Archive:2019 Wikipedia Demographics Survey Privacy Statement

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2019 Wikipedia Demographics Survey Privacy Statement

This statement describes how and when Wikimedia collects, uses, and shares the information we receive from survey participants.

Please note that this survey is powered by Google Forms, which means Google's use of your information is governed by their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Purpose of Survey

We appreciate your feedback! This short survey will help us understand how users use the Wikimedia projects and evaluate how we can improve them.

What Information We Collect

This survey collects two types of data: responses that you provide, and information such as IP address and browsing data. In addition to any information included in your responses, we may view other collected information including your IP address, when you started and completed this survey, browsing data, your survey responses, and any other data provided by you or transmitted to us. In order to help us understand how and why our users visit the Wikimedia projects, we will link your responses to this survey to the collected browsing data.  

Information Sharing and Disclosure

The results of this survey will be shared publicly in the following manner.

We may publicly share anonymized or aggregated statistics regarding the survey's results, including on our websites and blog. This includes selected responses, provided that any associated demographic data is sufficiently common in the responses to minimize the risk of identification. (For example, we may publish "man, age 20-29, urban, took survey while reading the article for Chicago, checked that they were reading Wikipedia for school-related reasons", if those responses are common.) All other raw information collected, such as browsing data, will only be shared with the Wikimedia staff, contractors, service providers, and volunteers who need to process this information and are subject to non-disclosure obligations, with the exception of the circumstances described below.

We may disclose any collected information when required by law, when we have your permission, when needed to protect our rights, privacy, safety, users, or the general public, and when necessary to enforce our Terms of Use or any other Wikimedia policy.

Important Information

Wikimedia Foundation is a global organization committed to promoting free and open knowledge. In submitting your response, you understand that the information transferred to Wikimedia Foundation will be collected, transferred, stored, processed, disclosed and otherwise used in the U.S. as described in this Privacy Statement. You also understand that the information may be transferred by us from the U.S. to other countries, which may have different or less stringent data protection laws than your country, in order to carry out the aforementioned purposes and objectives.

Wikimedia understands the importance of user privacy. For this reason, we work to protect our users from the unauthorized disclosure, use, or destruction of information we maintain. The raw data collected in this survey will be aggregated, anonymized, or deleted within 90 days. See our data retention guidelines for more information.

If you have questions about this survey, or wish to change, access, or delete the information you provided in the survey, please contact research-feedback@wikimedia.org.

Thanks again for your feedback!


The Wikimedia Foundation

Please note that in the event of any differences in meaning or interpretation between the original English version of this Privacy Statement and a translation, the original English version takes precedence.