Privacy Policy

Welcome to Ghanalinks. Ghanalinks (the “Site”) is produced and maintained by the Monitoring, Evaluation and Technical Support Services (METSS) project in Ghana. The METSS project is a four and a half year cooperative agreement under the Participating Agency Service Agreement (PASA) arrangement between U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The implementing partners of the project are Kansas State University and the University of Cape Coast. The site was developed for interactive public use, it is not an official U.S. Government website, and therefore, does not necessarily state or reflect the views or opinions of the U.S. Government or USAID. Individuals seeking USAID information should visit the agency's official government website at www.usaid.gov. Individuals seeking USAID information should visit the agency's official government website at www.usaid.gov.

Privacy Notice
This section explains how the METSS project will handle information learned about you from your visit to this website.

Information Automatically Collected:

If you visit the site to browse, read, or download information:

The METSS project will collect and store only the following information about you: the name of the domain from which you access the Internet; the date and time you access the site, the Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site; and what information you view while you visit the site.

The METSS project will use this information to measure the number of visitors to the different sections of the site, to find out what information is the most viewed, and to help make the website more useful to visitors. This gathering and storing of information is separate from the activity described as monitoring in the Security Notice.

The information gathered is used primarily for site management described above, and may be used in the case of suspected unauthorized activity, for law enforcement and possible criminal prosecution (see Security Notice below).

Information Voluntarily Provided and Collected:

If you identify yourself by joining, sending a comment, using our contact page, or sending an email:

You have voluntarily provided the METSS project with potentially personally identifiable information. The METSS project may use that personally identifiable information to respond to your comment, suggestion, or question. In aggregate, the information may be used to count the number of people corresponding with us via the contact page or email.

If you identify yourself in order to receive information electronically, such as project-related email notifications or newsletters offered from this website:

You have voluntarily provided the METSS project with potentially personally identifiable information, which will be used to fulfill your request for information. The METSS project will not disclose the information to other parties and will only use the information for the purpose for which it was provided.

If you identify yourself in order to participate as a registered user:

You have voluntarily provided the METSS project with potentially personally identifiable information. The registration information is collected to associate your entries with your user name and for site management purposes. It will only be shared with persons connected with administration of this site. In the case of suspected unauthorized activity, the METSS project may use this information for law enforcement and possible criminal prosecution.

If you identify yourself in order to participate in a social networking community of practice, discussion forum, or other collaborative space:

You have voluntarily provided the METSS project with potentially personally identifiable information. In addition, the potentially personally identifiable information you provide in your profile may be visible to other registered users or participants. The METSS project is not responsible for how other participants use the information provided.

The METSS project will not obtain personally identifiable information about you when you visit the site unless you choose to provide such information to them.

The METSS project will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. We will retain and use your information as necessary to provide you with our website-based services, including our Customer Portal, targeted advertising and website content, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Cookies and Other Information Stored on Your Computer
This site uses temporary or "session" cookies to keep track of activities during each session. These cookies allow the system to identify the responses from users as they use site features and are deleted by the system when the user logs off or closes the browser, thereby ending the session.

This site does NOT use "persistent" cookies.

Some of the links on this site point to third-party sites not affiliated with this site that may place cookies on your computer. You can expect to be notified when you are leaving this site when you select one of these links. You should be aware that third-party sites may still place a cookie on your computer while you are reading the warning message. If you want to avoid such cookies, we encourage you to set your browser to notify you when cookies are being set and allow you to reject them. Your system's help files will explain how to do this.

Security Notice
For SITE SECURITY purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.

If monitoring reveals evidence of possible criminal activity, such evidence may be provided to law enforcement personnel.

General Disclaimer
Information presented on this website is considered public information and may be distributed or copied freely unless identified as being subject to copyright protection. In return, it is requested that Ghanalinks (Ghanalinks.org) be cited as the source of any information, photos, and images copied from this site and that any photo credits or bylines be similarly credited to the photographer or author.

Disclaimer of Endorsement
The information posted on this website may contain hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links and pointers are provided for visitors' convenience. The METSS project does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any linked information. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers to other websites is not intended to assign importance to those sites and the information contained therein, nor is it intended to endorse, recommend, or favor any views expressed, or commercial products or services offered on these outside sites, or the organizations sponsoring the sites, by trade name, trademark, manufacture, or otherwise.

Reference in this website to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the site's visitors, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. Government or USAID.

The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not state or reflect those of the U.S. Government or USAID and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

Disclaimer of Liability
Every effort is made to provide accurate and complete information. However, with the thousands of documents available, often uploaded within short deadlines, the METSS project cannot guarantee that there will be no errors. The METSS project makes no claims, promises, or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the contents of this website and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in the contents of this website.

With respect to the content of this site, neither the United States Government, nor their employees and contractors make any warranty, expressed or implied or statutory, including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third party rights, title, and the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to content available from this website or other Internet resources linked from it.

Neither the U.S. Government nor USAID assume any legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, product, or process disclosed herein, nor freedom from computer virus, and do not represent that use of such information, product, or process would not infringe on privately owned rights.

Links to this Website or Its Contents
You may freely link to this website or any of its content. We ask only that you use the full URL and identify that the link is to a public Internet resource.

Links to Other Sites
Once you link to another site, you are subject to the disclaimers and security and privacy policies of the new site.

Social Media
Ghanalinks maintains profiles on several third-party social media sites. We are present on these sites in order to increase the reach of our knowledge sharing activities.

Though we encourage commenting and conversation on our social media profiles, please remember that they are public forums and any information provided will be visible to the public. Please do not include personal details such as your telephone number, email address, or any other personal information that you do not want available to the general public.

Some Personally Identifying Information (PII) may become available to Ghanalinks through your use of social media (i.e., we can see your name and picture if you post a comment); however, we will not collect, share, or store that information.

Our presence on social media sites is not intended to endorse, recommend, or favor any third-party company or service provider.

Copyright Notice
Unless a copyright is indicated, information on this website is in the public domain and may be reproduced, published, or otherwise used without permission. The METSS project requests only that Ghanlinks.org be cited as the source of the information and that any photo credits or bylines be similarly credited to the photographer or author as appropriate.

If a copyright is indicated on a photo, graphic, or any other material, permission to copy these materials must be obtained from the original source.
This copyright notice does not pertain to information on websites other than this website.

Site Management and Policy Updates
The METSS project manages the overall information content, design, and organization of this website. The METSS project may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to our information practices. If we make any material changes we will notify you by email (sent to the e-mail address specified in your account) or by means of a notice on our website prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

For More Information
If you have any questions or comments about the information presented here, please contact the Ghanalinks at ghanalinks@metssghana.org