UNDERSTAND is building the public-interest layer that connects trusted European knowledge across languages—while keeping sources, rights, corrections and disagreement visible
How we handle your details
Stichting i.o. UNDERSTAND is the controller of the personal data collected through resources.understand.media and understand.media. Contact us at contact@understand.media.
When you request a download, we record your name, organisation, email address, the publication requested and your two contact preferences. Google Forms also records the submission time. We use these details to administer downloads and to see which publications reach which kinds of organisations.
If you choose the first optional checkbox, UNDERSTAND may contact you about the publication you downloaded. If you choose the second, we may send you news of future research and publications. Both choices are optional and leaving them unticked does not prevent a download. We do not sell your details.
We administer downloads on the basis of our legitimate interest in knowing who our publications reach. The two contact preferences rest on your consent. You may withdraw that consent at any time, and doing so does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.
We keep download records for as long as we need them to administer downloads and report on the reach of our work, and in any case no longer than two years after your request. Contact preferences are kept until you withdraw them. Technical connection data is kept only as long as needed to deliver and protect the website.
Submissions and contact preferences are stored in Google Forms and a linked Google Spreadsheet managed by Stichting i.o. UNDERSTAND. Google provides these services; Cloudflare hosts resources.understand.media and processes technical connection data to deliver and protect the website.
Both providers may process data outside the European Economic Area, including in the United States. Where that happens, the transfer relies on the EU–US Data Privacy Framework or, failing that, the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.
If you choose “Remember my details”, your name, organisation, email and preferences are stored in this browser for 180 days and used to fill in later download requests. You can review them before each download. Use “Forget my details” in the footer to remove them from this browser. This does not delete earlier submissions from Google Forms or the linked spreadsheet. Leave this option unticked on a shared device.
You can withdraw either contact permission or request access to, correction of, or deletion of your details. You may also ask us to restrict processing, object to it, or receive your details in a portable form. Write to contact@understand.media and we will respond within one month.
If you are not satisfied with how we handle your request, you can lodge a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) or with the supervisory authority in your own country.
This statement was last updated September 14, 2026. A standalone copy is always available at understand.media/privacy.