Summary
The Zooniverse is a suite of citizen science projects operated by research groups in several institutions which support scientific research by involving members of the public - you - in the processes of analyzing and discussing data. Data from these projects is used to study online community design and theory, interface design, and other topics. This document describes what will happen to your contributions if you choose to contribute and what data we collect, how we use it and how we protect it.
What you agree to if you contribute to the Zooniverse
Projects involving the public are needed to enable researchers to cope with the otherwise unmanageable flood of data. The web provides a means of reaching a large audience willing to devote their free time to projects that can add to our knowledge of the world and the Universe.
The major goal for this project is for the analyzed data to be available to the researchers for use, modification and redistribution in order to further scientific research. Therefore, if you contribute to the Zooniverse, you grant us and our collaborators permission to use your contributions however we like to further this goal, trusting us to do the right thing with your data. However, you give us this permission non-exclusively, meaning that you yourself still own your contribution.
We ask you to grant us these broad permissions, because they allow us to change the legal details by which we keep the data available; this is important because the legal environment can change and we need to be able to respond without obtaining permission from every single contributor.
Finally, you must not contribute data to the Zooniverse that you do not own. For example, do not copy information from published journal articles. If people do this, it can cause major legal headaches for us.
What you may do with Zooniverse data
You retain ownership of any contribution you make to the Zooniverse, and any recorded interaction with the dataset associated with the Zooniverse. You may use, distribute or modify your individual contribution in any way you like. However, you do not possess ownership of the dataset itself. This license does not apply to data about you, covered in the Privacy Policy.
Legal details
By submitting your contribution to the Zooniverse, you agree to grant us a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sub-licensable license to: use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to your contribution worldwide and/or to incorporate your contribution in other works in any media now known or later developed for the full term of any rights that may exist in your contribution.
If you do not want to grant to us the rights set out above, you cannot interact with the Zooniverse.
By interacting with the Zooniverse, you:
Warrant that your contribution contains only data that you have the right to make available to us for all the purposes specified above, is not defamatory, and does not infringe any law; and
Indemnify us against all legal fees, damages and other expenses that may be incurred by us as a result of your breach of the above warranty; and
Waive any moral rights in your contribution for the purposes specified above.
This license does not apply to data about you, covered in the Privacy Policy.
In addition to the contributions you make towards the scientific goals of the Zooniverse, we collect additional data about you to support and improve the operation of the project. We also conduct experiments on the design of the website that we evaluate based on your reactions and behavior. This Privacy Policy describes what data we collect, how we use it and how we protect it.
We respect the privacy of every individual who participates in the Zooniverse. We operate in accordance with the UK GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018 and any other relevant data protection legislation, as well as with United Kingdom and United States regulations regarding protection of human subjects in research.
Data we collect
Identifying information: If you register with the Zooniverse, we ask you to create a username and supply your e-mail address. Your e-mail address is not visible to other users, but others will see your username in various contexts. Notably, your username is associated with any classifications or other contributions you make, including on comments submitted to Talk, the discussion forums hosted by the Zooniverse. You may optionally provide your real name to be included when we publically thank participants, e.g., in presentations, publications or discoveries.
Usage information: We also monitor how people use our website, and aggregate general statistics about users and traffic patterns as well as data about how users respond to various site features. This includes, among other things, recording:
When you log in.
Pages you request.
Classifications you make.
Other contributions, such as posts on Talk pages.
If you register and log in, the logs associate these activities with your username. Otherwise, they are solely associated with your IP address. In order to collect this data, we may use software such as Google Analytics that collects statistics from IP data. This software can determine what times of day people access our site, which country they access the websites from, how long they visit for, along with technical details of their computer (browser, screen type, processor).
What we do with the information we gather
Usage information is collected to help us improve our website, and for the following reasons:
Internal record keeping.
If you agree, we will periodically send email promoting new research-related projects or other information relating to our research. Information about these contacts is given below. We will not use your contact information for commercial purposes.
We will use the information to customize the website.
To conduct experiments regarding the use of site features.
What is shared with third parties
We will never release e-mail addresses to third parties without your express permission. We will also never share data we collect about your use of the site unless (a) it cannot be associated with you or your username, and (b) it is necessary to accomplish our research goals. Specifically, we can share your anonymized data with research study participants, other researchers, or in scholarly work describing our research. For example, we might use one of your classifications as an illustration in a paper, show some of your classifications to another user to see if they agree or disagree, or publish statistics about user interaction.
If you choose to give us a `Publishable Name' on registration, this is available to research teams in projects you have participated in for purposes of giving credit for your work in published papers and elsewhere.
Contributions you make to the Talk pages are widely available to others. Aside from the above, information is held within our secured database. Passwords are hashed rather than being stored in plain text.
How we use cookies
In some areas of our site, a cookie might be placed on your computer. A cookie is a small file that resides on your computer's hard drive that allows us to improve the quality of your visit to our websites by responding to you as an individual.
We use cookies to identify which pages are being used and improve our website. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes, they are not shared with other sites and are not used for advertisements.
You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. However, if you choose to decline cookies from the Zooniverse then functionality, including your ability to log-in and participate, will be impaired.
Acceptance of cookies is implied if you continue to access our website without adjusting your browser settings.
Where we store your data
We use Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing Service so we can quickly and reliably serve our website to an unpredictable number of people. This means that your data will be stored in multiple locations, including the United States of America (USA). Transfers of personal data to and from EU and UK are GDPR compliant through Microsoft's EU Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC; also known as EU Model Clauses).
Our mailing list server, which contains a copy of subscribed email addresses and no other personal data, is hosted on a virtual private server with Linode in the UK.
Security measures
Members of the research teams are made aware of our privacy policy and practices by reviewing this statement upon joining the team. We follow industry best practices to secure user data, and access to the database and logs are limited to members of the research group and system administrative staff.
Removing your data
Due to the way in which we archive data, it is generally not possible to completely remove your personal data from our systems. However, if you have specific concerns, please contact us and we will see what we can do.
When we will contact you
If you do not register, we will never contact you. If you do register, we will contact you by e-mail in the following circumstances:
Occasionally, we will send e-mail messages to you highlighting a particular aspect of our research, announcing new features, explaining changes to the system, or inviting you to special events.
We might also use your email to contact you for the purpose of research into our site's operation, and we might ask for additional information at that time. Any additional information will be held consitently with this policy, and participation in such studies is entirely optional and participating or otherwise will in no way affect your use of the site.
We might contact you with a newsletter about the progress of the project.
You can 'opt out' of communications from any project or from the Zooniverse as a whole at any time by visiting the Zooniverse unsubscribe page.
Further information and requests
For information and questions regarding this policy and Zooniverse data, please contact the Zooniverse team at contact@zooniverse.org.
The Data Controller is the University of Oxford (Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford). Information on your rights, including the right of access, in relation to your personal data are explained here: https://compliance.admin.ox.ac.uk/individual-rights. If you want to exercise any of the rights or are dissatisfied with the way we have used your information, you should contact the University’s Information Compliance Team at data.protection@admin.ox.ac.uk.