Privacy Policy

1 Acceptance of the Policy

The privacy and security of your personal information is of utmost importance to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The services that IMO provides to you are subject to the following Policy ("Policy"). This Policy applies to all IMO sites within "imo.org" domain name. The most current version of the Policy can be reviewed by clicking on the "Privacy Policy" hypertext link located at the footer of our Web pages and by accepting it.


2 Description of Services

Through its network of Web properties, IMO provides you with access to a variety of resources, including our public website, extranet, web services, download areas, communication forums and product information ("Services"). The Services include any updates, enhancements, new features, and/or the addition of any new site for the work of the organization.


3 Personal and Non-Commercial Use Limitation

Unless otherwise specified and authorized by the IMO, the Services we provide are for your personal and non-commercial use. You may not modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any information, software, products or services obtained from the Services. Specifically, this includes a prohibition on the unauthorized use of automated software to retrieve, display, copy, store or otherwise use data obtained from our Services.


4 Member Account, Password, and Security

You may use our Public website without providing any personal information to us. The information gathered during general browsing of the "imo.org" domain is used to analyse trends and usage of the IMO sites and to improve the usefulness of the sites. It is not connected with any personal information.

If any of our Services requires you to open an account, you must complete the registration process by providing us with current, complete and accurate information as prompted by the applicable registration form. You also will choose a password and a username. You are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and account. Furthermore, you are entirely responsible for any and all activities that occur under your account. You agree to notify IMO immediately of any unauthorized use of your account or any other breach of security. IMO will not be liable for any loss that you may incur as a result of someone else using your password or account, either with or without your knowledge. However, you could be held liable for losses incurred by IMO or another party due to someone else using your account or password. You may not use anyone else's account at any time, without the permission of the account holder.


5 Unlawful or Prohibited Use

As a condition of your use of the Services, you will not use the Services for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms, conditions, and notices. You may not use the Services in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair any IMO server, or the network(s) connected to any IMO server, or interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of any Services. You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to any Services, other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to any IMO server or to any of the Services, through hacking, password mining or any other means. You may not obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information through any means not intentionally made available through the Services.


6 Collection of personal data

When you use our public services, our systems automatically keep a log of your IP (Internet Protocol) address, domain name, browser type, operating system, and information such as the web site that referred you to us, the files you download, the pages you visit, and the dates/times of those visits. When you register to use our services, subscribe to a mailing list, provide feedback on our services, we keep the personal information you provide to us securely in our database. When you purchase our publication or services, you may be asked to provide your credit card details. These details are transferred to a secure, online payment service, hosted outside IMO. Credit card information is not retained on IMO infrastructure. IMO sites with specific requirements to collect personal information may publish a privacy policy specific for that site. In these cases, the site-specific policies will be complementary to this general IMO Privacy Policy, but will give additional details for that particular site. For certain IMO sites, registering or supplying personal information sets a cookie. By setting this cookie, IMO will remember your details the next time you visit, so you don't have to re-enter the information. This helps us remember your preferences, and generally improve the user experience. Joining electronic discussion groups may mean that other participants of the discussion group (including non-IMO employees) will see personal information that you have volunteered. For open discussion groups, this information will be public. Providing personal information on the IMO site is optional. If you choose not to provide personal information, you can still browse and use the IMO site, but you will not be able to carry out certain actions such as purchase items, register for a newsletter or apply for a job.


7 How IMO uses your data

The personal data that IMO collects is used:

  • to provide you information that you have requested or which may be relevant to a subject in which you have demonstrated an interest;
  • to fulfil an obligation or agreement that IMO have entered into with you or with the entity that you represent;
  • to ensure the security and safe operation of our websites and underlying infrastructure, and
  • to manage any communication between you and us.

We do not sell your data or share your data with third parties.


8 Security measures

Our information security management system (ISMS) is certified to ISO/IEC 27001. Our privacy information management system (PIMS) is certified to ISO/IEC 27701.We have what we believe are appropriate security controls in place to protect personal data. We do not share your information outside IMO and will not use your information in ways other than those set forth in this Policy. Risk assessment, including assessing risks to the data, is at the heart of our ISMS. However, we do not have any control over what happens between your device and the boundary of our information infrastructure. You should be aware of the many information security risks that exist and take appropriate steps to safeguard your own information.

All our employees who have access to, and are associated with the processing of personal data, are obliged to respect the confidentiality of official business matters, including personal data.

The IMO site contains links to sites external to the imo.org domain. IMO is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such sites.


9 Managing your data

You may access a copy of the personal data we hold about you. In order to process your request, please email privacy@imo.org. We will ask you to provide proof of identification for verification purposes. Once we have verified your identity, we will provide access to the personal data we hold about you.

When you believe we hold inaccurate or incomplete personal information about you, you may correct or complete this data.

You may request that we delete your personal data. This includes personal data that you may have provided to us. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure erasure.

10 Changes to this Policy

This Policy will be updated from time to time and the updated version will be available on our web services under our "Privacy Policy".


11 Liability Disclaimer

Any usage of IMO websites and related web services on imo.org domain implies acknowledgement and acceptance of the terms set out in the privacy policy, the most current version of which can be accessed by clicking on the "privacy policy" hypertext link located at the footer of this Web pages.