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What is U-Report?
U-Report is a free social messaging tool designed for the youth, wherever they are in the world, to speak out on social issues,
support child rights, promote youth agenda, and improve our communities.
U-Report is developed by UNICEF to improve adolescents and youth citizen engagement, inform leaders, and foster positive change. Polls and alerts are sent out to U-reporters via social media platforms (such as Facebook messenger and Viber) and real-time response information is collected. Results and ideas are shared back with the community. Issues polled include among others health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, youth unemployment, HIV/AIDS, and disease outbreaks. Data received can be disaggregated by age, gender, and geographical areas.
How many countries are using U-Report and when it was
launched in the Philippines?
U-Report is now active in 99 countries including the Philippines, with over 32 million U-Reporters. In the Philippines, U-Report was first introduced in 2020 to the youth of Bangsamoro Region - in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic - to empower them to continue to be the voice of their community, hold duty bearers accountable, and ensure that the BARMM parliamentary government hears and addresses the needs of every Bangsamoro youth.
How does collecting data create change?
It is easy to ignore things that are not seen or heard. Making the issues that you care most about visible –to the public and
decision-makers - is an important first step in creating the awareness and
action that leads to lasting positive social change.
Creating lasting social change takes time, and involves the
energy, actions and decisions of many different actors and groups. U-Report
works hard to create change on two fronts:
What are the issues polled in the U-Report?
Social issues that matter to YOU and your communities! We have met countless young people and youth networks who have
shared things that they want to discuss, including: employment, education,
gender equality, drugs & alcohol, reproductive health, climate change,
mental health, child marriage, discrimination, cyber security, volunteerism,
bullying, disability, peacebuilding and more.
But aren’t these issues political?
U-Report focuses on social issues and not national
politics. This means that U-Report will never be used to encourage support for
a specific political party or figure. Similarly, we won’t ask for information
on political affiliation nor about endorsing a specific political party or
programme – U-Report is neutral!
Who sees the responses we share?
U-Report messaging platform is hosted in the cloud, and connected to a secure offshore server. All responses appear in an anonymized back-end dashboard and can only be accessed by UNICEF and trusted third party service providers. Project staff who regularly interact with the dashboard do not have access to presonal information beyond those you’ve shared to create your profile. Only your responses to the topical poll questions are made visible publicly as part of a map or graph generated on the U-Report website.
Who chooses the poll questions and how is the selection
made?
U-Report Philippines is being managed by a U-Report Country Steering Committee composed of UNICEF Philippines staff and the Kabataang Resilient Program Team from Positive Youth Development Network. Our questions are a combination of suggestions made by U-Report Steering Committee members, as well as the suggestions you make via the U-Report channels. U-Report platform is able to track key word trends to help us identify emerging issues of importance for the young people in the country.
Is my personal information being kept securely and privately?
U-Report is committed to ensuring U-Reporters’ data are safe and their
privacy protected. The tool only collects very minimal personal information and
processes data anonymously.
- We will not use your personal information other than for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
- We will not sell your personal information.
- We will not keep your Personal Information for longer than is necessary for the stated purposes except to the extent required by regulations.
- We will take all reasonable and necessary technical and organizational measures to protect your Personal Information.
- Where we use third parties to host U-Report information or to provide services to us, we have implemented contractual arrangements to ensure the confidentiality and security of the information.
- We will never ask for any personal or identifiable details such as your full name, date of birth, complete address or email address. If you ever receive a message asking for any of these details, please contact us immediately.
What kind of information does U-Report collect about you?
For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, "Personal Information" means any information that enables us to identify an individual, directly or indirectly, by reference to an identifier such as name, identification number, location data, online identifier or one or more factors specific to the individual.
When you register for U-Report
A. Information we ask from you as part of the registration process
The registration process to U-Report will not ask you for any personal information. The registration process will ask you about the country you are in now, your age, and your gender to allow UNICEF and partners to understand the general demographic characteristics of the users that engage with U-Report and focalise information relevant to you.
B. Information collected automatically as part of the registration process or any engagement with the platform.
When you register or interact with U-Report, the U-Report platform will automatically record the following personal information:
- social media ID (if you use WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and other digital messaging platforms)
This information allows U-Report to support ongoing communications, invite you to participate in polls and chatbots, and send information relevant to you. U-Report managers will not know your identity as part of this communication. Your phone number or social media handle will not be accessible to them. These attributes will be stored in the backend of the platform, not accessible to anyone, as part of normal U-Report operations.
Please note that if you use Facebook Messenger to connect with U-Report, given this channel requires creating a Facebook Page that will identify and store from which Facebook Account the message is being sent, the name of your account will be visible to U-Report managers, but they will not use this information to identify you.
We also collect and process the information you provide through U-Report channels, including:
- Responses to poll questions
- Interactions with chatbots
- Other unsolicited messages sent to the platform
This information will not include any personal attributes unless you include such information. Therefore, we strongly discourage you from providing any personal information when you interact with U-Report.
How can we access the results of the polls?
Are there other uses for U-Report, aside from launching
polls?
Aside from polls, U-Report can be used for information
campaign, curriculum-based engagements, and to chat with you when you need to
voice out your concerns and issues of our society.
How to become a U-Reporter?
It’s easy, sign-in to your Facebook page, search for U-Report Philippines on Facebook Messenger App, and send 'JOIN'
Can we opt to leave U-Report once we have joined?
Of course. You choose which polls to respond to and, if you’d like to stop receiving message, just send the word “STOP” via your regular U-Report channel. Before you do though, we’d appreciate if you could send us a quick message explaining the reason so we can do our best to improve the experience for all U-Reporters.
