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Urban ReLeaf Cities Application

Terms of Use

Thank you for your interest in contributing to the Urban ReLeaf cities application developed within the Urban ReLeaf project funded by the European Commission and the UK Research and Innovation. Urban ReLeaf focuses on acquiring volunteer-based observations to address urgent climate issues related to urban greenspace planning, heat stress and air pollution. The aim of the application is to engage communities to help improve urban greenspace planning. By using the Urban ReLeaf cities application, you accept the following Terms of Use. Please read them carefully.

Terms of Use
1         General information

This Agreement is made between you (“the User”) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Schlossplatz 1, 2361 Laxenburg, Austria (“IIASA”), a partner in the Urban ReLeaf project.

The Urban ReLeaf cities application (“the App”) allows users to mark specific geographical locations on a map, answer a few short questions to describe their perception of the location, and optionally submit photographs (“contributions”). The collected data are then verified and processed.

By accepting the Terms of Use, the User accepts that the App is intended to achieve the above purposes. To this end, the User shall act with these purposes in mind when using the App.

IIASA will not make any changes to the content shared by the user, except in cases of violation of the Terms of Use, The User acknowledges that IIASA and relevant Urban ReLeaf project partners may aggregate data, analyse the aggregated data and publish it publicly.

By accepting the Terms of Use, the User undertakes to respect the rights of others, in particular their right to human dignity, the protection of personal data and intellectual property rights, when using the App.

By accepting the Terms of Use, the User declares that he/she/they will not use the App to collect or process personal data.

2        Compliance with Laws and Regulations

You are responsible for using the App in compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and these Terms of Use. We may update and make adaptations to the Terms of Use when required.

3         Rights of third parties

Your use of and contributions to App must not infringe on any third-party rights. By submitting contributions, you indicate that you have the right to authorise IIASA to use, process and make available any contributed material under these Terms of Use.

4         Content restrictions

Under no circumstances will users upload, post, host, execute, link to, or transmit any content that:

  • Is unlawful or promotes unlawful activities.
  • Is or contains sexually obscene content.
  • Is libelous, defamatory, or fraudulent.
  • Is discriminatory or abusive toward any individual or group.
  • Gratuitously depicts or glorifies violence, including violent images.
  • Contains or installs any active malware or exploits or uses our platform for exploit delivery (such as part of a command-and-control system).
  • Infringes any proprietary right of any party, including patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity, or other right.
5         Rights and obligations

Users must enable the GPS function of their mobile phones in order to use the application.

All the rights relating to this app, including its copyrights, trademarks or database rights belong to IIASA. Users are not allowed to copy, modify or otherwise exploit any part of the app, make derivative versions or to extract the app’s source code.

Certain functions of the app require an active internet connection. IIASA is not responsible for any charges of the user’s network provider relating to the upload and/or download of any data, including roaming data charges when accessing the app outside the user’s home territory.

IIASA gives no warranty and accepts no responsibility or liability for the accuracy or the completeness of the information and materials contained in the app, especially when the user did not download available updates or register in the first place. To minimize the risk and provide a beneficial experience, the user should always use the latest version of the software.

Under no circumstances will IIASA be held responsible or liable in any way for any claims, damages, losses, expenses, costs or liabilities whatsoever resulting or arising directly or indirectly from the user’s use of or inability to use the app or the user’s reliance on the information and material in the app.

IIASA is not required to include the user’s contributions in the app and may remove any contributions from the app at any time.

If the User breaches the above conditions, IIASA shall be entitled to terminate the provision of the App to the User without prior notice. IIASA may remove content from the App that is deemed to be illegal or in breach of the above conditions without prior notice to the User.

6       Assignment of rights

The user grants IIASA a perpetual, worldwide, unlimited in scope, no-charge, royalty-free license to use and make available to the public via the internet the submitted contributions. The User assures that they are legally entitled to grant the above license. If any third party holds any rights on the contribution, the user assures that they have received permission to grant the above license on behalf of that third party, or that the third party has waived such rights in regard to the contributions.

7      Miscellaneous

This contract and all rights and obligations resulting from it is subject to Austrian substantive law to the exclusion of the rules on conflicts of law and CISG.

All disputes between the contracting parties in relation to this contract are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent court for the City of Vienna (Innere Stadt Wien).

Any amendments to this contract shall only be valid if done in writing.

If any provision in these conditions is found to be illegal or invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction or an arbitrator, that clause shall be deemed removed and the remainder shall be unaffected. The parties shall endeavor to agree on an alternative clause having like effect, as a substitute for the provision that has been removed.

IIASA will modify or replace these terms when needed. Should a modification be adopted, an adequate notice will be given to the users. By continuing to access or use the app after this notice, users agree to the revised terms and conditions. If users do not agree to the new terms and conditions, they must refrain from accessing or using the app without delay. Our privacy policy is an integral part of these Terms of Use


Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy aims to provide you with adequate information on the data we receive from you, how we process it, and what we make available to the public to comply with the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Why do we need your personal information and what do we do with it?

The app you are using, has been developed by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, 2361 Laxenburg, Austria as a part of the Urban ReLeaf project funded by the European Commission and the UK Research and Innovation. The handling your personal data is necessary for the collection of data for use in various scientific purposes associated with the Urban ReLeaf project.

1. Definitions

Personal data: means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’). An ‘identifiable natural person’, is ‘one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person’ (Article 4(1) GDPR).

Data handling: any operation or set of operations which is performed upon data, in particular collection, recording, registration, organisation, storage, alteration, use, retrieval, transmission, disclosure, interlinking or combining, blocking, disposal and erasure, prevention of further use of data, taking of photographs, sound or image recordings and recording of physical characteristics which permit identification of a person.

Data Controllers: the data handling is carried out by the Data Controllers

Data Processing: the performance of technical tasks related to the data handling operations, irrespective of the method and means used to perform the operations and the place of application, provided that the technical task is performed on the data.

Third party: a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or any other body other than the data subject, the data controller, the processor or the persons who, under the direct authority of the controller or the processor, are authorised to handle personal data.

User: the user of the App

Consent of the data subject: a freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes by which he/she/they signifies, by means of a statement or an unambiguous act of confirmation, his/her/their agreement to the handling of personal data concerning him/her/them. Sensitive data: personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs or trade-union membership, genetic data or biometric data revealing the identity of natural persons, health data and personal data concerning the sex life or sexual orientation of natural persons.

2. Who do we share your information with?

We, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, 2361 Laxenburg, Austria, https://iiasa.ac.at   will share your information with the following Additional Controllers:

Dundee City Council
City Chambers, 21 City Square, Dundee, DD1 3BY

3. Lawful basis for processing

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances: –

  • you have given us consent for a specific purpose (Art. 6 para 1 lit a GDPR), namely for carrying out this project.
  • Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest (Art. 6 para 1 lit e GDPR), namely for the conduction of this project;
  • Processing is necessary for the purpose of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party (Art. 6 para 1 lit f GDPR), e.g., avoiding legal disputes about rights in the contributions. If possible, we seek the explicit consent to the processing of data, in particular the disclosure to third parties (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR).

4. What data do we process and how?

Below is a list of types of the data the app collects.

(a) Registration/Login/Profile Update

We process the following data for registration, login and profile updates for a given user, all of which are stored at IIASA:

  • Username
  • Password (encrypted)
  • Email address
  • Age category
  • Gender
  • Full post code
  • Occupation/Employment status

In case of unlawful or misleading use of personal data or in case of an act committed by the User that endangers the operation, activity and achievement of the purposes of the Data Controller, the Data Controller is entitled to delete the User’s data without delay, however, in case of suspicion of criminal offence or civil liability, the Data Controller is also entitled to retain the data for the duration of the proceedings.

Please note that a copy of the data might be briefly stored in the server’s memory. These data are temporarily stored apart from the database, managed and deleted automatically by the server’s operating system and will not be accessed by us for processing, archiving, or any other reason. It is also possible through logging errors or general requests that submitted data be stored in one of the server’s log files. These files are not publicly accessible and are not used for any processing, storage or data publication other than for resolving a possible software problem. These are technical necessities over which we have no control.

(b) Log Data

Whenever you use the App, we collect Log Data, or data and information (also through third party products) on your phone to identify errors in the app. Log Data may include information such as your device Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, device name, operating system version, the configuration of the app when utilizing our Service, the time and date of your use of the service, and other statistics. These data are only used for identifying problems with our software and will not be published as a part of the resulting data product.

We may use aggregated, non-personally identifying information that does not identify a user or cannot otherwise be reasonably linked or connected with them for research purposes and to operate, analyze, improve and optimize the App.

(c) Cookies

We use first party cookies to provide essential site functionality. Cookies are small text files that are saved by your browser and temporarily stored on your device.

Provided that you have consented to the use of cookies, our website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service of Google LLC. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies to help understand how the website is being used. To do so, information about your visit, including parts of your IP Address, may be transmitted, stored and processed on a Google server in the USA or another non-EU state.

You can also prevent the placement of cookies through the settings of your browser or by downloading and installing the browser plug-in.

The Urban ReLeaf cities application are run on state-of-the-art web service environments hosted on rented servers at Hetzner Online GmbH, Industriestrasse 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany. The environment is set up such that we restrict the access to the database and data strictly to our trusted network and through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that let us choose exactly which data are accessible to which users.

(d) Requesting information on available survey locations

On the map screen, we process information on which pins are within the currently displayed map view. Since this usually shows your current location, it implicitly uses your current location (latitude and longitude). This information is processed even when you are neither logged in nor registered as a user. For this purpose, we access the following data:

  • User ID (if logged in) for excluding already completed locations
  • Location (Latitude, Longitude) and requested radius, or:
  • Bounding coordinates for the part of the map currently shown in the app

(e) Submitting your contribution

When submitting your contribution, the following data is sent to the server and stored:

  • User ID
  • User display name
  • User e-mail address
  • User position (Latitude/Longitude as well as accuracy)
  • Point ID
  • Device and app information
    • Identification of Urban ReLeaf cities app
    • Version of Urban ReLeaf cities app
    • Mobile phone operating system and version
    • Device name (brand and model)
    • Device serial number
  • Information per photo submitted:
    • The submitted media file
    • Compass direction of photo
    • Time and date when the photo was taken
    • Tilt angle of the photo
  • Answers to the survey questions
  • Time and date when the survey questions were uploaded
  • Further information collected for quality assurance and other communication:
    • Language the app is used, during submission

(f) Requesting campaign statistics

To display the campaign statistics on the leaderboard, we process the following data:

  • E-mail address
    • User password (encrypted)
    • Requested scope (last week, current week, total)

Third Parties

Please note that we may employ the following third-party companies to facilitate our service: Hetzner Online GmbH; Google LLC

These companies will have access to your data to perform the tasks we assign to them, as described above. However, they shall not disclose or use the information for any other purpose. The App may contain links to other websites. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that site. Please note that these external sites are not operated by us, and we do not have any control, nor assume any responsibility for their content, privacy policies or practices. We therefore advise you to carefully review the Privacy Policy of those websites.

6. How long will we keep your data

Duration of data handling: until revoked by the User, but not longer than 5 years.

7. Your rights

At any time, you have the right to:

  • request information as to which of your data we process (Art. 15 GDPR),
  • request the rectification or erasure of your data (Art. 16 and Art. 17 GDPR),
  • restrict the processing of your data (Art. 18 GDPR),
  • request the transmission of your data (Art. 20 GDPR),
  • file a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular the Austrian data protection authority (www.dsb.gv.at) or the data protection authority at your place of residence.

You can instruct us to stop processing your data at any time using the contact information below. Even if you have agreed to the processing of data in the past, you can revoke such consent at any time (Art. 21 GDPR). Should you have questions concerning your personal data, please contact us using the contact information below.

Contact us

If you have any questions about our Terms of Use and/or Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact us at: hello@urbanreleaf.eu

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg Austria
Tel: + 43 2236 807 0