Data Use Policy

Our Data Use Policy

Through your computer, mobile phone, and other digital devices, you leave behind hundreds of digital traces or data: bits of information about you that are created, stored, and collected. 

At Tactical Tech we believe it is crucial for users to understand what data is being collected about them.

This is not a “Privacy Policy”

Many websites link to their “privacy policies” from their homepages, but what they actually tell you is how they plan to use your data. We believe that it is important to be transparent that this policy is a promise about how we will use the data you leave when you visit this site, but neither this promise nor the promise of any other site gives you full privacy.

The Data Use Policy is a compulsory legal disclosure of how a website operator collects, retains and shares personally identifiable information. In other words, it’s often a list of ways your personal data is not private and under their control. There are legitimate reasons that people and organisations running websites need to keep data about your visits. We limit the data that we keep to only what we need for maintaining the site and satisfying legal and funding-related reporting requirements.

What do we do with your data?

We will not rent or sell any personally-identifying information to anyone. We do not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. Where possible, we aim to provide you with a fully functioning website — even if you do not supply personally-identifying information we request for site functionality.

We take all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the unauthorised access, use, alteration, or destruction of personally-identifying information.

Do Not Track!

If you enable Do Not Track, we will not track you, but we will count your visit to the website.

What data do we collect when you visit Our Data Our Selves?

Our Data Our Selves is operated by Tactical Tech, a non-profit operating from Berlin, Germany and is governed by EU Data law.

When you visit this site, we collect information about your visit of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available. This is information like:

  • the time and date you visited the site
  • the first page you visit
  • how many times you click on links
  • how long you stayed on the site
  • the last page you visit before leaving
  • what site brought you to the page (if you followed a link form another page, like on a search engine or social media)
  • what sites you visited through links on our site
  • what you download from our site
  • what keyword or keywords you used if you found the site through a search engine
  • what browser you use
  • some of the plugins you use on your browser
  • what operating system you use
  • what kind of device you use (computer vs smartphone vs feature phone)
  • what brand device you use
  • what model device you use
  • your country
  • your IP address (we anonymise Visitors' IP addresses in our stats)
  • your screen resolution
  • language of your browser
  • number of times you have visited the site
  • days since the last time you visited the site

We do this to better understand how people use the site and so that we can fix problems with the site when they arise. From time to time, we also release reports that include very general information about who visits this site, like the total number of visitors or which countries or other websites comprise the most visits.

We also collect information that is unique to you, like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. We use this information to protect our servers from misuse. We do not use this information to identify Our Data Our Selves visitors.

We may collect statistics about the behaviour of visitors to Our Data Our Selves. For instance, we assess how many visitors accessed our site over certain period of time and which pages were accessed most often. We do this so that we can figure out how we can improve the site and our content.

We collect this information using open source analytics software that we host ourselves. This means that even the people who wrote the software do not see any of your information. We do not partner with third parties to collect this information, nor do we share information with third parties, with the exception of the release of non-personally-identifying information in formats described above.

Occasionally, we may link to other Tactical Tech projects from this site. Sometimes, these features will encourage engaging with another Tactical Tech project in a way that requires collecting personally-identifying information, like providing an email address so that we can send you updates that you have decided that you want to receive. In each case, Tactical Tech collects such information only as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor’s interaction.

Cookies and Javascript

An internet cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer. The next time that browser visits a website set up to access that cookie, the cookie sends information to the website. Different cookies contain different kinds and amounts of information. Cookies play a roll in lots of different things from tracking you across sites, to loading accessibility preferences, to keeping you logged into websites and services. Just like real cookies, some are worth eating and others are so unhealthy and not delicious enough to be part of your life.

Our self-hosted open source analytics software (described above) uses cookies to be able to function. We do not use cookies for any other types of tracking.

In the event that you choose to access Our Data Our Selves in a web browser with blocked cookies, we have designed the site to remain as functional and feature complete as possible. As a general privacy practice, we advise you to routinely delete cookies stored in your browser.

Similarly, our analytics software makes use of Javascript to be able to function. Our Data Our Selves is designed to remain as functional and feature complete as possible even when you choose to disable Javascript in your browser.

But I am using a VPN!

VPNs can obscure your IP address and your country location, but some data may still be visible. If you use a VPN while visiting our website, and you haven’t enabled DNT, we would see all of the above information, save your IP address and country location, which would show the IP address and country of the exit point of your VPN.

I am actually using TOR

Just as when you are using a VPN, we can still access the above information. Furthermore, if we wanted to, we could go back through the exit node IP Addresses which are routinely published by Tor and determine if you are using TOR. We will also see similar information if you visit this site through our Onion service .

Data Use Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, we may change Our Data Our Selve's Data Use Policy from time to time, in responce to legal and technical changes and at our discretion. We encourage visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to this Data Use Policy. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Data Use Policy constitutes your acceptance of these change.

Contacts

All questions related to the data use policies of Our Data Our Selves should be directed in writing to the Tactical Tech Data Protection Officer.

Reusing this Data Use Policy

You are welcome to reuse and be inspired by this Data Use Policy after making sure it complies with the way your website tracks, uses and discloses users information.

This document was last updated 24 May 2018.