Effective date: August 22, 2025
1. INTRODUCTION.
This Privacy Policy (the "Policy") explains how Laude Research Institute PBC ("Company," "we," "us," "our") collects, uses, and discloses personal information through its websites (collectively, the "Websites") and the services that Laude provides through the Websites (the services and the Websites collectively, the "Services"). Any capitalized terms that are not defined in this Policy are defined in our Terms of Service.
2. INFORMATION COLLECTED AND HOW WE USE IT.
As explained further in this section, you will have the opportunity to provide us with certain personal information. In addition, we may collect certain personal information automatically through your use of the Services. The rest of this section provides a more detailed explanation of the personal information we collect, how we use that personal information, and our lawful bases for processing that personal information.
2.1 Voluntarily Disclosed Information.
The following table identifies the specific purposes for which you may voluntarily disclose personal information to us, along with our lawful bases for processing that personal information.
| Purpose for Collection | Type of Personal Information | How we collect that information | Lawful Basis for Processing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account Creation | Name, Email Address | Directly from you or through a third-party service like Google if you use that service to create your account with us | Performance of a contract with you |
| Creation of Impact Index Profile | Titles of papers or publications you authored; names of GitHub repositories you created; schools you attended and degrees you obtained; awards and honors you have received; your previous employment history (all of the foregoing collectively, the "Profile Information"). | Directly from you and publicly available sources | Performance of a contract with you |
| Submission of Grant Application | Profile Information; any other personal information included within your Grant Application | Directly from you | Performance of a contract with you |
| Operational communications about your use of the Services | Name, email address | Directly from you | Performance of a contract with you |
| Marketing communications, including our newsletter | Email address | Directly from you | Your consent |
2.2 Automatically Collected Information.
Whenever you interact with the Services, we automatically receive and record information on our server logs from your browser or device, which may include your IP address, geolocation data, device identification, "cookie" and pixel tag information, the type of device you're using to access the Services, the amount of time spent on the Services, and the page or feature you requested. You can learn more about our use of cookies and related technologies in our Cookie Policy below. We use the data we automatically collect to improve the Services – for example, this data can tell us how often users use a particular feature of the Services, and we can use that knowledge to make the Services interesting to as many users as possible. We collect this information for our legitimate interest of providing a smooth user experience on the Services.
3. DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION.
We may disclose your personal information as detailed in this section.
3.1 Personnel and Third Party Service Providers. We employ personnel and engage other companies and people to perform tasks on our behalf and need to share your personal information with them to provide products or services to you. For example, all data that we receive is stored on servers hosted by a third party service provider.
3.2 Other Users. Please note that if you submit any information or User Content to a portion of the Services that is accessible by other users, including the Impact Index, other users may be able to see the information. Accordingly, only include information in such submissions that you are comfortable sharing with other users.
3.3 Analytics Services. We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors engage with our Services. You can learn more about the information that Google has access to at the following website: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
3.4 Business Transfers. If we (or our assets) are acquired, or if we go out of business, enter bankruptcy, or go through some other change of control, personal information could be one of the assets transferred to or acquired by a third party.
3.5 Legal Compliance. We reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information that we believe is necessary to comply with governmental requests, law enforcement or court orders, or enforce or apply our Terms of Service and other agreements.
4. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS.
We may transfer the personal information of users from the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or United Kingdom to the United States. When doing so, we rely on adequacy decisions, data transfer agreements, or other legally compliant mechanisms for such transfers, including standard contractual clauses. You can ask for a copy of these standard contractual clauses by contacting us as set out below.
5. SECURITY.
We use commercially reasonable physical, managerial, and technical safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of your personal information. In addition, we rely on the technical safeguards provided by the third party service providers we use to host, store, and process your personal information. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant that your personal information on the Services may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.
6. YOUR RIGHTS.
6.1 Rights of Users in the EEA, Switzerland, and UK.
If you reside in the EEA, Switzerland, or the UK and we are a controller of your personal information, you have the following rights:
- Request access to your personal information. You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. Where we have good reason, and where applicable law permits, we can refuse your request for a copy of your personal information, or certain elements of the request. If we refuse your request or any element of it, we will provide you with our reason(s) for doing so.
- Request correction of your personal information. You may request that we correct any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you.
- Request erasure of your personal information. You may request that we delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You may also ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your personal information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal information to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request. You may not request the removal of de-identified, anonymous, or aggregate data from our databases.
- Right to Object to or Restrict Processing. In certain circumstances, you have the right to object to our processing of your personal information (for example, if we are processing your personal information on the basis of our legitimate interests but there are no longer any compelling legitimate grounds to justify our processing overriding your rights and interests). You may also restrict our processing of your personal information, for example during a period in which we are verifying the accuracy of your personal information in circumstances where you have challenged the accuracy of that personal information.
- Request the transfer of your personal information to you or to a third party. In certain instances, you have a right to receive the personal information that we hold about you (or a portion thereof) in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. In such circumstances, you can ask us to transmit your personal information to you or directly to a third-party organization on your behalf. While we are happy for such requests to be made, we are not able to guarantee technical compatibility with a third-party organization's systems. We are also unable to comply with requests that relate to personal information of others without their consent.
- Withdraw consent. You may withdraw your consent for our processing of your personal information where we are relying on consent to process that personal information. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
6.2 Rights of All Other Users.
Regardless of where you reside, through your account settings, you may access, edit and delete your profile information. Please understand, however, that it may be impossible to delete this information completely, due to backups and records of deletions. In addition, we may deny a deletion request if (i) the denial is necessary for us to comply with applicable law, or (ii) the request pertains to content that you posted on a publicly available portion of the Services and that cannot be deleted without impacting the Services experience for other users. You may not request the removal of de-identified, anonymous, or aggregate data from our databases.
6.3 How to Exercise Your Rights.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, you can either do so through your account settings or by contacting us at support@laude.org. If you have authorized an agent to exercise your rights on your behalf, the agent may contact us on your behalf. Please note that to protect your personal information and the integrity of our Services, we may need to collect additional information to verify your identity (and, if applicable, the authority of your agent) before processing your request.
6.4 Supervisory Authorities.
We welcome and appreciate the chance to address any concerns you may have about the Policy and our collection and use of your personal information. To the extent you feel like we have not addressed your concerns, and depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to make a complaint at any time to your data protection supervisory authority. For end users in the EEA, you can find contact information for each country's supervisory authority here. For end users in the UK, you can find contact information for the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on the ICO's website here.
7. RETENTION OF INFORMATION.
Subject to your right to request deletion of your personal information in accordance with Section 6, we will retain your personal information as long as needed for your use of the Services, your approved receipt of marketing communications from us, our compliance with legal obligations, and to protect our or other's interests.
8. HOW WE RESPOND TO DO NOT TRACK SIGNALS.
We will honor your exercise of your rights with respect to your personal information in accordance with Section 6. Apart from those rights, we do not respond to "Do Not Track" signals.
9. AGE OF USERS.
Children under the age of 13 are not permitted to use, access or register for the Services in any way. We do not knowingly collect or solicit information from anyone under the age of 13. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under the age of 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible.
10. CHANGES TO POLICY.
We're constantly trying to improve the Services, so we may need to change this Policy from time to time as well. The date of the last modification will be posted at the beginning of this Policy. It is your responsibility to check from time to time for updates. By continuing to access or use the Services, you are indicating that you agree to be bound by the modified Policy.
11. CONTACT US.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Policy, please send us a detailed message to support@laude.org, and we will try to resolve your concerns.
Laude Cookie Policy
This Cookie Policy provides information about cookies and similar technologies, such as web tokens (collectively referred to as "technologies" in this policy), how we and third parties use them on the Services, and how you can manage our use of technologies with respect to your experience on the Services.
What Are Cookies and Web Tokens?
A cookie is a small text file that can be stored on and accessed from your device when you visit and use our Services. The Services use cookies to analyze trends on the Services and track your movements around the Services.
Web tokens are small digital codes we use to keep you securely logged in and to verify your identity while you use the Services.
Technologies That We Use
We use cookies for user authorization and permissions.
We use Google Analytics to analyze our web traffic and improve user experience. Google Analytics uses cookies to generate statistical information about how our Website is being used. For more information on these cookies, please see here.
Your Choices with Technologies
Most browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. Further, most browsers also enable you to review and erase cookies. In addition, depending on the web browser that you use, you may be able to opt out of Google Analytics cookies by using the browser add-on available here.