Privacy of Researchers

Privacy Policy Overview

The following policy applies to the Archives West website. The program supports confidentiality of the reading and research habits of individuals but collections certain pieces of information to evaluate and develop its services for the benefit of researchers who use the site. The program does not collect personally identifiable information about any person who uses its site.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically

The program automatically gathers and stores the following information about its users in order to develop and evaluate its services. This information is stored and used in the aggregate only:

  • The IP address from which users access the Archives West site;
  • The name of the domain from which users access the Internet;
  • The type of browser, operating system, screen resolution and screen colors of the computer used to access the site;
  • The date and time users access the site;
  • The pages, files, documents and links that users visit and how much time they spend there;
  • The cities and countries from which users visit the site, and the languages used by their computer’s operating system;
  • The keywords that resulted in a visit to the site;
  • Which search engine used directed the users to the site;
  • The Internet address of any websites that direct users to the site.

Cookies

In addition to information collected automatically, the site uses cookies, which are small pieces of information sent to a browser by a website that a user visits. The cookies do not collect personally identifiable information. Cookies are used to track usage patterns, traffic trends and customer behavior, as well as to record other information from the Website. The program uses a third-party vendor, Google Analytics, to place cookies and analyze the information collected by cookies in order to help its member institutions understand how researchers use the Archives West site. Information collected from cookies will not be used to create profiles of individual users and only will be used in aggregate form.

Commercial Use of Information

The program does not collect or sell information about its members or their researchers to any third party.

Personal Information

The program does not collect any type of personal information about researchers that use the Archives West site. If researchers who use the site opt to participate in usability testing or other forms of research conducted by the program, any identifying information about them is kept strictly confidential during the course of the testing or research and destroyed on conclusion of the project.

Links

Archives West links to the websites of its members and to a select number of similar sites. These sites may have their own privacy policies that may be different from this policy.