Privacy Policy and Website Data Protection Terms
This Privacy Policy explains how information is gathered, used, and safeguarded when you interact with the jakitaothomas website. It reflects an ongoing commitment to ethical data stewardship that aligns with the broader scholarly mission of advancing equity, transparency, and trust in digital spaces.
By accessing this site, reading published insights, exploring research, or submitting a request through the Contact & Booking page, you acknowledge the practices described below. Where ambiguity exists, the principle is straightforward: collect only what is necessary, hold it carefully, and honor the rights of the people behind the data.
How We Use Your Information
Information shared through this website supports a narrow set of purposes tied directly to scholarly engagement, public communication, and professional correspondence. Nothing collected here feeds into advertising networks or behavioral profiling systems.
Primary Uses
- Responding to inquiries — speaking requests, collaboration proposals, media questions, and student or research-related correspondence.
- Delivering requested materials, publications, talk abstracts, syllabi excerpts, or links to initiatives you have asked about.
- Improving site quality, aggregated, non-identifying analytics that reveal which articles or research summaries readers find most useful.
- Honoring legal obligations, retaining records where required by applicable law or institutional policy.
Data is not repurposed beyond the reason it was originally given. If a new use emerges, consent is sought again rather than assumed.
Information We Collect From You
Two broad categories describe nearly everything gathered on this site: information you voluntarily provide, and technical information collected automatically when any modern website loads in a browser.
Information You Provide
Your name, email address, institutional affiliation, and the contents of any message you submit through contact or booking forms. If you indicate a preferred topic, event date, or accessibility need, that detail is retained alongside your inquiry.
Information Collected Automatically
Standard server logs capture IP address, browser type, referring page, and timestamps. Cookies may store session preferences. None of this is linked to your identity unless you have separately submitted a form.
Sensitive categories of data — including health information, financial details, or government identifiers, are not requested and should not be sent through site forms.
Third-Party Data Sharing and Partners
A small number of established service providers help this website function: a hosting platform, an email delivery service for replies, and a privacy-respecting analytics tool. Each operates under its own data processing terms and is bound to use information only for the service it provides.
Personal information is not sold, rented, or traded. It is not shared with advertisers. The narrow exceptions are these:
- When you have given explicit consent — for instance, agreeing to be added to an event organizer's attendee list.
- When required by valid legal process, such as a subpoena or court order.
- When sharing is necessary to protect the safety, rights, or property of site visitors or the site owner.
Embedded content from external platforms (video players, slide hosts, scholarly repositories) may set their own cookies once you interact with them. Their privacy practices govern that interaction, not this policy.
Your Data Protection Rights
Regardless of where you live, you can exercise the following rights regarding information held about you on this site. Several of these rights are codified under regulations such as the GDPR and CCPA; here they are offered as a baseline standard for everyone.
Access
Request a copy of the personal information associated with your name or email address.
Correction
Ask that inaccurate or outdated details be updated.
Deletion
Request removal of your records, subject to any overriding legal retention requirement.
Portability
Receive your data in a structured, commonly used format.
Objection
Object to specific uses, including any future analytics processing.
Withdrawal of Consent
Revoke previously granted consent at any point, without affecting prior lawful processing.
Requests are honored within a reasonable timeframe, typically around thirty days. Verification of identity may be requested before sensitive actions are completed.
Policy Updates and Contact Information
This policy may be revised as the site evolves, as new tools are adopted, or as legal frameworks change. Material updates will be reflected by a revised effective date at the top of this page, and substantive changes will be summarized in plain language so returning readers can understand what shifted.
Continued use of the site after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised terms. If you disagree with changes, you may discontinue use and request deletion of any previously submitted information.
Getting in Touch
Questions about this policy, requests to exercise the rights described above, or concerns about how your information has been handled can be directed through the Contact & Booking page. Correspondence is reviewed personally, and responses aim to be substantive rather than templated.
For broader context about the work this site supports, see the About Dr. Jakita O. Thomas page. The companion Terms of Service document outlines the general conditions of using the site.
This policy is provided for transparency and does not constitute legal advice. Specific situations involving data protection law should be discussed with qualified counsel.