Privacy Policy

Tree-Nation ASBL (hereafter “Tree-Nation”, ”we” or “us”) is a non-profit organisation having its registered office at Avenue des Saisons 90, 1050 Bruxelles, registered in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises under reference n°727.828.810, dedicated to endorse afforestation, agroforestry and reforestation projects worldwide with the aim to improve environmental, social, and economic conditions on the planet. For these purposes, Tree-Nation operates a website available on the following link : https://tree-nation.com (hereafter the “Site”).

Tree-Nation allows citizens and companies (hereafter “you” collectively “Users”) to make donations in order to support Tree-Nation in its mission to plant trees in a selected panel of reforestation projects (hereafter referred to as “Plantation Project”).

Tree-Nation understands you care how we handle your personal information and we take this matter very seriously. We are committed to protecting your privacy rights and to making your experience as enjoyable as possible. In this Privacy Policy & Cookies, we explain how we collect personal information when you use the Site, how we use it, share it and store it.

Our Privacy Policy complies with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and with the Belgian law regarding electronics communications, dated 13 June 2005.

Under applicable law, Tree-Nation is the “data controller” of personal data collected through the Site.

1. Personal information we may collect

In order to register on the Site and use it, we need to collect some personal information which may vary depending on the use you make of it. This information may include:

  • Information you voluntarily provide by completing forms in Tree-Nation such as when you register, create a forest, create a plantation project, plant trees, etc.
  • Information you post on the Site, such as “virtual trees”, “seeds”, “forests”, comments, plantation project updates, forum threads, etc.
  • Your Facebook information if you sign up with Facebook Connect. We never post anything to your Facebook, Twitter, or other third-party accounts without your permission.
  • Information you provide when you contact us by email or other means to get support, ask questions, send feedback, etc.
  • We may use third party website analytic tools such as Google Analytics on our Site that employ cookies to collect certain information concerning your use of the Site. However , you can disable cookies by changing your browser settings. Further information about the procedure to follow in order to disable cookies can be found on your Internet browser provider's website via your help screen.
  • Your IP address and type of device and browser you use while browsing the Site.

In case you offer a tree to a recipient, you can choose to do this anonymously by not providing his email and sending the tree-gift URL to the recipient yourself.

In case you choose to use our email sending system we will need the full name and email of each recipient you want to offer a tree to.

Those names and emails will be stored in our database for the purpose of recognising who the trees are addressed to and for the purpose of sending 2 reminder emails, one at 48 hours after the tree-gift original email and the second one at 10 days after the tree-gift original email.

Those names and emails will never be used anymore afterwards, to the exception to allow a recipient who would register at a later date to collect previous trees that were offered to him before.

2. How we store your personal information

We have adopted all legally required measures under all relevant data protection laws. Every file will be considered confidential by Tree-Nation or any other entity affiliated with us.

We use Security Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology to encrypt sensitive personal information before it travels over the Internet. SSL is an industry standard and is used by millions of websites in the protection of their online transactions with their customers. Credit card numbers are never stored on our database or servers.

Tree-Nation is based in Belgium. No matter where you are located, the processing of your personal data shall be done within the European Union. In case of transfer of your personal data outside the European Union, such transfer shall be effected in compliance with the GDPR.

Please keep your passwords in a safe place. Tree-Nation recommends that you change your passwords frequently and to not share your accounts with anyone. We will never ask for your password besides the login and sign up processes. Any party claiming to be a representative, subsidiary or affiliate of Tree-Nation that asks for a password does not represent us in any condition or capacity.

We do everything in our power to protect your personal information. However, Internet traffic and electronic storage can not be guaranteed to be 100% safe and secure. Therefore we cannot ensure or guarantee the absolute security of any information sent, transmitted or stored.

3. What information is public

Some information you provide will be accessible to other users of the site. This information includes:

  • The name of your user account.
  • Your forest profile page and all its sections, and the information you add to it.
  • The date of your birthday only if you choose to provide this information (your age will never be made public as we only publish the day and month of your birthday). You can remove this information or make it private at any time from your forest profile page and your user settings.
  • Your location only if you choose to provide this information. You can remove this information at any time from your forest profile page and your user settings.
  • Any information you directly publish on public sections of the Site, such as comments, “likes”, trees, forests, etc.
  • The names of the senders and recipients of offered trees/seeds as well as the content of such trees/seeds, unless specifically marked as “private”.

In order to provide you more control on your forest profile you can mark some specific sections as “private” like the CO2 impact and the friends’ list of your forest.

4. How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to enable your to use our functionalities and to customize and improve your experience on the Site. For example, we can use your personal information to:

  • Identify you when you sign in to your account;
  • Facilitate you with the functionalities we provide;
  • Send you newsletters or other promotional communications, always in accordance with your email preferences;
  • Answer your inquiries and requests;
  • Analyze the use of the Site to improve our content and functionalities; and
  • Other purposes that we may disclose to you when we request your information.

As required by the european General Data Protection Regulation, we explain you about the legal ground on to use or disclose your personal data. To the extent those laws apply, our legal grounds are as follows:

  • To honor our contractual commitments to you: much of our processing of personal data is to meet our contractual obligations to our users, or to take steps at users’ request in anticipation of entering into a contract with them. For example, we handle personal data on this basis to create your account and enable you to use the functionalities of our Site .
  • Legitimate interests: In many cases, we handle personal data on the ground that it furthers our legitimate interests in ways that are not overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the affected individuals: This includes:
    • Providing a safe and enjoyable user experience;
    • General information;
    • Send you newsletters or other marketing communications, always in accordance with your email preferences;
    • Protecting our users, personnel, and property;
    • Analyzing and improving our processes, e.g. collecting information about how you use our Site to optimize the design and placement of certain features;
    • Processing job applications;
    • Managing legal issues.
  • Legal compliance: we need to use and disclose personal data in certain ways to comply with our legal obligations.
  • To protect vital interests.
  • Consent: where required by law, and in some other cases, we handle personal data on the basis of your implied or express consent.

5. How we share your personal information with third parties

We will not sell, rent or share your individual personal data with other entities or companies. We may only share your personal data with third parties to enable you to use the functionalities of our within the context of the Site or when you have expressly given your consent. Examples of such cases include mailing processing, maintaining databases and processing payments.

In this regard, the spanish company Neovee solutions SL, having its registered office at C./ Cartagena 243, 6-6, 08025 Barcelona, Spain, with tax registration number (NIF): B64201965 is our Data processor.

We reserve the right to disclose personal information in the following cases:

  • In response to court orders or any orders from law enforcement or judicial authorities, but only upon receipt of appropriate documentation.
  • To defend against legal claims or exercise Tree-Nation’s rights.
  • When participating in investigations or in response to illegal or suspicious activities.
  • When there has been a violation of the Site’s terms of use.
  • If there is a merger or acquisition between Tree-Nation and another company. In such case, we will notify you before your personal information has been transferred to the other company. Please note that in any such event you may become subjected to a privacy policy that differs from our own.
  • When otherwise required by law.

6. Email

We may use your email address to send you communications such as newsletters and marketing or promotional emails. You can opt-out from receiving these communications by changing your email preferences in your “Settings” section. In this section you will be able to precisely select which kind of emails you want to receive.

7. How we use Cookies

Please refer to our Cookies Policy.

8. Your rights

We are committed to give you control over your personal data in order to improve your user experience. From your user settings, you can change your email preferences, deactivate or delete your account, make some information public or private and modify some of your personal information (for example your user name, email address, location and birthdate).

You may, at any moment, exercise your rights of access, modification, cancellation, deletion and opposition by logging in to the Site, and updating your profile settings. Use this link to access your settings

You can also send us an email to contactus@tree-nation.com and indicate which right you intend to exert and clearly identifying yourself with your name and email.

We may retain certain information as required by law or for necessary operating purposes.

You may revoke your agreement with the terms of the privacy policy at any time, in which case you may not be able to use our Site.

Without prejudice of any other administrative or judicial appeal, you have the right to introduce a reclamation alongside a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the State member in which you have your habitual residence, work place or place of the alleged violation if you consider that the Personal Data processing infringes the GDPR.

9. Updating the Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to update the Site’s Privacy Policy at any time for any reason. In such case, we will inform you by posting the updated version on the Site.

10. Questions and suggestions

For any questions and suggestions, please use our contact us form.

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Last modification: August 1st, 2019