This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) explains the collection, use, and disclosure of “personal information” by Creative Commons Corporation (“CC” or “Creative Commons”), a Massachusetts Corporation, with its principal place of business at 171 Second St, Suite 300, San Francisco, 94150, USA, through the websites that Creative Commons operates at https://creativecommons.net (the “ccNet Website”), https://creativecommons.org, and http://sciencecommons.org, (collectively, together with all sub-domains thereof, the “Websites”). Any “personal information” that Creative Commons collects via our ccMixter site (http://ccmixter.org) is handled in accordance with our ccMixter Privacy Policy (http://ccmixter.org/privacy).
This Privacy Policy also explains our commitment to you with respect to our use and disclosure of non personal browsing and site usage data that Creative Commons collects as the provider of the Websites and an OpenID service provider. That commitment is contained in a “Data Usage Policy,” below.
As used in this policy, “personal information” means information that would allow a party to identify you such as, for example, your name, address or location, telephone number or email address.
By accessing the Websites or using Creative Commons as your OpenID service provider, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
Our Principles
Creative Commons is committed to handling responsibly the information and data we collect about you through our Websites, whether personal information or non personal browsing and site usage data. We have designed our Privacy Policy and our Data Usage Policy consistent with the following principles (the “Principles”):
- Privacy policies and data collection and use policies should be human readable, comprehensive, and easy to locate;
- Only the minimum amount of information reasonably necessary to provide you with services should be collected and maintained, and only for so long as reasonably needed;
- Information you provide through our Websites, or that we gather as a result of your use of our Websites or OpenID services, should not be used for marketing or advertising purposes, nor should it be provided voluntarily (without your permission) to anyone else unless required; and
- Unless restricted or prohibited by law, you should be notified when Creative Commons is required to provide a third party with your personal information.
Personal Information CC Collects
We collect personal information at several places on the Websites, including without limitation:
- in connection with your selection of one of our licenses, your selection of a Public Domain Dedication or your application for Founder’s Copyright;
- when you provide us with your personal information such as by sending an email to us or signing up to receive a newsletter or our events listing;
- when you subscribe to one of our email discussion lists or establish a Wiki account;
- when you donate money to us or purchase merchandise; and
- when you join the Creative Commons network through our ccNet Website, and when you thereafter create/edit your profile page, identify your content, share your story, and/or establish a Creative Commons OpenID.
What CC does with the Personal Information
License/Tool Selection. We use the personal information you provide to us as part of your selection of one of our licenses to provide you the RDF, html, and the Uniform Resource Locator that correspond to the license you selected. Your email address is expunged after this email has been successfully sent. If you choose a Public Domain Dedication, we use your personal information to provide you with the dedication information, and your email address and other information is expunged from our logs after this email has been successfully sent. If you apply for a Founder’s Copyright, we use and retain your personal information to provide you with the relevant agreement, to process your application and manage your Founder’s Copyright. We may use all of this information to maintain license usage data.
Emails and Newsletters. We use the personal information you provide to us when you send us emails or sign up to receive our newsletter or events listing in order to respond to your request — for example, to reply to your email or to send you communications about news and events related to Creative Commons.
When you subscribe to our newsletter, events list or one of our email discussion lists, your name and email address is sent to and stored by ibiblio.org (http://www.ibiblio.org/), a collaboration between the Center for the Public Domain (http://www.
Donations. When you donate money to us or purchase merchandise via our support page, your personal information will be handled in one of two ways, depending on which option you choose.
- If you purchase a t-shirt or other merchandise from Creative Commons, we will use your personal information for the purpose of sending you the items you purchased.
- You may donate money to Creative Commons directly or through a variety of on-line payment sites, including PayPal, the Amazon Honor System, Just-Give.org, Good Search, Network for Good, and Mission Fish, among others. When you use any of those websites and services to donate to CC, your personal information is sent to, handled by and stored by those websites in accordance with their respective privacy policies and terms of use. You should read and understand the privacy policy and terms of use of any website you use to donate to Creative Commons. When you donate money to Creative Commons directly, we use your personal information to process your donation.
Regardless of the method by which you donate to Creative Commons or purchase a t-shirt or other merchandise, we additionally use the personal information you provide for the purpose of contacting you about upcoming news and events relevant to Creative Commons. When we contact you for the first time after your donation, we will use reasonable means to give you the option to choose not to be contacted in this manner again. When you donate money as part of one of CC’s fundraising campaigns, your name will be published on our “supporters page” unless you request otherwise.
ccNet Website. When you join our network you provide personal information to create your account and establish a password and profile, and to create an OpenID. We use that personal information to establish and maintain your accounts, provide you with the features we provide for account holders, to act as your OpenID service provider, and for the purpose of contacting you about upcoming news and events relevant to Creative Commons.
By joining the Creative Commons Network, you are also given a public profile page where you can post personal information for public viewing. The information that you submit on your public profile page, including but not limited to information you provide in the field “Your CC Story” and any photograph or image of yourself you upload, is posted by you at your discretion (although subject to CC’s Terms of Use). The information you publish on your public profile page, including your personal information, may be used by anyone who views that information for any lawful purpose, with the exception of the text you insert in the “Your CC Story” field and any photograph or image of yourself that you upload, which if you choose to provide in either case must be licensed under and becomes subject to the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, as stated on the Edit Profile page. CC may use the personal and non personal information you provide in your public profile, including the text in the “Your CC Story” field (subject to the terms of that license), to promote the mission of Creative Commons and the ccNet Website.
Any other personal information that we may collect which is not described specifically in this Privacy Policy will only be collected and used in accordance with the Principles.
Disclosures of Personal Information
In general, it is not Creative Commons’ practice to disclose personal information to third parties. We may share personal information in two instances:
- First, Creative Commons may share personal information with our contractors and service providers in order to maintain, enhance, or add to the functionality of the Websites or the OpenID service.
- Second, we may disclose your personal information to third parties in a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) take action regarding suspected illegal activities; (b) enforce or apply our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy; (c) comply with legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order; or (d) protect our rights, reputation, and property, or that of our users, affiliates, or the public.
If Creative Commons is required to provide a third party with your personal information (whether by subpoena or otherwise), then CC will use reasonable means to notify you promptly of that event, unless prohibited by law or CC is otherwise advised not to notify you on the advice of legal counsel.
Security of Personal Information Collected via the Websites; OpenID
Creative Commons has implemented reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to and unlawful interception or processing of personal information that Creative Commons stores and controls. However, no website can fully eliminate security risks. Third parties may circumvent our security measures to unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. We will post a reasonably prominent notice to the Websites if any such security breach occurs.
OpenID, including Creative Commons OpenID services, has security risks in addition to those described above. Among other things, OpenID is vulnerable to DNS attacks, and using OpenID may increase the risk of phishing. See About OpenID for more information about the types and levels of risks associated with OpenID.
Data Usage Policy: Non Personal Browsing and Site Usage Information
Our Data Usage Policy covers how we maintain and use information about you that is collected by our Websites and server logs, including when you log into a website using your Creative Commons OpenID.
Non Personal Information We Collect. When you use the Websites, our servers (which may be hosted by a third party service provider) may collect information indirectly and automatically (through, for example, the use of your “IP address”) about your activities while visiting the Websites and information about the browser you are using. In addition, whenever you use your Creative Commons OpenID to log into a website, our servers (which, again, may be hosted by a third party service provider) keep a log of the websites you visit and when you visit them.
No Linking. We do not intentionally link browsing information or information from our OpenID server logs to the personal information you submit to us. We use this information for internal purposes only, such as to help understand how the Websites are being used, to improve our Websites and the features we provide, and for systems administration purposes. CC may use a third party analytics provider to help us collect and analyze non personal information through operation of our Websites for those same purposes; however, we will never use a third party analytics provider to collect or analyze any information through our operations as an OpenID service provider.
No Selling or Sharing. Except in the unique situations identified in this Privacy Policy, Creative Commons does not sell or otherwise voluntarily provide the non personal information we collect about you or your website usage to third parties.
No Access. As an OpenID service provider, CC could technically access your web-based account tied to our OpenID service, and could log in on behalf of any of its OpenID users to any of the accounts they have accessed using their Creative Commons OpenID. Creative Commons will never use this technical login ability for any purpose unless otherwise required by law.
No Retention. CC discards non personal information from our OpenID server logs once we have used the information for the limited purposes noted above, under “No Linking.”
Notice. If Creative Commons is required to provide a third party with your non personal information or to log in on behalf of an OpenID user (whether by subpoena or otherwise), then CC will use reasonable means to notify you promptly of that event, unless CC is prohibited by law from doing so or is otherwise advised not to notify you on the advice of legal counsel.
Any other non-personal information that we collect which is not described specifically in this Privacy Policy will only be collected and used in accordance with the Principles.
Reorganization or Spin-Offs
Creative Commons may transfer some or all of your personal and/or non personal information to a third party as a result of a reorganization, spin-off or similar transaction. Upon such transfer, the acquirer’s privacy policy will apply. In such event, Creative Commons will use reasonable efforts to notify you and to ensure that at the time of the transaction the acquirer’s privacy policy complies with the Principles.
Children
Consistent with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personal information from anyone under the age of 13 without requiring parental consent. Any person who provides their personal information to CC through the Websites represents that they are 13 years of age or older.
Third-Party Sites
The Websites may include links to other websites. You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party sites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other websites.
Special Note to International Users
The Websites are hosted in the United States. If you are accessing the Websites from the European Union, Asia, or any other region with laws or regulations governing personal data collection, use and disclosure that differ from United States laws, please note that you are transferring your personal data to the United States which does not have the same data protection laws as the EU and other regions. By providing your personal data you consent to:
- the use of your personal data for the uses identified above in accordance with the Privacy Policy; and
- the transfer of your personal data to the United States as indicated above.
Changes and Updates to this Privacy Policy
We may occasionally update this Privacy Policy. When we do, we will also revise the Effective Date below. We encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed about how we are protecting the personal information we collect. Your continued use of the Websites constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Policy and any updates.
Questions?
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email at info@creativecommons.org.
Effective Date: October 15, 2008 (Prior Privacy Policy)