Privacy Policy

Usage Analytics

To evaluate and improve the platform, we record anonymous usage events on our own server: which pages are visited, what is searched in the glossary (the search text and how many results it returned), and which entries are opened. These statistics support the scholarly evaluation of the platform and may inform future research on how digital glossaries are used.

This measurement is cookieless and first-party: no analytics cookies are set, nothing is stored on your device, and no data is shared with any third-party analytics provider. To distinguish visits, the server derives a temporary identifier by hashing your IP address and browser signature with a secret key; the identifier changes every day, cannot be traced back to you, and your IP address itself is never stored. Analytics records are kept for at most 24 months, after which they are deleted or reduced to aggregate statistics.

The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in evaluating and improving a publicly funded research platform (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Participants in supervised evaluation studies are additionally identified by a pseudonymous study code, with their explicit informed consent given as part of the study; for them alone, that code is kept in the browser for the duration of the test session and discarded when the tab closes.

During supervised test sessions — and only with the participant's consent — the session is additionally recorded with Microsoft Clarity (screen interactions, cursor movement and the resulting heatmaps) to study how the platform is used in practice. Microsoft processes this data on our behalf and may do so in the United States. Nothing of the kind runs for ordinary visitors.

Accounts

Only project researchers and editors have accounts. For them we process a name, an email address and a password (stored only as a cryptographic hash), used solely for signing in and attributing contributions. Transactional emails — verification, password resets, invitations — are delivered through our email provider. Reading the glossary, map and timeline requires no account and no personal data.

Infrastructure

The platform runs on a server in the European Union. Its database and file storage are provided by Neon and Supabase respectively. The interactive map loads its tiles from OpenFreeMap, so your browser contacts that service when you use the map — as with any website resource, that service sees the request's IP address. We do not use advertising, tracking pixels, or social-media embeds.

Your Rights and Contact

Under the GDPR you have the right to access, rectify or erase personal data concerning you, and to object to processing based on legitimate interest. Because the usage analytics are anonymous, they cannot be linked back to an individual visitor. For any privacy question or request, contact the Action through the details on the About page.