User Agreement

Summary

The Zooniverse is a suite of citizen science projects operated by the Citizen Science Alliance (CSA), 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 the CSA and its 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 the CSA 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 the CSA 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 the CSA for all the purposes specified above, is not defamatory, and does not infringe any law; and
• Indemnify the CSA against all legal fees, damages and other expenses that may be incurred by the CSA 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.

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 United Kingdom Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, as well as with 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, e.g., on Talk pages. 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 associated with your IP address. In order to collect this data, we may use software 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, what browser they are using, etc.

What we do with the information we gather

Usage information is collected to help us improve our website in particular for the following reasons:

• Internal record keeping.
• We may 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 may use the information to customize the website.
• We may use the information to conduct experiments regarding the use of various 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 you unless (a) it cannot be associated with you or your username, and (b) it is necessary to accomplish our research goals. Specifically, we may 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.

Contributions you make to the Talk pages are widely available to others. Aside from the above, information is held as confidentially as is practical within our secured database.

How we use cookies

In some areas of our site, a cookie may 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 traffic log 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 Amazon Web Services 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). Amazon is a participant in the Safe Harbor program developed by the USA Department of Commerce and the European Union (EU). Amazon has certified that it adheres to the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles agreed upon by the USA and the EU.

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 may also use your information to contact you for the purpose of research into our site's operation. We may contact you by email. We may ask for additional information at that time. Providing additional information is entirely optional and will in no way affect your service in the site.
• We may contact you with a newsletter about the progress of the project.

You are unlikely to receive more than two messages per month.

The Zooniverse email newsletter service is provided by JISCmail, which is operated by the United Kingdom Science and Technology Facilities Council. JISCmail does not sell or otherwise transfer any personal data to commercial companies or other organisations. Please review the full JISCmail privacy policy. You can 'opt out' of the newsletter at any time by visiting the Zooniverse unsubscribe page.

Further information and requests

The Data Controller is the Department of Physics, University of Oxford. For a copy of the information we hold on you please contact the project team at the address below:

Dr Chris Lintott
Oxford Astrophysics
Denys Wilkinson Building
Keble Road
Oxford, OX1 3RH
United Kingdom