WEFEX Privacy Policy

Effective Date: August 25, 2026
Last Updated: August 25, 2026

1. Introduction

WEFEX respects the privacy of the individuals and organizations that visit our website, request access to the WEFEX platform, create user accounts, participate in WEFEX activities, or otherwise communicate with us.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information WEFEX collects, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, when it may be shared, and the choices and rights available to users.

WEFEX is a collaborative Water–Energy–Food–Ecosystems initiative designed to connect field knowledge, research, technology, data, and institutional collaboration in support of climate-smart and resource-efficient decision-making.

This Privacy Policy applies primarily to information collected through the WEFEX website, registration system, member accounts, partner workspace, and related online communications.

2. Information We Collect

WEFEX seeks to collect only the personal information reasonably necessary to operate the platform, evaluate requests for access, communicate with participants, maintain security, and support collaboration.

Information You Provide When Requesting Access

When you submit a request for access to WEFEX, we may collect information such as:

• First and last name
• Email address
• Organization or institution
• Country
• Stakeholder or professional category
• Areas of interest
• Information about how you would like to participate in or use WEFEX
• Organization website
• Professional profile or LinkedIn information, when voluntarily provided
• Username and account information
• Communications that you send to WEFEX

Applicants may include farmers and producer organizations, researchers, educational institutions, NGOs and civil-society organizations, public institutions, humanitarian or development organizations, technical partners, funders, and other collaborators.

Please do not submit sensitive personal information that is not necessary for your WEFEX participation.

Account and Login Information

For approved users, we may maintain information necessary to create and administer a WEFEX account, including your username, email address, account role, registration status, approval status, login activity, and account preferences.

Passwords should be stored by the website authentication system using appropriate security protections. WEFEX administrators should not have access to users’ plain-text passwords.

Information Collected Automatically

When you visit or use the WEFEX website, our website and service providers may automatically collect limited technical information, including:

• Internet Protocol (IP) address
• Browser type
• Device type
• Operating system
• Pages visited
• Date and time of access
• Referring website
• Login and security activity
• Cookie or similar technical identifiers

This information may be used to maintain website functionality, understand general website usage, troubleshoot problems, prevent unauthorized access, and improve security.

3. How We Use Personal Information

WEFEX may use personal information to:

• Review and evaluate requests for access to the WEFEX partner environment
• Verify applicants and organizations when appropriate
• Create, administer, approve, suspend, or terminate user accounts
• Provide access to protected WEFEX resources
• Communicate with members and applicants
• Respond to inquiries and support requests
• Facilitate research, institutional, technical, or field collaboration
• Improve the operation and usability of the WEFEX platform
• Protect WEFEX, its users, systems, data, and resources against misuse or unauthorized access
• Maintain records necessary for administration and accountability
• Comply with applicable legal or regulatory obligations
• Send relevant WEFEX operational, research, program, or collaboration communications

WEFEX will not use information collected through an access application for purposes that are materially unrelated to the purposes described in this Privacy Policy without providing appropriate notice or obtaining consent when required.

4. Review and Approval of WEFEX Accounts

Registration for WEFEX does not necessarily provide immediate access to the protected platform.

Applications may be reviewed by authorized WEFEX personnel before an account is activated. Information supplied in the registration form may therefore be used to assess whether the applicant’s interests, organization, professional activities, or proposed use of the platform are reasonably aligned with the mission and activities of WEFEX.

Account approval is an administrative decision. WEFEX may approve, decline, suspend, or revoke access when necessary to protect the platform, its participants, its data, or its mission.

WEFEX does not intend to use automated decision-making systems to make final decisions regarding approval of member applications unless applicants are specifically informed otherwise.

5. Sharing of Personal Information

WEFEX does not sell personal information.

WEFEX does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Personal information may be disclosed only when reasonably necessary to operate WEFEX, including to:

Authorized WEFEX personnel. Staff members, administrators, or authorized collaborators may access information when necessary to administer accounts, review applications, provide support, maintain security, or facilitate legitimate WEFEX activities.

Technology and service providers. Limited information may be processed by companies providing services such as website hosting, account management, email delivery, cybersecurity, backups, analytics, database services, or other infrastructure required to operate WEFEX.

These providers should receive only the information reasonably necessary to perform their services and should be expected to protect that information appropriately.

Legal and security purposes. WEFEX may disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with applicable law, legal process, governmental requests, or to protect the rights, safety, security, and integrity of WEFEX, its systems, its participants, or others.

Organizational changes. If responsibility for operating WEFEX is transferred, reorganized, merged, or assigned to another nonprofit, research, educational, or institutional entity, information necessary to continue operating the platform may be transferred subject to appropriate privacy protections.

WEFEX does not disclose member contact information to unrelated third parties simply for marketing purposes.

6. Research, Field Data, and WEFEX Project Data

WEFEX may support research, environmental monitoring, agricultural field nodes, dashboards, datasets, and other forms of technical or scientific information.

Not all WEFEX data constitutes personal information.

Where research or field activities involve identifiable individuals, participating farms, research participants, precise locations, confidential partner information, or other potentially sensitive data, additional research agreements, consent procedures, data-sharing agreements, institutional requirements, or project-specific privacy provisions may apply.

This website Privacy Policy does not replace informed-consent documents, research protocols, data-use agreements, or other protections that may be required for specific WEFEX research or field activities.

Whenever practicable, WEFEX should favor aggregated, anonymized, pseudonymized, or non-identifiable data for research and public reporting.

7. Cookies and Similar Technologies

The WEFEX website may use cookies or similar technologies that are necessary for website operation, account authentication, security, preferences, and performance.

Some cookies may be essential to keep users logged in or maintain secure sessions.

If WEFEX uses optional analytics or other non-essential tracking technologies, users will be provided with appropriate information and choices where required by applicable law.

Users may also control certain cookies through their browser settings. Disabling essential cookies, however, may prevent some parts of the WEFEX platform from functioning correctly.

8. Third-Party Services and Links

The WEFEX platform may provide links to or integrations with third-party websites, data platforms, dashboards, mapping tools, research resources, or other external services.

Those services may operate under their own privacy policies and terms.

This Privacy Policy does not govern the independent privacy practices of third parties. Users are encouraged to review the privacy information of external services before submitting personal information to them.

Where WEFEX embeds or integrates a third-party service within the protected platform, technical information may be transmitted to that service as necessary to provide the functionality.

9. Data Security

WEFEX takes reasonable administrative, organizational, and technical measures intended to protect personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, loss, destruction, or misuse.

Measures may include account authentication, access controls, secure hosting, software updates, backups, security monitoring, and limiting administrative access to individuals who require it.

No internet-based system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Users are therefore encouraged to use strong, unique passwords and to protect their account credentials.

Users who believe their account or personal information may have been compromised should contact WEFEX promptly.

10. Data Retention

WEFEX retains personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including account administration, collaboration, security, recordkeeping, dispute resolution, and legal obligations.

Information associated with active WEFEX accounts may generally be retained for the duration of the account.

When an account is closed, rejected, or no longer required, WEFEX may delete or anonymize personal information after a reasonable administrative retention period unless continued retention is necessary for legal, security, research-integrity, contractual, or legitimate recordkeeping purposes.

WEFEX will periodically review retained information and seek to remove information that is no longer reasonably necessary.

11. International Users and Data Transfers

WEFEX is intended to support international collaboration and may include participants located in different countries.

Personal information may therefore be processed or stored in the United States or in other countries where WEFEX or its service providers operate.

Data-protection laws may differ between countries.

Where applicable law requires additional safeguards for international transfers of personal information, WEFEX will seek to implement appropriate measures.

12. European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Similar Data-Protection Rights

Where the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, United Kingdom GDPR, or comparable legislation applies, WEFEX will process personal information under an appropriate legal basis.

Depending on the circumstances, that basis may include:

• Processing necessary to respond to a person’s request to join or participate in WEFEX
• WEFEX’s legitimate interests in operating, securing, administering, and improving the platform
• Consent, when consent is required
• Compliance with legal obligations

Subject to applicable law, individuals may have rights to request access to their personal information, correction of inaccurate information, deletion, restriction of processing, objection to certain processing, or receipt of certain information in a portable format.

Where processing is based on consent, consent may generally be withdrawn without affecting the lawfulness of processing that occurred before withdrawal.

Individuals may also have the right to submit a complaint to the appropriate data-protection authority in their jurisdiction.

13. United States Privacy Rights

Residents of certain U.S. states may have additional privacy rights under applicable state law.

Depending on the law and whether it applies to WEFEX, these rights may include requesting information about personal information collected, requesting access, correction, or deletion, and obtaining information regarding certain disclosures.

WEFEX does not sell personal information and does not use personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Requests concerning applicable privacy rights may be submitted using the contact information provided below.

WEFEX will not discriminate against an individual for exercising a privacy right provided by applicable law.

14. Communications

WEFEX may send approved members communications necessary to administer their accounts, including registration confirmations, approval notices, password-reset messages, security notifications, and important information concerning the operation of the platform.

WEFEX may also communicate with members regarding relevant research, projects, collaboration opportunities, field activities, reports, events, or platform developments.

Where applicable law requires consent for non-essential electronic communications, WEFEX will provide appropriate consent and unsubscribe mechanisms.

Account-security and essential administrative communications may still be sent when necessary to maintain a user’s account.

15. Children’s Privacy

WEFEX is designed primarily for researchers, farmers, professionals, organizations, institutions, and other adult collaborators and is not intended as a service directed toward children.

WEFEX does not knowingly seek to collect personal information from children through its membership registration process.

If WEFEX learns that personal information from a child has been collected in circumstances where parental, guardian, institutional, or other legally required authorization was necessary but was not obtained, WEFEX will take reasonable steps to address or delete the information as appropriate.

16. Your Choices and Requests

Individuals may contact WEFEX to:

• Request access to personal information associated with their account
• Correct inaccurate or outdated information
• Request deletion of an account or personal information, where applicable
• Ask questions about how their information is being used
• Withdraw consent where processing depends upon consent
• Raise a privacy or security concern

WEFEX may need to verify the identity of the person making a request before providing access to, correcting, or deleting account information.

Some information may be retained when necessary to comply with law, maintain legitimate organizational records, protect security, resolve disputes, or preserve research integrity.

17. Changes to This Privacy Policy

WEFEX may update this Privacy Policy as the platform, its technology, its research activities, or applicable legal requirements evolve.

The revised policy will be posted on the WEFEX website with an updated “Last Updated” date.

If a change materially affects how existing members’ personal information is used, WEFEX may provide additional notice through the website, member workspace, or email as appropriate.

18. Contact WEFEX

Questions, requests, or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or the handling of personal information may be directed to:

WEFEX — WEFE Nexus Global Observatory
Operated by Emergency Energy, Inc.

Privacy Contact: privacy@emergencyenergy.org
Website: https://www.emergencyenergyglobal.org/
Mailing Address: EMERGENCY ENERGY INC 8 The Green, #8748 Dover, DE, 19901

For privacy-related communications, please include “Privacy Request” in the subject line.

WEFEX Privacy Commitment

WEFEX seeks to collect only the information necessary to operate a secure, collaborative research and partner environment; to use that information transparently and responsibly; and to respect the privacy of the communities, professionals, researchers, farmers, institutions, and other partners who contribute to its work.