Privacy policy

Welcome to Global Change Data Lab.

Global Change Data Lab (“us”, “we”, or “our”) operates www.ourworldindata.org, www.sdg-tracker.org, www.africaindata.org, www.chartbookofeconomicinequality.com and www.global-change-data-lab.org (the “websites”).

This policy describes how we collect and use your personal data during your visit to our websites in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and related UK data protection legislation.

Global Change Data Lab is the “data controller” for the information that we collect when you visit our websites. This means that we decide how to use it and are responsible for looking after it in accordance with the GDPR.

Access to your personal data within Global Change Data Lab will be provided to those staff who need to view it as part of their work in connection with the operation of the website. It will also be shared with the third parties described in Section 6.

Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. We may update this policy at any time.

Where we refer in this policy to your ‘personal data’, we mean any recorded information that is about you and from which you can be identified. It does not include data where your identity has been removed (anonymous data).

Where we refer in this policy to your ‘technical data’, we mean any recorded information that is being generated automatically by your visit and actions on our site. This data is anonymous and is not linked with your personal data.

Where we refer to the ‘processing’ of your personal data, we mean anything that we do with that information, including collection, use, storage, disclosure, deletion or retention.

Personal data that you provide about yourself

We collect your personal data when you voluntarily provide it to us. For example, you may give us: your email address if you choose to receive newsletters, updates, or other information from us; your contact information, and any other personal data you choose to include, if you email, text, or instant message us, or contact us through our websites; and any personal data contained in, or included with feedback, comments, photos, videos, or other information you submit via online portals, forms, surveys, or interactive portions of our websites.

Technical data that we collect automatically, including cookies and similar technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our websites. Cookies are files with a small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier.

Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Other tracking technologies are also used such as beacons, tags and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze our websites.

We will automatically collect, store, and use the following categories of data when you browse and search our site:

• technical information, for example, the type of device (and its unique device identifier) you use to access our site, the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your device to the Internet, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system, mobile network information and platform; and
• information about your visit to our site including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), clickstream to, through and from the website (including date and time), pages you viewed, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page.

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

Global Change Data Lab (GCDL) uses the collected data for various purposes:

1. to provide and maintain our websites;
2. to notify you about changes to our websites;
3. to allow you to participate in interactive features of our websites when you choose to do so;
4. to provide customer support;
5. to gather analysis or valuable information so that we can improve our websites;
6. to monitor the usage of our websites;
7. to detect, prevent and address technical issues;
8. to fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it;
9. to carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;
10. to provide you with notices about your account and/or subscription, including expiration and renewal notices, email-instructions, etc.;
11. to provide you with news and general information about our websites;
12. in any other way we may describe when you provide the information;
13. for any other purpose with your consent.

We may store your data manually or electronically. Any data stored electronically will be stored in secure servers, and any data stored manually will be stored in our premises within the UK.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to our websites and any transmission is at your own risk.

Third-party service providers

We may employ professional services from companies and individuals to help us operate our websites.

All professional service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your data in line with our policies. We do not allow them to use your data for their own purposes. We permit them to process your data only for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Where your data is shared with third parties, we will seek to share the minimum amount necessary.

Analytics and other third-party tools

We employ third-party tools to monitor and analyze the use of our websites, and to automate certain processes related to the development and operation of our websites.

Google Analytics. We use Google Analytics to track website traffic. Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our websites. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualise and personalise the ads of its own advertising network. For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en. We also encourage you to review Google’s policy for safeguarding your data: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245.

Mailchimp. We use Mailchimp to manage our newsletters. For more information on the privacy practices of Mailchimp, please visit https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/, and more specifically the “Privacy for Contacts” section https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/#3._Privacy_for_Contacts

Algolia. We use Algolia Search as a tool to deliver accurate and fast search results across pages and charts when you use our search box. For more information on the privacy practices of Algolia, please visit https://www.algolia.com/policies/privacy/

Netlify. We use Netlify to host the live version of our site and access basic analytics (page views, top pages, top sources). For more information on the privacy practices of Netlify, please visit https://www.netlify.com/privacy/

Stripe. We use Stripe for payment, analytics, and other business services. Stripe collects identifying information about the devices that connect to its services. Stripe uses this information to operate and improve the services it provides to us, including for fraud detection. You can learn more about Stripe and read its privacy policy at www.stripe.com/privacy.

Bugsnag. We use Bugsnag to record browser errors that happen on our site which helps us deliver a better user experience. For more information on the privacy practices of Bugsnag, please visit https://docs.bugsnag.com/legal/privacy-policy/

Links on our website to and from third parties

Our websites contain links to and from various third party sites. If you follow a link to any of these external sites, please note that these sites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these third party sites.

Third parties embedding our interactive charts on their website

When you embed one of our interactive charts on your site, analytics data is sent to the same analytics providers we use on ourworldindata.org. This helps us understand our global reach and keep our editorial line as clear and relevant as possible.

We primarily use Google Analytics at the moment to make sense of user cohorts as a whole, although we might use other providers from time to time to answer different questions. These providers set cookies, which we refer to on this page.

By embedding our charts, your readers also receive those cookies and as such should be prompted for consent. We have no interest in tracking our (or your) readers individually. When we need specific and individual input, we ask for it directly and publicly.

We may share your personal data with third parties if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our site terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our site, our users, and others.

Where your data is shared with third parties, we will seek to share the minimum amount necessary.

We will only retain your data for as long as we need it to fulfil our purposes, including any relating to legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of your personal data and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to correct any incomplete or inaccurate personal information we hold about you.
• Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove your personal data under certain circumstances, for example, if you consider that there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to another party.

Depending on the circumstances and the nature of your request it may not be possible for us to do what you have asked, for example, where there is a statutory or contractual requirement for us to process your personal data and it would not be possible to fulfil our legal obligations if we were to stop. Further information on your rights is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

If you want to exercise any of the rights described above or are dissatisfied with the way we have used your information, you should contact us at info@ourworldindata.org. We will seek to deal with your request without undue delay, and in any event in accordance with the requirements of the GDPR. Please note that we may keep a record of your communications to help us resolve any issues which you raise.

If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

If you wish to raise any queries or concerns about this privacy policy please contact us by email at info@ourworldindata.org.