OVERVIEW

This is a legal document (“Agreement”) which sets out your rights and obligations, and those of the Blue World Institute of Marine Research and Conservation (“the BWI”, “we” or “us”), in relation to this website (the “Site”), and the material of all types that you gain access to, on and through the Site (“Content”). There is a separate document, which further details our privacy policy and governs our use of your personal information in using the web site.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Terms and conditions on using the BWI site. This information is for your protection as well as ours.

Your use of this website and your acceptance without modification of the terms, conditions, and notices contained herein constitutes your agreement to all such terms, conditions, and notices. If you do not agree with these terms and conditions then you are not authorised to use this website. You affirm your assent to the terms of this Agreement every time you access any part of the Site or make use of any of the Content. The following clauses cover a number of situations that the BWI deems as relevant to services provided on the web site.

Users consent that in case of ambiguity the Croatian version of this legal document is the original version out of which all further interpretation is taken.

Donation

Donations received are regulated by Croatian Civil Obligations Act (Official Gazette 35/05, 41/08, 125/11, 78/15). According to the Act, donations are considered “a gift”. Hence, the BWI is not allowed to provide any form of service or goods in return. Donations can be given as a financial contribution, or as goods or services. According to the provisions of the Croatian Profit Tax Act (Official Gazette 177/04, 90/05, 57/06, 146/08, 80/10, 22/12, 148/13, 143/14, 50/16), a donation presents an expense (cost) for the donor and the amount donated can be used for profit tax deduction. Croatian tax law allows donations that cannot exceed 2% of income reported by the donor in the previous fiscal year. The amount can be larger if a relevant Ministry issues a permit/decision/instruction. Please inquire about legal amounts and other donation regulations in your country. In order to be able to issue a donation payment certificate, we need your tax ID or your personal ID (depending on what is used in your respective country). For large amounts, we would suggest contacting us and making a donation contract. Donations are non-refundable. Should you require more information please contact us at info@blue-world.org, call +385 51 604666 or fax +385 51 604668.

“Adopt a dolphin” donation program

The BWI is a non-profit organisation. Much of its activities are funded through donations. Our supporters can make voluntary contributions in any amount or can participate in a donation program by making a symbolic dolphin adoption.

Dolphin adoption is a voluntary donation program allowing physical or legal persons wishing to support the work of the BWI to do so. The adoption is symbolic and does not represent any form of ownership nor does it give any possibility to make any claim over any dolphin or any other animal or its part. Each dolphin adopter understands that donation is a voluntary act. In case you make a donation through dolphin adoption, you will receive an adoption pack made with the aim of public awareness raising. For details on donations, please see our Donation section [link].

By making a Dolphin adoption payment, each donor (person making the payment) agrees to the following:

  1. The donor is at least 18 years old or has guidance or permission from a person that is 18 years old or older.
  2. The donor has the authorisation to use the payment method to make the donation.
  3. The BWI will use the received donation amount for its work in marine conservation and raising of public awareness.
  4. The BWI will provide the donor with a public awareness adoption pack consisting of items listed with the chosen adoption. The donor will pay the postage for the delivery of the adoption pack. Cost of postage is not considered part of a donation.
  5. If the adoption pack is not delivered, is damaged or is not the one you selected, we will replace the adoption pack. Please email us at info@blue-world.org, call +385 51 604666 or fax +385 51 604668 for help in processing your request. If the problem is down to a BWI fault, additional postage will be paid by BWI.
  6. Donors will not charge back, dispute or reverse any payments, nor will they request any goods or services from the BWI in exchange for the donation.
  7. The donor voluntarily donates the amount transferred to the BWI account. The amount visible on the BWI bank statement is considered as the donation amount and will be listed on the donation certificate. The full donation amount made in any foreign currency will be transferred to Croatian Kuna based on the exchange rate applied by the relevant bank/service on the day of transfer. In case a donation payment certificate is required, the amount will be presented in Croatian Kuna and the medium exchange rate of the BWI business bank will be used to present the amount in any other currency. Hence some differences in the amounts stated may occur.
  8. Dolphin adoption lasts for a period of 365 days, hence it may cover parts of two calendar years. The donation certificate can be used for tax deduction only once, in the calendar year in which the donation was made.
  9. Each donor will become a supporting member of the BWI and will receive a membership card giving free access to Lošinj Marine Education Centre in Veli Lošinj. Unless renewed, membership will cease within one year (365 days).
  10. Payment processing is done through payment gateways or services. The BWI does not take or process any debit/credit card and/or PayPal account details. The BWI will not be liable for any bank (or similar) charges incurred during payment process or due to any service failure or in case you did not ensure adequate monies are maintained in your account. Standard charges may apply at the rates applicable at the time of the transaction.
  11. The BWI aims to dispatch the dolphin adoption pack within five (5) working days of payment receipt, Monday to Friday, 8am – 3pm (Central European Time). However, to permit for all eventualities, please allow up to 28 days for delivery. Postage and packing is free to addresses in the Adriatic countries of Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, and Albania; additional €15 for all other overseas addresses.
  12. Your personal details needed for donation/dolphin adoption processing will be kept private and will not be made available to any third party unless legal order for disclosure is made.
  13. These terms can be changed and amended at any point by the BWI. All changes will become valid at the time of publishing.
  14. By making a payment the donator agrees to everything listed above.
  15. Any disputes will be resolved amicably. In case positive solution is not sought, the courts of Croatia are taking jurisdiction.

If you do not agree with the terms listed above then please do not make a donation or dolphin adoption.

REQUEST PROCESSING

Any e-mail, booking, payment or on-line form sent to the BWI is considered a request. The BWI aims to process any requests within five (5) working days of receipt Monday to Friday 8am- 3pm (Central European Time). However, to permit for all eventualities please allow up to 14 days for e-mail notification.

You confirm that all details provided by you in the request are correct – the BWI cannot be held responsible for errors in information you are providing. If your online request is accepted, we will send you a confirmation email and details regarding how and when you can cancel it. Please note: it is your responsibility to ensure that you made the correct request for what you intended. If you receive more than one confirmation email, the BWI would urge you to check to ensure that you have not placed more requests than you originally intended. The BWI will not presume that repeat requests are a mistake, but will act on all requests received unless notified otherwise within two (2) days of receiving the request or until such time as the contract has begun.

CANCELLATION

You can cancel a request by sending a notice of cancelation (one for each request) within one (1) working day of receipt or confirmation Monday to Friday 8am – 3pm (Central European Time) or as instructed in a confirmation pertaining to a specific request. A notice of cancellation will be accepted if you: (a) send it to the business email address last known to you (in which case it is to be taken to have been given on the day on which it is sent). Please email info@blue-world.org; or (b) send it by fax to the business fax number last known to you (in which case it is to be taken to have been given on the day on which it is sent). Please fax to +385 51 604668. If payment has been taken when you attempt to cancel, our refunds policy (as detailed for each request) applies.

SOCIAL MEDIA HOUSE RULES

The BWI welcomes and encourages open discussion on our social media sites – including but not limited to our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube or Vimeo channels.

We are aware that some subject matters (dolphin hunts, whale slaughter, captivity, etc.) do elicit very passionate feelings and some extreme views. However, please refrain from using extreme words, sexist or racist comments, profanities, or threats of a violent nature. Anyone doing so will be banned on first instance and their comments will be deleted.

Remember, once you post something online, it is there for many to see. Our social media sites are also visited by minors, so please be thoughtful about your comments.

We make every reasonable effort to monitor participation to ensure that conversations remain “on topic” and are courteous. However, our capacity to monitor all comments is limited and there may be occasions when comments might slip our attention, and we apologise in advance if this does happen.

Should you have any concerns regarding BWI and would like to make a complaint or suggestion, please contact us using the form at the end of this document.

PRIVACY POLICY

Your privacy is very important to us. This notice is provided to explain our online information practices to protect your privacy and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used.

All information collected by the BWI, through this website or mobile devices’ application, is held in compliance with the Croatian Data Protection Act (Official Gazette 103/03, 118/06, 41/08, 130/11, 106/12), and the EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive (2003).

THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

This notice applies to all information collected or submitted on the BWI website. On some of the pages you can perform activities such as support our work (e.g., by donating money or virtually adopting an animal), request to volunteer or spend an internship with us, and register to our newsletter. We might introduce new options or cancel existing options, but through these activities you will be requested to submit personal information at these pages, such as:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone number(s)
  • Email address
  • Date of birth
  • Occupation
  • Academic affiliation

 

HOW WE USE INFORMATION

We will use the information you provide to complete your activity and may also use it to contact you with confirmation of your activity, to provide updates or messages on our work. We use return email addresses to answer the email we receive. Such addresses are not used for any other purpose and we will not share your details with any third party.

You can register on our website if you would like to receive our e-newsletter as well as periodical updates on our work. Information you submit on our website will not be used for this purpose unless you agree with our privacy policy.

We do not collect, transmit or store any information on your Credit/Debit Card/PayPal Account as all payments are processed by secure payment gateways/services (info provided by proprietors when making payments).

We do not share at present any information with external advertisers. In the event we will, we will share only non-identifying and aggregate information such as that which may allow better design of our website. For example, we may tell an advertiser that Y number of men and Z number of women filled out our registration form, but we would not disclose anything that could be used to personally identify those individuals.

Finally, we never use or share the personally identifiable information provided to us online in ways unrelated to the ones described above without also providing you an opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prohibit such unrelated uses.

BWI COMMITMENT TO DATA SECURITY

To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data privacy and accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online to the best of our abilities.

HOW YOU CAN ACCESS OR CORRECT YOUR INFORMATION

You can access all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain by sending an email request to the address below or fill the feedback form at the end of this policy. We use this procedure to better safeguard your information. You can correct factual errors in your personally identifiable information by sending us a request in writing to the address below. To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.

Should you wish to opt out of receiving emails please contact BWI at info@blue-world.org

DONOR PRIVACY POLICY

The Blue World Institute of Marine Research and Conservation is committed to respecting the privacy of its financial and in-kind donors, whether the donation is made online, by mail, or any other method. When you make a financial or in-kind donation, you provide your name, contact information, and – in the case of financial contribution – other details necessary to complete your transaction. We are legally required to keep records of your name, contact details and info on the amounts donated. We protect your information in a variety of ways, as described above and below.

We strive to use industry standard safeguards to protect your information. Many donors use credit cards for donations. We do not store any information on your Credit/Debit Card/PayPal Account as all payments are processed by secure payment gateways/services (info provided by proprietors when making payments).

We will not sell, share or trade our donors’ personally identifiable information with any other entity. We will not send mailings to our donors on behalf of other organizations, unless a donor has given us specific permission to do so, and the mailing is pertinent to our own work (for example, a joint project).

To see our full commitment to you privacy, please review our general privacy policy [link above]

USE OF COOKIES ON OUR WEBSITE

Please see our Use of Cookies page for details on how cookies are used on our website.

USE OF COOKIES

As with many websites, the BWI uses cookies in order to provide you with a more personalised web service and understand the use of our website to improve its content and user experience. A cookie is a text-only string of information that we pass to your computer’s hard disk through your web browser so that our website can remember who you are. Cookies cannot be used by themselves to identify you.

We use two main types of cookies on our website, session and persistent cookies. Cookies can expire at the end of a browser session (from when a user opens the browser window to when they exit the browser) or they can be stored for longer.

Session or transient cookies

These cookies allow our websites to link the actions of a user during a browser session. They may be used for a variety of purposes such as remembering what a user has put in their search or in their adoption basket as they browse around the site. These cookies expire after a browser session ends so are not stored longer term.

Persistent, permanent or stored cookies

These cookies are stored on a user’s device in between browser sessions which allows the preferences or actions of the user across a site (or in some cases across different websites) to be remembered. Persistent cookies may be used for a variety of purposes including remembering a user’s preferences and choices when using our site.

Cookies help us to:

  • compile statistics on how our website is being used
  • help you navigate through the website
  • ensure the website is operating correctly
  • personalise and improve the service we offer to visitors

First- and third-party cookies

Whether a cookie is “first” or “third” party refers to the website or domain placing the cookie. First-party cookies are, simply, cookies set by a website visited by the user – the website displayed in the URL window. Third-party cookies are cookies that are set by a domain other than the one being visited by the user. While there is no advertising on the BWI site, you will find links to other sites for the purposes of processing payments, entering events, or finding additional information. Each of these sites will have its own policy and is responsible for notifying you of its cookie usage policy.

Specific cookies you may find on our website

You can find out up-to-date information about which cookies are being used on our site, expiration dates, etc. by entering our website URL at: cookie-checker.com

How to turn off cookies

If you don’t want to receive cookies, you can modify your web browser so that it notifies you when cookies are sent to it or you can refuse cookies altogether. You can also delete cookies that have already been set.

If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies which are set on your device, you can do this through your browser settings; the Help function within your browser should tell you how to do this. If you disable all cookies, you will lose some features and functionality on our site.

For more information about cookies, please visit http://www.aboutcookies.org/.

General Inquiry & Feedback Form

We appreciate your interest in the BWI. For general inquiries, please use the contact form below. You can return to the Contact Us page.

HOW TO CONTACT US

Should you have other questions or concerns about these privacy policies, please call us at +385 51 604666, send fax to +385 51 604668 or send us an email at info@blue-world.org. You may send requests in writing to Blue World Institute of Marine Research and Conservation, Lošinj Marine Education Centre, Kaštel 24, 51551 Veli Lošinj, Croatia.

Accessibility Statement

The Blue World Institute of Marine Research and Conservation website is built using Extensible Hypertext Mark-up Language (XHTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), according to World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards.

We make every effort to comply with accessibility standards in line with recognised best practice.

We strive for our website to follow the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 and the standards set by the European Commission. Our web site can be accessed from different devices, including mobile; functionality on such devices might be restricted.

Please report any feedback you may have on this issue at info@blue-world.org.