Privacy
Privacy & Data Governance
This page documents how we intend to handle data when the platform begins accepting submissions. The first principle, below, governs every section that follows.
Draft scaffold — not yet legally reviewed
We post this now because a project that platforms Indigenous data partners owes a public statement of its governance posture from day one. This page does not yet constitute a binding legal agreement; sections marked pre-launch describe how the platform will operate when it begins accepting submissions, not how it operates today.
First Principle
Community Sovereignty
Before we describe how data flows, the principle that governs it: data stewarded by a community remains under that community's authority. This is not a section of our privacy policy — it is the principle every other section inherits.
Data governance follows FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) and CARE principles (collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility, ethics) with OCAP protocols for indigenous community data. Every contributor retains sovereignty over their samples.
Indigenous and community data follows CARE governance: Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics. Tribal partners like the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band access OCAP protocols — ownership, control, access, and possession remain with the originating community.
See the same posture in context: our approach to science as one connected system and the data-portal governance card name this principle in the same words.
Data We Collect
Pre-launch. When the platform begins accepting submissions, we expect to collect: sample metadata (location, date, collection method, environmental conditions), sequence data and analysis outputs, the contributor's identity at the level needed for attribution (school, cohort, partner organization, or community of origin), and optional contact information for replies.
Site visitors today: standard server logs (request, timestamp, user agent) retained briefly for operational debugging. No analytics tracking, no third-party advertising pixels.
How We Use Your Data
Pre-launch. When submissions begin, contributed sample and sequence data will populate the shared atlas under the licensing posture the contributor selects at submission time (default CC-BY-4.0 for non-community-stewarded data; community-stewarded data follows the originating community's authority, not a default license).
We do not sell contributor data. We do not share contributor data with third-party advertisers. Federation partners (other research and education institutions) may access data through documented protocols that inherit the same community-sovereignty principle named above.
Your Rights
Individual contributors may request access to data they submitted, correction of inaccurate records, and removal of identifying information from public records. Contact us via the address below to start a request; we will respond within a reasonable window.
For data stewarded by an Indigenous or community partner, the originating community holds the rights described in CARE and OCAP — sovereignty rests with the community, not with WGA, and individual-contributor terms above do not override that authority.
Contact
Questions, rights requests, or governance concerns: hello@worldgeno.me.
This site is built on Lattice Protocol. See also our Terms of Use.