Last updated: 25 Feb 2025
1. Who we are and what is the purpose of this document
This Privacy Policy has been prepared by GapMinder VC., a company registered in the Netherlands, with its registered office at Jan van Goyenkade 8, 1075 HP Amsterdam, registered with the Trade Register at the Chamber of Commerce of the Netherlands with registration number 70463123 (hereinafter “we” or “Company” or “GapMinder“), as owner of the www.gapminder.vc website and the official Gapminder social media pages across various platforms (the “GapMinder Platform” or “Website”).
This document is intended to detail why and how we collect personal data of visitors to our Website and individuals who interact with us through social media networks. Our Privacy Policy covers personal data obtained through GapMinder Platform and email communications.
This Privacy Policy applies to visitors of www.gapminder.vc website and users of or individuals who engage with us through our social media pages. Further details about the purposes of processing, legal basis and categories of personal data processed are detailed in Section 2 (Purposes, processing grounds and categories of personal data we process) of this Privacy Policy.
“Personal data” means to any information related to an identified or identifiable natural person. An identifiable person is someone who can be recognized, directly or indirectly, through identifiers such as a name, identification number, location data, online identifier, or other specific attributes related to their physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, or social identity.
This Privacy Policy contains important information regarding GapMinder’s use of your data. Therefore, we recommend that you take the time to read this Privacy Policy in its entirety and carefully before interacting with us. If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact us using the information at the end of this document or on the GapMinder Platform. It is important to us that you have a clear and complete understanding of how and why we use your information, how we protect it, and what rights you have in relation to your personal data.
This Privacy Policy mainly describes:
- who we are;
- the purposes for which we collect and use your personal data;
- the legal grounds on which our data processing is based (respectively, the legal basis that allows us to process your data);
- the categories of personal data we process;
- the duration of the processing of such data;
- your rights as data subjects and the manner in which you can exercise these rights; and
- persons to whom we disclose or may disclose your personal data.
This Privacy Policy has been prepared by GapMinder, as data controller, in view of ensuring compliance with articles 13-14 of Regulation 2016/679 on the protection of individuals concerning the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data, which repeals Directive 95/46/EC (“GDPR“).
2. The purposes, processing grounds and categories of personal data we process
Depending on how you interact with GapMinder, we collect different categories of your personal data, used according to the purposes and grounds detailed below in this section.
2.1. If you are a visitor of our www.gapminder.vc or you want to contact us
| Activity | Purposes | Categories of Personal Data | Legal Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use of GapMinder Website* | We collect and process your data while you use our website to facilitate your access to the website and ensure its functionality and security. Additionally, we use this data to monitor website traffic and activity. We carry out the activities regarding these purposes via cookies. | IP address used for connection
Date and time of connection Details of the device used for connection |
Our legitimate interest in providing visitors with access to the GapMinder Website and learning how the website is used (Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR) |
| Engaging, contacting and interacting with you via email, phone or other means of communication | Communicating with you on topics related to GapMinder’s activities, providing requested information or relevant details, and responding to specific inquiries, including matters of interest and other relevant communications. This includes managing and addressing your requests through the contact channels you provide (phone, email, written messaging). | Full name
Information on the company you represent (if applicable) Email address, Phone number Other data and information you provide in connection with your request |
Our legitimate interest in managing requests efficiently and providing details about our services (Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR) |
* We use necessary cookies to ensure the proper functioning of the GapMinder website, including ensuring the security of access to the Website. These cookies do not require your consent and are used relying on our legitimate interests to provide and ensure the functionality of our Website. However, we may also use non-essential cookies for analytics, marketing, or other purposes, but only with your consent. For more details on the types of cookies we use, the processing purposes of these cookies, the retention periods for these cookies, the suppliers of the cookies and links to the privacy policies of third-party cookie suppliers, please refer to the relevant descriptions in our cookie consent management platform and our website Cookie Policy.
2.2. If you subscribe to receiving newsletters and other communications from us through the newsletter form available on our website
| Activity | Purposes | Categories of Personal Data | Legal Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sending newsletters and or other communications | Sending newsletters with information, updates, or news, including information on the content published on GapMinder’s website, our activities, as well as other commercial communications. | Name
Email address |
Your explicit consent (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR) |
| If you have subscribed to our newsletter, we analyze and document whether you open and how you use the newsletter received from us | Structuring our newsletters according to your needs and improving the scope of our information or marketing campaigns | Full name
E-mail address Data regarding how you use our newsletter and the equipment used by you to access our newsletter or communication (operating system, type of equipment, etc.) |
Our legitimate interest in structuring the newsletter according to your needs and improving the scope of our information or marketing campaigns (Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR)
Your consent to our use of tracking technologies (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR) |
You can withdraw your consent for receiving newsletter or other commercial communications from us at any time, either by contacting us using the details provided in Section 7 (Your rights) below or by using the “Unsubscribe” option included at the end of each such communication you receive.
2.3. If you interact with us through our social media pages
When You interact with us through our social media pages, either directly through the social media buttons displayed on the GapMinder’s Platform or through Your personal accounts, we will collect certain information about You. This includes your name or nickname; profile picture and any messages or attachments you send us. We will also have access to public information from your profile on the respective social network.
It is important to note that when you interact with our social media pages, your data is processed both by us, to facilitate interaction, and by social media platforms, with each of us acting as joint data controllers. However, we are not responsible for how social media platforms handle information you provide during interactions with us.
We also have access to aggregate statistics provided by social networks relating to users interacting with our accounts, and sometimes we can define categories of recipients of our pages using tools available through these platforms. In these instances, we do not have access to personal data that directly identifies individuals, but only to general and aggregated information. Nonetheless, we are not responsible for the methodology social media platforms use to collect this data.
To better understand how your personal data is used by the social networking platforms associated with the GapMinder Platform, the rights you have towards these platforms and how to exercise those rights, we recommend consulting the privacy notices of each social network, accessible through the following links:
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/policy.php
- LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy
- X: https://x.com/en/privacy
For more details on how social media providers use your data when you interact with us, please contact them at the contact details available in the privacy notes above.
| Activity | Purposes | Categories of Personal Data | Legal Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interacting with you through posts or messages on our social media pages | Ensuring good interaction between us and you on our social media pages | Your name and image
Communication with you Other data about you from your public social media profiles |
Your consent expressed by using the platform (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR) |
| Perform statistical analysis on the use of our social networking pages (including the use of statistical analysis provided by social network operators) | Statistical analysis of the use of our social networking pages | Aggregate user data (may include name, age category, etc.) | Our legitimate interest to improve interaction with users of our social networking pages (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f of GDPR) |
You may object at any time to processing based on our legitimate interests described above for reasons related to your specific situation. For more details on your rights, please refer to Section 7 (Your rights) of this Privacy Policy.
3. Provision of data
When you provide us with personal data directly, it is important that you provide us with all requested personal data. If you do not provide us with complete information, there is a chance that we will not be able to properly carry out the activities for which you have contacted us, such as responding to your requests.
If the use of personal data is based on your consent as detailed Section 2 (Purposes, processing grounds and categories of personal data we process), you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. With the withdrawal of consent, we will no longer use your data from that moment. However, any activity carried out prior to the withdrawal of consent, and involving your data, will remain valid.
To withdraw your consent where this is the basis for processing your data, as detailed in Section 2 (Purposes, processing grounds and categories of personal data we process), please contact us using the information in Section 8 (Contact).
If you provide us with personal data belonging to other individuals, it is important that you inform them, before disclosing the data to us, about how we intend to use that information, for example, by sending them a link to this Privacy Policy. If it is necessary to obtain consent from these individuals for the use of their data, we will ensure that we provide them with this Privacy Policy when we contact them.
4. To whom do we disclose your personal data
We disclose your personal data to our external service providers, including, but not limited to, IT service providers, consultants, and marketing agencies. These providers only access and use the personal data strictly necessary to provide the services for which they have been engaged by us, relying on appropriate contractual documentation. The basis for this disclosure is our legitimate interest in engaging and benefiting from the services of these providers for the performance of our activities.
We may also disclose your personal data as follows:
- we may disclose relevant personal data to our business partners, if this is necessary in the context of providing their services, when justified by our interaction with you through the GapMinder Platform;
- to our auditors, consultants, lawyers or other providers of specialized professional services, if necessary for the provision by them of the services contracted by us, given our legitimate interest or our legal obligation to contract these services; and
- public authorities and institutions, if we have a legal obligation to do so or at their express request, if permitted by law.
As a general rule, we transfer your personal data only to recipients in countries belonging to the European Union (EU) and/or the European Economic Area (EEA) and we ask our service providers to do the same.
However, in exceptional cases where we transfer your personal data to recipients outside the European Union (EU) and/or the European Economic Area (EEA), such transfers are carried out in full compliance with all applicable legal requirements, relying on:
- The decisions of the European Commission confirming an adequate level of data protection in certain countries;
- The standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission, included in our data transfer agreements with recipients;
- Additional security safeguards and measures, implemented for countries that do not offer a level of protection comparable to EU standards;
- Other measures or exceptions permitted under Articles 46-49 of the GDPR.
If you would like more information about the measures taken to protect data transferred outside the EU and EEA, or if you wish to obtain a copy of these safeguards, please contact us via email at the address provided in Section 8 (Contact) below.
5. How we protect your personal data
Protecting your personal data is essential to us. To ensure this, we implement appropriate security measures, including dedicated internal policies, specific technical and organizational safeguards, ongoing staff training, and restricted access to data — limited only to team members who require it for their work.
Additionally, we are committed to complying with and implementing any other measures required by applicable data protection laws.
While we take reasonable steps to safeguard your data, we cannot guarantee complete prevention of security breaches or unauthorized access attempts to our systems. In the unfortunate event of such a breach, we will follow all legal procedures to minimize the impact and will inform affected individuals in accordance with our legal obligations.
6. How long do we keep your personal data
We intend to keep your personal data for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we process them, or for the periods of time set forth in the applicable legislation.
For Website users, data will be retained during browsing and for variable periods after, in accordance with the Cookie Policy available on our Website.
When we process data based on your consent, such as where you contact us via email or social media interactions, we will retain the data until you decide to withdraw your consent.
Notwithstanding the above, we may also require retention of certain data to protect and support our legal interests for as long as needed to this end.
7. Your rights
According to the law, you benefit from the following rights related to the processing of your personal data that we carry out:
- (a) Right of access: you can obtain from us confirmation that we process your personal data, as well as information on the specifics of processing such as: purpose, categories of personal data processed, recipients of data, period for which data are kept, existence of the right to rectification, erasure or restriction of processing. This right allows you to obtain a copy of the processed personal data free of charge, as well as any additional copies against payment.
- (b) The right to rectify data: you can ask us to modify your incorrect personal data or, as the case may be, to complete the data that is incomplete.
- (c) Right to erasure: you may request the deletion of your personal data when: (i) they are no longer necessary for the purposes for which we collected and processed them; (ii) you have withdrawn your consent to the processing of personal data and we can no longer process it on other legal grounds; (iii) personal data are processed contrary to the law; i.e. (iv) personal data must be deleted in accordance with the relevant legislation.
- (d) Withdrawal of consent: you may withdraw your consent to the processing of personal data processed on the basis of consent at any time, without however affecting in any way the processing carried out prior to the withdrawal.
- (e) Right to object: you can object at any time to processing based on the legitimate interest of GapMinder by giving us reasons related to your specific situation. For details on the processing, we carry out in our legitimate interest, please see Section 2 (Purposes, processing grounds and categories of personal data we process) above.
- (f) Restriction of data processing: you may request restriction of processing of your personal data by us if: (i) you contest the accuracy of the personal data, for a period that allows us to verify the accuracy of the data in question; (ii) the processing is illegal and you oppose the deletion of personal data, requesting instead the restriction of their use; (iii) the data are no longer necessary for processing, but you request them for legal action; respectively (iv) if you have objected to the processing, for the period of time in which it is verified whether the legitimate rights of the GapMinder as data controller prevail over your rights as a data subject.
- (g) The right to portability: you can ask us, in compliance with applicable law, to provide you with your personal data that you have provided to us in a structured, frequently used and machine-readable form (for example, in CSV format). Also, if you expressly request us, we may transfer your personal data to another entity, if technically possible. You will only be able to exercise your right to portability if (cumulatively): (i) processing is carried out by automated means; and (ii) processing is carried out on the basis of your consent or to perform a contract concluded with you.
- (h) The right not to be subject to automated individual decision-making, including profiling: Currently, we do not process your personal data exclusively through automated individual decision-making processes. If we initiate such processing of personal data, we will supplement this Privacy Policy accordingly.
- (i) The right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority: you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority if you consider that your rights have been infringed, using the contact details of the authorities provided below. If you wish to complain in relation to the use of our Website, please refer to the Dutch data protection authority. If you wish to complain in relation to our commercial communications, newsletters, or our processing of personal data via social networks, please refer to the Romanian data protection authority. However, we respectfully request that you contact us with any complaint or concern you may have before contacting an authority.
| Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) | Bezuidenhoutseweg 30, 2594 AV The Hague, The Netherlands, https://autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl |
| National Supervisory Authority for Personal Data Processing (Autoritatea Națională de Supraveghere a Prelucrării Datelor cu Caracter Personal) | Blvd. G-ral. Gheorghe Magheru 28-30 Sector 1, postal code 010336 Bucharest, Romania www.dataprotection.ro |
You can exercise any of these rights by using the contact details in Section 8 (Contact) below.
If you exercise any of your rights as provided under applicable law, this will not affect: (i) data processing that has already taken place; or (ii) data processing not based on your consent.
8. Contact
To exercise one or more of the rights set out above or to ask a question about these rights or about our processing of your personal data, please contact us by email at contact@gapminder.vc.
9. Versions of this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy is effective as of 25 Feb 2025.
We may modify this Privacy Policy to reflect our activities in which we use your personal data. We will indicate any changes to this Privacy Policy by indicating the date on which it was last updated.