Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Generation of Thinkers (GOT) is a youth-led, volunteer-driven global nonprofit advancing education, technology access, professional skills, and equal opportunity for youth and women. This website — gotglobal.org — including GOT School and GOT University pages, is operated by Generation of Thinkers.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect through the website, why we collect it, how we protect it, and the choices you have. It applies to every form and feature on this site.

2. What information we collect

We only collect the information you choose to give us:

• Contact & enquiry forms — your name, email address, and message.
• Volunteer & membership applications — your name, contact details, education and professional background, skills, languages, areas of interest, availability, and emergency contact details you provide.
• Partnership enquiries — your name, organization, role, and message.
• Newsletter subscription — your email address and the topics you want updates about.
• GOT ID applications — your name, email, phone number, and a photo or scan of an identity document, used only to confirm your identity and prevent duplicate IDs.
• Certificate verification requests — your GOT ID, the course name, and the certificate file you upload.
• Story & impact submissions — the story text, your name, and any photos you choose to share for publication.
• Technical data — standard server logs (IP address, browser type, time of visit) kept for security and troubleshooting.

3. How we use your information

• To respond to your enquiries and process your applications.
• To issue and verify GOT IDs and certificates.
• To send you the newsletter updates you subscribed to — only for the topics you selected.
• To review and (with your consent) publish the stories and photos you submit.
• To keep the website secure and prevent abuse.

We never sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We do not share it with third parties except when required by law or when you have explicitly agreed (for example, publishing a story you submitted).

4. Storage, retention & deletion

• Form submissions are stored in our secure database and are visible only to authorized GOT administrators.
• Identity documents uploaded with GOT ID applications are stored outside the public web space, are never shown publicly, and are used only to confirm your identity.
• Certificate files uploaded for verification are automatically deleted once the verification is completed — we keep only the verification result and issue date.
• Newsletter subscriptions are kept until you unsubscribe; every newsletter email includes an unsubscribe link.
• You can ask us to delete any of your personal data at any time (see “Your rights” below).

5. Your rights

You are always in control of your data. You can:

• Ask what information we hold about you.
• Ask us to correct or update it.
• Ask us to delete it (including photos and published stories).
• Withdraw a consent you gave earlier — for example, unsubscribe from the newsletter or ask us to take down a published story.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at info@gotglobal.org — we respond to every request.

6. Children & young learners

Many of our learners are young people. Where a program involves participants under the age of majority in their country, we ask for a parent or guardian to submit or approve the registration. We never publish a child’s photo or full name without guardian consent.

7. Consent on our forms

Every form on this website includes a link to this Privacy Policy and a mandatory checkbox — “I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy.” We only process a submission when that consent is given. Forms that involve publishing content (such as Story & Impact submissions) make that explicit before you submit.

8. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update this page and the “last updated” date above. Significant changes will be announced on the website.