Privacy policy
This policy explains how the World Soil Organization ("WSO", "we", "us") handles information on worldsoil.org. We collect as little as we can. The only personal information we ask for is the email address you give us when you sign up for updates. We also keep simple, anonymous statistics about how many people visit the site, explained below.
Who we are
The World Soil Organization was founded by Sahil Jha and is based in Bengaluru, India. We are responsible for the information described in this policy. For any question or request about your data, email sahil@worldsoil.org.
What we collect when you sign up
- Your email address.
- The date and time you signed up.
- Which form you used and the language the site was in, so we can write to you in the right language later.
We don't ask for your name, we don't store your IP address with your sign-up, and we don't use advertising or tracking tools.
Why we use it
We use your email address only to tell you when the full WSO website launches and to send occasional news about our work. We use it because you chose to give it to us. You can withdraw that consent at any time.
Visit statistics
To understand how many people visit the site and whether it loads quickly, we use Cloudflare Web Analytics, a service of Cloudflare, Inc. When you open a page, a small script reports anonymous details of that visit: which page you viewed, the website that linked you here, your country, the type of browser and device you use, and how fast the page loaded.
Cloudflare Web Analytics doesn't use cookies or store anything on your device, doesn't build a profile of you, and doesn't follow you across other websites. We only ever see totals, such as the number of visits from each country, and nothing that identifies you. As with any web request, Cloudflare's servers receive your IP address to deliver the report; Cloudflare says it doesn't use it to identify or fingerprint visitors. Cloudflare handles this data under its own privacy policy.
We use these statistics because we have a legitimate interest in knowing whether the site is reaching people and working well. If your browser or a content blocker stops the script, the site works exactly the same.
Spam protection
To stop automated programs from flooding our signup list, the signup forms use Google reCAPTCHA, a service of Google LLC and Google Ireland Limited. It loads only when you start filling in a signup form, so simply reading the site never contacts it.
Once it loads, reCAPTCHA collects technical information such as your IP address, details about your browser and device, and how you interact with the page, and sends it to Google to judge whether you are a person. It may also set cookies. Google handles this data under its own Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. We receive only a yes-or-no answer and keep nothing from it.
We use reCAPTCHA because we have a legitimate interest in keeping our list free of fake signups. If you would rather not use it, email sahil@worldsoil.org and we will add you to the list by hand.
Who can see your email address
Sign-ups are kept in a private store that only WSO's administrators can open, behind a password-protected login. We never sell, rent or trade your email address, and we don't share it with other organizations for their own use.
Our website is hosted by Netlify, Inc., which stores the sign-up list for us on servers in the United States. If we later use an email service to send updates, it will hold your address only to deliver our emails, and we will name it on this page before we start.
How long we keep it
We keep your email address until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it. If WSO stops sending updates, we will delete the list.
Your choices and rights
You can ask us at any time to:
- tell you whether we hold your email address,
- correct it,
- delete it, or
- stop emailing you.
Email sahil@worldsoil.org and we will act within 30 days. Every update we send will also include a way to unsubscribe. Depending on where you live, laws such as India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the UK GDPR give you these rights, along with the right to complain to your local data protection authority.
Settings saved on your device
If you choose a language or switch between light and dark mode, your browser remembers that choice in its local storage so the site looks the same next time. This stays on your device; we never receive it. You can clear it at any time in your browser settings.
Our own pages don't set cookies, including for visit statistics. The only exception is Google reCAPTCHA, which may set cookies once you start filling in a signup form, as explained above. The private admin area uses one strictly necessary cookie to keep WSO's administrators signed in.
Content from other services
To show the site, your browser loads fonts from Google Fonts, one photograph from Unsplash and three photographs from sahiljha.com, the founder's personal website. Those services receive the normal technical details of your browser's request, such as your IP address, under their own privacy policies.
Security
The site is served only over a secure (HTTPS) connection, stored data is encrypted, and the sign-up list can only be opened with an administrator password. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable care to protect what you share with us.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we use your information, we will update this page and the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will email subscribers before it takes effect.