
Our Terms of Use are enforceable against Civocracy Customers within the limits of the provisions of the special agreements governing their contractual relations.
Civocracy’s mission
Civocracy provides governments and organisations with an online participation platform and expert services that were designed to put citizens at the centre of decision-making processes.
Civocracy offers Users and Customers a digital interface available in several languages for hosting discussions, creating questionnaires and facilitating cross-sector exchange among diverse actors (associations, companies, institutional partners, services’ Users). For Customers, use of the Civocracy platform is combined with project-management services.
Ultimately, we strive to foster a community of actors committed to working collectively on local issues.
The Civocracy platform
Civocracy provides Users with a platform for generating collective intelligence and impactful collaboration, with tools for debate, surveying, posting ideas, participatory budgeting and e-mapping.
Following the SaaS (Software as a service) model, Civocracy provides a platform that doesn’t require any installation or maintenance of software from its Customers. Civocracy provides access to the Civocracy platform 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Note that Civocracy may suspend, limit or interrupt access to the platform and/or to certain pages in the event of updates and modifications that are considered necessary for improved performance of the Civocracy platform.
How can Users participate on the Civocracy platform?
To participate, Users need to create an account. To register on the platform, Users must complete a brief registration form that asks for their name, email and the creation of a password.
In some cases, additional information may be requested to enable participation in consultations. Only information that is necessary for Customers’ statistical analysis of projects, such as demographic tracking, will be retrieved and all information will be anonymised before it is shared with the Customer.
In order to avoid the creation of fake accounts, we ask Users to confirm their email address upon registration. Only one registration per person is allowed.
Users can participate in discussions anonymously or use a pseudonym.
How can Users delete their Civocracy account?
Users can delete their profile on the Civocracy platform at any time by clicking ‘settings’ and ‘delete my account’.
What happens to the Users’ data after they delete their account?
Upon deletion, Users’ accounts are deleted and all the content that the User has published on the Civocracy Platform is anonymised. All personal data will be deleted so that it is no longer possible to link it to an identified or identifiable natural person.
How can Users manage notifications?
There are 4 different categories of notifications:
- necessary information regarding Users’ accounts and technical management of their account
- information related to a community and/or project that the User follows (news and updates, opening of new consultations etc.)
- information regarding activity and/or interaction with a Users’ contribution on the platform (replies to a contribution etc.)
- additional information for administrators
Users can modify their email notification settings on their profile-page at any time.
What does the administrator interface comprise?
Users with administrator access can open and customise communities on the Civocracy platform, create and manage participation modules, access an analytics dashboard that lists essential statistics regarding their consultation(s), and communicate directly with the followers of their page.
Civocracy does not share the personal data of Users with Customers with administrator-access, except for information that is openly accessible to all other Users as well. All quantitative and qualitative reporting on projects on the Civocracy platform are shared with Customers only in anonymised form.
Responsible processing, transfer and storage of data on the Civocracy platform
How does Civocracy implement data transparency?
Civocracy is an open-data platform and all content published on the Civocracy platform is publicly available with the exception of private communities, which can only be accessed through an encrypted code or are restricted to authorised Users only. This way, Civocracy seeks to foster transparency. However, all Users can choose to use a pseudonym or to participate anonymously.
All data, except for personal data, is accessible through our API (Application Programming Interface), which allows visitors to extract all unencrypted data from the platform.
What does the Civocracy platform use cookies for?
When navigating the Civocracy platform, certain data is retrieved from your browser, generally in the form of cookies. This anonymous data is used to improve your experience on the Civocracy platform and to ensure that everything functions correctly. Civocracy only collects cookies needed to optimize navigation and never uses them for commercial or advertising purposes. Civocracy collects analytics information when you use the platform to help us improve it, including through the use of cookies.
You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking on Manage your cookies in the footer.
You can learn more about the use of cookies in our Privacy Notice.
Here are the cookies used on the Civocracy Platform (www.civocracy.org):
Service |
Purpose |
Cookie name |
Cookie retention |
Usage |
Civocracy |
||||
www.civocracy.org |
functional |
cookieconsent_status |
13 months |
user consents preferences |
functional |
civocracy:session |
persistent** |
Logged-in user only - session duration : 1 day |
|
functional |
locale |
6 months |
store the last locale chosen by the user |
|
functional |
questionnaireCompleted_# |
6 months |
store a completed status for each answered questionnaires |
|
functional |
questionnairewait_# |
1 day |
avoid showing a specific questionnaire for the cookie duration |
|
functional |
nofollow_# |
3 days |
avoid asking the user to follow a particular community for the cookie duration |
|
backend server |
functional |
PHPSESSID |
session* |
session manager |
Matomo Piwik |
statistics |
_pk_id# |
1 year |
|
statistics |
_pk_ses# |
1 day |
||
statistics |
pixel - piwik.php |
|||
Third-party cookie |
||||
Zendesk |
||||
Zendesk core User Support |
statistics |
ZD-buid |
1 year |
user tracking - preferences, statistics and usages |
functional |
ZD-store |
persistent** |
user preferences |
|
statistics |
ZD-suid |
persistent** |
user tracking - preferences, statistics and usages |
|
functional |
__cfruid |
session* |
server load balancing |
|
AWS - hosting |
||||
functional |
AWSALBCORS |
6 days |
server load balancing |
|
|
||||
Youtube/ doubleclick.net |
statistics |
IDE |
1 year |
store a unique user ID - user usages tracking |
functional |
test_cookie |
1 day |
functional test |
|
Youtube |
functional |
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE |
180 days |
bandwidth probing |
statistics |
YSC |
session* |
store a unique user ID - Youtube usages |
|
statistics |
yt.innertube::nextid |
persistent** |
store a unique user ID - Youtube usages |
|
statistics |
yt.innertube::requests |
persistent** |
store a unique user ID - Youtube usages |
|
statistics |
yt-remote-cast-installed |
session* |
store user preferences |
|
statistics |
yt-remote-connected-devices |
persistent** |
store user preferences |
|
statistics |
yt-remote-device-id |
persistent** |
store user preferences |
|
statistics |
yt-remote-fast-check-period |
session* |
store user preferences |
|
statistics |
yt-remote-session-app |
session* |
store user preferences |
|
statistics |
yt-remote-session-name |
session* |
store user preferences |
Here are the cookies used on the Civcracy Website (www.civocracy.com):
Service |
Purpose |
Cookie name |
Cookie retention |
Usage |
Wix |
||||
www.civocracy.com |
Essential |
XSRF-TOKEN |
Session |
Used for security reasons |
Essential |
hs |
Session |
Used for security reasons |
|
Essential |
svSession |
2 years |
Used in connection with user login |
|
Essential |
SSR-caching |
1 minute |
Used to indicate the system from which the site was rendered |
|
Essential |
_wixCIDX |
3 months |
Used for system monitoring/debugging |
|
Essential |
_wixUIDX |
3 months |
Used for system monitoring/debugging |
|
Essential |
_wix_browser_sess |
session |
Used for system monitoring/debugging |
|
Essential |
consent-policy |
12 months |
Used for cookie banner parameters |
|
Essential |
smSession |
Session |
Used to identify logged in site members |
|
Essential |
TS* |
Session |
Used for security and anti-fraud reasons |
|
Essential |
bSession |
30 minutes |
Used for system effectiveness measurement |
|
Essential |
fedops.logger.sessionId |
12 months |
Used for stability/effectiveness measurement |
|
Functional |
wixLanguage |
12 months |
Used on multilingual websites to save user language preference |
|
Google Analytics |
||||
.civocracy.com |
Analytics |
_ga |
2 years |
used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. |
Analytics |
_gid |
1 day |
used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. The data collected includes the number of visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visited in an anonymous form. |
|
Analytics |
_gat_gtag_UA_152851170_1 |
1 minute |
used to throttle request rate |
*session cookies are used optionally with your consent by our anonymous statistics tool and to allow you to log in to your Civocracy account. These allow you to browse a website (here Civocracy) without having to constantly configure your preferences or log in again when you leave the page. Your browser keeps these cookies for 24 hours. After this time, you will have to log in again as the session cookies will be deleted.
**persistent cookies have a longer lifespan because they help you keep some of your settings longer and make it easier to navigate the Civocracy site. This includes your choice of language or your desire not to answer an optional request.
How can you turn Cookies off on your browser?
All modern web browsers allow you to change your Cookie settings. You can usually find these settings in the ‘Options’ or ‘Preferences’ menu of your browser. In order to understand these settings, the following links may be helpful or you can use the ‘Help’ option in your browser for more details.
- Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
- Cookie settings in Chrome
- Cookie settings in Safari Web and iOS
Where can I find more information about cookies?
To find out more about Cookies and their use on the Internet, you may find the following websites useful:
- What are cookies? | Cookies & You (in English)
- Cookie | CNIL (in French)
- Welche Informationen sind in einem Cookie? (in German)
- Todo sobre cookies ordenador (in Spanish)
How is Users’ personal data managed on the Civocracy platform?
Upon registration and with the explicit consent from the User, an account is created that stores and summarises the Users’ activity on the Civocracy platform. This relates to the Users’ use of pages (contributions submitted, pages visited etc.) as well as the information listed in their profile.
For non-registered Users, Civocracy collects and processes only anonymous data for statistics and analytics purposes. Civocracy does not track the activity of the same User during different sessions on the Civocracy platform.
Civocracy guarantees the non-indexing of personal and consultation data, subscriber profile pages or contribution pages by search engines.
Civocracy Users have the right to oppose the use of and modify or delete personal data at any time. Users may obtain access to their personal data from Civocracy's data controller. They may also request that their data is updated or deleted when it is inaccurate, incomplete, ambiguous, outdated, or when its collection, use, disclosure or retention is prohibited.
To make use of these rights, the User should send their request by email to the Civocracy data controller: myprivacy@civocracy.org
How and for what purposes does Civocracy process Users’ data?
Civocracy never processes personal data for commercial or advertising purposes. Users’ data is only processed for the following purposes:
- To authenticate and verify Users at the time of connection to the platform and throughout the duration of their session.
- To personalise the User experience by providing them with the most recent content, and relevant news items, based on the time of their last visit and their subscriptions to communities, projects or modules.
- To send updated information relating to the legal notice.
- To perform anonymized statistics and analytics for our Customers.
- To analyse data for the development of new services, the improvement and modification to the Civocracy platform, and the identification of usage trends to optimise User experience.
- To facilitate sharing features, such as social media sharing.
- To maintain the platform and guarantee its security and accessibility.
What data is collected by Civocracy?
This is an exhaustive list of all the data collected from Users:
All Users :
Storing Users’ preferences, facilitate the User experience and normal operation of the website :
- Language preferences (through limited life-time cookie)
- Cookies consent choices (through limited life-time cookie)
Statistics and analytics:
In order to measure the audience and performance of its website, Civocracy uses Matomo-Piwik, a statistics tool recommended by national data protection authorities. These cookies provide us with information on the use of the site. The use of our analytical tool is strictly limited to the sole measurement of the audience of our platform (number of visitors on our pages, average time spent, language used, country location, browser software used) and for the exclusive behalf of Civocracy. This tool is only used to produce anonymous statistical data, Matomo-Piwik does not retrieve the IP address of Users and does not proceed any cross-referencing data with registered Users. The data is exclusively stored on Civocracy specific server.
Users on registered account :
Account data :
- Full name or pseudonym
- Email, email confirmation, password if the User uses the built-in Civocracy email sign-in
- Facebook profile link if the User logs in using their Facebook account
- User profile data provided by the User (including cover image, profile picture, description, interests)
Tracked data (that is necessary to ensure a satisfactory User experience):
- Language preferences
- Date of last connection and visit
- Submitted and upvoted content
- Questionnaire responses
- Communities followed on the platform
- Current location to enable the mapping feature
Data collected only from administrators:
- Community created
- Projects created
- Modules created
- Updates published
- Events created
Website (www.civocracy.com):
- Name and email address for the newsletter
Where is data transferred to?
Civocracy never shares any personal data with Customers or other third-parties, and does not use personal data for commercial or advertising purposes.
Data from communities, projects, modules, as well as page visits, are shared with the relevant Customer only as an anonymised and encrypted data set.
Civocracy uses the following applications:
- MandrillApp: notification emails are sent via this tool using an encrypted data set. MandrillApp does not store or process any personal data from Civocracy’s Users, but only sends requested email notifications.
- Cloudinary: is used to store and upload images to the platform. No personal data is transferred to Cloudinary. This third party is necessary for the proper functioning of the platform in order for the Users to be able to upload images and documents.
- Zendesk: is used for User support in the case of navigation problems or general questions. Users consent to give their email address in order to be contacted by our User support team. Once a request is closed, all personal data is automatically deleted.
- Facebook: is only used for authentication purposes (SSO), and it does not allow any tracking on the Civocracy platform nor on Facebook. The data received and stored by Civocracy depends on the information that the User or social media opts to share with Civocracy and is strictly limited to the data stored for any authenticated User.
- Youtube: is used to allow our Users to share videos on the platform.
- WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook: used as sharing applications on your social media.
Our Privacy Policy does not address the information or other practices of any third parties, including third parties who operate a site or service to which our services are linked. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of such third parties. Our inclusion of a link on our services does not imply our endorsement of the linked site or service. Therefore, it is your responsibility to contact and/or consult directly with the applications and websites of these third parties to obtain additional information regarding their Privacy Policy procedures.
For fraud prevention purposes, Civocracy may disclose User's personal data if deemed necessary for investigatory purposes, to prevent suspicious activity, or to protect the safety, rights and property of Civocracy, its Users and others.
Civocracy may disclose the User's personal data if requested or required by government authorities, such as law enforcement, courts or regulators, and to comply with the law. Civocracy may also disclose information collected about Users in order to exercise or protect legal rights, or to defend against legal claims.
Please note that if you decide to publish data relating to your private life or sensitive data, - such as your political or philosophical opinions, your political party membership or your trade union membership, information about your health, your sexual orientation, your religious beliefs - on your own initiative or deduced from your participation of any nature on the Civocracy platform linked to your profile, you have to be careful because these will be visible.
Civocracy informs you that according to Article 9§2e) of the GDPR, the processing of sensitive data made public by the data subject is not covered by the prohibition of processing.
Where is Users’ data stored?
The Civocracy platform is hosted on OVH, recognised for meeting the highest security requirements, at their Data Center in France. All data (excluding images and other media stored in Cloudinary) is hosted and stored by OVH on the OVH Cloud Service.
Consultation data (www.civocracy.org) is hosted on OVH servers within the European Union at this address:
OVH Groupe SAS
2 rue Kellermann
59100 Roubaix - France
Contact: here
Civocracy website (www.civcoracy.com) is hosted on Wix Online Platform Limited at this address:
1 Grant’s Row
Dublin 2 D02HX96, Ireland
Contact: here
Civocracy keeps your consultation data for up to five years. This helps us to analyze and impact your project over time.
Civocracy website keeps your contact details up to three years after the subscription to the newsletter.
Users’ rights
In keeping with the GDPR’s intention to help Users gain control over their personal data, the Civocracy platform ensures that all 8 rights laid out in in chapter 3 of the GDPR are complied with, namely:
- the right to be informed about how Users’ data is being processed.
- the right of access to information about any of their personal data being processed.
- the right to rectification in the case of inaccurate information.
- the right to erasure or “the right to be forgotten”.
- the right to restrict processing by way of requesting a company to refrain from processing data for specific purposes.
- the right to data portability by way of requesting a copy of any personal data that is being processed.
- the right to object to the processing of data.
- right related to automated decision-making and profiling
If you have any questions regarding the enforceability of your rights as a Civocracy User, please do not hesitate to contact us at myprivacy@civocracy.org.
You have the right to lodge a complaint with the national authority in charge of the protection of personal data. To get the contact details of the competent authority in your country, click here.
Security
Civocracy ensures the pseudonymisation and encryption of personal data on its platform.
All connection requests made on the browser to the Civocracy server are made securely (via HTTPS) and identified using a secure standard authorisation method (OAuth2).
The main API is protected so that only Users with a sufficient level of access can access their data on demand. These audits include:
- Username and password
- Authorisation for this particular request
- Token validity
All saved sensitive authentication information (password type) is encrypted using a unidirectional encryption algorithm (SHA512) with a salt. This is the case for User passwords.
Reliability of and liability for Information shared on the Civocracy platform
Civocracy does not monitor, fact-check or verify the personal information provided by its Users. At the time of registration, the User agrees to provide accurate, sincere and up-to-date information about themselves. It is the responsibility of each User to ensure the accuracy of the personal data submitted by regularly checking and updating their data.
Who is responsible for the information shared on the Civocracy platform?
Users and Customers are solely responsible for the accuracy, reliability and quality of the information they opt to share on the Civocracy platform. Users bear sole responsibility for their interactions with other Users on the Civocracy platform and all information shared in the process.
Civocracy is not responsible for any hypertext links to external websites or for references from its interfaces by the Users of the platform.
What happens when information is shared on social media?
Users can share their activities on the Civocracy platform with other websites and social networks. In this event, Users give Civocracy authorisation to share information with their social network account provider and confirm their understanding that all information shared by Civocracy will be managed under the social network site's own privacy policy.
Can Users access their personal data?
In keeping with the User rights laid out in Chapter 3 of the GDPR, all Users maintain the right to access, correct and delete their personal data, which can be exercised via their profile page, or by sending an email to the data controller at the following address: myprivacy@civocracy.org. Moreover, Users can request that Civocracy refrains from processing their data for certain purposes, that it refrains from processing their data altogether or that a copy of their processed data is sent to them.
Liability
Except in the cases listed herein, in which only the User is held liable, Civocracy's liability may only be engaged under the conditions of ordinary law.
Civocracy's liability is limited to direct damages resulting from its activity. Civocracy is not liable for indirect damages resulting from the use or difficulties in using the platform and its services. Civocracy cannot be held liable in the event of force majeure or the unforeseeable and insurmountable activities of a third party.
Insurance
Civocracy declares that it has subscribed to an insurance policy, and is covered in the event of professional civil liability for any damage resulting from the undertaking of its activities. Civocracy excludes any hardware or personal damages occurring while using the platform.
Civocracy is able to justify this on request.
Intellectual property
Domain names, software programs and databases on the Civocracy Platform remain the exclusive property of Civocracy, and are protected by intellectual and industrial property rights recognised by applicable national and European laws.
Any representation, reproduction, adaptation or total or partial use of these elements and contents without the express written authorisation of Civocracy is strictly prohibited.
Access to the Civocracy Platform does not confer any intellectual property rights relating to any element of the Platform, which remain the exclusive property of Civocracy.
Civocracy has licences and authorisations to use the graphic, audio and video elements provided by its Partners and Customers, including for commercial purposes.
Users, Partners and Customers guarantee that the content they publish on the Platform is free of rights or that they have obtained the rights to use such content. Civocracy cannot be held responsible for the use of unauthorised content by Users, Customers or other third parties, such as graphic, audio, video material.
Civocracy services
In addition to the platform, Civocracy provides consulting services for the formulation of impactful and engaging consultations, as well as to build knowledge around digital communication and community engagement.
Moreover, Civocracy provides training and educational services on digital citizen participation, specifically on fostering a network of engaged actors committed to collaborative online approaches.
Lastly, Civocracy provides quantitative and qualitative analysis of the digital participation consultations launched by its Customers on its platform.
Moderation
All User-generated content on the Civocracy platform is moderated by the in-house Civocracy team in accordance with its Code of Conduct, available here.
Civocracy allows the publication of hypertext links to external web pages and documents, provided that the inclusion of these links does not serve commercial or advertising purposes, and that the content of these links is not illegal, violent, shocking, pornographic, xenophobic or likely to offend. Civocracy reserves the right to remove any content that could be considered as generally offensive.
Users can flag content that they consider to not be in compliance with the platform’s Code of Conduct. The reported content is automatically hidden and prioritised for analysis by Civocracy teams for proper processing.
Should the content of a specific User be flagged repeatedly, Civocracy reserves the right to take appropriate measures, from sending warning emails to deleting the User’s account.
Digital ethics
Civocracy’s engagement platform and management services were designed to provide an alternative to conventional social media. We are committed to fostering respectful, inclusive and constructive dialogue between citizens to help communities overcome their most pressing challenges. To help our mission along, we have put 4 values at the core of our decision making:
- Transparency: we want to contribute to an open flow of information that allows Citizens to make informed decisions with real impact.
- Collaboration: we strive to connect people through respectful and constructive exchange around important issues that reflect a diversity of opinions.
- Accessibility: to ensure that all Citizens have an equal chance of participating, the process of contributing must be simple and digitally accessible. To learn more about our accessibility policy, click here.
- Inclusion: to help build better communities, it is essential that people with a variety of backgrounds and experiences are involved in everyday decision making.
This provides the frame for how we process your data. At Civocracy, we care about your data. We promote the use of anonymization and our Cookie Policy solely serves to ensure that your experience on our platform is optimal. Civocracy only collects cookies needed to optimize navigation and never uses them for commercial or advertising purposes. We only process data to foster Citizen engagement and collective initiatives’ success.
Our algorithm was built to follow and further these values as well as democratic principles at large. We ensure that you are exposed to diverse points of view, not just one.
If you are a registered User, we show you all unread content first. Aside from this prioritisation of unread content, our sorting algorithm does not filter or order any navigation data analytics but simply promotes all last seen content. You can change the order of the content at any time by using the filtering feature. You can also save ideas as your favorites.
If you are not a registered User, we will provide you with a selection of the latest, the most commented on and the most engaged with content (through reactions, comments and upvotes), allowing you to form your own opinion.
We provide you with diverse ways of expressing yourself, including the ‘citizen reactions’ emojis, which foster a constructive tone on the platform.
What if I still have questions?
We know that the terms of use can seem long and complex to read, that’s why we try to keep them as accessible as possible. However, if you still have questions or recommendations, you can contact us at the following address contact@civocracy.org.
Our Terms of Use are regularly updated, you will be informed at each revision of its content.
The last update was on August 23, 2021.
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