Metaculus

Forecasting AI

METACULUS PRIVACY POLICY

We at Metaculus, Inc. (collectively with any subsidiaries, "Metaculus") have created this Privacy Policy to describe our practices regarding information we collect through our web site (the “Service") as well as any information we collect offline and combine in our databases. Certain features discussed in this Privacy Policy may not be offered at any particular time.

Note about Children: Our services are general-audience in nature and are not intended for, marketed to or available to individuals younger than the age of 13, and individuals younger than the age of 13 should not submit personal information to us.

SUMMARY

WE FULLY DESCRIBE OUR PRIVACY PRACTICES BELOW IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY. THIS SUMMARY PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING OUR USE AND SHARING OF YOUR INFORMATION.We primarily use the information we collect when you use the Service in connection with your relationship with Metaculus, your use of the Service, and for sending you information from us or on behalf of certain third parties. This includes linking you to other members of the Metaculus community.It also includes providing offers to you based on information you provide or we collect or your use of the Service. Please review the INFORMATION COLLECTION and "HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION" sections of this Privacy Policy for a full description of the information we collect, including Personal Information, and how we use that information. Remember that if you create a Profile or participate in predictions, community forums and similar features on the Service, your information may be public. Note that we do not share your Personal Information with third parties for their marketing purposes without your consent; however, we may share your Personal Information under certain limited circumstances. For more details, please review the section below entitled INFORMATION SHARING.

Metaculus may work with network advertisers, analytics service providers and other vendors to serve third party advertisements on and through the Service, to provide us with information regarding traffic on the Service, including the pages viewed and the actions users take when visiting the Service; and to provide us with information regarding the use of the Service and the effectiveness of our advertisements. For example, if you click on a Metaculus advertisement, our service provider(s) may be able to tell us the advertisement you clicked on and where you were viewing the advertisement. You may also see third party ads on the Service. The advertisements you see may be served by one or more third parties, who may use information about your activities on the Service, and other web sites and services, to provide you targeted advertising based upon your interests. Our ad network providers, the advertisers, ad agencies, analytics service providers and other vendors may set and access their own tracking devices (including cookies and log files and web beacons) and they may otherwise collect or have access to information about you and your visits to and activity on the Service, as well as on other web sites or online services. Some of these parties may collect Personal Information when you visit the Service or other websites and services. Please review THIRD PARTY CONTENT, LINKS TO OTHER SITES, AND METACULUS CONTENT FOUND OUTSIDE OF THE SERVICE for additional information. Some of the companies who serve these targeted ads participate in a self-regulatory program that allows you to opt-out of having information about you used for this purpose, and you may access that opt-out by clicking here. Please note this does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads while using the Service and elsewhere online.

INFORMATION COLLECTION

1. Registration and Other Information You Provide

The Service may collect "Personal Information" (which is information that can be used to identify or contact a specific individual, such as your name and email address), account information (such as a password or other information that helps us confirm that it is you accessing your account) and demographic or other information such as your background, state or country of residence, information about your interests and education, and historical information about questions and predictions, including the accuracy of any predictions.Some part of the Service may allow you to use the Service to offer your own products or services for sale. If you use the Service for such purposes or in any other manner that may necessitate payment from Metaculus to you, we may collect additional information from you, such as your Social Security Number or taxpayer identification number, as necessary to facilitate payment and to comply with related legal obligations. Any information combined with Personal Information will be treated as Personal Information.

2. Your Profile, Community Forums and User Content

You may have the opportunity to create a profile, which consists of information about you, which may include Personal Information, photographs, information about your academic and work history, your interests and activities, your use of the Service and other information ("Profile"). Some of the information in your Profile may be visible to third parties or to everyone, depending on the nature of the information and the privacy settings you choose when you sign in and go to your Account on the website where you created your Profile. Metaculus may also make the information contained in your Profile accessible through means other than the Metaculus website (such as through an app or an application programming interface (API)). Your Profile may also be indexed by and displayed by internet search providers when someone searches for your name. Metaculus does not control how frequently third-party search engines update their indexes; consequently their information may be outdated and still available for a period of time even if you discontinue use of the service.

Note that in order to provide services and opportunities to you, third parties may be able to review certain information in your Profile. Metaculus does not share your contact information (email, full postal address or phone number) with those third parties unless you request or agree to that sharing. However, Metaculus may send you information and offers from third parties and information about the Service. 

The Service may provide you the opportunity to participate and post content, including questions and predictions, publicly in forums, through interactive features and through other communication functionality ("Community Forums"). You may choose, through such features or otherwise, to submit or post questions, predictions, reviews, problems, suggestions, ideas, solutions, questions, answers, comments, testimonials, feedback, messages, images, videos, text or other material ("User Content"). Your User Content may also be posted in your Profile.Please think carefully about what you post and before including Personal Information in your User Content. You may edit or remove your Profile information, but you may not be able to remove predictions, comments or postings or other uploaded User Content. To request removal of content you posted publicly on the Service, contact us at legal@metaculus.com. We will honor removal requests received from registered users who are minor residents of California, unless otherwise excepted by law, and where otherwise required by law. Other removal requests received, may, in our sole discretion, be honored or refused. In some cases, we may remove only your Personal Information but maintain the rest of your User Content. Note that removal of public postings does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information posted. 

Note that anything you post on Metaculus may be public. If you choose to voluntarily disclose Personal Information in your Profile or a Community Forum, or participate in the Site, that information will be considered public information and the protections of this Privacy Policy will not apply.

In addition, the Service may allow members to communicate and collaborate with each other, including some Service that allow members to engage in one-on-one communication.If you create an account, participate in a Community Forum or choose to communicate with others through the Service, certain information about you may be disclosed in connection with your or others' use of the Service, including certain information about you and your network (such as your name and profile photo, the number of your connections, and the names and pictures of your connections). Our servers may record and we may retain records of the content of any such user-to-user communications.

3. Third Party Services, Social Media Platforms, and Information Third Parties Provide About You

Third parties may provide us with information about you. For example, if you are on a third party web site, and you opt-in to receive information from us, that third party will forward information about you to us so that we may contact you as requested.

The Service may permit interactions between the Service and a third party web site or service, such as enabling you to "like" a product within our Service or "share" content to other web sites. If you choose to "like" or "share" content or to otherwise post information from or via the Service to a third party web site, feature or application, that information may be publicly displayed, and the third party web site may have access to information about you and your use of our Service. Similarly, if you post information on a third party platform that references Metaculus your post may be published on our Service in accordance with terms of that third party. These features may collect your IP address or other Device Identifier, which page you are visiting on our web site, and may set a cookie to enable the third party feature to function properly. Third party features and applications are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Service. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

You may also choose to participate in a third party application or feature through our Service (such as logging in through Facebook Connect or otherwise linking the Service with another web site or interactive service) or on a third party web site or service (such as one of our Facebook applications or a similar application or feature on a third party web site or service) through which you allow us to collect (or the third party to share) information about you, including personal information. Information about you, including your name and profile photo, may be shown to other users of the Service if you are logged in through the Service or through a third party web site or service. The third party may allow you to remove the application or feature, in which case we will no longer collect information about you through the application or feature, but we may retain the information previously collected. When you choose to participate, you may be opting to link your activity on our Service with that third party web site or service, which may then collect information about your visits to our Service and may publish that activity as you request to your profile or similar feature with that third party (such as if you choose to share a prediction you made on Metaculus.com with your connections on the third party website). In some instances, we may require that you participate in the Service through a third party application or feature and, if you choose not to authorize or use the required third party application or feature, you will not be able to use the applicable Service.

The information we collect is subject to this Privacy Policy. The information collected and stored by the third party remains subject to the third party's privacy practices, including whether the third party continues to share information with us, the types of information shared, and your choices with regard to what is visible to others on that third party web site and service. The third party may allow you to remove the application or feature, in which case we will no longer collect information about you through the application or feature, but we may retain the information previously collected.

We also may supplement the information we collect with outside records from third parties in order to provide you with information, services or goods you have requested, to enhance our ability to serve you, to tailor our content to you and to offer you opportunities to purchase products or services that we believe may be of interest to you. We may combine the information we receive from those other sources with information we collect through the Service. In those cases, we will apply this Privacy Policy to the combined information.

4. Information Metaculus Collects Automatically When You Access The Service

Like other websites and online services, we may automatically collect certain "Usage Information" whenever you access and use the Service.Usage Information may include the browser and operating system you are using, the URL or advertisement that referred you to our Service (if applicable), the search terms you entered into a search engine that lead you to our Service (if applicable), all of the areas within our Service that you visit (including information about any ads you may view), and the time of day you used the Service, among other information. We may use Usage Information for a variety of purposes, including to tell you about people or events nearby, to provide special offers, to serve advertisements, to select appropriate content to display to you, and to enhance or otherwise improve the Service and our products.

In addition, we may automatically collect your IP address or other unique identifier ("Device Identifier") for any computer, mobile phone or other device (any, a "Device") you may use to access the Service. A Device Identifier is a number that is automatically assigned to your Device used to access a Service, and our servers identify your Device by its Device Identifier. Some mobile service providers may also provide us or our third party service providers with information regarding the physical location of the Device used to access a Service. Usage Information is generally non-identifying, but if we associate it with you as a specific and identifiable person, we treat it as Personal Information.

Usage Information is collected via tracking technologies, including:

Cookies and Log Files: Metaculus may use cookies and web log files to track usage of our Service. A cookie is a tiny data file which resides on your computer, and which allows Metaculus to recognize you as a user when you return using the same computer and web browser. If your browser settings do not allow cookies, you will not be able to use our Service as fully as intended. Log files are the record of your visits to the Service and include Usage Information. Like the information you enter at registration or in your Profile, cookie and log file data is used to customize your experience when you use the Service. Third parties may also set cookies as you interact with the Service. The use of cookies by third parties is not covered by our Privacy Policy, as we do not have access or control over these cookies.

One type of cookie we use, known as a "persistent" cookie, is set once you've logged in to your account on the Service. If you do not log out of your account, then the next time you visit, the persistent cookie will allow us to recognize you as an existing user so you will not need to log in before using the Service. Of course, if you are using a public computer or sharing your private computer with others, you should log out of your account after each visit. If you log out of a Service, you will need to re-enter your password the next time you visit in order to log in to your account. You can remove persistent cookies by following directions provided in your Internet browser's "help" file. We also use a cookie which functions as a "session" cookie, meaning that it is used to identify a particular visit. Session cookies expire after a short time or when you close your web browser.

Web Beacons: We, as well as affiliate program partners, service providers, and other third parties, may employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. web beacons/web bugs), that help us better manage content on our Service by informing us of what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users for our affiliate program. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on web pages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. This information is used to help improve the overall quality and experience of our Service. We tie the information gathered by clear gifs to our customers' personal information.

An Embedded Script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the Service, such as the links you click on. The code is temporarily downloaded onto your computer or other device from our server or a third party service provider and is deactivated or deleted when you disconnect from the Service.

In addition, we may use a variety of other technologies that collect similar information for security and fraud detection purposes.

How We Respond To Do Not Track Signals

Please note that your browser setting may allow you to automatically transmit a "Do Not Track" signal to websites and online service you visit. There is no consensus among industry participants as to what "Do Not Track" means in this context. Like many websites and online services, Metaculus does not alter its practices when it receives a "Do Not Track" signal from a visitor's browser. To find out more about "Do Not Track", please visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com. 

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We use information about you, including Personal Information, the information you provide in your Profile, User Content, and Usage Information to: (1) allow you to participate in features we offer or to provide related customer service, including, without limitation, to respond to your questions.We may tie the information gathered by clear gifs to our customers' personal information. complaints or comments; (2) tailor content, recommendations and offers we display to you, both on the Service and elsewhere online; (3) process a transaction you initiate; (4) provide you with information, products, services, or suggestions; (5) send or display to you and others using the Service special offers or advertisements from us, our advertisers, or third-parties; (6) process your registration with our Service, including verifying your e-mail address is active and valid; (7) improve the Service and our products, and for internal business purposes, including the measurement of ad effectiveness; (8) contact you with regard to your use of the Service and, in our discretion, changes to our policies; and (9) permit other Metaculus users to contact you, and vice versa; (10) to provide you with location features and services (e.g., telling you about local deals and events); and (11) as described in the Privacy Policy and for purposes disclosed at the time you provide your information or otherwise with your consent.


Please note that information submitted on the Service via a "Contact Us" or other similar function may not receive a response. We will not use the information provided via these functions to contact you for marketing purposes unrelated to your request unless you agree otherwise.

INFORMATION SHARING

Metaculus does not share your Personal Information with third parties for their marketing purposes without your consent. Metaculus may share non-Personal Information, such as aggregate user statistics, demographic information and Usage Information with third parties, including advertisers, content providers, and analytics providers; and third parties may collect non-Personal Information when you visit the Service. We also may share your Personal Information with third parties with your consent, as disclosed at the time you provide us with information, and as described below or otherwise in this Privacy Policy:

1. When You Request That We Share Your Information. We may offer opportunities and features through the Service that are brought to you by a third party or that otherwise involve sharing your information with a third party. If you request or agree at that time to have your information shared, your information will be disclosed to that third party (or parties) and will be subject to the privacy policy and practices of that third party. You also may request, sometimes through your use of an interactive feature, a widget or third party application, that we share information about you with a third party and we will typically do so under those circumstances.

2. Service Providers. We may share your Personal Information with third parties to provide services to us or you in connection with the Service, but subject to confidentiality obligations which limit their use and disclosure of such information. 

3. Administrative, Legal Reasons & Academic Integrity Investigations. We may also disclose your information, including Personal Information, in response to a subpoena or when required by law; to defend our rights; in response to a written request from law enforcement regarding an investigation into criminal activity that may have occurred through or in any way using Metaculus's Service or property; to provide information to a claimed owner of intellectual property who claims that content you have provided to us infringes on their rights; upon request of an academic institution connected to an investigation into academic integrity; to protect and/or defend any applicable Terms of Use or other policies applicable to the Service; or to protect the personal safety, rights, property or security of any organization or individual. We may also use Device Identifiers, including IP addresses, to identify users, and may do so in cooperation with copyright owners, Internet service providers, wireless service providers or law enforcement agencies in our discretion. These disclosures may be carried out without notice to you.

4. Business Transitions.  In the event that Metaculus goes through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, or other corporate change, including, without limitation, during the course of any due diligence process, your information, including Personal Information, will likely be among the assets transferred. You will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on Service of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information. This Privacy Policy will become binding upon the new owner of the information until amended.

6. Sweepstakes, Contests and Promotions. We may offer sweepstakes, contests, and other promotions ("Promotion") that may require registration. By participating in a Promotion, you are agreeing to governing terms, conditions or official rules, which may contain specific requirements of you, including allowing the sponsor(s) of the Promotion to use your name, voice, likeness or other indicia of persona in advertising or marketing associated with the Promotion. If you choose to enter a Promotion, Personal Information, such as your name and shipping address, may be disclosed to third parties or the public in connection with the administration of such Promotion, including, without limitation, in connection with winner selection, prize fulfillment, and as required by law or permitted by the Promotion's official rules, such as on a winners list.

MOBILE USE

If you use the Service through a mobile device or one of our mobile applications, your mobile Device Identifier, your mobile carrier, and your physical (GPS) location may be transmitted to Metaculus. You agree that Metaculus may store and use that information for security purposes (for example, for user verification and to ensure that Metaculus's APIs are being used appropriately). You may be able to opt-in to receiving text messages from Metaculus. You may always opt-out by replying "STOP" to one of the text messages received. You also acknowledge and agree that use of the Service through a mobile device may cause data to be displayed on and through your mobile device which may be viewed by your mobile carrier or other access provider.

UPDATING YOUR ACCOUNT INFORMATION AND CONTROL OVER METACULUS EMAILS

You may be able to review the information you provided to us on a Service and make any desired changes to the information, or to the settings for your account on that Service, by logging in to your account for that Service and editing or deleting the information. All changes to your email settings and preferences must be made in your account preferences page on the applicable Service or by using the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the Metaculus email. However, we reserve the right to send you information on our behalf and on behalf of third parties in connection with providing the Service.

CLOSING YOUR ACCOUNT

If you wish to close your account with us, please send your request to closemyaccount@metaculus.com and we will remove your Personal Information and Profile, if applicable, from the active database. You typically will receive a response to such a request sent to within five business days of our receiving it. Requests to change your email preferences or unsubscribe from all emails may not be made through this email address, but rather must be submitted through one of the channels set out in the previous section.

Even if your account is closed, information may remain in backup records and we may retain certain data if it may be necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse or for legitimate business purposes, such as analysis of aggregated, non-personally-identifiable data, account recovery or if required by law. All retained data will continue to be subject to the applicable privacy policy for the Service. Also, if you have posted content on or through the Service, such as in Community Forums, we may not be able to delete it.

THIRD PARTY CONTENT, LINKS TO OTHER SITES, AND METACULUS CONTENT FOUND OUTSIDE OF THE SERVICE

Certain content provided through the Service may be hosted and served by third parties, which may include third party widgets (such as those that allow you to "like" or "share" content with third party web sites and online services. In addition, the Service may link to third party web sites or content over which Metaculus has no control and which are governed by the privacy policies and business practices of those third parties. In addition, third-party partners of Metaculus from whom your order through the Service may have different privacy policies which apply to such partner's use of your information.

Please also note that Metaculus content and widgets may be included on web pages and web sites that are not associated with us and over which we have no control. These third parties may independently collect data. Metaculus is not responsible for the privacy practices or business practices of any third party.

TESTIMONIALS

We display personal testimonials of satisfied customers on our Service in addition to other endorsements. With your consent we may post your testimonial along with your name. If you wish to update or delete your testimonial, you can contact us at legal@metaculus.com.

SECURITY

Metaculus takes commercially reasonable security measures to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. For example, when you enter sensitive information such as a credit card number and CCV2 number on our checkout forms, that information is encrypted using secure socket layer (SSL) technology, to help protect the communications between you and our payment partners.

However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, as in any real-life scenario, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you have any questions about security on our Service, you can email us at legal@metaculus.com.

The Service is operated in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, please be aware that information we collect will be transferred to and processed in the United States. By using the Service, or providing us with any information, you fully understand and unambiguously consent to this transfer, processing and storage of your information in the United States, a jurisdiction in which the privacy laws may not be as comprehensive as those in the country where you reside and/or are a citizen.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

Metaculus may update this Privacy Policy at any time and any changes will be effective upon posting. In the event that there are material changes to the way we treat your Personal Information, we will display a notice through the Service prior to the change becoming effective.We may also notify you by email. However, we will use your Personal Information in a manner consistent with the Privacy Policy in effect at the time you submitted the information, unless you consent to the new or revised policy.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

If you have questions or comments about this privacy policy, please email us at legal@metaculus.com or contact us at:

Metaculus, Inc.
Attn: Privacy Policy Issues
1112 Montana Avenue ste 464 Santa Monica, CA, US 90403

California Residents - Your CA Privacy Rights

Pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1798.83, residents of the State of California have the right to request from companies conducting business in California a list of all third parties to which the company has disclosed certain categories of personal information during the preceding year for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes and the categories of personal information the company shares. Alternatively, the law provides that a company that has a privacy policy that provides consumers choice (opt-out or opt-in) regarding sharing personal information with third parties for those third parties’ direct marketing purposes may instead provide information on how to exercise that choice. Metaculus qualifies for the alternative option; it has a comprehensive privacy policy that sets forth that Metaculus provides you choice prior to sharing your personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. If you do not opt-in or if you choose to opt-out at the time Metaculus offers that choice, Metaculus does not share your information with that identified third party for its direct marketing purposes.

If you are a California resident and you have questions about our practices with respect to sharing information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes and your ability to exercise choice, please send your request to the following email address: legal@metaculus.com or write to us at the following mailing address: Metaculus, Inc., 1112 Montana Avenue ste 464 Santa Monica, CA, US 90403 . You must put the statement "Your California Privacy Rights" in the subject field of your e-mail or include it in your writing if you choose to write to us at the designated mailing address. You must include your name, street address, city, state, and zip code. We are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly, or do not have complete information.