Table of Contents

Summary of the Privacy Policy

This is a summary of the Privacy Policy, To read the full terms, choose a page in the table of contents to the left.

Disclaimer: This summary is not a part of the Privacy Policy and is not a legal document. It is simply a handy reference for understanding the full Privacy Policy. Think of it as the user-friendly interface to our Privacy Policy.

Introduction to the Privacy Policy

The Population Project relies heavily on the work and contributions of volunteers. We believe that information-gathering and use should go hand-in-hand with transparency. This Privacy Policy explains how the Population Project, the non-profit organization that hosts this site, collects, uses, and shares information we receive from you through your use of the Population Project Site. It is essential to understand that, by using the Population Project Site, you consent to the collection, transfer, processing, storage, disclosure, and use of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. That means that reading this Policy carefully is important.

We believe that you shouldn't have to provide nonpublic Personal Information to participate to the Population Project. You do not have to provide things like your real name, address, or country to sign up for a standard account or contribute content to the Population Project Site.

We do not sell or rent your Personal Information, nor do we give it to others to sell you anything. We use it to figure out how to make the Population Project Site more engaging and accessible. Put simply: we use this information to make the Population Project Site better for you.

Because everyone (not just lawyers) should be able to easily understand how and why their information is collected and used, we use common language instead of more formal terms throughout this Policy. To help ensure your understanding of some particular key terms, here is a table of translations:

Collection & Use of Info

Types of Information We Receive From You & How We Get It

Your Public Contributions

When you make a contribution to the Site, by creating or editing a profile, you are creating a permanent, public record of every piece of content added, removed, or altered by you. The page history will show when your contribution or deletion was made, as well as your username (if you are signed in) or your IP address (if you are not signed in). We may use your public contributions, either aggregated with the public contributions of others or individually, to create new features or data-related products for you or to learn more about how the Site is used, as further explained below in the ”How We Use Information We Receive From You” section of this Privacy Policy.

Unless this Policy says otherwise, you should assume that information that you actively contribute to the Site, including Personal Information, is publicly visible and can be found by search engines. Like most things on the Internet, anything you share may be copied and redistributed throughout the Internet by other people. Please do not contribute any information that you are uncomfortable making permanently public.

Account Information & Registration

Want to create an account? Great! Don't want to create an account? No problem!

You are not required to create an account to read or contribute to the Site, except under rare circumstances (see below). However, if you contribute without signing in, your contribution will be publicly attributed to the IP address associated with your device.

If you want to create a standard account, in most cases we require only a username and a password. Just be aware that if you choose not to provide an email address, we won’t be able to help you recover your password. Another restriction is that you won’t be allowed to edit the date or place of death in any human’s record.

Your username will be publicly visible, so please be careful about revealing your real name or other Personal Information in your username. Your password is only used to verify that the account is yours. Your IP address is also automatically submitted to us, and we record it temporarily. This is to protect the Population Project users’ content; in the event of abuse, IP addresses may be associated with usernames as part of an investigation. No other Personal Information is required: no name, no email address, and no credit card information.

To gain a better understanding of the demographics of our users, to localize our services and to learn how we can improve our services, we may ask you for more demographic information, such as gender or age, about yourself. We will tell you if such information is intended to be public or private, so that you can make an informed decision about whether you want to provide us with that information. Providing such information is always completely optional. If you don't want to, you don't have to—it's as simple as that.

Location Information

GPS & Other Location Technologies

If you consent, we can use GPS (and other technologies commonly used to determine location) to show you more relevant content. We keep information obtained by these technologies confidential, except as provided in this Policy.

IP Addresses

When you visit the Site, we automatically receive the IP address of the device (or your proxy server) you are using to access the Internet, which could be used to infer your geographical location.

Information Related to Your Use of the Population Project Site

We want to make the Population Project Site better for you by learning more about how you use it. Examples of this might include how often you visit the Site, what you like, how you get to the Site, and whether you would use a helpful feature more if we explained it differently.

Information We Receive Automatically

Because of how browsers work, we receive some information automatically when you visit the Population Project Site. This information includes the type of device you are using (possibly including unique device identification numbers), the type and version of your browser, your browser's language preference, the type and version of your device's operating system, in some cases the name of your internet service provider or mobile carrier, the website that referred you to our Site, which pages you request and visit, and the date and time of each request you make to the Population Project Site.

Put simply, we use this information to enhance your experience with our Site. For example, we use this information to administer the Site, provide greater security, and fight vandalism; optimize mobile experience, customize content and set language preferences, test features to see what works, and improve performance; understand how users interact with the Site, track and study use of various features, gain understanding about the demographics of the Site, and analyze trends.

Information We Collect

We actively collect some types of information with a variety of commonly-used technologies. These generally include tracking pixels, JavaScript, and a variety of "locally stored data" technologies, such as cookies and local storage. These types of technologies may also be used in online tools on a third-party site that loads information from the Population Project Site. We realize that some of these technologies do not have the best reputation and can be used for less-than-noble purposes. So we want to be as clear as we can about why we use these methods and the type of information we collect with them.

Depending on which technology we use, locally stored data may include text, Personal Information (like your IP address), and information about your use of the Population Project Site (like your username or the time of your visit).

We use this information to make your experience with the Population Project Site safer and better, to gain a greater understanding of user preferences and their interaction with the Site, and to generally improve our services. We will never use third-party cookies, unless we get your permission to do so. If you ever come across a third-party data collection tool that has not been authorized by you (such as one that may have been mistakenly placed by another user or administrator), please report it to us at privacy@thepopulationproject.org.

We believe this data collection helps improve your user experience, but you may remove or disable some or all locally stored data through your browser settings, depending on your browser. While locally stored data may not be necessary to use our sites, some features will not function properly if you disable locally stored data.

Please note that some information about the actions taken by your username is made publicly available through public logs alongside actions taken by other users. For example, a public log may

How We Use Information We Receive From You

We and our service providers use your information for the legitimate purpose of pursuing our charitable mission, including:

Other

Location Information

GPS & Other Location Technologies

We and our service providers use your information for the legitimate purpose of pursuing our charitable mission, including:

IP Addresses

When you visit the Population Project Site, we automatically receive the IP address of the device (or your proxy server) you are using to access the Internet, which could be used to infer your geographical location. We keep IP addresses confidential, except as provided in this Policy.

We use this location information to make your experience with the Population Project Site safer and better, to gain a greater understanding of user preferences and their interaction with the Site, and to generally improve our services. For example, we use this information to provide greater security, optimize mobile experience, and learn how to expand and better support our community of users. We also use Personal Information in the manner described in the sections of this Policy titled "For Legal Reasons" and "To Protect You, Ourselves & Others."

Sharing

When May We Share Your Information?

With Your Permission

This has never happened but should we wish to share your Information, we would obtain your agreement first.

For Legal Reasons

We will access, use, preserve, and/or disclose your Personal Information if we reasonably believe it necessary to satisfy a valid and legally enforceable warrant, subpoena, court order, law or regulation, or other judicial or administrative order. However, if we believe that a particular request for disclosure of a user's information is legally invalid or an abuse of the legal system and the affected user does not intend to oppose the disclosure themselves, we will try our best to fight it. We are committed to notifying you via email at least ten (10) calendar days, when possible, before we disclose your Personal Information in response to a legal demand. However, we may only provide notice if we are not legally restrained from contacting you, there is no credible threat to life or limb that is created or increased by disclosing the request, and you have provided us with an email address.

Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to limit any legal objections or defenses you may have to a third-party's request (whether it be civil, criminal, or governmental) to disclose your Personal Information. We recommend seeking the advice of legal counsel immediately if such a request is made involving you.

If the Organization is Transferred (Really Unlikely!)

In the extremely unlikely event that ownership of all or substantially all of the Population Project changes, or we go through a reorganization (such as a merger, consolidation, or acquisition), consistent with our legitimate interest, we will continue to keep your Personal Information confidential, except as provided in this Policy, and provide notice to you via the Population Project Site and a notification through email at least thirty (30) calendar days before any Personal Information is transferred or becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

To Protect You, Ourselves, & Others

We hope that this never comes up, but we may disclose your Personal Information if we believe that it's reasonably necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm or death to a person, or to protect our organization, employees, contractors, users, or the public. We may also disclose your Personal Information if we reasonably believe it necessary to detect, prevent, or otherwise assess and address potential spam, malware, fraud, abuse, unlawful activity, and security or technical concerns.

To Our Service Providers

We use third-party service providers or contractors to help run or improve the Population Project Site for you and other users. We give access to your Personal Information to these providers or contractors as needed to perform their services for us or to use their tools and services. We put requirements, such as confidentiality agreements, in place to help ensure that these service providers treat your Personal Information consistently with, and no less protective of your privacy than, the principles of this Policy.

Because You Made It Public

Any information you post publicly on the Population Project is just that – public. And if you edit without registering or logging into your account, your IP address will be seen publicly.

Protection

How Do We Protect Your Personal Information?

We strive to protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. We use a variety of physical and technical measures, policies, and procedures (such as access control procedures, network firewalls, and physical security) designed to protect our systems and your Personal Information. Unfortunately, there's no such thing as completely secure data transmission or storage, so we can't guarantee that our security will not be breached (by technical measures or through violation of our policies and procedures).

We will never ask for your password by email (but may send you a temporary password via email if you have requested a password reset). If you ever receive an email that requests your password, please let us know by sending it to privacy@thepopulationproject.org, so we can investigate the source of the email.

How Long Do We Keep Your Data?

Once we receive Personal Information from you, we keep it for the shortest possible time that is consistent with the maintenance, understanding, and improvement of the Population Project Site, and our obligations under applicable law. In most instances, Personal Information is deleted, aggregated or de-identified after 90 days. Non-Personal Information may be retained indefinitely as appropriate.

Please remember that when you make a contribution to the Population Project Site, the page history will show when your contribution was made, your username (if you are signed in), or your IP address (if you edit while not logged in). The transparency of the projects' contribution and revision histories is critical to their efficacy and trustworthiness.

Your Rights

If you would like to request to access, update or restrict/object to the processing of Personal Information, or receive a copy of your Personal Information for purposes of transmitting it to another organization, you may contact us at privacy@thepopulationproject.org.

Important Info

For the protection of the Population Project and other users, if you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, you may not use the Population Project website.

Where is the Population Project & What Does That Mean for Me?

The Population Project is a non-profit organization incorporated in the State of New York, with servers located in the U.S. If you decide to use the Population Project Site, whether from inside or outside of the U.S., you understand that your Personal Information will be collected, transferred, stored, processed, disclosed and otherwise used in the U.S. as described in this Privacy Policy. You also understand that your information may be transferred by us from the U.S. to other countries, which may have different or less stringent data protection laws than your country, in connection with providing services to you.

Our Response to Do Not Track (DNT) Signals

We don’t share your Personal Information for marketing purposes. Because we protect all users in accordance with this Privacy Policy, we do not change our behavior in response to a web browser's "do not track" signal.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be updated. The most recent version can be found at https://thepopulationproject.org/privacy.

Contact Us

If you have questions or suggestions about this Privacy Policy, or the information collected under this Privacy Policy, please email us at privacy@thepopulationproject.org.

Thank You!

Thank you for reading our Privacy Policy. We hope you enjoy using the Population Project Site and appreciate your participation in creating, maintaining, and constantly improving the first worldwide register of living humans.