Privacy Policy

Last updated: 16 October 2025

This Privacy Policy explains how Akanaba, Inc. (Florida, USA) collects, uses, shares, and protects personal data when you use our websites and services (the "Service"). It also describes your choices.

1) Who controls your data & how to reach us

Controller: Akanaba, Inc., [Company Address, Florida, USA]
Email: privacy@akanaba.org
EU/UK representation: Not appointed.

2) Scope

This Policy applies to Visitors, Registered Users, Members, Institutions, and Partner Institutions (each as defined in our Terms of Service) that interact with the Service.

3) Data we collect

A. You provide

Name, email, affiliation(s), ORCID iD, profile details you choose to add (e.g., bio, interests), and any content you upload (e.g., posts, projects, images, videos). For payments, we receive limited billing metadata from our payment processor; we do not store full card numbers.

B. Public and third‑party sources

Public scholarly metadata used for Auto‑Curated Profiles and publication pages (e.g., ORCID, Crossref, OpenAlex, institutional and publisher sites) and basic profile data from authentication providers you connect (e.g., ORCID/Google) with your consent.

C. Location (minimal)

We may infer approximate location (e.g., country/city) from your affiliation or aggregated analytics. We do not retain full IP addresses, collect device/browser fingerprints, or collect precise geolocation.

4) How we use personal data (purposes & bases)

We use data to:

Provide the Service (accounts, profiles, personalization, search, recommendations, content hosting, redirection to sources) — contract.
Operate, secure, and improve the Service (basic diagnostics, anti‑abuse, quality) — legitimate interests.
Display public researcher profiles across public-facing Akanaba pages (e.g., landing page, Minds, Members, directories, and statistics/overviews) to boost visibility — legitimate interests.
Generate statistics and overviews about research content and engagement; outputs may be aggregated/de‑identified and offered as paid services — legitimate interests.
Communicate with you for transactional reasons only (service notices, account/security alerts, billing, and essential notifications) — contract/legitimate interests.
Billing and compliance (tax, accounting, legal requests) — legal obligation.
Personalization and relevance modeling — we use personal and interaction data (e.g., follows, saves, searches, clicks) to provide personalized recommendations, relevance ranking, and content discovery — legitimate interests/consent where required.

Subscription‑based, not ad‑based. We do not run third‑party ad networks or targeted display advertising, and we do not sell personal data.

5) Profiles, visibility, and control

Auto‑Curated Profiles are public by default, indexable, and may appear across public-facing Akanaba pages (e.g., landing page, Minds, Members, directories, and statistics/overviews).
You may claim your profile to edit or delete it. At this time, we do not offer a private profile mode. Unclaimed profiles may be removed on verified request.
When you claim a profile, you are responsible for the profile’s content, including any cover image.
Spotlight opt‑out: You may request removal from featured/spotlight placements (e.g., carousels or curated highlights). This does not affect basic public listing unless you delete the profile.

6) What we show from publications

We typically display partial publication data (metadata, abstract excerpts, thumbnail/cover if available) and redirect to the original source for the full record or full text. We also index and display other research‑related items (posts, books, projects, videos, images, data, methods, announcements). Third‑party videos (e.g., YouTube) may be embedded and playable on Akanaba, subject to the video provider’s policies.

7) Cookies & similar technologies

We use essential cookies (authentication, security), analytics, preferences, and personalization/local storage. Where legally required, we obtain consent via a cookie banner/manager and honor your choices.

We share personal data with:

Processors (hosting, storage, analytics, email, customer support, payments, security) under data‑processing agreements.
Institutions you join or link with (limited to what’s necessary to provide institutional features).
The public when you make content public, including claimed profiles and public posts.
Legal authorities where required or to protect rights, safety, and integrity of the Service.
Business transfers (merger/acquisition); we will notify you of changes in control.

9) Recommendations & sponsored content

We personalize feeds, search, and suggestions using your profile and activity data as described in Section 4(7). We do not use personal data to train AI models. For placement details (including clearly labeled Sponsored/Highlighted/Promotional items) and notes about third‑party embeds (e.g., YouTube), see Section 11 (Recommended Content) of our Terms of Service.

10) International transfers

Data may be processed in the United States and other countries. For transfers from regions with data‑transfer restrictions (e.g., EEA/UK), we rely on appropriate safeguards permitted by law (such as Standard Contractual Clauses or adequacy decisions, where applicable).

11) Your choices & rights

Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, port, or object to processing, and to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent. To exercise these rights — including account/profile deletion under privacy law — contact privacy@akanaba.org. For copyright or illegal‑content reports, please follow our Copyright & Notice Policy (DMCA + DSA) or email policy@akanaba.org. We may need to verify your identity. If local law grants you the right to lodge a complaint with a regulator, you may do so.

Communications: We do not send promotional emails. We generally use email only for transactional reasons (account/security), billing, and important service notifications. You can manage notification settings where available or contact us to adjust non‑essential service emails.
Personalization: You may object to processing for personalization where local law provides that right; we will honor such requests unless we have compelling legitimate grounds.

12) Data retention

We retain data only as long as necessary for the purposes above and to comply with legal obligations. Where feasible, we anonymize or aggregate data.

13) Security

We apply organizational and technical measures appropriate to the risk (encryption in transit, access controls, backups). No system is 100% secure.

14) Children

Akanaba is not directed to individuals under 18. We do not knowingly collect data from such individuals.

15) Payments

Payments are processed by third‑party processors. We receive limited billing metadata and do not store full payment card numbers. Subscriptions auto‑renew after advance email notice; see Terms for refund rules (non‑refundable after 30 days unless required by law).

16) Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy and will post material changes in‑product or via email before they take effect.

17) Contact

Questions about privacy? privacy@akanaba.org

aka_session — Essential — Session
aka_consent — Consent state — 12 months
aka_metrics_* — Analytics — 13 months
aka_lang — Preference — 12 months