WISE - Building the Future of Education Through Innovation

1. Introduction

We appreciate the trust you place in us when sharing your personal data. The security of that data is very important to us. In this document, we explain how we collect, use and protect your personal data. We also explain what rights you have with regard to your personal data and how you can exercise those rights.

2. Who we are

WISE is an international, multi-sectoral platform for creative thinking, debate and purposeful action. WISE has established itself as a global reference in new approaches to education. Through both the biennial Summit and a range of ongoing programs WISE is promoting innovation and building the future of education through collaboration.

The thrust for constant innovation has long prevailed in sectors such as technology and healthcare, but education has generally lacked this approach in both policymaking and in the classroom. Moreover, education is key to addressing the toughest challenges facing communities around the world today — poverty, conflict, inequality, unemployment, environmental sustainability and future challenges. But there is a widening gap between the education systems currently in place and those required to meet the needs of future generations.

WISE is a response to the necessity of revitalizing education and providing a global platform for the development of new ideas and solutions. Since 2009, WISE has evolved into a thriving global, multi-sectoral community, which continues to generate fruitful dialogue and productive partnerships. The WISE community is a network of education stakeholders — from students to decision-makers — from about 200 countries who share ideas and collaborate to seek creative solutions to solve challenges facing education.

Our registered office address is:

WISE — ThinkBay
Qatar Foundation — Education City
P.O. Box 5825
Doha, Qatar

If you have questions about how we process personal data, or would like to exercise your data subject rights, please email us at: wise-community@wise.org.qa.

3. Companies and websites within scope

BigBrowser

86–90 Paul StreetHackneyEC2A 4NEUnited Kingdom

DataTherapy

One Pancras Square, Kings CrossLondon N1C 4AGUnited Kingdom

Netkin

8 rue de Milan75009, ParisFrance

Smartsheet

500 108th Ave NE #200Bellevue, WA 98004United States

Swapcard

6 rue de Paradis75010, ParisFrance

The following websites are within the scope of this privacy notice:

WISE website: www.wise-qatar.org
WISE database: www.wise.org.qa
WISE Programs: programs.wise.org.qa
WISE Speakers registration: app.smartsheet.com
WISE Summit webapp: events.wise.org.qa

It includes personal data that is collected through our websites, by telephone and through any related social media applications.

4. Collection of personal data

We collect personal data from you for one or more of the following purposes:

To provide you with information that you have requested or that we think may be relevant to a subject in which you have demonstrated an interest.
To initiate and complete commercial transactions with you, or the entity that you represent, for the purchase of services.
To enable your participation in any event organised by our organisation, be it online or physical.
To ensure the security and safe operation of our websites and underlying business infrastructure.
To manage any communication between you and us.

The table in section 5 below provides more detail about the data that we collect for each of these purposes, the lawful basis for doing so, and the period for which we will retain each type of data.

Technical information

In addition, to ensure that each visitor to any of our websites can use and navigate the site effectively, we collect the following:

Technical information, including the IP (Internet Protocol) address used to connect your device to the Internet.
Your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plugin types and versions.
Operating system and platform.
Information about your visit, including the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) clickstream to, through and from our site.

From time to time we may use technologies, such as tracking pixels (also called 1×1 pixels or pixel tags), to collect the above information from your interaction with emails we send you. This enables us to focus our marketing to your needs, leading to more relevant emails to our subscribers. It also helps us to identify subscribers that are not engaged with our marketing emails, enabling us to remove them from our send lists.

Our cookies policy, which can be viewed from the homepage of each of our websites, describes in detail how we use cookies.

In section 8 below, we identify your rights in respect of the personal data that we collect and describe how you can exercise those rights.

5. Lawful basis for the processing of personal data

The table below describes the forms of personal data we collect and the lawful basis for processing this data. The organisation of our business architecture, accounting and systems infrastructure and compliance means that all personal data is processed on common, group-wide platforms. We have processes in place to make sure that only those people in our organisation who need to access your data can do so. A number of data elements are collected for multiple purposes, as the table below shows. Some data may be shared with third parties; where this happens, this is also identified below.

When we process on the lawful basis of legitimate interest, we apply the following tests to determine whether it is appropriate:

The purpose test — is there a legitimate interest behind the processing?
Necessity test — is the processing necessary for that purpose?
Balancing test — is the legitimate interest overridden, or not, by the individual's interests, rights or freedoms?

Purpose of collection	Information category	Data collected	Detailed purpose for collection	Lawful basis for processing	Data shared with?	Retention period
1. To provide you with information	Subject matter information	Name, company name, position, geographic location (country), email address, business sector as provided through website forms or any other means.	To provide appropriate online or email information about WISE, WISE Programs & WISE Events.	Legitimate interest	Internally / BigBrowser / DataTherapy	Maximum three years from the last contact
1. To provide you with information	Subject matter information	Name, company name, position, geographic location (country), email address, business sector as provided through website forms or any other means.	To provide further, related, online or email information and ongoing news updates in relation to the identified area of interest.	Legitimate interest	Internally / BigBrowser / DataTherapy	Maximum three years from the last contact
1. To provide you with information	Subject matter information	Email address as provided through website forms.	General mailing list subscription to WISE newsletter.	Consent	Internally / BigBrowser / DataTherapy	Maximum three years if an email is left unopened
2. To register to WISE Events	Subject matter information	Name, geographic location (country), email address.	To enable participation in a WISE online event.	Legitimate interest	Internally / BigBrowser / DataTherapy / Swapcard. Third-party logistics or supplier companies with whom we contract in order to fulfil these requirements.	Maximum three years after the event if the participant has not attended another event
2. To register to WISE Events	Subject matter information	Name, company name, position, geographic location, email address, business sector, domain of expertise, centre of interest, age group, biography, portrait photo (optional).	To provide an extended user experience at WISE online events, enabling networking, match-making, Who’s Who profile creation.	Legitimate interest	Internally / BigBrowser / DataTherapy / Netkin / Swapcard. Third-party logistics or supplier companies with whom we contract in order to fulfil these requirements.	Maximum three years after the event if the participant has not attended another event
2. To register to WISE Events	Subject matter information	Name, company name, position, geographic location, email address, business sector, biography.	To apply to attend a WISE physical event.	Legitimate interest	Internally / BigBrowser / DataTherapy / Netkin / Swapcard.	Maximum three years from the last contact with the applicant
2. To register to WISE Events	Subject matter information	Name, company name, position, geographic location, email address, business sector, domain of expertise, centre of interest, biography, portrait photo (optional), passport number / ID number, dietary restrictions, reduced mobility.	To enable participation in a WISE physical event as a participant based in the country where the event is organised.	Legitimate interest. Consent for sensitive data.	Internally / BigBrowser / DataTherapy / Netkin / Smartsheet / Swapcard. Local authorities for internal security. Third-party logistics or supplier companies.	Maximum three years after the event if the participant has not attended another event. Maximum one month after the end of the event for passport / ID number, dietary restrictions and reduced mobility.
2. To register to WISE Events	Subject matter information	Name, company name, position, geographic location, email address, telephone number, business sector, domain of expertise, centre of interest, biography, portrait photo (optional), passport scan, travel requirements, dietary restrictions, reduced mobility.	To enable participation in a WISE physical event as a participant not based in the country where the event is organised.	Legitimate interest. Consent for sensitive data.	Internally / BigBrowser / DataTherapy / Netkin / Smartsheet / Swapcard. Local authorities for internal security. Third-party logistics or supplier companies.	Maximum three years after the event if the participant has not attended another event. Maximum one month after the end of the event for passport details, dietary restrictions and reduced mobility.
3. Applications and Nominations for the WISE Programs	Applications and Nominations for: WISE Awards, WISE Prize, WISE Accelerator, WISE Emerging Leaders, WISE Learners’ Voice	Varies, according to Program type. Data collected includes: Projects — project name, beneficiaries, objectives, license number, size, revenue, funding, contact details of representatives, information about the project. Nominees / Applicants — name and contact details of the Nominee / Applicant, Nominee / Applicant profile details & CV, Nominator details.	To provide detailed information about projects and nominees / applicants in view of being awarded a prize / award / collaboration with the corresponding WISE Program.	Legitimate interest	Internally / BigBrowser / DataTherapy & external members of the Jury / Committee	Maximum three years from the date the information is collected.
4. Security	Security information	Technical information, as described above, plus any other information that may be required for this purpose.	To protect our websites and infrastructure from cyber attack or other threats and to report and deal with any illegal acts.	Legitimate interest	Internally / BigBrowser / DataTherapy / Netkin / Smartsheet, forensic and other organisations with which we might contract for this purpose.	Relevant statutes of limitation.
5. Communications	Contact information	Names, contact details, identification details.	To communicate with you about any issue that you raise with us or which follows from an interaction between us.	Legitimate interest	Internally / BigBrowser / DataTherapy / Netkin / Smartsheet and, as necessary, with professional advisers.	Relevant statutes of limitation.

6. Storage of personal data

WISE website

The WISE website is built and maintained by BigBrowser, a UK-domiciled company with its offices in London, United Kingdom. The website is hosted on Vercel (Vercel Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, United States), which operates a global edge network with EU regions used to serve our European visitors.

BigBrowser acts as a data processor on behalf of WISE and is bound by a data processing agreement that reflects the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the General Data Protection Regulation, or “GDPR”) and the UK GDPR. Where personal data is transferred outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) in connection with Vercel's infrastructure, the transfer is made on the basis of the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and/or Vercel's certification under the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework, supplemented by additional safeguards where required.

WISE database and WISE Programs

DataTherapy is a UK-domiciled organisation whose offices are in London, UK. All servers are domiciled in Ireland.

Our websites and web applications are hosted in the EU/UK and are accessed only by our UK & EU-based staff and by BigBrowser staff under a data processing agreement.
Our customer relationship management, marketing and accounting systems are either EU/UK-based or, in cases where transfers of personal data outside the EEA are necessary, data transfers are made in accordance with the requirements of the GDPR and may be based on the use of the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers of personal data outside the EEA.
We use a wide range of CSPs (Cloud service providers) as part of our processing environment. Unless we specifically state otherwise, we are, in respect of all these CSPs, the data controller.
Unless we specifically state otherwise, all the CSPs that we use utilise EU/UK processing facilities.
Our payment processors and banking arrangements are based in the UK & EU.
We operate a data retention policy in respect of all data, whether paper-based or digital, and those aspects of it that relate to personal data are contained in the table in section 5 above.

Learn more in DataTherapy's Privacy Policy.

WISE registration website

Netkin is a France-based organisation whose offices are in Paris (all servers are domiciled in France by the company OVH), SAS with a capital of €10,174,560, whose registered office is located in Roubaix: 2 rue Kellermann, 59100 Roubaix, France.

Appropriate security measures are implemented to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed or accessed without authorization. In addition, access to personal data is limited to employees, agents, contractors and other third parties on a need-to-know basis. They will process personal data in accordance with our instructions and are subject to the obligation of confidentiality. Procedures are in place to deal with any suspected breach of personal data. Any relevant regulator will be notified of such a breach where required by law. Learn more in Netkin's Privacy Policy.

WISE Speakers registration website

Smartsheet is a US-based company whose offices are in Bellevue. Smartsheet works with industry-recognised hosting partners. They have multi-site data redundancy, hosting at AWS facilities, and facilities are SOC 1, SOC 2, ISO 27001, and FISMA examined and certified. Monitoring includes biometric scanning protocols, continuous surveillance, and 24×7 production environment management. Smartsheet maintains internal processes and plans in order to address business continuity events and disaster recovery scenarios. These plans are reviewed and tested on an annual basis and are distributed to applicable staff throughout the organisation. Data centres are geographically isolated (approx. 600 mi) from each other to prevent the data centres from being impacted simultaneously in the event of a large-scale natural disaster. Learn more in Smartsheet's Privacy Notice.

WISE Summit webapp

Swapcard is a France-based company whose offices are in Paris. All the data and servers are hosted by Amazon Web Services, Inc. (“AWS”) in the AWS Ireland data centre (main data hosting and data processing). Emails sent via Mailgun are also processed in the EU. Learn more in Swapcard's Legal Centre.

7. Security measures

BigBrowser & Vercel (WISE website)

Our website is delivered through Vercel's edge platform, which is certified to SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO/IEC 27001, and runs on hardened cloud infrastructure with TLS encryption in transit, encryption at rest, automatic DDoS mitigation and a managed Web Application Firewall. BigBrowser applies its own information-security controls on top, including:

Least-privilege access for engineering staff with multi-factor authentication on all administration interfaces.
Code review and dependency-vulnerability scanning before any deployment to production.
Audit logging of all deployments and configuration changes via Vercel and the source-control provider.
Regular review of CSP, CORS and security headers (HSTS, X-Frame-Options, Referrer-Policy, etc.).
Incident response and breach notification procedures aligned with the GDPR and UK GDPR requirements.

DataTherapy

Our other web platform is based on Amazon Web Services and so the ISMS (information security management system) is certified to ISO/IEC 27001. Our associated UK business is also certified to Claris Platinum Partner status and all our payment card processing is in compliance with the PCI DSS.

We have what we believe are appropriate security controls in place to protect personal data. Risk assessment, including assessing risks to the rights and freedoms of data subjects, is carried out in line with the General Data Protection Legislation. We do not, however, have any control over what happens between your device and the boundary of our information infrastructure. You should be aware of the many information security risks that exist and take appropriate steps to safeguard your own information. We accept no liability in respect of breaches that occur beyond our sphere of control.

Netkin

Data is hosted exclusively on dedicated OVH servers in France, located in OVH's main data centres in Roubaix (France), Gravelines (France) and Strasbourg (France).

Front-end servers run on a hardened Linux distribution specifically designed for instance-isolated web hosting, with brute-force protection and a built-in firewall. No client database is stored on this server.
Each instance runs in its own “caged” file system and cannot see files, data, processes of other instances, nor sensitive files of the server configuration.
None of our customers have administrative or technical access to the server (no FTP, MariaDB, CPanel or shell access).
Fully automated updates and patches, with monthly human checks.
Antivirus with automated daily scanning.
DDoS protection by OVH.
Runtime application self-protection and an in-app Web Application Firewall, with request monitoring and detection of attack attempts or automated vulnerability discovery. Severity rules are set to the maximum level, with immediate blocking of suspicious requests and temporary IP blocking for any IP repeatedly triggering rules.
Administrative access to the server is filtered via IP — only connections through a secure VPN are possible (individual accounts, daily mandatory 2FA OTP, audit of all connections).
Brute-force protection on all server authentication mechanisms and on the authentication mechanisms of each instance.
Server logs are analysed daily in an automated way and weekly by a human, in order to detect any security or performance anomaly.
Cluster of database servers, with data encryption at rest, on a private LAN. The cluster is not accessible from the Internet. On the database servers, each instance has its own database, with credentials known only to that instance.

Smartsheet

The following security and privacy-related audits and certifications are applicable to core application services within Smartsheet.

SOC 2 / SOC 3: Smartsheet undergoes annual examination and testing as part of the SOC auditing process. The resulting external audit reports attest to the design and operating effectiveness of internal controls across the business, including security, availability, and confidentiality.
EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework (DPF) and UK Extension: Customer data submitted to the Covered Services is within the scope of Smartsheet's self-certification under the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework (and its UK Extension and Swiss–U.S. DPF as applicable) as administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The DPF replaced the EU–U.S. Privacy Shield framework, which was invalidated by the Court of Justice of the European Union in July 2020 (Schrems II).
FedRAMP (moderate): Smartsheet was selected for the FedRAMP Connect program by the Joint Authorization Board (JAB), which prioritised Smartsheet Gov for certification based on demand from federal government agencies. Smartsheet Gov is a separate Smartsheet environment with FedRAMP-authorised status.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: Smartsheet is a public company and is required to be compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX).

Smartsheet uses infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services, Inc. (“AWS”) to host customer data. Information about security and privacy-related audits and certifications received by AWS, including ISO 27001 certification and SOC reports, is available from the AWS Security website and the AWS Compliance website. For a full list of our certifications and additional white papers and data sheets, visit the Compliance page on the Smartsheet Trust Center.

Swapcard

SOC 2 Type 2 attestation, renewed annually.
ISO/IEC 27001 certified since July 2023.

Swapcard runs multiple technical security controls across the platform, including:

Annual penetration test covering the web platform and the mobile applications (iOS and Android).
Quarterly external and internal vulnerability scans.
A private Bug Bounty Program (on yesWeHack).
Static Application Security Testing (code security analysis).

All the data and servers are hosted by Amazon Web Services, Inc. (“AWS”). For a full list of security measures, please visit the Security page on Swapcard's website.

8. Your rights as a data subject

To exercise any of the rights set out below, please contact us at wise-community@wise.org.qa or use the information supplied in the ‘Contact us’ section below. To process your request, we will ask you to provide two valid forms of identification for verification purposes. Your rights are as follows:

The right to be informed

As a data controller, we are obliged to provide clear and transparent information about our data processing activities. This is provided by this privacy notice and any related communications we may send you.

The right of access

You may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you free of charge. Once we have verified your identity and, if relevant, the authority of any third-party requestor, we will provide access to the personal data we hold about you as well as the following information:

The purposes of the processing.
The categories of personal data concerned.
The recipients to whom the personal data has been disclosed.
The retention period or envisioned retention period for that personal data.
When personal data has been collected from a third party, the source of the personal data.

If there are exceptional circumstances that mean we can refuse to provide the information, we will explain them. If requests are frivolous or vexatious, we reserve the right to refuse them. If answering requests is likely to require additional time or occasion unreasonable expense (which you may have to meet), we will inform you.

The right to rectification

When you believe we hold inaccurate or incomplete personal information about you, you may exercise your right to correct or complete this data. This may be used with the right to restrict processing to make sure that incorrect/incomplete information is not processed until it is corrected.

The right to erasure (the 'right to be forgotten')

Where no overriding legal basis or legitimate reason continues to exist for processing personal data, you may request that we delete the personal data. This includes personal data that may have been unlawfully processed. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure erasure.

The right to restrict processing

You may ask us to stop processing your personal data. We will still hold the data but will not process it any further. This right is an alternative to the right to erasure. If one of the following conditions applies, you may exercise the right to restrict processing:

The accuracy of the personal data is contested.
Processing of the personal data is unlawful.
We no longer need the personal data for processing but the personal data is required for part of a legal process.
The right to object has been exercised and processing is restricted pending a decision on the status of the processing.

The right to data portability

You may request your set of personal data be transferred to another controller or processor, provided in a commonly used and machine-readable format. This right is only available if the original processing was on the basis of consent, the processing is by automated means and if the processing is based on the fulfilment of a contractual obligation.

The right to object

You have the right to object to our processing of your data where:

Processing is based on legitimate interest.
Processing is for the purpose of direct marketing.
Processing is for the purposes of scientific or historic research.
Processing involves automated decision-making and profiling.

9. Contact us

Any comments, questions or suggestions about this privacy notice or our handling of your personal data should be emailed to wise-community@wise.org.qa.

Alternatively, you can contact our website operator at the following address:

BigBrowser
86–90 Paul Street
Hackney
EC2A 4NE
United Kingdom
Email: joelle@bigbrowser.io

10. Complaints

Should you wish to discuss a complaint, please feel free to contact us using the details provided above. All complaints will be treated in a confidential manner.

Should you feel unsatisfied with our handling of your data, or about any complaint that you have made to us about our handling of your data, you are entitled to escalate your complaint to:

CNIL (France): https://www.cnil.fr/fr/adresser-une-plainte
ICO (United Kingdom): https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
Or the relevant supervisory authority in your country of residence within the EU/EEA.

Legal Information and Privacy Policy