Privacy Policy for the Linguistic Computing Systems (LingCosms) Website

Our privacy policy for this website is very simple, because, generally, our website does not collect any private information about you. Therefore, the concerns typically discussed at length in others’ privacy policies (e.g., storing, transmitting, sharing, etc.) don’t apply, since there is no personal information for it to apply to.

There are three special situations which do merit discussion:

  1. Cookies
    • The only cookies used on our site are those which the (WordPress) platform that runs our website uses to function. They are short-term, first-party cookies used for navigation. There are no optional cookies that we place (e.g., for tracking). And, we refuse to use tools like Google Analytics which embed third-party tracking mechanisms (e.g., cookies, web beacons, etc.). We also do not serve ads or participate in ad networks.
  2. User-initiated contact requests
    • Our website includes a “contact” form which offers the opportunity for website visitors to request various types of contact, including, among other things, requesting addition to an e-mail list for (infrequent) updates about LingCosms. If you opt to provide us an email address via the form for a specific purpose, that email address will only be used for that purpose. It will not be shared with others or used for purposes other than for what you requested.
    • The contact form has an option to request removal of your e-mail address. We will honor any such requests.
  3. Demos
    • We may, from time to time, place technology demonstrations on the website. A demonstration may offer the opportunity for website visitors to interactively test the technology (e.g., by allowing the visitor to record their own voice and submit it for processing). Any data collected for such demonstrations is anonymous, and by default it is only kept for the duration of the demonstration. We may provide the capability for you to optionally agree to allow us to retain your (anonymous) data for our R&D purposes. Such a data contribution opt-in will be clearly marked and explained, and will never be required.

SCOPE OF THIS WEBSITE PRIVACY POLICY

Finally, it is important to be clear with respect to the scope of this Linguistic Computing Systems (LingCosms) website privacy policy. It applies to the navigation and use of our basic website.

LingCosms provides commercial services via application programming interfaces (APIs) and applications. Commercial utilization of LingCosms technology will always require a user account and a user agreement (in contrast to just browsing the LingCosms general website). In some cases, the LingCosms website may provide a gateway to some aspects of those commercial services (e.g., configuration your account’s utilization of APIs), but such capabilities will not be accessible without providing valid account credentials. A commercial arrangement to utilize LingCosms APIs or apps will be covered by its own governing documents (terms of service and privacy policy) rather than by this general Linguistic Computing Systems (LingCosms) website privacy policy.

Version 1.0.0 (effective Feb. 2, 2024)