Introduction
Global Innovation Fund (“GIF”, “we”, “our”, “us”) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
We invest in the development, rigorous testing, and scaling of innovations targeted at improving the lives of the world’s poorest people. We use personal information in the course of our investments (whether through grant funding or investment into a company or project). This includes information about the senior leadership team of a prospective or current investee (a company or organisation), key individuals (for example, experts) involved in a particular project, and even beneficiaries of our investments. We refer to these individuals as Investee People.
If you are GIF staff, or if you work with us in another way (for example, as an external reviewer under a contract), then please note that the Staff Privacy Notice will apply to the processing of your personal information. This can be requested from: dataqueries@globalinnovation.fund.
The purpose of this notice is to give Investee People information about:
This notice sets out the basis on which we will process your personal information. Please read this notice carefully so that you understand your rights in relation to your personal information.
This notice may be updated from time to time. We will post any revised notice on our website and will make reasonable efforts to provide you with a revised notice if we make any substantial updates. It is important you read this notice, so that you are aware of how and why we are using your personal information.
For information about who we are and how to get in touch with us, see section 9 at the end of this notice.
When we use the phrase personal information in this notice, we mean any information that relates to you or could be used to identify you. At its simplest, this could be your name and your job title. Personal information will also include any information provided in background checks that we run on you, as well as any feedback about you that we receive in relation to an investment.
As part of the assessment process, the personal information we collect includes (but is not restricted to):
During the administration of our investments, the personal information that we collect and use includes (but is not restricted to):
Certain types of personal information are sensitive and need more protection. For example, information about your race or ethnic origins, political opinions, sex life or sexual orientation, religious beliefs, health information, biometric and genetic data. There are also special rules about the use of criminal information (information about criminal convictions or allegations about criminal convictions).
We will not usually collect these types of personal information about you. We will only process these types of personal information about you if we have a valid reason for doing so and only if the law allows us to do so. One example is that we may receive this information in response to background checks on a member of the senior leadership team of an applicant. We consider it is necessary to carry out such background checks to protect the public against dishonesty, seriously improper conduct or mismanagement of a body or association.
Please note that the provision of certain personal information to us is necessary for us to assess whether or not we will make or continue to make an investment. If an applicant or investee does not to provide us with this personal information, we may not be able to proceed with the investment.
2. Sources of personal information
Because of the nature of our investments, we do not normally collect personal information directly from the Investee People. Most of the personal information we collect and use comes from third party sources, which we have listed below:
3. How we use your personal information
Legal bases
We will only use personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:
Purposes of processing
We process personal information for the following purposes:
There may be more than one purpose for which we wish to use your personal information in any particular circumstance. For example, if you are a member of the senior leadership team of an applicant we may use your personal information to assess the investment, and then we may continue to use your personal information in order to then administer that investment.
We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purposes. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
4. Who we share your personal information with
GIF operates as part of a wider group of organisations. This includes non-profit, wholly-owned subsidiaries in the US and Kenya and our UK subsidiary, GIF Growth. We share personal information within our group where necessary for the purposes set out above in section 3.
We also share personal information with the relevant investee (or prospective investee) where appropriate. For example, when we provide feedback as part of the assessment process.
We share your information with selected unaffiliated recipients. These categories of recipients include:
5. When and how we transfer your personal information internationally
The information that we collect from you will be transferred to and stored at/processed in the UK, the European Economic Area (EEA), United States and, if applicable to your funding application, other relevant countries outside the above.
Some of these countries have a lower standard of protection for personal information. Where your personal information is transferred, stored, and/or otherwise processed outside the UK or EEA in a country which does not offer an equivalent standard of protection to the UK or EEA, we will take all reasonable steps necessary to ensure that the recipient implements appropriate safeguards designed to protect your personal information. For instance:
Our staff also operates from around the world, from the UK to the US and beyond. We have systems, policies and training in place with our staff, which helps make sure that your information continues to be protected to a high standard. We also have in place intra-group agreements which include the Standard Contractual Clauses.
6. How we keep your personal information safe
GIF takes reasonable technical and organisational measures to safeguard your personal information against loss, theft and unauthorised use, access or modification.
We will, from time to time, host links to and from the websites of our affiliates or third parties. If you follow a link to any of these websites, these websites will have their own privacy policies and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any information to those websites.
7. How long do we keep your personal information
We will keep your personal information only for as long as required in connection with the purposes for which it was collected and/or is used. For example:
We may also retain information for longer periods where we are required to do so in accordance with legal or regulatory requirements, such as tax and accounting.
In specific circumstances we may also retain your personal information for longer so that we have an accurate record of your dealings with us in the event of any complaints or challenges.
If you would like further information about this, please contact us using the details at section 9.
8. Your rights
When we use your personal information you have the right to:
There are other rights which are unlikely to apply to our use of your personal information. For example, the right to ask for the provision of your personal information in a machine-readable format (the data portability right) to either yourself or a third party, provided that the personal information in question has been provided to us by you, and is being processed by us: (i) in reliance on your consent; or (ii) because it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party; and in either instance, we are processing it using automated means.
In the event that we rely on consent as the legal basis to use your personal information, you have a right to withdraw your consent at any time.
If you have any questions about how we process your personal information, please feel free to get in touch via dataqueries@globalinnovation.fund.
Please note that you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority. For example, in the UK this is the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk/concerns.
9. Who we are and how to contact us
Global Innovation Fund is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity established in the United Kingdom with a registered office at 8 Devonshire Square, London EC2M 4PL. Our company number is: 09223487 and our registered charity number is: 1171353.
Questions, comments and requests regarding this notice are welcomed and should be addressed to dataqueries@globalinnovation.fund.
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