Privacy Policy

Last updated on February 27, 2023

Effective: March 6, 2023

Purpose of this policy

The purposes of this Privacy Policy are to inform you of what personal information we collect, what we do with that information, and what rights you have regarding your information.

At a glance

We collect a limited amount of personal information and most of the personal information we collect is voluntarily supplied by you. We don’t sell your information to anyone, and we don’t use targeted advertisements. We use your information to provide services to you, help connect you to other users, to allow our website to function, and to help you use the Local Contexts Website and Hub better. 

If you have any questions, concerns, or issues please reach out to us at support@localcontexts.org.

What is personal information?

Personal information is any information that directly identifies you or that can be linked together with other information to identify you. 

What information do we collect?

We collect different information depending on whether you are creating and operating an account through the Local Contexts Hub or just visiting the Local Contexts Website.

Information collected about registered users

To register an individual user profile on the Local Contexts Hub, you are required to provide your email address and name. You may optionally provide your location, preferred language, information related to your Iwi/Tribe/Nation, and your affiliation to any existing Local Contexts community or institution. As this information is optional. By providing it, you consent for it to be displayed to other registered users of the Hub. A registered Local Contexts Hub individual user profile will allow you to also register and create a researcher, institution, or community account.

When you create a researcher account on the Hub, you may optionally connect your ORCiD record.

When you create an institution account on the Hub, we collect the name and email address of any institutional contacts you provide and the location of the institution.

When you create a community account on the Hub, we collect the name and email of any community contact you provide and the location of the community.

When you create a community or institution account on the Hub, we may also request information to verify your authorization to act on behalf of the community or institution: either the name and email address of a representative who can verify your status, or a letter of authorization from the community or institution.

Other information that we may collect

When you create Labels or post comments to Projects using the Hub, it is up to you what text to include. If you choose to include personal information in Labels or comments, we collect that information.

When a Project is created and the URL is given of where the Notices and Labels are displayed we collect that information.

When you send us an email, we collect the name and email address associated with your email account and any personal information you include in the email.

When you visit our website, we automatically log information about the session, including your IP address. 

Our Terms and Conditions restrict use of the Local Contexts Hub and Website to users aged 16 and over. We do not knowingly collect the information of anyone under the age of 16. 

When you register for an in-person event hosted by us, we collect your name, email, address, tribe, bio, and information about any dietary/health/mobility accommodations you require to attend the event.

How do we collect your information?

We collect information in the following ways:

Directly from you

The personal information associated with individual Hub user accounts are collected from those users. Personal information associated with institutions and communities in the Hub are collected from the users responsible for managing them.

Personal information about attendees of in-person events is collected directly from attendees upon registration. 

Automatically when you interact with the Local Contexts Hub and Website

When you visit the Local Contexts Hub or Website, we will automatically collect your IP address.

When you log into a Local Contexts Hub account, we will automatically collect and log the date and time of your login.

What do we do with your information?

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

Information we collectWhat we do with that information
Profile and account information that you provideWe use your account information to facilitate your use of the Hub, communicate with you about your Hub account, and connect you with other users of the Hub.

The following information from your Hub user profile is accessible to other registered users: name, location, preferred language, profile image, iwi/tribe/nation, and institutional or community affiliation.

Community and institutional account profile information is publicly accessible, including any account profile photos.
Information you post to Hub ProjectInformation you post to Hub Projects is displayed to all other registered users that are members of that Project. If the Project’s visibility is set to “public,” this information will be displayed publicly.
Your email, name, and locationWhen you contact us, we will view the name and email you submit in order to respond and provide assistance.

If you opt-in to our mailing list, we may use your name, email address, and location to provide you with updates about Local Contexts and upcoming events. 
When you request to join an account, your email address will become visible to the account administrators.
Personal information that you supply in order to attend an eventWe use your information to communicate with you about the event and to facilitate your participation in the event.
Information we are legally required to collect and discloseIf required by law we may provide information related to a proper legal request or other information related to our own compliance with the law.

What is our lawful basis for processing your information?

Our lawful purposes under the European General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) for collecting and processing your personal information are: 

To perform our contract with you

When you create an account on the Hub, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. In order to provide you with services under that agreement, some processing of your information is necessary. For example, you must provide your name and email address to register for an account on the Hub.

To pursue our legitimate business interests

We automatically log information about your visits to our website and the Hub so that we can ensure these services are operating correctly, investigate problems, and improve our services.

We have received your consent

We may ask you for permission to use your personal information for some purposes. For example, some information in Hub user, institution, community, and researcher profiles is optional. By providing this information, you consent for us to display it to other authenticated users (in the case of user profile information) or publicly (in the case of institution and community profiles). You may withdraw your consent to display this information at any time by removing the information from your profile. 

We always ask for explicit consent when collecting sensitive personal information, such as information about your membership in an iwi/tribe/nation (for Hub profiles) or information about what accommodations you may require to attend in-person events. We will explicitly state our purpose for collecting sensitive information and you may always decline to supply any sensitive information. 

Who do we share your information with?

We don’t sell your information to third parties. We only share information as described in this Privacy Policy.

Community and institutional account profile information is viewable by anyone visiting the Local Contexts Hub website. 

If you manage a Project on the Hub, you decide whether and to what extent your Project information is accessible to others. There are three view settings: Private (only you can see any information about the Project); Contributor (your Project’s title, unique ID, and any associated Notices or Labels are visible to other authenticated Hub users; and Public (all Project details, except messages, are publicly viewable).

Any information on your user profile will be available to other registered users. 

We provide certain personal information to our technology service providers to enable us to provide our services and support our users. Below is a list of all of our service providers and the categories of personal information we share with them. We’ve provided a link to each service provider’s data protection agreement (DPA), which describes how that service provider is required to protect the data they process on our behalf.

Technology Service Provider
(Data Residency)
Categories of Personal Data Shared
Zammad (Germany) – to track and respond to user support issues. (DPA)Hub researcher, institution, and community profile and contact information

Name and email address of individuals who request support
Slack (US) – for internal communications. (DPA)Hub researcher, institution, and community profile and contact information

Name and email address of individuals who request support
Mailgun (US) – to send emails to users of the Hub. (DPA)Hub username and email address

Mailing list subscriber name and email address
ClickUp (US) – for project management, task management, and customer resource management. (DPA)Hub user, institution, and community profile and contact information
Google Cloud (US) – for hosting the Hub service and data. (DPA)

Google Workspace apps (US and New Zealand) – Gmail, sheets, docs, forms, drive, slides, and calendar. (DPA)
All Hub data, including user, institution, and community profile and contact information

Event participant profile, contact, email, tribe/iwi affiliations, travel information, and accommodation information
Dropbox (US) – for file storage and sharing within our organization. (DPA)Hub user, institution, and community profile and contact information

Local Contexts member and subscriber contact information

Event participant profile and contact information
Flywheel (US) – for hosting the Local Contexts website. (DPA)Currently, not collecting personal information.
SalesForce (US) – for customer resource management. (DPA)Member and Subscriber names and contact information.
Quickbooks – for accounting and invoicing Hub Subscribers. (Terms of Service)Hub Subscriber names and contact information.

How do we store and protect your information?

We implement physical, business, and technical security measures to protect your personal information. If we learn of any security breach affecting your data, we’ll notify you so that you can take appropriate protective steps.

All of our service providers are prohibited from using your data for any purpose other than to provide their services to us, and are required to take appropriate precautions to protect your data. The Local Contexts Hub is hosted on Google Cloud, on servers located within the United States. If any of your information is transferred outside of the United States we will take reasonable steps to maintain the same level of privacy as you would have received in the United States.  

What data protection rights do you have?

We provide all that access our website the same rights no matter which country or state they live in. We guarantee the following rights, regardless of where you live:

  • The right to know what personal data is collected
  • The right to know if personal data is being shared, and to whom
  • The right to access your personal data in a portable readable format
  • The right to correct any inaccuracies regarding your data
  • The right to exercise your privacy rights without being discriminated against

How can you exercise your rights?

If you have a personal profile and an account with Local Contexts, you can log into that account to update or delete the information you have provided. You can also disable your account and, if you do not enable it again within (90) days, we will automatically delete your account and all of the data associated with it. 

You can also contact us at support@localcontexts.org to access, update, or delete your information. We will respond to your request within ten (10) business days. Before we provide you with any information, correct any inaccuracies, or delete any information, we may ask you to verify your identity.

When you delete your personal profile, any accounts you manage and any projects you’ve made will be deleted. If you want to keep an institution or community account active but only delete your personal profile, you must transfer ownership of these accounts to another administrator before deletion.

How will you know if this privacy policy changes?

We will link to the most recent privacy policy on the Local Contexts Website. When we make material changes to the terms of this policy, we will email all Hub users after the changes have taken effect.

Want to contact us?

Local Contexts owns and operates the Local Contexts Hub and Website. If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, you may contact us at support@localcontexts.org.