Privacy notice
Privacy notice
UNHCR's privacy notice
This privacy notice explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal data when you visit this website. By visiting the website, you are accepting the provisions set out in this privacy notice.
This privacy notice is intended for users of UNHCR global, regional, country and donation websites. We have other privacy notices for UNHCR Help websites and associated sites that provide information to refugees, asylum-seekers, stateless and internally displaced people; inter-agency websites; and other specific purposes.
Through this website you may reach or be directed to other websites related to UNHCR, such as those of our national partners who fundraise on our behalf. These sites have their own privacy notices, which may vary slightly from this one.
1. Who are we?
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (“UNHCR”), also known as UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights, and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people. Together with partners and communities, UNHCR works to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another country. UNHCR also strives to secure lasting solutions.
2. Background on our legal framework
UNHCR enjoys a special legal status in accordance with the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations of 1946. This convention grants UNHCR and other UN agencies the privileges and immunities necessary to perform our functions independently and without interference.
UNHCR processes personal data in accordance with our data protection framework, which is set out in our General Policy on Personal Data Protection and Privacy. It aims to protect the dignity and fundamental rights of data subjects (individuals whose data is being collected, stored, or used). It is aligned with the UN Principles on Personal Data Protection and Privacy.
3. What data are we collecting?
3.1. Information you give us
When you undertake certain actions on our website, such as donating, signing up to email lists, or filling in a form to register your interest in our activities or to apply for a job, you knowingly provide us with personal information about you, such as your name, email address, postal address and other information.
For this category of data (which is information you provide to us directly), the responsibility for deciding how your personal data is used, and for ensuring that it is protected, sits with the UNHCR office/entity that manages the specific global, regional, country or donation site that you are visiting.
UNHCR will only use your personal data for the specific reason(s) that you provided it to us.
Through the use of personal data such as your email address, we can target messages for you on social media platforms and identify other people on the Internet who are most likely to support UNHCR work and help refugees. This may require uploading an encrypted list of email addresses to social media platforms. This data is not stored or reused by such service providers and is only held for the duration of the matching process. If you would not like your data to be used in this way, please fill out our contact form.
Opting out
Users who provide an email address and/or donate via the UNHCR website and opt in to receive email communications from UNHCR may receive UNHCR e-newsletter and other email updates. We occasionally also communicate via direct mail, phone and SMS. Each email sent by UNHCR includes an option to remove your address from the mailing list.
3.2. Information we collect automatically
Aside from the personal information that you provide to us for a specific purpose, the UNHCR website also collects anonymous information about your browsing behaviour when you visit our website, through the use of cookies. This helps us to maintain and improve the UNHCR website.
For this category of data, the responsibility for deciding how your personal data is used, and for ensuring that it is protected, sits with the UNHCR Division of External Relations (DER).
Read our detailed cookie notice for further information.
4. Who will have access to your data?
Your data will be accessed only by authorized personnel within UNHCR and by its partners involved directly in providing services to UNHCR. All UNHCR partners are bound by strict confidentiality agreements and adhere to the same high standards of data protection and privacy as UNHCR.
We may share your personal information with:
our agents or service providers including digital advertising agencies or social media companies that perform services on our behalf for the purpose of sending you communications on UNHCR’s activities, performing direct marketing or completing a donation transaction that you initiate
our national partners who help us raise money for forcibly displaced and stateless people
With these fundraising partners we also share anonymized data gathered through cookies when you visit our website, in order for them to offer customized content to their audience. In no case will any sensitive financial information be shared.
We will always keep your information safe, and we will never sell or swap your information with any other third party.
5. How long do we keep your data?
For the personal data that you provide to us directly, your data is kept for only as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected them for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or archiving requirements. Your data may be deleted upon your request or if you have been inactive for a specified timeframe. The retention period will depend on the specific purpose of the activity.
Should you unsubscribe to any email lists, our policy is to retain a minimum amount of information about you after you have unsubscribed, solely to ensure that we have a record of your decision.
For data that we collect automatically, our retention period is 5 years. This is so we can compare and analyze usage and activity across our websites.
6. What are your rights?
As a data subject, you have specific rights regarding how we process your data, including where a third party processes data on our behalf. These rights are based on UNHCR's overarching data protection framework.
6.1. Right to information and access
You have the right to be informed about how we process your data and request access to your personal data that UNHCR holds.
6.2. Right to rectification
You have the right to request the correction or completion of any inaccurate or incomplete personal data concerning you.
6.3. Right to deletion
You have the right to request the deletion of your personal data if there is no legitimate basis for its processing or if the personal data is no longer necessary for the specified or compatible purposes for which it was collected.
Please be aware that there may be legitimate grounds for retaining your data for a longer period, such as for archiving (administrative, fiscal, legal, or historical value), statistical or scientific research purposes, for accountability of UNHCR’s actions, or when necessary for the long-term provision of protection, assistance, and solutions for forcibly displaced and stateless people. Your data may also be deleted upon your request or if you have been inactive for a specified timeframe.
6.4. Right to object
You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data at any time, on legitimate grounds relating to your particular situation. For example, if you do not want your email address to be used for targeting messages on social media platforms, you can fill out our contact form.
How to exercise your rights
UNHCR is committed to ensuring that processes are in place for you to exercise your data subject rights. Please use this form to exercise your rights.
The output will be communicated to you in writing via electronic mail.
Important considerations and limitations
General limitations: UNHCR may refuse, in whole or in part, a request to exercise a data subject right under specific circumstances. These include if the request is manifestly unfounded, abusive, fraudulent, or obstructive to the purpose of processing.
Privileges and immunities: Please note that the processes related to the exercise of data subject rights, complaints, and redress requests are without prejudice and subject to UNHCR’s privileges and immunities as outlined in the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.
7. Updates to this privacy notice
We will revise or update this privacy notice if our practices change. We encourage you to visit this section of the website regularly in order to keep up to date with any changes. Changes to the notice will apply from the date they are posted on our site and will not apply retroactively.
UNHCR's cookie notice
This cookie notice explains how we use cookies on UNHCR websites. It is complementary to our privacy notice, which explains more broadly how we collect, use and protect your personal data when you visit our websites and mobile applications.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small data files made up of letters and numbers placed onto your computer or other mobile devices when you access our websites. We set cookies when you visit our websites to respond to online surveys or polls, or request information. Accepting the cookies used on UNHCR websites does not give us access to your personally identifiable information, but we can use the cookies to identify your device in future visits.
How are cookies used on UNHCR websites?
UNHCR uses cookies for remembering your device throughout your visit to our websites and for remembering you when you return to them. Encrypted information gathered from cookies is used to understand the performance of our websites, improve your experience while using them, and to remind you of UNHCR’s work and how you can support our mission with forcibly displaced and stateless people in a relevant manner. This information is anonymous and based on behaviour rather than on personally distinguishable features. We also use cookie data to analyze and ensure our websites’ functionality and performance.
More specifically, we use cookies for the following reasons:
1. To improve your experience on our website
Cookies enable us to ensure that we are providing you with content that is relevant to your interests while deprioritizing content that is not relevant to you. For example, cookies can tell us if you have shown interest in learning about a specific emergency or campaign, ensuring that information about it is prioritized the next time you visit UNHCR websites. Cookies can also tell us if, for instance, you have filled in a UNHCR form or signed a petition, so that we don’t present this to you the next time you visit our website. Cookies can also provide an understanding about other factors relating to your visit, such as which part of the world you are visiting from, if you came to the site because of an email we sent you or a social media post or whether your website browser supports the different technologies used on UNHCR websites.
2. To understand how UNHCR websites are performing
Cookies help to provide us with anonymous statistics that tell us about how many users visit our website, where they come from and how they interact with it. This information is very useful for us to be able to see which pages and content on UNHCR websites are most popular.
3. To improve the relevance of UNHCR campaign and marketing messages displayed to you after you leave our websites
Cookies can help us to ensure that you receive personalized advertising banners from advertising services we partner with, when you browse other websites, based on the content you interact with on UNHCR websites. For example, if you visit a web page about a particular humanitarian emergency, campaign messages about this particular emergency can be displayed to you when you visit another website.
4. To reach you on social channels and identify more supporters who want to help refugees
Through cookies, we can target messages for you on our social media platforms and identify other people on the Internet who are most likely to support UNHCR work and help refugees. This data is not used by our service providers for any purpose other than those described above.
5. To monitor our advertising performance
We want to monitor our advertising expenses carefully to make sure that we are as cost-effective as possible. UNHCR uses data based on cookies to identify how many people come to our website from different media campaigns and which campaign messages are most effective. This information enables us to cost-effectively plan future campaigns, ensuring we are not wasting resources advocating with content that does not interest our website visitors and supporters.
How can I disable cookies?
If you do not wish to have cookies installed on your computer or mobile device, you can set your browser to notify you before you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it. You can also set your browser to turn off cookies. If you do so, however, some areas of UNHCR websites may not function properly.
Are there cookies set by a third party?
Some of the cookies you may receive when visiting UNHCR websites are not related to UNHCR. For example, if you visit sections of UNHCR websites that contain embedded content such as an embedded video or a social media feed, or contain a plugin such as a social media like button, you may receive cookies delivered from these websites. We also use third-party cookies for targeted advertising services and for tracking our website awareness-raising and communications performance.
UNHCR does not govern the settings or use of these third-party cookies. We suggest that you visit these websites for more information about their cookies and applicable privacy policies. UNHCR cannot be held responsible for the privacy of data collected by websites that it does not own or manage, even if these websites link to UNHCR websites.
Learn more about UNHCR
Learn more about UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and how we protect people forced to flee.