privacy.qmd

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title: "Privacy Notice"
sidebar: false
---

*October 8, 2024*

The Contributor Experience Project (CEP) is an open source community-led 
volunteer-run project dedicated to developing best practices for onboarding and supporting 
contributors to open source projects.

Our goal is to provide a space to reflect, engage, and offer advancements 
in the work of effective transfer of knowledge, contributor hospitality 
techniques, project leadership, and communication infrastructure. 

This Privacy Notice describes the data protection practices of CEP and its 
website located at [https://contributor-experience.org](https://contributor-experience.org). 
This Privacy Notice applies to information that we collect and use about you when you 
access or use our websites, engage our services, or otherwise interact with us online 
or offline. We refer to our website and other ways of interacting with you collectively 
as the “Services”.

**PLEASE READ THIS PRIVACY NOTICE CAREFULLY TO UNDERSTAND HOW WE HANDLE YOUR 
INFORMATION.** 

**IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE, PLEASE DO NOT USE THE 
SERVICES.**

## Information we collect

We obtain information about you through the means discussed below when we provide 
the Services.

### 1. Information you provide to us 

We collect a variety of information that you provide directly to us. For example, 
we may collect information from you through:

- When you register for or use our services

- Requests or questions you submit to us via online forms, email, or otherwise

- Your participation in surveys, open comment periods, interviews, or focus groups

- Informational calls we have with you, which may be recorded, with your consent

- Participation in conferences and events

- When we obtain information from publicly available websites and sources, 
including social media sites, which include information about or related to you

- When you interact with us through our pages or accounts on social media sites

**Information about you**

The types of data we collect directly from you includes:

- First and last name

- Email address

- Social media handle/account name

- Your company or organization name

- Your title

- Any other information you choose to directly provide to us in connection with 
your use of the Services.

### 2. Information we collect through automated means

When you use our website, we and our service provider 
[Plausible Analytics](https://plausible.io) automatically collect certain 
information to analyze your use of our websites. Such information includes the 
website from which you visited us from, the parts of our site you visit, the date 
and duration of your visit, your anonymised IP address, information from the device 
(device type, operating system, screen resolution, language, country you are located in, 
and web browser type) you used during your visit, and more. We process this usage 
data in Plausible Analytics for statistical purposes, to improve our site and to 
recognize and stop any misuse.

We use cookies (small data files transferred onto computers or devices by sites) for 
record-keeping purposes and to enhance functionality on our site. You may deactivate 
or restrict the transmission of cookies by changing the settings of your web browser. 
Cookies that are already stored may be deleted at any time.

### 3. Information we collect from others

We may receive additional information such as demographic and statistical 
information from third parties, such as marketers, researchers, analysts, and others. 
We use this information to supplement the information we collect directly from you for 
purposes of generating our reports and providing our Services.

## How we use your information

We use your information for various purposes depending on the types of information we 
have collected from and about you, to:

- Provide our Services and generate our reports

- Respond to your requests for information and provide you with more effective and efficient 
customer service

- Contact you by email, postal mail, or phone regarding CEP, as well as third-party organizations, 
surveys, research studies, projects, and other subjects that we think may be of interest to you

- Help us better understand your interests, and improve and customize our Services

- Secure our Services and resolve technical issues being reported

- Engage in research and analytics regarding the use of our Services

- Comply with any procedures, laws, and regulations which apply to us where it is necessary 
for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of others

- Establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights where it is necessary for our legitimate 
interests or the legitimate interests of others

- Aggregate/De-Identified Information. We may aggregate and/or de-identify information 
collected through our Services so that such information can no longer be linked to you 
(“Aggregate/De-Identified Information”). We may use such information for any purpose, 
including without limitation for research and marketing purposes, and may also share such 
data with any third parties, including advertisers, partners, and sponsors.

## Legal bases for using your information

The legal bases for using your information as set out in this Privacy Notice are 
as follows:

- Where use of your information is necessary to perform our obligations by contract 
with you (for example, to comply with, as applicable, our privacy policy or terms 
of service of our website)

- Where use of your information is necessary for our legitimate interests or the 
legitimate interests of others (for example, to provide security for our website; 
operate our Services; defend our legal rights; analyze use of and improve our Services)

- Where we have a reason to process the data in accordance with applicable laws

- Where we have your consent to engage in a particular information processing activity

## How we share and disclose your information

CEP will share your information in the following ways:

- Service Providers. We provide access to or share your information with select third 
parties who perform services on our behalf. They provide a variety of services to us, 
including billing and payment services, data storage, marketing, communications services, 
security, fraud prevention, and legal services.

- Affiliates. We may share information with affiliated entities that assist us in managing 
and providing our Services.

- Protection of CEP and Others. By using our Services, you acknowledge and 
agree that we may access, retain, and disclose the information we collect 
and maintain about you if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief 
that such access, retention or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply 
with legal process (e.g. a subpoena or court order); (b) enforce any contracts 
with you, if relevant; (c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights 
of third parties; (d) respond to your requests for customer service; and/or (e) 
protect the rights, property or personal safety of CEP, its agents and affiliates, 
its users and/or the public.

- Aggregate/De-Identified Information. From time to time, we may share 
Aggregate/De-identified Information about use of the Services or our user base 
with partners and others, but such information will not identify you personally.

## Your rights and your choices

You have certain rights with respect to your information as further described in 
this section.

1. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

If you would like further information in relation to your legal rights under 
applicable law or would like to exercise any of them, please contact us using the 
information in the “Contact Information” section below at any time. Your local laws 
may permit you to request that we:

- provide access to and/or a copy of certain information we hold about you

- update information which is out of date or incorrect

- delete certain information which we are holding about you

- restrict the way that we process and disclose certain of your information

- revoke your consent for the processing of your information

We will consider all requests and provide our response within the time period 
stated by applicable law and as otherwise required by applicable law. Please 
note, however, that certain information may be exempt from such requests in 
some circumstances, which may include if we need to keep processing your 
information for our legitimate interests or to comply with a legal obligation. 
We may request you provide us with information necessary to confirm your identity 
before responding to your request.

2. MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

You may instruct us not to use your contact information to contact you regarding 
our research, initiatives, or other relevant communications that we believe will 
be interesting to you by contacting us using the information below. If we send you 
marketing email messages, you can also opt out by following the instructions 
located at the bottom of such emails. Please note that, in accordance with 
applicable law, it may take up to ten (10) days to process your request. Also, note 
that you may not opt out of certain transactional emails from us, such as those 
confirming your requests or providing you with updates regarding our Privacy Policy 
or other terms.

## Third party links and features

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. If you choose to use these 
sites, please note that we are not responsible for their content or privacy practices. 
The collection, use, and disclosure of your information will be subject to the privacy 
policies of the third-party websites, and not this Privacy Policy. We urge you to read 
the privacy policies of these third parties.

## International users

Because CEP is based in the United States, please note that your information 
may be processed and stored in the United States and other jurisdictions around 
the world where our service providers are located, and that such jurisdictions 
may have different privacy laws than those in your jurisdiction. By using the 
Services, you acknowledge that your information may be processed and stored outside 
of your country of residence.

We may work with external parties including legal counsel, the appropriate regulatory 
authorities, and/or local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints 
regarding our processing of information. You can contact your local data protection 
authority if you have concerns regarding your rights under local law.

## How we protect your information

CEP takes technical and organizational security measures to protect the 
information provided to us from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, 
disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, no Internet or email 
transmission is ever fully secure or error free. Please keep this in mind 
when disclosing any information to us online.

## Retention of your information

We keep your information for no longer than necessary for the purposes for which 
it is processed. The length of time for which we retain information depends on the 
purposes for which we collect and use it and/or as required to comply with applicable 
laws. With respect to our research activities, recorded interviews are erased 
bi-annually after research is completed.

## Privacy information for California users

If you are a California resident, California law requires us to provide you with 
additional information regarding how we collect, use, and share your “personal 
information” (as defined in the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”)).

### Categories of personal information we collect

Throughout this Notice, we discuss in detail the specific pieces of personal 
information we collect from and about our users. Under the CCPA, we are also 
required to provide you with the “categories” of personal information we collect. 

The categories we may collect are:

- contact information (such as name and email address)

- internet or other network or device activity (such as operating system and usage 
information)

- geolocation information (e.g., your approximate location based on the temporary 
collection of your IP address)

- other information you choose to provide to us in the course of using the Services

We source, use, and share the categories of personal information we collect from and 
about you consistent with the various business purposes we discuss throughout this Notice.
See the “Information We Collect,” “How We Use Your Information,” “How We 
Share and Disclose Your Information” sections above for more information.
Please note that the CCPA sets forth certain obligations for businesses that “sell” 
personal information to third parties. We do not engage in such activity and have not 
engaged in such activity in the past twelve months from the effective date of this 
Privacy Notice.

California law gives residents of California the right under certain circumstances 
to request information from us regarding the manner in which we share certain 
categories of “personal information” (as defined by applicable California law) with 
third parties for their direct marketing purposes. CEP does not share your personal 
information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes.

## Changes to our Privacy Notice

We review this Privacy Notice with the CEP Steering Council annually. We reserve 
the right to amend this Privacy Notice at any time to reflect changes in the law, 
our data collection and use practices, or advances in technology. We will make the 
revised Privacy Notice accessible on our Services, so you should review the Privacy Notice 
periodically. You can know if the Privacy Notice has changed since the last 
time you reviewed it by checking the “Effective Date” included at the beginning of 
the document. If we make a material change to the Notice, you will be provided with 
appropriate notice in accordance with legal requirements. By continuing to use the 
Services, you are confirming that you have read and understood the latest version 
of this Privacy Notice.

## Contact information

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about CEP’s Privacy Notice 
or our information processing practices via email at contribex-team@googlegroups.com