Privacy Policy

About Campus Evidence Lab

Campus Evidence Lab is a static-first public evidence archive for campus civil rights records in the United States. The project operates as a public website together with a public GitHub repository, and relies on GitHub issues, pull requests, and a structured submit page for public participation. Campus Evidence Lab is not a corporation, nonprofit entity, law firm, or government body. There is no separate legal entity behind the project; it is referred to throughout this policy as "Campus Evidence Lab," "the project," "we," or "us." This policy explains what information the project collects, why, and how it is handled.

This policy applies to the public website, the public GitHub repository, GitHub issues and pull requests submitted to the project, the structured submit page, and any correspondence a user chooses to initiate with the project. It does not apply to third-party sites the project may link to, or to GitHub's own platform practices, which are governed by GitHub's own privacy policy.

Website Visits and Ordinary Technical Logs

The public website is static-first. Visiting it may generate ordinary technical log data of the kind any web server or static hosting platform automatically records, such as IP address, browser or client type, referring page, requested URL, timestamp, and similar connection metadata. This information is generated automatically by the hosting infrastructure (for example, a static hosting or content delivery platform) rather than collected directly by Campus Evidence Lab through forms or account creation. The project does not use this log data to build advertising profiles, does not sell it, and does not attempt to identify individual visitors from it. Where the underlying hosting platform provides its own analytics or log-retention controls, those are governed by that platform's own terms and privacy practices in addition to this policy.

Public GitHub Issues and Pull Requests

Campus Evidence Lab uses GitHub issue templates and pull requests as a primary channel for submissions, corrections, duplicate reports, and source contributions. Anything submitted through a GitHub issue or pull request is inherently public: it is visible in the public repository, associated with the submitter's GitHub account and public GitHub activity, and subject to GitHub's own retention, indexing, and terms of service. Campus Evidence Lab does not control how GitHub itself stores, indexes, or exposes this activity, and submitting through GitHub means the submission is made in a public forum, not a private or confidential channel.

Structured Submit-Page Packets

The site's structured submit page allows users to submit public-source information in a defined format (for example, event records, school records, source records, or correction requests). Submissions through this page are treated as public-source contributions intended for potential publication, review, and archiving, consistent with the project's evidence rules described below. Users should not include private testimony, private screenshots, direct messages, private contact information, or other sensitive personal information in a submit-page packet, because the project does not intend to collect or retain that category of material through this channel.

Email or Direct Outreach

If a user chooses to contact Campus Evidence Lab directly, for example to report a correction, ask a question, or request a right of reply, any information voluntarily provided in that outreach (such as an email address or the content of a message) is used only to respond to and process that specific inquiry. The project does not solicit direct contact information as a condition of using the site or participating in the public repository, and does not use voluntarily provided contact information for any purpose beyond responding to the inquiry and maintaining an internal record of the correspondence and its resolution.

What Campus Evidence Lab Does Not Intentionally Collect

Campus Evidence Lab's evidence rules are public-source-only. The project does not intentionally collect, solicit, or knowingly accept:

• private testimony that is not already part of a reliable public source;
• private screenshots, direct messages, or other non-public communications;
• private contact information beyond what a person voluntarily provides when initiating contact with the project;
• sensitive personal information (such as health, immigration, financial account, or similarly sensitive data) that is not already part of a reliable public source and directly relevant to a record; or
• unsupported allegations that are not tied to a public source.

If such material is submitted despite these rules, it is not treated as validated content, is not published on that basis, and is subject to removal or rejection consistent with the review model described below.

Public-Source Records and Names in Public Sources

The dataset is built from public-source records: event records, school records, source records, and related materials drawn from reliable public sources. Because the project documents public-source material, a record may include the name of a person or institution where that name already appears in a reliable public source (for example, a public report, public statement, published news account, or public institutional record). Including such a name in a record reflects the content of the underlying public source; it does not mean Campus Evidence Lab independently investigated, verified the full context of, or is making any legal finding about that person or institution. The dataset is not legal advice, not a legal finding, not a ranking, not a school safety score, not a prevalence estimate, not a severity score, not an endorsement, and not a complete census of campus civil-rights incidents.

Corrections, Redaction, and Right-of-Reply Requests

Anyone, including a person or institution named in a record, may submit a correction request, duplicate report, source submission, or school metadata correction through the GitHub issue templates or the site's structured submit page. Schools and other named institutions have a correction and right-of-reply path through these same channels. A correction or right-of-reply request should identify the specific record at issue and the specific correction, context, or reply sought. Requests are reviewed consistent with the review model below; submission of a request does not guarantee a particular outcome, but it is the mechanism by which the project considers corrections, additional context, redaction of sensitive information that should not have been included, and rights of reply.

Review, Publication, Archiving, Quotation, and Rejection of Submissions

Not every public record submitted to Campus Evidence Lab is human-certified before or after publication. Records may carry different review tiers, including imported public source, source-family checked, internally certified, and externally reviewed. Lower-tier records may be published with clear limits reflecting their review status. Submitted public-source information may be:

• reviewed by project maintainers or contributors for consistency with the evidence rules and data model;
• published on the public website or in the public repository, with an associated review-tier designation;
• archived in review logs, correction logs, release notes, or snapshot manifests as part of the project's record-keeping;
• quoted or excerpted from the underlying public source where relevant to the record; or
• rejected, held back, or removed if it does not meet the evidence rules, cannot be attributed to a reliable public source, or is later found to be inaccurate, duplicative, or otherwise inconsistent with the project's scope.

Service Providers and Public Hosting Platforms

Campus Evidence Lab relies on public, third-party infrastructure to operate, including its GitHub repository and, where applicable, a static hosting or content delivery provider such as Cloudflare or GitHub Pages. These platforms process traffic, host repository content, and may generate their own technical logs as part of providing their services. Campus Evidence Lab does not control these platforms' independent data practices; each platform's own terms and privacy policy govern its handling of data in addition to this policy.

AI-Assisted Processing

AI tools may assist with extraction, summarization, duplicate detection, and drafting of records, correction logs, or other materials. AI assistance is a processing aid only: it does not independently publish records, and it does not replace human review required for internally certified or externally reviewed status. Any AI-assisted output is subject to the same evidence rules, review model, and correction channels as any other submission or draft.

Data Retention

Public issues, pull requests, and their associated discussion are retained as part of the public GitHub repository's history, consistent with GitHub's own retention practices, and are not deleted by Campus Evidence Lab absent a specific correction, redaction, or removal determination. Published records, review logs, correction logs, release notes, and snapshot manifests are retained as part of the project's evidentiary and version history, so that changes to the dataset over time remain traceable. Correction artifacts, including the substance of correction requests and their resolution, are retained to document how a record was reviewed, corrected, or rejected. Because the project depends on a transparent public record, retained materials are generally not purged wholesale; instead, corrections, redactions, and updated review-tier designations are layered onto the existing record and version history.

Children's Privacy

Campus Evidence Lab does not knowingly solicit information from, or direct the structured submit page, GitHub issue templates, or direct-contact channels toward, children. The project is intended for the documentation of public-source, campus-related civil rights records, not for use by children submitting personal information. If the project becomes aware that information belonging to a child has been submitted through a private channel such as direct correspondence or a submit-page packet, that information will be evaluated for removal from non-public project materials. Because public-source records may reference a minor where that minor is already named in a reliable public source (for example, a public campus report), such references are treated the same as other public-source content and are subject to the same correction and redaction request process described above.

Security Limits

Campus Evidence Lab is a static-first, public project and does not operate user accounts, authentication systems, or a private database for storing sensitive personal information. Reasonable care is taken in how the project's public infrastructure is configured, but because the project's core content is intentionally public, and because underlying hosting and repository platforms are operated by third parties, Campus Evidence Lab cannot guarantee the security practices of those third-party platforms and does not represent that any particular technical safeguard is in place beyond what those platforms provide. Users should not submit private testimony, private screenshots, direct messages, private contact information, or other sensitive personal information through any project channel, since these channels are not designed or intended to hold such material securely.

User Choices and Limits on Removal of Public Records

Users may choose whether to visit the public website, whether to submit information through GitHub issues, pull requests, or the structured submit page, and whether to initiate direct contact with the project. Because GitHub issues, pull requests, and the public repository's version history are inherently public and governed in part by GitHub's own retention practices, content submitted through those channels may remain visible in the public history even after a correction or edit is made, unless GitHub's own tools are used to remove it at the platform level. Where content is later corrected, redacted, or found not to meet the evidence rules, the project's practice is to document the correction, update the associated review-tier designation, and, where appropriate, note the correction in the release notes or correction log, rather than silently altering the historical public record. Requests to remove or redact specific public-source content, or to add context or a right-of-reply, may be submitted through the correction channels described above and will be evaluated under the review model.

Changes to This Policy

This policy may be updated from time to time to reflect changes in the project's data model, hosting arrangements, or practices. The version of the policy published on the public website or in the public repository at any given time is the version that applies.

Contact

Questions, correction requests, duplicate reports, source submissions, school metadata corrections, and right-of-reply requests should be submitted through the GitHub issue templates in the public repository or through the site's structured submit page. These are the project's designated correction and submission channels.