Privacy Policy

Introduction

Thank you for your willingness to contribute to Geo-Quest. This document aims to provide you with adequate information on the data we receive from you, how we process it, and what we make available to the public and to third parties in order to comply with the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Please note that if this document is in other language than English, the English version would be the one that has legal validity.

Our platform

The app you are using, and the Geo Quest website (geo-quest.org), have been developed by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, 2361 Laxenburg, Austria.

What is “personal data”?

“Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, such as their name, contact information, their location at a certain time or IP address.

Data processed by us

We are a scientific institute and process personal data only for the following purposes:

• for which you have given us consent for a specific purpose (Art. 6 para 1 lit a GDPR), namely for carrying out the corresponding quest.

• that is necessary for the performance of a payment or incentive delivery (Art. 6 para 1 lit b GDPR), e.g., PayPal data to transfer rewards

• that are necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest (Art. 6 para 1 lit e GDPR)

• that is necessary for the purpose of the legitimate interest pursued by us or by a third party (Art. 6 para 1 lit f GDPR), e.g., avoiding legal disputes about rights in the contributions

We do not share your personal data with third parties without your prior consent.

Below is a list of types of data the app collects. Please note that a copy of the data might be briefly stored in the server's memory for a short period. These data are temporarily stored apart from the database, managed and deleted automatically by the server's operating system and will not be accessed by us for processing, archiving, or any other reason. It is also possible through logging errors or general requests that submitted data be stored in one of the server's log files. These files are not publicly accessible and are not used for any processing, storage or data publication other than for resolving a possible software problem. These are technical necessities over which we have no control.

Registration/Login/Profile update

We process the following data for registration, login and profile updates for a given user, all of which are stored in the Geo Quest database (see Sec. 7):

• Username

• Email address

• User password (encrypted)

None of this information will be shared publicly nor be part of any publication (e.g., data products, scientific publications, etc.). For publications, a technical procedure (hash) will be used on the user's ID to preserve data regarding which contributions were made by the same person. This hash does not allow for the calculation or retrieval of the original user ID.

Log data

Whenever you use our service, we collect Log Data, or data and information (also through third party products) on your phone to identify errors in the app. Log Data may include information such as your device Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, device name, operating system version, the configuration of the app when utilizing our Service, the time and date of your use of the service, and other statistics. These data are used for identifying problems with our software and will not be published as a part of the resulting data product.

Cookies

We use first party cookies to provide essential site functionality. Cookies are small text files that are saved by your browser and temporarily stored on your device. Provided that you have consented to the use of cookies, our website uses cookies for authentication and maintaining a session. These remain in the user local browser. You can also prevent the placement of cookies through the settings of your browser or by downloading and installing a browser plug in.

Quest upload

When uploading the results of a quest, the app accesses the data you collected as well as limited additional information used for quality assurance, research integrity and troubleshooting. The exact data collected depends on the quest and will be shown in the app before submission.

Quest uploads are received and stored on server infrastructure located in the EU provided and managed by IIASA. When survey data is shared no personal information is shared, as specified in the “Personal data processed by us” section.

Account and identifiers

• Email address

• Password (stored in hashed form)

• Geo Quest point ID and relevant quest ID(s)

Device and app information

• App identification and version

• Smartphone operating system and version

• Device make and model

• Device identifier (e.g., serial number), where available

Quest and submission metadata

• Whether the point was reached; if not, the reason

• Whether the point was visible

• Language used in the app during submission

• Timestamps of key actions

Content you submit (varies by quest)

• Photographs

• Augmented reality content/placements

• Survey responses, classifications, labels, and/or notes

Per item metadata

• Time and date when each item was created

• Position (latitude/longitude and reported accuracy)

• Compass heading and/or device orientation

• Image direction category, if provided

Quality assurance, timing, and limited location traces

• Duration needed to make the final approach, take photos, and answer questions

• A short “final approach” path recorded while a point is selected

Diagnostics

• Error codes and logs necessary to reproduce technical problems

Location data outside a quest

• The app collects and processes location data only as described above. The app does not collect location data in the background when it is closed or suspended on the phone.

Requesting campaign statistics

• Email address

• User password (encrypted)

• Requested scope (last week, current week, total)

Data storage

The data from the Geo-Quest application are stored and maintained on state of the art web service environments hosted on rented servers at Hetzner Online GmbH.

Data contributions

Please be aware that we rely on you to contribute data that does not infringe on the rights of others. Make sure you follow the instructions for the campaign/project to which you contribute, and do not submit data that could violate especially personal rights, copyright or other legislation. In case personally identifiable features in pictures are still found, this will be blurred by the system in order to protect privacy.

By contributing data, you grant IIASA a license to use the data. Please see also our Terms and Conditions, which are available from the mobile app and the website.

Third parties

Currently we don’t employ third party services.

Rights of the user

At any time, you have the right:

• to request information as to which of your personal data we process (Art. 15 GDPR)

• to request the rectification or erasure of your personal data (Art. 16 and Art. 17 GDPR)

• to restrict the processing of your personal data (Art. 18 GDPR)

• to request the transmission of your personal data (Art. 20 GDPR)

• to file a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular the Austrian data protection authority (www.dsb.gv.at)

These rights also apply to any personal data contained in your contributions. They do not automatically apply to all submitted photographs, measurements or observations, but apply insofar as those contributions constitute personal data concerning you.

Funders

The app you are using, and the Geo Quest website (geo-quest.org) have been funded by

- The European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101059548 (OEMC project), No. 10108663 (Urban ReLeaf project), No. 10113447 (ENFORCE project).

- Citizens for Copernicus (C4C): Combining Copernicus and Crowdsourced Data for Forest Resources Monitoring project funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) under the ASAP 2022 call, Application ID: 47907528.

- The European Union through a direct service contract with the European Environment Agency (EEA) awarded following open call EEA/DTL/R0/25/001 on Pilot In-Situ Data Collection Campaign Using Crowdsourcing for the CLMS Grassland Mowing Events and Dates Layers.

Contact us

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, contact us at: [email protected]

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Schlossplatz 1

A 2361 Laxenburg

Austria

Tel: +43 2236 807 0