Privacy Policy
(Last modified: July 18, 2022)
Introduction
The Genius Loci Online Platforms collect and share interview information through (1) the websites currently available at GeniusLoci.us (together with any successor sites, the “GL Site”), and the Memorycorps Archive website currently available at memorycorps.geniusloci.us (together with any successor sites, the “Archive Site”, and together with the SC Site (2), the mobile application (along with any successor mobile applications) (each an “App”), (3) any software, data feeds, widgets, materials, content and any other services available on or through the Sites and/or App (collectively, the “Services”).
When you use the Services and others that Genius Loci may offer in the future, you’ll be sharing some information with us, and that affects your privacy. This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) explains how and when Genius Loci may collect, store, use, and share your information when you use or access the Services. For purposes of this Privacy Policy, the terms “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Genius Loci. “You” refers to you, as a user of the Services. If you are using the Services on behalf of an organization or company then the term “You” shall be deemed to include such organization or company.
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how it will be used in the Services.
By using the Services, you understand and agree that we are providing a platform for you to post content to the Services that will be made available publicly. Examples of content that will be publicly available on the Services include, but are not limited to, any interview audio files, video, images, photographs, text or data included in the interview, interview meta-data, comments, and any other user-generated content that may be collected and uploaded by you, Genius Loci or third-party partners. That means that other users of the Services and the general public may search for, see, use or share your content that you make available through the Services, consistent with the terms of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use.
IMPORTANT: Even if you have a permanent place of residence in a country outside the United States, your information may be transferred to, stored, processed, and used (as described in this Privacy Policy) within the United States.
Information We Collect
Personally Identifiable Information
In order to access certain parts of the Services, Genius Loci may require you to provide personally identifiable information. Personally identifiable information refers to information that, taken alone, identifies you and that can be used to contact you, online or offline (“Personally Identifiable Information”), which may include, for example, your email address, photograph, username, and the contents of any Interview Content (as defined in section VI of our Terms of Use) you submit.
Non-Personally Identifiable Information
Genius Loci collects non-personally identifiable information from you as part of the Services. Non-personally identifiable information refers to information about you that cannot be used alone to identify you (“Non-Personally Identifiable Information”), which may include, for example, your location and other demographic information, and information about your use of our Services, which may include, for example, internet connection, your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, and other device identifiers. Aggregated data is considered Non-Personally Identifiable Information for the purposes of this Privacy Policy.
How We Collect Your Information
Information You Choose to Give Us
Account Information. When you create an account, you will provide information that could be Personally Identifiable Information (e.g. your username, email address, and photograph) or Non-Personally Identifiable Information (e.g. your gender, hobbies, favorite activities, occupation, and any other information you choose to disclose). If you sign in to the Services through your Facebook account, we will have access to any information on your account that you grant us permission to, such as your username, photos, and email address.
User Content. Some features of the Services allow you to submit User Content. As Genius Loci seeks to build and share a lasting archive of humanity’s stories, User Content is information that you choose to submit (e.g. by uploading, recording, or transmitting) through the App or the Sites. When you share User Content via the Services, you should think carefully about what you are making public. You may change your interview privacy settings on the Services to make your information more private.
Signature Interview Content. Your account may also contain Signature Interviews (as defined in Section VI of the Terms of Use) and related Signature Interview Content. This Signature Interview Content is also public and non-confidential. You may change your interview privacy settings on the Services to make your information more private.
Information We Collect from Your Use of the Services
Activity. When you use our Services, we may collect information about your activity on the Services, such as interview selections and viewing history
Location. When you use our Services, we may collect information about your location. With your consent, we may also collect information about your precise location using methods that include GPS, wireless networks, cell towers, Wi-Fi access points, and other sensors. You typically have to choose to turn such services on or off. If such device-based location services are on, we may receive and record such information, such as the location where you are creating or uploading User Content.
Camera, photos, and audio. Some of the Services allow us to collect images and/or audio from your device’s App, camera, and camera roll. For example, you may upload User Content by providing us access to your camera roll for photos and other applications containing the interview audio file.
IP Address Information and Other Information Collected Automatically. We automatically receive and record certain information from your web browser when you access and use the Services, which may include your IP address, cookie information, hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information (including the mobile phone number).
Information Collected Using Cookies and Web Beacons. “Cookies” are small data files that are sent to your web browser when you access a website, and the files stored on your device’s hard drive. We use “session” cookies to keep you logged in while you use our Services, to track your preferences, and to track trends and monitor usage and web traffic information on our Services. We may use “persistent” cookies to relate your use of our Services to other information about you and store information about your preferences to make your user experience consistent and customized. For example, we may create a persistent cookie that includes some basic information about you, like whether customer support responded to your inquiry. These cookies stay on your hard drive until you erase them or they expire and associate your information with your account even if you are logged out. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can change your settings on the browser settings to refuse cookies or prompt you before accepting cookies. You can also use your browser settings or other tools to delete cookies you already have. However, if you disable or refuse cookies, then certain features of our Services may be inaccessible or not function properly. Our cookies do not, by themselves, contain Personally Identifiable Information, and we do not combine the general information collected through cookies with other Personally Identifiable Information to tell us who you are. As noted, however, we do use cookies to identify that your web browser has accessed aspects of the Services and may associate that information with your account if you have one. Certain features of our Services may use local shared objects (or “flash cookies”). Flash cookies are small files similar to browser cookies that collect and store information about your preferences and where you browse and what you look at on our Services. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser or device settings that are used for browser cookies. You may adjust your Adobe Flash Player settings to prevent flash cookies from being placed on your hard drive. We may also use “clear GIFs” (aka “web beacons” or “pixel tags”) or similar technologies on our Services or in our communications with you to enable us to know whether you have visited a part of our Services or received a message. A clear GIF is typically a one-pixel, transparent image (although it can be a visible image as well), located on a website or in an email or other type of message, which is retrieved from a remote website on the Internet enabling the verification of an individual’s viewing or receipt of a website or message. We may also log information using digital images called web beacons on our Services or in our emails. We may use web beacons to manage cookies, count visits, and learn what marketing works and what does not. We may also use web beacons to tell if you open or act on our emails. We do not track our users across third-party websites and thus do not respond to Do Not Track (“DNT”) signals. This Privacy Policy only covers our use of cookies and does not cover the use of cookies by third parties. We do not control when or how third parties place cookies on your computer. For example, third party websites to which link points may set cookies on your computer.
Information Collected for Push Notifications. When you access the Services through a mobile device, you will also be asked to allow push notifications to be sent to you outside or inside of the App. If you do so, a device token will be generated, which is associated with you until you log out. We will collect and store these device tokens on our servers.
Your Interview Privacy Settings
Any information or content that you voluntarily disclose for posting to the Service, including User Content, becomes available to the public and may be re-shared by others. Subject to your interview privacy settings, any Interview Content that you make public is searchable by other users of the Services and the general public. So, the same common sense that applies to the internet at large applies to Genius Loci and your use of the Service: do not send any messages or share any content that you do not want someone else to save or share.
You may change your privacy settings for your interviews and associated Interview Content (as defined in Section VI of our Terms of Use) through your account to make your Interview Content more private.
Fully Public. The default setting for an interview is a general public setting. Therefore, unless you change your interview privacy setting, your interview and associated Interview Content will be public and accessible by anyone.
Story Corps Registered Users. Only people with a registered account on the Services can view or access your interview and associated Interview Content. Your interview and associated Interview Content will not be accessible to the general public.
Private. Only you can view or access your interview and associated Interview Content. Your interview and associated Interview Content will not be accessible by the general public or other users of the Services if you choose to make your interview private.
Please note that even if you change your interview privacy settings on your account, your Interview Content, including any associated photographs, audio, and information, can still be accessed and used by Genius Loci and its partners, funders and sponsors, licensees and researchers for research purposes and any other purposes permitted by law.
Also, please be aware that your account profile will remain visible to other users of the Services and the general public regardless of your interview privacy settings.
Our Use of Your Information
Genius Loci is a story-sharing platform, and we will use the information we collect to provide you with products and services to further our mission to preserve and share humanity’s stories and to improve such products and services. Genius Loci will always have access to the Personally Identifiable and Non-Personally Identifiable Information on your account regardless of your interview privacy settings and may use your information to maintain and provide the Services to you. For example, we may use your information, in either aggregated or individual form, in the following ways:
to archive and share stories with other people as part of Genius Loci’ mission to preserve the stories of people from all backgrounds and beliefs, including with other users of the Services by sharing and displaying your username, photograph, location, and, depending on your interview privacy settings, your audio recording, and metadata in connection with any User Content you upload to any of the Sites or App;
to share with our third-party partners in order to provide you with a service you use or request. For example, Genius Loci may share your Personally Identifiable Information and Interview Content with third parties for data storage and hosting, and with the U.S. Library of Congress for archiving purposes. This Section applies to any and all third-party websites, services, and applications that you access through the Services or that are used or will be used by Genius Loci to provide the Services, even if not expressly named herein;
to communicate with you and respond to you regarding the Services, content, features, and products you use or that we think may interest you;
to customize and optimize the content or advertisements you receive or view when you use the Services, and otherwise improve your experience on our Services;
to provide, maintain, protect, analyze, understand and improve our Services, content, features, and products, which may include tracking traffic, trends, usage, and navigation patterns;
to develop new services;
for research and educational purposes;
in any other way we may describe when you provide the information;
for legal reasons, including, but not limited to, in response to a valid law enforcement request or legal process or to protect our rights and property or those of third parties; and
for any other purpose with your consent.
If you have any questions regarding how we use your User Content, please contact us at contact@GeniusLoci.us.
Retaining Your Information
Even if you change your interview privacy settings through your account to be private, your Interview Content may still be retained by Genius Loci and accessed by Genius Loci and its partners, funders and sponsors, licensees, researchers, and other third parties for research purposes and any other [non-commercial] purpose.
If you remove information that you posted to the Services, copies may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Services, or if other users or third parties have copied or saved that information prior to removal.
IMPORTANT
If you cancel your account and discontinue your use of the Services, we and our third-party partners (including the U.S. Library of Congress, third-party hosting and storage sites, and others) may continue to retain Interview Content submitted, uploaded, or otherwise provided by you prior to the cancellation of your account and/or discontinuance of your use of the Services.
If you have any questions regarding how your Interview Content may be retained or accessed, please contact us at contact@GeniusLoci.us.
Third Party Sites
This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of third parties including any third-party websites, services, and applications that you access through the Services. We cannot take responsibility for the content or privacy policies of those third parties and encourage you to carefully review the privacy policies of any third-party websites, services, and applications you access.
Protecting Your Information
We implement and maintain reasonable measures to help safeguard your information. However, we make no guarantee that these reasonable efforts will make your information completely secure. Please do your part to help us. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information. Again, we encourage users to think carefully before electing to share content on the internet.
Minors and Children Under Age 13
We require a parent or legal guardian’s consent before collecting, using, or disclosing information from people between 13 and 18 years of age.
The Services and content on the Sites and the App are not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect, solicit or store Personally Identifiable Information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register or use the Services. If you are under 13, please do not attempt to use or register on the Services; no one under the age of 13 may provide any Personally Identifiable Information to the Company or on the Services.
In the event that we learn that we have collected Personally Identifiable Information from a child under the age of 13, we will delete that information where reasonably possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please send a detailed message to contact@Genius Loci.us.
Information Related to Advertising
To support and enhance the Services, we may use your information to serve advertisements on our Sites and on third-party sites. These advertisements are sometimes targeted and served to particular users and may come from third-party companies called “ad networks.” Ad networks include third-party ad servers, ad agencies, ad technology vendors, and research firms.
Advertisements served through the Services may be targeted to users who fit a certain general profile category and may be based on (1) information inferred from information provided to us by a user, (2) usage patterns of particular users, or (3) your activity on a third party website. We do not provide Personally Identifiable Information to any ad networks for use outside of the Services.
California Residents
California residents may choose to request certain information regarding our disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes or choose to opt-out of such disclosure. To make a request or to opt-out at any time, please contact us at contact@GeniusLoci.us or the other contact information provided below. Our policy is not to disclose Personally Identifiable Information collected online to a third party for direct marketing without your approval.
Business Transfers
As we continue to develop our business, we may sell, transfer or otherwise share your Personally Identifiable Information in connection with a merger, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of either our company, Services, App, or Sites. In such transactions, customer information is often one of the transferred business assets but remains subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Policy (unless the customer consents otherwise). You acknowledge and consent that such transfers are permitted by this Privacy Policy, and that any acquirer of ours or our current assets may continue to receive, store, and process your information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. You also consent to us providing access to your information as part of diligence or review processes conducted by potential acquirers, entities providing financing to them, their advisors, us, and our advisors.
Changes to Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy is effective as of the date stated at the top of this Privacy Policy. It may be necessary from time to time for us to modify this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in the way we collect and use information or changes in privacy-related laws, regulations, and industry standards. Accordingly, we reserve the right to change this policy at any time by posting the revised policy on the Services and updating the “last modified” date at the top of this page. We may provide you additional forms of notice of modifications or updates as appropriate under the circumstances. We encourage you to refer to this Privacy Policy on an ongoing basis so that you understand our current privacy policy. If revisions to the Privacy Policy are unacceptable to you, you must cease using the Services.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our Privacy Policy, please contact us at contact@GeniusLoci.us.