Privacy policy

Based on Mediawiki's privacy policy (CC BY-SA)

This Privacy Policy is due to go into effect on 28th July 2017.

Summary

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.

Because we believe that you shouldn't have to provide personal information to access this knowledge repository, you may:

Read, edit, or use Badge Wiki without registering an account.

Because we want to understand how Badge Wiki is being used so we can make it better for you, we collect some information when you:

Make public contributions.
Register an account or update your user page.
Use Badge Wiki.
Send us emails or participate in a survey or give feedback.

We are committed to:

Describing how your information may be used or shared in this Privacy Policy.
Using reasonable measures to keep your information secure.
Never selling your information or sharing it with third parties for marketing purposes.
Only sharing your information in limited circumstances, such as to improve Badge Wiki Sites, to comply with the law, or to protect you and others.
Retaining your data for the shortest possible time that is consistent with maintaining, understanding, and improving Badge Wiki, and our obligations under law.

Be aware:

Any content you add or any change that you make to Badge Wiki will be publicly and permanently available.
Our community of volunteer editors and contributors is a self-policing body. Certain administrators of Badge Wiki, who are chosen by the community, use tools that grant them limited access to nonpublic information about recent contributions so they may protect Badge Wiki and enforce policies.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to all sites and services run by We Are Open Co-op, such as sites or services that have their own privacy policy.
As part of our commitment to education and research around the world, we may release public information and aggregated or non-personal information to the general public through data dumps and data sets.
For the protection of the We Are Open Co-op and other users, if you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, you may not use Badge Wiki.

Introduction

We believe that information-gathering and use should go hand-in-hand with transparency. This Privacy Policy explains how We Are Open Co-op, the organisation that hosts Badge Wiki, collects, uses, and shares information we receive from you through your use of Badge Wiki. It is essential to understand that, by using Badge Wiki, 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 do not sell or rent your nonpublic information, nor do we give it to others to sell you anything. We use it to figure out how to make the Badge Wiki more engaging and accessible, to see which ideas work, and to make learning and contributing more fun. Put simply: we use this information to make Badge Wiki better for you.

Definitions

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:

When we say...	... we mean:
"We Are Open Co-op" / "the co-op" / "we" / "us" / "our"	We Are Open Co-op, the co-operative organisation that operates Badge Wiki.
"Badge Wiki" / "our services"	The Badge Wiki website as well as any mobile applications, APIs, emails, and notifications; excluding, however, sites and services listed in the "What This Privacy Policy Doesn't Cover" section below.
"you" / "your" / "me"	You, regardless of whether you are an individual, group, or organisation, and regardless of whether you are using Badge Wiki on behalf of yourself or someone else.
"this Policy" / "this Privacy Policy"	This document, entitled the "Badge Wiki Privacy Policy".
"contributions"	Content you add or changes you make to Badge Wiki.
"personal information"	Information you provide us or information we collect from you that could be used to personally identify you. To be clear, while we do not necessarily collect all of the following types of information, we consider at least the following to be “personal information” if it is otherwise nonpublic and can be used to identify you: (a) your real name, address, phone number, email address, password, identification number on government-issued ID, IP address, user-agent information, credit card number; (b) when associated with one of the items in subsection (a), any sensitive data such as date of birth, gender, sexual orientation, racial or ethnic origins, marital or familial status, medical conditions or disabilities, political affiliation, and religion; and (c) any of the items in subsections (a) or (b) when associated with your user account.
"third party" / "third parties"	Individuals, entities, websites, services, products, and applications that are not controlled, managed, or operated by We Are Open Co-op. This includes other users and independent organisations or groups who help promote Badge Wiki as well as volunteers, employees, directors, officers, grant recipients, and contractors of those organisations or groups.

Use of info

Types of information we receive from you: how we get it, and how we use it

Your public contributions

Badge Wiki was created to help you share your knowledge with the world, and we share your contributions because you have asked us to do so.

When you make a contribution to Badge Wiki, including on user or discussion pages, 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 Badge Wiki is used.

Unless this Policy says otherwise, you should assume that information that you actively contribute to Badge Wiki, 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, like revealing your real name or location in your contributions.

You should be aware that specific data made public by you or aggregated data that is made public by us can be used by anyone for analysis and to infer information about users, such as which country a user is from, political affiliation, and gender.

Account information and registration

While an account is not required to browse Badge Wiki, you are required to create an account if you wish to edit. In creating an account, you will be asked for a username, password, real name, and a short bio. Your password is only used to verify that the account is yours.

Once created, user accounts cannot be removed entirely (although you can usually hide the information on your user page if you choose to). This is because your public contributions must be associated with their author (you!). So make sure you pick a name that you will be comfortable with for years to come.

To gain a better understanding of the demographics of our users, to localise our services, and to learn how we can improve our services, we may ask you for more demographic information, such as your gender or age. 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.

Information related to your use of Badge Wiki

We want to make Badge Wiki better for you by learning more about how you use it. Examples of this might include how often you visit Badge Wiki, what you like, what you find helpful, how you get to Badge Wiki, and whether you would use a helpful feature more if we explained it differently. We also want this Policy and our practices to reflect our community's values. For this reason, we keep information related to your use of Badge Wiki confidential, except as provided in this Policy.

Information we receive automatically

Because of how browsers work and similar to other major websites, we receive some information automatically when you visit Badge Wiki. This information includes the type of device you are using (possibly including unique device identification numbers, for some beta versions of our mobile applications), the type and version of your web 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 Badge Wiki, which pages you request and visit, and the date and time of each request you make to Badge Wiki.

Put simply, we use this information to enhance your experience with Badge Wiki. For example, we use this information to administer the sites, provide greater security, and fight vandalism; optimise mobile applications, customise content and set language preferences, test features to see what works, and improve performance; understand how users interact with Badge Wiki, track and study use of various features, gain understanding about the demographics of Badge Wiki users, and analyse 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. We realise that some of these technologies do not have the best reputation in town 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 can be anything from text, pictures, and whole articles (as we explain further below) to personal information (like your IP address) and information about your use of Badge Wiki (like your username or the time of your visit).

We use this information to make your experience with Badge Wiki safer and better, to gain a greater understanding of user preferences and their interaction with Badge Wiki, 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 authorised by you (such as one that may have been mistakenly placed by another user or administrator), please report it to us at badgewiki@weareopen.coop.

Locally stored data, JavaScript, and tracking pixels help us do things like:

Provide you with a personalised experience, such as using cookies to know your language preference, to remember the user preferences you set so we can provide you with the customised look and feel that you want, and to tell you about interesting Badge Wiki issues.
Deliver more relevant content to you faster. For example, we may use local storage to store your most recently read articles directly on your device, so they can be retrieved quickly. Also, we may use cookies to learn about the topics searched so that we can optimise the search results we deliver to you.
Understand how you use Badge Wiki, so that we know what works and what is useful. For example, we might use cookies to learn about the list of articles you are following on your watchlist so that we can recommend similar articles that you may be interested in.
Understand how you use Badge Wiki across different devices, so that we can make it more efficient and effective for you.
Make Badge Wiki more convenient to use, such as by using cookies to maintain your session when you log in or to remember your username in the login field.

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 may not function properly if you disable locally stored data.

While the examples above concerning information about you collected through the use of data collection tools are kept confidential in accordance with this Policy, please note that some information about the actions taken by your username is made publicly available through public alongside actions taken by other users. For example, a public log may include the date your account was created on Badge Wiki along with the dates that other accounts were created. Information available through public logs will not include personal information about you.

Emails

We ask for your email address when registering. This is kept confidential, except as provided in this Policy. We do not sell, rent, or use your email address to advertise third-party products or services to you.

We use your email address to let you know about things that are happening with Badge Wiki, such as telling you important information about your account, letting you know if something is changing about the Badge Wiki site or policies, and alerting you when there has been a change to an article that you have decided to follow. Please note that if you email us, we may keep your message, email address, and any other information you provide us, so that we can process and respond to your request.

You can choose to limit some of these kinds of notifications, like those alerting you if an article changes. Others, such as those containing critical information that all users need to know to participate successfully in Badge Wiki, you may not be able to opt out of. You can manage what kinds of notifications you receive and how often you receive them by going to your Notifications Preferences.

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 such an email, please let us know by sending it to badgewiki@weareopen.coop, so we can investigate the source of the email.

Direct communications between users (such as messages sent through the "Email this user" feature), to the extent such communications are nonpublic and stored in or in transit through Badge Wiki systems, are kept confidential by us, except as provided in this Policy.

Surveys and feedback

Participating in optional surveys or providing feedback helps us make Badge Wiki better. Because every survey and request for feedback may be used for various purposes, we will tell you, at the time we give you the survey or request for feedback, how we plan on using your answers and any personal information you provide. If you don't feel comfortable with how we plan on using the survey or feedback results, you are not obligated to take the survey or give feedback.

Location Information

GPS & Other Location Technologies

Some features we offer work better if we know what area you are in. But it's completely up to you whether or not you want us to use geolocation tools to make some features available to you. 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.

Metadata

Sometimes, we may automatically receive location data from your device. For example, if you want to upload a photo to Badge Wiki, we may receive metadata, such as the place and time you took the photo, automatically from your device. Please be aware that, unlike location information collected using GPS signals described above, the default setting on your mobile device typically includes the metadata in your photo or video upload to Badge Wiki. If you do not want metadata sent to us and made public at the time of your upload, please change your settings on your device.

IP addresses

Finally, when you visit Badge Wiki, 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. If you are visiting Badge Wiki with your mobile device, we may use your IP address to provide anonymised or aggregated information to service providers regarding the volume of usage in certain areas. We use IP addresses for research and analytics; to better personalise content, notices, and settings for you; to fight spam, identity theft, malware, and other kinds of abuse; and to provide better mobile and other applications.

Sharing

When May We Share Your Information?

With Your Permission

We may share your information for a particular purpose, if you agree.

For Legal Reasons

We may access, preserve, 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 defences you may have to a third party's request (whether it be civil, criminal, or governmental) to disclose your information. We recommend seeking the advice of legal counsel immediately if such a request is made involving you.

If the organisation is transferred

In the unlikely event that ownership of all or substantially all of the co-op changes, or we go through a reorganisation (such as a merger, consolidation, or acquisition), we will continue to keep your personal information confidential, except as provided in this Policy, and provide notice to you via Badge Wiki 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, or particular users with certain administrative rights as described below, may need to share your personal information if it is reasonably believed to be necessary to enforce or investigate potential violations of our Terms of Use, this Privacy Policy, or any Foundation or user community-based policies. We may also need to access and share information to investigate and defend ourselves against legal threats or actions.

Badge Wiki is collaborative, with users writing most of the policies and selecting from amongst themselves people to hold certain administrative rights. These rights may include access to limited amounts of otherwise nonpublic information about recent contributions and activity by other users. They use this access to help protect against vandalism and abuse, fight harassment of other users, and generally try to minimise disruptive behaviour on Badge Wiki. These various user-selected administrative groups have their own privacy and confidentiality guidelines. These user-selected administrative groups are accountable to other users through checks and balances: users are selected through a community-driven process and overseen by their peers through a logged history of their actions.

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 organisation, 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

As hard as we may try, we can't do it all. So sometimes we use third-party service providers or contractors who help run or improve Badge Wiki for you and other users. We may 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 information consistently with, and no less protective of your privacy than, the principles of this Policy.

To understand and experiment

The open-source software that powers Badge Wiki depends on the contributions of volunteer software developers, who spend time writing and testing code to help it improve and evolve with our users' needs. To facilitate their work, we may give some developers limited access to systems that contain your personal information, but only as reasonably necessary for them to develop and contribute to Badge Wiki.

Similarly, we may share non-personal or aggregated information with researchers, scholars, academics, and other interested third parties who wish to study Badge Wiki. Sharing this information helps them understand usage, viewing, and demographics statistics and patterns. They then can share their findings with us and our users so that we can all better understand and improve badge Wiki.

When we give access to personal information to third-party developers or researchers, we put requirements, such as reasonable technical and contractual protections, in place to help ensure that these service providers treat your information consistently with the principles of this Policy and in accordance with our instructions. If these developers or researchers later publish their work or findings, we ask that they not disclose your personal information. Please note that, despite the obligations we impose on developers and researchers, we cannot guarantee that they will abide by our agreement, nor do we guarantee that we will regularly screen or audit their projects.

Because you made it public

Any information you post publicly on Badge Wiki is just that – public. For example, if you put your mailing address on your talk page, that is public, and not protected by this Policy. Please think carefully about your desired level of privacy before you disclose personal information on your user page or elsewhere.

Protection

How do we protect your data?

We strive to protect your information from unauthorised 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).

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 Badge Wiki, and our obligations under applicable U.K. law. Non-personal information may be retained indefinitely. Please remember that certain information is retained and displayed indefinitely, such as any public contributions to the Badge Wiki.

Important info

For the protection of We Are Open Co-op and other users, if you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, you may not use Badge Wiki.

Where is We Are Open Co-op and what does that mean for me?

The co-op is a company limited by guarantee based in the United Kingdom with servers and data centres located in Europe. If you decide to use Badge Wiki, whether from inside or outside Europe, you consent to the collection, transfer, storage, processing, disclosure, and other uses of your information in Europe as described in this Privacy Policy. You also consent to the transfer of your information by us from Europe 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 are strongly committed to not sharing nonpublic information with third parties. In particular, we do not allow tracking by third-party websites you have not visited (including analytics services, advertising networks, and social platforms), nor do we share your information with any third parties for marketing purposes. Under this Policy, we may share your information only under particular situations, which you can learn more about in the 'When may we share your information' section of this Privacy Policy.

Because we protect all users in this manner, we do not change our behaviour in response to a web browser's "Do Not Track" signal.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Because things naturally change over time and we want to ensure our Privacy Policy accurately reflects our practices and the law, it may be necessary to modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. We reserve the right to do so in the following manner:

In the event of substantial changes, we will provide the proposed changes to our users for open comment period lasting at least thirty (30) calendar days. Prior to the start of any comment period, we will provide notice of such changes and the opportunity to comment via Badge Wiki.
For minor changes, such as grammatical fixes, administrative or legal changes, or corrections of inaccurate statements, we will post the changes and, when possible, provide at least three (3) calendar days' prior notice via Badge Wiki.

We ask that you please review the most up-to-date version of our Privacy Policy. Your continued use of Badge Wiki after this Privacy Policy becomes effective constitutes acceptance of this Privacy Policy on your part. Your continued use of Badge Wiki after any subsequent version of this Privacy Policy becomes effective, following notice as outlined above, constitutes acceptance of that version of the Privacy Policy on your part.

Contact Us

If you have questions or suggestions about this Privacy Policy, or the information collected under this Privacy Policy, please email us at badgewiki@weareopen.coop.

Thank You!

Thank you for reading our Privacy Policy. We hope you enjoy using Badge Wiki and appreciate your participation in creating, maintaining, and constantly working to improve a knowledge base for the Open Badges community.