1. Introduction and Scope

Welcome to The Echoes Project. We value your trust and are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy outlines our practices regarding the collection, use, disclosure, storage, and protection of your personal information when you access or use the website located at projectechoes.org (the "Site"), our interactive mapping tools (e.g., "Echo Memories"), our administrative dashboards, and any other related services provided by The Echoes Project (collectively, the "Services").

Throughout this document, the terms "we," "us," "our," and "Echoes" refer to The Echoes Project. The terms "you," "your," "user," or "contributor" refer to any individual who accesses the Services, registers an account, participates in intergenerational interviews, or submits digital materials to our platform.

2. Information We Collect

We collect information through various channels to preserve local history, manage chapter operations, and improve user engagement. This information falls into the following categories:

2.1. Archival and Oral History Content

The core mission of The Echoes Project is the digital preservation of community narratives. To fulfill this, we collect and store biographical and historical records, which may include:

• Verbatim transcripts and summaries of senior resident interviews.
• Audio and video recordings of intergenerational dialogues.
• Historical photographs, documents, scanned newspapers, and other artifacts provided by senior participants, coordinators, or community members.
• Geographical coordinates, location names, and historical anecdotes submitted for pinning on the Echo Memories interactive map.

2.2. Directly Provided Personal Information

We collect personal data that you voluntarily provide to us when interacting with the Site, including:

• Contact Forms: Names, email addresses, phone numbers, and message contents sent to chapter accounts or project leads.
• Account Registration: Chapter coordinator account details, including name, email address, password hashes, and assigned organization roles.
• Applications: Information submitted via volunteer or coordinator application forms.

2.3. System and Technical Log Information

When you navigate the Site, our servers automatically collect details about your device and network session. This data is used to maintain service integrity and safety, and includes: IP addresses, browser user-agent strings, access times, visited pages, and referral URLs.

3. Legal Basis and How We Use Your Information

We process your information under the following legal and operational frameworks:

• Public Interest and Archiving: We process historical descriptions, senior interviews, and multimedia submissions under our legitimate educational purpose to create a place-based digital archive for public benefit.
• Consent: When you provide your email to request details, send messages, or participate in recorded interviews, we process your information based on your explicit consent.
• Operational Necessity: Account credentials and roles are processed to enable access control, track contributions, and ensure dashboard security.

We utilize the collected information to coordinate operations, publish physical/digital books, display stories on the interactive map, and send transactional password-reset emails.

4. Consent and Rights of Interviewees

Interviews with senior residents are conducted with strict adherence to ethical research standards. All recordings and transcripts are published online or in print only after receiving explicit verbal or written release consent from the interviewee or their authorized legal representatives. We respect the personal rights of all archived individuals: if at any point a senior resident or their representative requests the removal, modification, or restriction of their story, photo, or audio/video recording from our database, we will process that request immediately upon verification.

5. Data Sharing and Third-Party Services

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We only share information with trusted third-party service providers necessary to operate our infrastructure, including:

• Hosting Infrastructure: Database and serverless functions hosted on Vercel and PostgreSQL platforms.
• Email Gateways: Transactional communications (like password recovery links) processed via Resend.
• Media Content: Embedded videos and podcasts hosted on YouTube or audio platforms.

6. Data Protection and Security Measures

We implement appropriate technical and administrative safeguards to secure our database. Passwords are securely hashed before storage, and all communication between your browser and our servers is encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL/TLS). However, please note that no system is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute data protection against sophisticated cyber-attacks.

7. User Rights and Compliance (GDPR, CCPA, COPPA)

Under international and local privacy laws, you possess specific rights regarding your data, including the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal records. Our services are not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal details from minors without parental consent.

8. Contact Information

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or if you need to submit a data removal request, please contact us at: info@projectechoes.org.

1. Agreement to Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") constitute a legally binding agreement made between you ("User," "You") and The Echoes Project ("Echoes," "We," "Us," "Our"), concerning your access to and use of the projectechoes.org website (the "Site") and the digital archiving services provided therein (the "Services"). By accessing or using the Site, you represent that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by all of these Terms. If you do not agree with all of these Terms, you are prohibited from using the Site and must discontinue use immediately.

2. Eligibility and Account Management

To access certain administrative features of the Site, such as creating chapter pages, editing layout designs, or sending system messages, you must register a coordinator account. By registering, you agree to:

• Provide accurate, current, and complete registration credentials.
• Maintain the security and confidentiality of your password.
• Accept full responsibility for all activities that occur under your account.

We reserve the right to suspend, terminate, or delete accounts that provide false details, exhibit malicious behavior, or violate our intellectual property standards.

3. Intellectual Property Rights

3.1. Our Proprietary Content

Unless otherwise indicated, the Site, its source code, databases, design themes, CSS styling, Javascript, HTML, and all graphic designs, logos, and publication layouts (collectively, the "Proprietary Content") are owned or licensed by The Echoes Project, and are protected by copyright, trademark, and trade dress laws.

3.2. User-Submitted Content and Licensing

When you submit historical stories, memories, transcripts, photographs, or geographic coordinates to our platform (including via custom chapter pages or the Echo Memories map), you retain ownership rights to your submissions. However, by submitting content, you grant The Echoes Project a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, sublicensable, and transferable license to host, display, reproduce, edit, format, print, and distribute your content across our digital and physical educational toolkits and historical publications.

You represent and warrant that you own or have obtained all necessary licenses, consents, releases, and permissions to submit such content, and that displaying it does not violate the copyright or privacy rights of any third party.

4. Acceptable Use Policy

You agree to use the Services only for lawful, historical, and educational purposes. You are strictly prohibited from:

• Submitting content that is defamatory, threatening, obscene, abusive, or explicitly offensive.
• Uploading files containing viruses, Trojan horses, worms, or other malicious code.
• Attempting to gain unauthorized access to our servers, user accounts, or databases.
• Using automated scrapers, bots, or scripts to extract site data without our written consent.
• Infringing upon the copyrights, trademarks, or privacy rights of others.

5. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Site and Services are provided on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis. While we strive to maintain historical accuracy and service availability, The Echoes Project makes no warranties or representations of any kind, express or implied, regarding the completeness, security, reliability, quality, or accuracy of the content. We do not guarantee that the Site will be error-free, uninterrupted, or free of harmful components.

6. Limitation of Liability

In no event shall The Echoes Project, its founders, directors, volunteers, or partners be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising out of or in connection with your use of the Site, loss of submitted stories or images, database security incidents, or reliance on any historical records published on the platform.

7. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, without regard to its conflict of law principles. Any legal action or dispute arising under these Terms shall be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Massachusetts.

8. Modifications to Terms

We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time. We will indicate modifications by updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of modifications constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.