Privacy Policy

Updated: July 28, 2022

Because of increasingly severe and unstoppable (using conventional Captcha technology) attacks on our form and comment systems, we have been forced to implement Google's Invisible reCAPTCHA system.  Users of this part of our system are, therefore, subject to Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

This document applies to Beyond Intractability, CRInfo, and Moving Beyond Intractability—all webpages, social media content, and newsletters produced by the Conflict Information Consortium (henceforth collectively referred to as the Consortium), located at http://www.beyondintractability.org and http://www.crinfo.org (and including any subdomains and subdirectories thereof).

Information Collection

The Consortium servers automatically record certain information about site traffic (which may include Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser types, Internet service provider (ISP) information, referring pages and search engines, platform types, date/time stamps, and other data). This information is not further linked to any personally identifiable information; it is occasionally used by the Consortium to analyze trends, administer the site, track users' movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. Additionally, the Consortium utilizes Google Analytics, which independently records traffic using a modified version of the data described above (i.e. a segment of each user's IP address is deleted to further protect users' privacy).  

As a general rule and to protect user privacy, we strive to keep our collection of personally identifiable information to an absolute minimum.

We do not use cookies except in the very rare occasions when we need to authenticate "logged-in" user sessions (which are required to access seldom used, "premium content" which is intended for highly limited audiences or for those rare users who are allowed to post content directly on Consortium websites).

In order to request and maintain a user account, we require users to supply a name and a valid e-mail address as well as answer a number of questions that enable us to screen out "bots" or individuals who are, in the sole judgment of the Consortium's Co-Directors, likely to be a disruptive, negative influence.  That information is only accessible to the Consortium's Co-Directors and immediate staff.

A user's username, as well as any material that he or she may choose to publicly provide (e.g., by creating or editing a page for publication by the Consortium,  editing his or her user profile, posting to the forums or discussions, or submitting information via any other mode that may not be reasonably deemed "private") may be accessible to the public, without regard for the presence of personally identifiable information.

Those who sign up for our electronic newsletter via the Newsletter Signup / Questionnaire form or the "opt in" boxes on the Contact UsColleague Activities Questionnaire forms can, at any time, "unsubscribe" by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the end of each Newsletter or by sending us an unsubscribe request using our Contact Us form. 

We only give the Substack and Mail Chimp newsletter mailing services that we use a list of email addresses and we also gave MailChimp the accompanying names. They have no other identifying information except the date on which a subscriber was added to the list and whether or not an "unsubscribe" request has been received. This means that there are no "preferences" to update other than unsubscribe.  The Substack system which allows you to subscribe to many different newsletters is more complicated and Substack rules and privacy policies (over which we have no control) apply.

We strive to ensure that the personally identifiable information that you privately provide to us (via the Inquiry for Reprints and RepublicationsColleague Activities Questionnaire,  Newsletter Signup / QuestionnaireContact Us, or any other mode that may be reasonably deemed "private") will not be made accessible to anyone other than the Consortium Co-Directors and their immediate staff without your prior consent. Such information is treated as personal correspondence that will not be disclosed to any other party without your prior consent (except when compelled to do so by law). Only broadly aggregated information about such things as general user interests is shared more widely.

All information that we collect is stored on the Consortium's servers (and backup systems) as well as local project office computers. All such storage may be maintained for an indefinite period of time.

We would be happy to freely provide anyone with a complete listing of all of the personally identifiable information that we might have on them. Simply request this information using our Contact Us form.  We will follow generally accepted principles for verifying the identity of people making such requests.

We take site security seriously and strive to keep our office computers and Drupal-based system fully "up-to-date." We also try, to the best of our ability, to abide by the commitments made above. Unfortunately, the rapidly evolving nature of today's privacy and server security threats (threats that are beyond our ability to control), we cannot absolutely guarantee the security of the limited amount of information that we do collect.