Privacy notice

What we do not collect

We do not ask for, or store, users' names, email addresses, or any other contact details. There are no user accounts, and we do not use advertising or third-party analytics trackers.

What we do store

• The questions users ask, along with the evidence the system retrieved and the answer it produced. We use these to understand what the tool is being asked and to improve its accuracy.
• The answer to the one-time audience question (for example "NGO" or "Academic researcher"), where a user chooses to answer it. It can be skipped, and a skip is recorded only as a skip.
• Any feedback users send using the Feedback button, together with the page it was sent from and, where relevant, the question it relates to.
• An anonymous browser session identifier. This is a random string that lets us group one visit's questions and feedback together. It is not linked to any individual, and it expires when the browser session does.
• A short-lived record of the user's IP address, held only as a counter used to stop automated abuse of the service. It is not stored alongside questions or feedback.

Free-text boxes

The question box and the feedback box accept free text, so users are asked not to type personal information about themselves or anyone else into them. Text submitted through these boxes is visible only to the project administrators, and we will delete it on request.

Why we collect this

Conservation Evidence Copilot is an early prototype. Knowing which kinds of organisation use it, what people ask it, and where it falls short is what lets us improve it. We process this data on the basis of our legitimate interest in developing and evaluating the tool. The data is used for research and development of Conservation Evidence Copilot only, and is not sold or shared with third parties.

Where the data is held

All data is stored on a server maintained by the University of Cambridge Computer Science Department.

Contact and deletion requests

Users who want to know what we hold, or to have something they submitted deleted, can contact the project team at contact@conservationevidencecopilot.com. Because submissions are anonymous, a request needs to include enough detail for us to find the right record, such as roughly when the tool was used and what was written.