Privacy Policy

We respect your privacy and want to handle your information in a clear and lawful way. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect when you use our website, how we use it, how we keep it secure and what rights you have. By using this website, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

1. Who we are

This website is operated as the educational project “Crossref-it.info”. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to the team responsible for running crossref-it.info and its content. If you have any questions about this policy or how we use your information, please contact us using the details on our Contact page.

2. What is personal information?

“Personal information” (or “personal data”) means any information that can be used to identify you, directly or indirectly. This may include, for example:

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your IP address, when it can be linked to you as an individual

Information that has been anonymised so that you cannot be identified is not considered personal information.

3. When do we collect personal information?

We do not provide user accounts or sign-in on this website, so we do not collect registration details or passwords. We collect limited personal information in the following situations:

3.1. When you contact us

If you contact us by email or via a contact form, we may collect:

• Your name (if you choose to provide it)
• Your email address
• Any other information you include in your message

We use this information only to respond to your enquiry and keep a record of our communication.

3.2. When you browse our website (analytics and logs)

When you visit our website, certain technical information is collected automatically. This may include:

• IP address and approximate location (e.g. country or region)
• Browser type and version
• Device type and operating system
• Pages you visit and links you click
• Date and time of your visit

We mainly use this information through tools such as Google Analytics to understand how people use the site so we can improve it. This data is generally aggregated and does not identify you by name.

3.3. When adverts are shown (advertising partners)

To help keep our resources freely available, we may display advertising and use partner links on some pages. When we do this, advertising partners such as Google AdSense may collect information about your visits to this and other websites, including:

• Which pages you view
• Interactions with adverts
• General information about your device, browser and approximate location

This information is used to deliver, limit and measure adverts, and, where enabled, to show adverts that may be more relevant to your interests. You can control many of these settings through your cookie preferences and your browser (see Section 8 and our Cookie Policy).

4. How do we use your personal information?

We use your information only for the purposes described in this policy and in ways that are fair, lawful and transparent. Specifically, we may use it to:

• Respond to enquiries – to reply to messages you send us and to provide support or information you request.
• Operate and improve the website – to ensure the site works correctly on your device, to monitor usage and to make our content clearer and more useful.
• Carry out analytics – to understand how visitors use the site (for example, which pages are most popular) and to improve the design and content.
• Show and measure advertising – to display adverts, limit how often you see the same advert and measure how effective our adverts are.
• Protect our site and comply with the law – to detect and prevent misuse, to maintain security and to comply with legal obligations.

We do not use personal information collected through this website to send marketing emails or newsletters.

5. Lawful bases for processing

Under data protection law (including UK GDPR), we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal information. Depending on the situation, we may rely on:

5.1. Consent

We rely on your consent when:

• You choose to contact us and give us your details so that we can reply.
• You allow certain categories of cookies (for example, analytics or advertising cookies) via our cookie banner or settings.

You can withdraw your consent at any time, although this will not affect processing already carried out.

5.2. Legitimate interests

We rely on “legitimate interests” when:

• Using analytics to understand and improve how our website is used.
• Running basic, non-intrusive advertising to help fund the site.
• Protecting our website and users from abuse or security issues.

When we process data on the basis of legitimate interests, we carefully balance our interests against your rights and expectations, and you always have the right to object (see Section 9).

5.3. Legal obligations

In some cases we may need to process and retain certain information in order to comply with legal obligations, for example to keep records or to respond to lawful requests from public authorities.

6. Do we share your personal information?

We do not sell your personal information and we do not pass it to third parties for their own marketing. We may share personal information in the following limited circumstances:

6.1. Service providers

We may use third-party companies to help us operate the website and related services, for example:

• Website hosting and maintenance
• Analytics providers (such as Google Analytics)
• Advertising partners (such as Google AdSense)

These service providers act as “processors” on our behalf. They are only allowed to use your personal information in accordance with our instructions and must keep it secure. They are not permitted to use your data for their own independent purposes.

6.2. Advertising partners

When we show adverts through services such as Google AdSense, these companies may collect information via their own cookies and technologies. In many cases they act as independent “controllers” of the data they collect. Their use of your data is governed by their own privacy policies. You can learn more about how Google uses information from sites and apps that use its services on Google’s website.

6.3. Legal reasons

We may disclose personal information if we believe it is reasonably necessary to:

• Comply with a law, regulation or legal request
• Enforce our terms of use
• Protect the rights, property or safety of us, our users or others

7. How long do we keep your information?

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy or as required by law. For example:

• Contact enquiries are kept for as long as necessary to respond and follow up, and then for a limited period in case of further questions or legal obligations.
• Analytics and log data is typically kept for a limited time set by our analytics tools and then deleted or anonymised so it can no longer be linked to you.

When we no longer need personal information, we will delete it securely or anonymise it.

8. Cookies, analytics and advertising

We use cookies and similar technologies on this website to:

• Make the site work properly and remember your preferences
• Understand how visitors use our pages (analytics)
• Help deliver and measure adverts (advertising cookies)

These technologies may result in the collection of information such as your IP address, device type and browsing behaviour. Some cookies are set by us (first-party cookies) and some by third parties such as Google Analytics and Google AdSense (third-party cookies).

You can learn more about the cookies we use, how we use them and how to control them in our Cookie Policy. You can usually control cookies through your browser settings, and you can also adjust personalised advertising settings through tools provided by companies such as Google. Please see our Cookie Policy for relevant links and further details.

9. Your rights

Under data protection law, you have several rights in relation to your personal information. These include:

• Right to be informed – You have the right to know how we collect and use your personal information. This Privacy Policy is part of how we do that.
• Right of access – You can request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to rectification – You can ask us to correct or update information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Right to erasure (right to be forgotten) – In certain circumstances, you can ask us to delete your personal information.
• Right to restrict processing – You can ask us to limit how we use your information in certain situations.
• Right to object – You can object to us processing your information where we rely on legitimate interests, including for analytics or certain types of cookies.
• Right to data portability – Where applicable, you can ask to receive the information you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and to have it transferred to another organisation.
• Rights in relation to automated decision-making – You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that has legal or similar significant effects on you. We do not currently make such automated decisions.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you are unhappy with how we have used your information. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which you can contact via its website at http://www.ico.org.uk. If you live outside the UK, you may have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details on our Contact page. We may need to request proof of identity before we can act on your request.

10. Children and young people

Our resources are widely used by students, including those under 18. We aim to collect as little personal information as possible and only what is necessary to provide our services and respond to enquiries. If you are a parent, guardian or teacher and believe that a child has provided us with personal information that you would like us to update or remove, please contact us and we will do our best to help.

11. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, for example to reflect changes in the law, changes to our website or updates to the services we use (such as analytics or advertising tools). We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.

12. How to contact us

If you have any questions, concerns or requests about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please contact us using the details provided on our Contact page. We will do our best to respond promptly and to resolve any issues you raise.