Privacy Policy

This is the Privacy Policy for Thoughtgraph’s DebateGraph web application.

Thoughtgraph is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy online, and the collection and use of your personal information will be restricted to the minimum required to continue to deliver, develop and improve services for you. DebateGraph is not funded by advertising, so we don’t collect data in order to advertise to you.

Thoughtgraph has strict security and confidentiality procedures covering the storage and disclosure of your information in order to safeguard it, to prevent unauthorised access and to comply with the UK Data Protection Act 2018—and only authorised personnel are permitted to have access to the information.

It is your right to be informed about how Thoughtgraph manages your personal information, and we are providing this Privacy Policy to explain how we collect, receive, use, store, share and disclose your data through our web application. If you have any questions about your personal data and our policies, please email:

PrivacyPolicy@thoughtgraph.com

Who We Are

Thoughtgraph creates the web application DebateGraph, and is incorporated in UK.

Our registered address is:

20 Gordon’s Close, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 3DA, UK.

Privacy enquiries can be made via:

PrivacyPolicy@thoughtgraph.com

Personal data requests can be made via:

data@thoughtgraph.com

Collection and Use Of Information

Data Collected or Received from You

Our primary goals in collecting information are   

• to provide and improve DebateGraph,
   
• to administer your use of DebateGraph (including your Account, if you are an Account holder),
   
• to provide you with updates, alerts and support and administrative notices and
   
• to otherwise enable you to enjoy and use DebateGraph.

Account Information. When registering to access DebateGraph, you are required to supply some personal information—at minimum your name and a valid e-mail address.  At your discretion, you may also choose to share a fuller personal profile—including, for example, your professional and educational background, expertise, interests, age, affiliations, organisation, photograph etc.—and to make this information available to other users.

Information Related to Use of DebateGraph. Our software or servers automatically record certain information about how you use DebateGraph including both account holders and non-account holders. This data may include information such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, URL request, browser type, operating system, the nodes or maps or nodes that you browsed, search terms, the links on which you clicked and other statistics. We use this data to administer and improve DebateGraph.

Information Sent by Your Mobile Device. We collect certain information that your mobile device sends when you use DebateGraph, like the manufacturer, model, operating system, and version of your device, as well as information about your use of DebateGraph. We use this information to administer and improve DebateGraph (including, for example, understanding which devices and software we need to support).

Location Information. When you use DebateGraph, we may collect and store information about your location by converting your IP address into a rough geo-location, and may use this information to improve and personalise DebateGraph for you (for example, by presenting times to in your local time zone).

Information Collected Using Cookies

Like many websites, we use cookies to track site usage and trends and to improve the quality and customise your experience of DebateGraph.

A cookie is a tiny text file that resides on your computer, mobile phone, or other device, and allows us to recognise you as a user when you return to DebateGraph using the same computer and web browser. For more details on how organisations use cookies on websites, please see www.allaboutcookies.org.

We may use both session cookies and persistent cookies to identify that you’ve logged in to DebateGraph and to tell us how and when you interact with DebateGraph. These cookies, for example, help us to determine whether you have permission to access your private maps and whether or not you are a moderator. We may also use cookies to analyse how DebateGraph is used and is performing – so that we can maintain, operate and improve DebateGraph. Session cookies, unlike persistent cookies, are deleted when you log off from DebateGraph and close your browser.

Although most browsers automatically accept cookies, you have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. However, please note that by deleting our cookies or disabling future cookies you may not be able to fully use DebateGraph. If you want to delete any cookies on your computer, please refer to the instructions for your browser or file management software to locate the file or directory that stores cookies.

The Ways We Use Your Information

Thoughtgraph uses your data in various ways to provide DebateGraph to you, including:   

• to create a User Account
   
• to allow you to log in to DebateGraph
   
• to track how DebateGraph is performing and to enable us to improve DebateGraph.
   
• to send you periodic digests of updates to the maps that you have created and/or subscribed.
   
• to contact you occasionally with news about DebateGraph (including, for example, about new features and initiatives).

Information That We Share With Third Parties

Information Shared with Other Users. The information you share about yourself or choose to upload on DebateGraph, including, but not limited to, your profile photo, website, location, contact information and your name, may be published and viewable to other users of DebateGraph. In some circumstances, you may adjust the permissions on your posts to make them private or to limit their visibility to others. Outside of these circumstances, posting or updating any content on DebateGraph is a public action, and all content may be publicly visible by other users of DebateGraph. Public identification of all contributed content may include, but is not limited to, display of your account name.

Information Shared with Our Services Providers. We may engage third-party services providers (also known as subprocessors) to work with us to administer and provide DebateGraph (including, for example, hardware, software, networking, storage). These third-party services providers may have access to your personal information only for the purpose of performing services on our behalf and are expressly obligated not to disclose or use your personal information for any other purpose. We currently we use the cloud hosting and services platform SoftLayer/IBM Cloud to host DebateGraph, as well website backups and monitoring. You can learn more about SoftLayer/IBM Cloud's privacy policy here: https://www.ibm.com/privacy/us/en

Subprocessor Contact Details:

Information Disclosed in Connection with Business Transactions. The information we collect from you, including personal information, may be considered to be a business asset. Thus, if Thoughtgraph were to be acquired by a third party as a result of a transaction such as a merger, acquisition or asset sale or if our assets were to be acquired by a third party in the event we go out of business or enter bankruptcy, some or all of our assets, including your personal information, may be disclosed or transferred to a third party acquirer in connection with the transaction.

Information Disclosed for Our Protection and the Protection of Others. In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal information in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. We may disclose personal information to respond to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims. We may also share such information if we believe it is necessary in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our Terms of Use, or as otherwise required by law.

Data Protection Laws

Under Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the General Data Protection Regulation or “GDPR,” we rely on the following legal basis to process personal data:   

• With Your Consent given when you create an account and agree to the Privacy Policy.
   
• Where Necessary to the Performance of Contract with You (upon your request, or as necessary to make DebateGraph available to you)
   
• Where necessary to the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims
   
• Our Legitimate Business Interests
   
• Compliance with Law

Your Rights

Under Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the General Data Protection Regulation or “GDPR”, you have the right to:   

• Access to the personal data we hold about you
   
• Correct any personal data we hold if it is incorrect or out of date
   
• Request the removal of any personal data we hold about you. In some cases, we may need to hold certain information for legal reasons or for performance of contract
   
• Object to the processing of information if you feel we have made an incorrect assumption, based on the data that we hold about you
   
• Restrict any processing of your data until we can verify your information
   
• Request the transfer of your data to another third-party of your choice where technically feasible
   
• Where your data is processed on the basis of your consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time

If you would like to exercise any of your rights, please email data@thoughtgraph.com. If you are not an EU citizen, we will still honour these rights wherever possible.

Please note for multiple requests within a short time-frame or requests for the same information, we may charge you an admin fee. If a third-party is making a request on your behalf, we will require proof of your permission before acting. All requests will be processed and completed within 30 days.

Your Choices

We offer you choices regarding the collection, use and sharing of your personal information and we’ll respect the choices you make. Please note that if you decide not to provide us with the personal information that we request, you may not be able to access all of the features of DebateGraph.

Opt-Out. We may periodically send you newsletters and e-mails with news of DebateGraph updates and initiatives. When you receive such communications from us, you will have the opportunity to “opt-out” (either through your Account or by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in the e-mail you receive).

Modifying Your Information. If you have an Account, you can access and modify the personal information associated with your Account. You can also delete your Account at any time. Editing your content or deleting your Account may alter the displayed state of the content, but will not permanently delete the content from DebateGraph and some information may remain in archived/backup copies for our records or as otherwise required by law.

If you would like your data permanently deleted contact us at data@thoughtgraph.com.

Responding to Do Not Track Signals

DebateGraph does not currently respond to “Do Not Track” signals received from various web browsers.

The Security of Your Information

Thoughtgraph is committed to protecting your personal information once we have it.

We take reasonable administrative, physical and electronic measures designed to protect the information that we collect from or about you from unauthorised access, use or disclosure (including, for example, encrypting data in transit using SSL and restricting open ports).

Please be aware, however, that no method of transmitting information over the Internet or storing information is completely secure. Accordingly, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of any information, and if we learn of a security breach, we'll notify you so that you can take appropriate protective steps.

If you would like to report a vulnerability or have any security concerns with DebateGraph, please contact SecurityPolicy@thoughtgraph.com.

How Long We Keep Your Data

We will generally retain your profile and related personal information for as long as you have an account with us. If you wish to “be forgotten” by DebateGraph (i.e., request the deletion of your personal information from DebateGraph), you will need to delete your account (using the Remove button on your My Account page).

If you delete your account, to the extent permitted by applicable law, we may retain and use your personal information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, maintain appropriate business records, and enforce our agreements. Further, any maps, nodes, comments, ratings, citations, cross-links etc. that you have posted to DebateGraph may continue to appear on DebateGraph, but your user name will be removed from such content, and your account will be indicated as deleted. Data may remain in offline backups indefinitely.

Support requests

If you contact our support team - through help@debategraph.org - we retain those messages indefinitely, unless you request we delete them.

Links to Other Sites

DebateGraph may contain links to websites and services that are owned or operated by third parties (each, a “Third-Party Service”). Any information that you provide on or to a Third-Party Service or that is collected by a Third-Party Service is provided directly to the owner or operator of the Third-Party Service and is subject to the owner’s or operator’s privacy policy. We’re not responsible for the content, privacy or security practices and policies of any Third-Party Service, nor do we undertake to recommend any of those sites as places where goods or services may be purchased or offered. To protect your information we recommend that you carefully review the privacy policies of all Third-Party Services that you access.

International Transfer

Your personal information may be transferred to, and maintained on, computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. If you’re located outside the United States and choose to provide your personal information to us, we may transfer your personal information to the United States and process it there.

Our Policy Toward Children

DebateGraph not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal from children under 13. You affirm that you are either more than 18 years of age or possess legal parental or guardian consent and are fully able and competent to understand, enter into, and comply with our Terms & Conditions. You also affirm that you are over 13 years of age.

If you are under 13 years of age, you may not use DebateGraph. If we learn that we have collected personally identifiable information of a child under 13 we will take steps to delete such information from our files as soon as possible.

Contacting a Regulator

For the purposes of the Data Protection Act of 2018, the Data Controller for DebateGraph is Thoughtgraph Ltd. Should you feel that your privacy or security is being compromised in any way, or if you have any questions on this statement, please contact Thoughtgraph by email at PrivacyPolicy@thoughtgraph.com.

Complaints will be dealt with by the Data Protection Manager, and will be responded to within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with the way your concern has been handled, you can refer your complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which can be reached via its website: www.ico.org.uk/concerns.

Revisions to this Privacy Policy

Any information that is collected via DebateGraph is covered by the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is collected. We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we’ll notify you of those changes by posting them on DebateGraph or by sending you an email or other notification, and we’ll update the “Date of Last Revision” date above to indicate when those changes become effective.

Questions?

Please contact us at PrivacyPolicy@thoughtgraph.com if you have any questions about our Privacy Policy.