Privacy Policy
The Science and Community Action Network “SciCAN”
SciCAN, the Science and Community Action Network, is a community-centered web platform resource library that connects grassroots movements, scientists, technical and subject-matter experts from neighborhoods across the country.
SciCAN is a place where members can share ideas, best practices and resources to equitably bridge science and community activism so that allies can optimize their use of science to help drive movements in service of frontline communities.
Through SciCAN we want to root out systemic inequities in science, data-driven research, academic units or policy-driven organizations that have systematically excluded community knowledge. We hope that through SciCAN we can continue to build community power, utilizing community expertise to advance environmental justice, without extractive approaches.
Your privacy is critically important to us. We have a few fundamental principles using SciCAN:
- We are thoughtful about the personal information we ask you to provide and the personal information that we collect about you.
- Personal information Name, Location, Area of Focus (membership profile) for only as long as you wish to be a member.
- We aim to make it as simple as possible for you to control what information you share on the website.
- We do not share your personal information.
- We aim for full transparency on how we gather and use your information, and will never share your personal information.
- Below is our Privacy Policy, which incorporates and clarifies these principles.
How SciCAN collects and use that information.
Most data we collect are used only to help us better serve our members and visitors. It is our policy to collect and store only information that our members and visitors knowingly provide. Our mission is to democratize accessibility to academic knowledge and area of focus for community partnerships, such that communities’ experience and expertise can guide the path to a just transition.
Website members and visitors.
We collect aggregate data such as total site visitors, page views, etc. This data may be used for website improvement, internal analysis, program evaluation and validation. No personally identifiable information is utilized for these purposes.
We collect an IP address from all visitors to our website. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet. The IP addresses associated with your email allow and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. This data helps us improve the website and deliver customized, personalized content. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.
In order to help enhance site performance and functionality, we use session, persistent and third-party “cookies” that store a small piece of data on a user’s computer and collect certain information about the user’s visit to our site but provide no personally identifiable information.
SciCAN collects limited identifying information volunteered by visitors to the website such as membership registration and publication, documents, resources uploaded to SciCAN. This information includes, but is not limited to, name, profile photo, personal biography, organization name, phone number, IP address, email and zip code or geo location and timezone When members leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address . We use this information only for the purposes for which it was provided. If you would like to change personal information we have collected from you, visit SciCAN and sign in using your email address and password. For your protection, we recommend that you do not provide your password to anyone. If you become aware of any suspicious activity relating to your information, please contact us immediately at info@scican.org.
Cookies Your browser is probably set to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies. If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our or any website will not function fully. If you upload a resource or leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies.
These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details (username and passwords) again when you return to SciCAN. These cookies will last for one year. When you visit our landing page to login or join, a pop-up banner will say something along these lines: “This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you consent to cookies being used. You will have to hit ACCEPT but in addition to an “Accept All” button, it provides a “Preferences” link that takes you to a page where you disable some or all of the site’s inessential cookies.
Sites that offer you the option to manage preferences typically allow you to grant or deny permission for various types of cookies. The types that raise the most immediate privacy issues are the ones involved in marketing or targeting because they can be third-party cookies that track your behavior across the internet.
This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser. When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks.
If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited and/or uploaded.
Privacy Issues with links to other sites.
The website resources may contain links to other websites, we have no control over and are not responsible for the privacy policy of any website other than SciCAN.
Media: If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. You can upload images with size files: 100MB.
Member Directory: All active SciCAN members are included in the SciCAN Member Directory and visible by registered members. The directory is accessible only to active SciCAN members. The member directory includes your name, email address, city, state/province, country, this information may be found either in the members list or members map.
Inviting Others: If a member invites others, SciCAN will send a one time approval notification, email welcome to accept these privacy policies and community norms.
Future changes to this policy may change, please check periodically for updates and changes. You will be notified.
Security.
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and, in short, it’s the standard technology for keeping an internet connection secure and safeguarding any sensitive data that is being sent between two systems, preventing anyone from reading and modifying any information transferred, including potential personal details.
All information provided to SciCAN is transmitted using SSL, it is a proven coding system that lets your browser automatically encrypt, or scramble, data before you send it to us. We also protect account information by placing it on a secure portion of our website that is only accessible to the featured member via their password protected profile account.
SciCAN Web administrators design, develop, maintain and troubleshoot websites. Most importantly, they ensure a safe and efficient user experience. This may include implementing security protocols, modifying programs, creating backups, resolving software problems, updating content and remove users.
Embedded content from other websites.
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Disclaimers.
SciCAN resources may reference or cite external links. SciCAN is not responsible for the availability or content of these external sites, nor does SciCAN endorse, warrant or guarantee the products, services or information described or offered in other internet sites. It is the responsibility of the user to examine the copyright and licensing restrictions of external Web sites and to secure all necessary permission.
Users cannot assume that the external sites will abide by the same privacy provisions as those outlined in the SCICAN Privacy Policy.
Liability: SciCAN does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed.
Pop-Up Advertisements: When visiting our Website, your Web browser may produce pop-up advertisements. These advertisements were most likely produced by other Web sites you visited or by third-party software installed on your computer. SciCAN does not endorse or recommend products or services for which you may view a pop-up advertisement on your computer screen while visiting our site.
Shared information: It is not the intention of SciCAN to provide specific expertise and technical support, but rather to provide the community and its members the information (best practices, some examples; but not limited to Community Based Participatory Research, Community and Citizen Science, Policies that prioritize environmental justice and health, fact sheets, policy briefs, community fact sheets, toxic chemicals, air pollution or any community led solution to advance environmental justice), to inform and support community expertise.
Expectations re Posted Data: Posters are responsible for assuring that the information posted is reliable, that they have permission to post the information presented, and that the information they are providing is being used for educational purposes, and that any posted information can be used by other users or recipients of the posted information without any further compensation to the posting party or the author or originator of the information. If information is posted that is not in compliance with these expectations and user rules, SciCAN reserves the right to delete such posts, and also, to deny access to users who have not complied with the user rules.
How long we retain your data.
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website , we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username) which is password protected. Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data.
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
SciCAN analytics.
For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, SciCAN uses Google Analytics, a dashboard that gathers and temporarily stores a variety of information about your visit. However, this information cannot be used to identify you as an individual.
We do not associate any of the data we collect with you as an individual. Instead, we aggregate this data from all visits in order to improve our website and provide a better user experience to our visitors. The aggregate data is available only to SciCAN website administrators and other designated staff who require this information to perform their duties. It is retained only for as long as needed for proper analysis. The Google Analytics Privacy Policy is available at https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/.
SciCAN Community Norms Policy.
We encourage and welcome your comments on the SciCAN website, including Twitter, and Linkedin. SciCAN has instituted the following policy in an effort to maintain respectful interaction:
- All viewpoints are welcome, but comments should remain relevant to the audience in SciCAN. We respect the varying opinions; however, intentionally spreading misleading or false information is prohibited.Personal attacks, profanity, and aggressive behavior are prohibited.
- No spam, advertising, or promoting of products/services. Comments and/or links will be hidden and cause for removing members if they contain:
- Discriminatory, racist, offensive, obscene, inflammatory, unlawful, or otherwise objectionable statements, language, or content.
- Unfair/unsubstantiated partisan political views.
- Commercial endorsements.
- Records of posts and comments will be kept. We reserve the right to block or hide offenders of this policy.
The views expressed in user comments reflect those of individual members.
When using SciCAN you may encounter documents, illustrations, photographs, or other content contributed by or licensed from private individuals, academic institutions, or organizations that may be protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. You can sometimes tell if content is copyrighted if it has the copyright symbol, the name of the copyright holder, or the statement “All rights reserved.” However, a copyright notice is not required by law and therefore not all copyrighted content is necessarily marked in this way.
SciCAN is aware that educational uses of copyrighted material may sometimes constitute fair use. However, SciCAN makes no judgment as to whether a particular posting is within the fair use guidelines or not. As the posting party, you are required to obtain permission of the author and any other parties that may own the copyright to particular material you are posting.
Any party who claims rights to materials posted on the SciCAN website should send a notice to SciCan as set forth in the section below titled:
Intellectual Property Claims. Digital Millennium Copyright Act Procedure.
User Responsibility: It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions when using materials that are not in the public domain. SciCAN cannot guarantee the copyright status for any item.
- If you have concerns relating to copyright, such as improper attribution or SciCAN info@scican.org
Sharing your personally identifiable information when legally necessary or to protect SciCAN interests.
SciCAN may disclose your personally identifiable information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to legal requirements or comply with legal process served on SciCAN. (b) protect and defend the rights or property of SciCAN or (c) protect the personal safety of SciCAN personnel or members of the public in appropriate circumstances.
Disclosure.
SciCAN does not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information about our members, unless required by law enforcement or statute.
User Responsibility: It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions when using materials that are not in the public domain. SciCAN is an educational website that seeks to disseminate information that may be useful to its users as broadly as possible. SciCAN cannot guarantee the copyright status for any item.
Disclaimers.
Liability: For documents SciCAN does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, or process disclosed in any posting or document posted on this website.
Endorsement: SciCAN does not endorse or recommend any commercial products, processes, or services, SciCAN, and they may not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.
External Web Sites: It is the responsibility of the user to examine the copyright and licensing restrictions of external Web sites and to secure all necessary permission. Users cannot assume that the external sites will abide by the same privacy provisions as those outlined in the SciCAN privacy policy.
It is not the intention of SciCAN to provide solutions to advance environmental justice specifically, but rather to provide and share with users educational information and resource libraries.
SciCAN respects intellectual property rights. As noted above, we do not and cannot review all postings before they become available on our website and we are not responsible for postings on our website by our visitors, posters, and other third parties. However, we have in place a procedure as set forth in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) to protect SciCAN, the integrity of intellectual property, and free speech interests. See, 17 U.S.C. § 512.
In order to object and obtain review of a request to remove content from our website if there is a bona fide claim that the posted material infringes your intellectual property rights:
To bring to our attention notice that there is infringing material on website, please direct the following information with the subject line of INFRINGEMENT in an email to: info@scican.org
Your email must include the following information:
- Reasonably sufficient details to enable us to identify the work claimed to be infringed or, if multiple works are claimed to be infringed, a representative list of such works (for example: title, author, any registration or tracking number, URL);
- Reasonably sufficient detail to enable us to identify and locate the material that is claimed to be infringing (for example a link to the page that contains the material);
- Your contact information so that we can contact you (for example, your address, telephone number, email address);
- Documentation, if any, of the legitimacy of the copyright or trademark claim you are presenting such as a copy of the Trademark Registration or a Copyright Registration. A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the material identified in is not authorized by the owner of the intellectual property, its agent, or the law;
- A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is alleged to be infringed.
- Your physical or electronic signature.
Upon receipt of your complaint, we may (a) contact whoever posted the content or (b) take down the accused content and also contact whoever posted the content. In order to attempt to retain the posting on our website, the posting party may file a “counter notice” to info@scican.org which must include the following:
- Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or disabled;
- Documentation, if any, of any rights you may have to the posted material and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material in question;
- Your name, address, and telephone number;
- A statement that – as the posting party -- you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for judicial district in which your address is located or in a District in which UCJ may be found that you will accept service of process from the person who submitted a notice in compliance with the section (c)(1)(C) of the DMCA, as generally described above;
- Your physical or electronic signature.
If a posting party provides us with the information as required above, we will reinstate the posted content unless the party originally filing the complaint has informed us that they have filed an action in Federal District Court to restrain posting of the content.
Contact SciCAN.
If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, the practices of this website, or your dealings with this website, or any other concern please send an email to info@scican.org