Privacy Policy
Who we are and what this covers
The Dalit Project is an independent publication, registered and operating in Australia and published by [legal entity name to be added] (ABN [ABN to be added]). We are responsible for the information described here. This policy covers dalitproject.org, the contact form and newsletter sign-up on it, and messages you send to our social media accounts. To ask us anything about it, use our contact form, or email hello@dalitproject.org.
Reading the site
The site runs no analytics scripts and no advertising. It sets no cookies of its own and stores nothing in your browser, and we don't build a profile of you or follow you from page to page. Our fonts and images are all served from this site, so reading a page doesn't send your address to Google, Wikimedia or any other third party.
The share buttons on each article are plain links. They load nothing from Facebook, X, LinkedIn or WhatsApp; if you click one, you go to that platform, and its privacy policy applies.
When you use the search box, we count what you searched for, so we can see what readers are looking for and what we haven't covered yet. We keep only the words, the day, and how many articles they found. We don't keep your IP address, browser details, the time of day or anything else that could tell us who searched, and we drop searches that look like an email address, a web address, or a phone or ID number. Our editors see a search only once it has been made at least five times, and we delete the counts after 90 days.
Hosting and server logs
The site is hosted by Cloudflare. Like any web host, Cloudflare's systems see your IP address, browser details, the page you asked for and the time, to deliver the page and protect the site from attacks, and Cloudflare may set a strictly necessary security cookie to tell people from bots. We keep request logs for a few days to fix problems, and we don't use them to identify or track readers. We can also see total traffic figures, but not who you are.
The contact form
The form on our Contact, Contribute, Corrections and Right of Reply pages is how you pitch a piece, report an error, respond to a piece that names you, or send us a message. Name and email are optional, but without an email we can't reply. We store:
- your message and subject, and which of those purposes you chose;
- your name, email address and the piece concerned, if you give them;
- whether you asked for a pseudonym, and whether we may contact you;
- the time;
- our own notes on how we handled it.
We don't store your IP address itself. For a short time Cloudflare uses it to limit how many messages one connection can send, and we keep a coded version of it, made with the date and a secret key, so we can spot a flood of messages from one connection on one day. We delete that code after 30 days. With the key it could in principle be matched back to an IP address, so we treat it as personal information and use it for nothing else.
Messages are stored in our database at Cloudflare. Our editors read them, and we use Anthropic's Claude, an AI service, to help sort and summarise them. Claude sees the whole message, including your name and email if you gave them. Anthropic receives it under its commercial terms, which don't allow it to train its models on what we send. We won't publish your message, or say you wrote to us, unless you agree or the law requires it.
If you are a source, or at risk
This form is not an anonymous or secure channel. It is encrypted on the way to us, but Cloudflare sees your connection, and the text is stored and processed as described above. If being identified could put you or someone else in danger, send only a first, general message, with no names, places, documents or witness details, and tell us how you'd like to be contacted. Ticking the pseudonym box tells us you don't want your name published; it doesn't make the message anonymous, and details in a story could still point to you, so we'll agree those with you before anything is drafted. Please don't post identifying details about survivors or witnesses in public comments either.
The newsletter
If you sign up, we store your email address, the page you signed up from and the date, at Cloudflare. We then email you a link to confirm the address, sent through Cloudflare's email service, and you're on the list only once you open it. We don't send the newsletter yet. When we do, every issue will have an unsubscribe link, and if we use another service to send it, we'll name it here first. We don't track whether you open our emails or click their links. We will never sell your address. If you unsubscribe, we keep only your address marked "unsubscribed", so we never email you again; if you ask us to delete it entirely, we will.
Our social media accounts
If you comment on our posts, mention us, or message our accounts on Facebook, Instagram or X, we receive what you write and your public profile name. Zernio, our social media management service, collects these into our newsroom system, where our editors, helped by Anthropic's Claude, read and answer them. A first private message gets an automatic acknowledgement. If we hide, report or escalate something (for example a threat), we keep its text, author and link as evidence. Private messages to our accounts are not a secure way to reach us: the platform and Zernio can see them. Each platform's own privacy policy covers what it collects.
Checking our own articles
Before we publish, drafts of our articles are checked with AI models from Anthropic, xAI and OpenAI (the last two reached through OpenRouter). Drafts can mention people named in the public record. For this article review we don't send xAI, OpenAI or OpenRouter any reader messages, email addresses or anything a source asked us to keep private.
Why we use your information
- To reply to you and act on your pitch, correction or response, because you asked us to.
- To keep the site and form safe from spam and attacks, which is our legitimate interest.
- To learn what readers look for, from search counts that don't identify anyone, which is our legitimate interest.
- To send the newsletter, once it starts, with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
- To keep evidence of threats or harassment, for our safety and the safety of people we report on.
Where it is stored, and who else handles it
Cloudflare hosts the site and our database; the database is held in Cloudflare's Oceania region, and pages are delivered from Cloudflare's servers near you. Anthropic (in the United States) runs Claude, and Zernio runs our social media tool; their systems may be outside your country, including in the United States. For checking drafts we also use OpenRouter, xAI and OpenAI, as described above. They handle information only to provide their services to us. We don't sell or rent reader data, don't run advertising, and don't share source, contributor or reader identities with any funder or partner. We share information about you only where the law requires it, or where it's necessary to respond to a serious threat or protect someone; where it's safe and the law allows, we'll tell you first. The services we use can also receive legal orders directly, sometimes ones that stop them telling us or you, which is one more reason not to send us anything that could endanger you through this form.
How long we keep things
- Spam and abuse sent through the form: deleted within 30 days.
- Other form and social media messages: deleted two years after we've dealt with them, unless one led to a published correction or response, which we keep as part of that record.
- Newsletter sign-ups you don't confirm: deleted after 30 days.
- Newsletter sign-ups: until you unsubscribe; after that, only the address marked "don't email", unless you ask us to delete it.
- Evidence of threats or harassment: while it is needed for safety or a legal claim. We review it at least once a year.
- Search counts: 90 days.
- Server logs: a few days.
Your rights
You can ask what we hold about you or for a copy of it, ask us to correct or delete it, ask us to limit or stop how we use it, or withdraw your consent, through our contact form or by emailing hello@dalitproject.org. For most people, what we hold is the messages they sent, an email address if they gave one, and any comments or messages to our social accounts. We aim to answer within 30 days. We may keep something if the law requires it or it is part of a published correction record, and we'll tell you if so.
Complaints
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us, through our contact form or by email to hello@dalitproject.org. We'll look into it and reply as soon as we reasonably can, and within any time limit a law that applies to us sets.
You may also be able to complain to a data protection regulator, such as the one where you live or work, depending on the law that applies.
If there's a security incident involving your information, we'll take reasonable steps to deal with it, and tell you and any regulator where the law requires.
Children
The Dalit Project is not directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect data from them.
Changes to this policy
If what we collect or how we use it changes (next, when the newsletter starts), we'll update this page first and change the date at the top.