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Terms and Conditions
Effective starting: June 1, 2021
These terms and conditions (these “Terms“) apply to the purchase of products and services through ancestralmedicine.org (the “Website“). These Terms are subject to change by Ancestral Medicine, Inc.. (referred to as “us”, “we”, or “our” as the context may require) without prior written notice at any time, in our sole discretion. Any changes to the Terms will be in effect as of the “Last Updated Date” referenced on the Website. You should review these Terms prior to purchasing any product or service that is available through this Site. Your continued use of this Site after the “Last Updated Date” will constitute your acceptance of and agreement to such changes.
These Terms are an integral part of the Website Terms of Use that apply generally to the use of our Site. You should also carefully review our Privacy Policy before placing an order for products or services through this Website.
This Website is offered and available to users who are 18 years of age or older, and reside in the United States or any of its territories or possessions. By using this Website, you represent and warrant that you are of legal age to form a binding contract with the Company and meet all of the foregoing eligibility requirements. If you do not meet all of these requirements, you must not access or use the Website.
Order Acceptance and Cancellation
You agree that your order is an offer to buy, under these Terms, all products and services listed in your order.
Prices and Payment Terms
All purchases through our site or other transactions for the sale of goods or services, or information formed through the Website, or resulting from visits made by you, are governed by our Terms of Sale, which are hereby incorporated into these Terms of Use.
Prices, Discounts, and Promotions
All prices, discounts, and promotions posted on this Website are subject to change without notice. If Ancestral Medicine later increases the price of any of our services, we will notify you. The increase will apply to the next payment due from you after the notice, provided that you have been given at least 10 days’ prior notice before the charge is made. If you are given less than 10 days’ prior notice, the price increase will not apply until the payment after the next payment due. The price charged for a product or service will be the price in effect at the time the order is placed and will be set out in your order confirmation email. Price increases will only apply to orders placed after such changes.
Posted prices do not include taxes or charges for shipping and handling. All such taxes and charges will be added to your merchandise total, and will be itemized in your shopping cart and in your order confirmation email. We strive to display accurate price information, however we may, on occasion, make inadvertent typographical errors, inaccuracies or omissions related to pricing and availability. We reserve the right to correct any errors, inaccuracies, or omissions at any time and to cancel any orders arising from such occurrences. We may offer from time to time promotions on the Website that may affect pricing and that are governed by terms and conditions separate from these Terms. If there is a conflict between the terms for a promotion and these Terms, the promotion terms will govern.
Terms of Payment
Terms of payment are within our sole discretion and, unless otherwise agreed by us in writing, payment must be received by us before our acceptance of an order. We accept major credit cards and PayPal for all purchases. You represent and warrant that (i) the credit card information you supply to us is true, correct and complete, (ii) you are duly authorized to use such credit card for the purchase, (iii) charges incurred by you will be honored by your credit card company, and (iv) you will pay charges incurred by you at the posted prices, and all applicable taxes, if any, regardless of the amount quoted on the Website at the time of your order.
Payment Plan
If you are on a payment plan, you have committed to continue paying until your payment agreement has been met. For online courses, if you cancel payments before your payment agreement has been met, you will be disenrolled. Refunds follow the policy outlined below. If you have enrolled in a 6-month payment plan, you will pay your first month at check-out and then will be billed monthly until completion of the final payment. If you cancel your payment plan it will immediately revoke your course access. If we’re not able to process a payment, course access will also be revoked. You can cancel your payment plan through your account dashboard or by contacting info@ancestralmedicine.org.
Refunds
Life happens, plans sometimes change, we understand. Here is our refund policy for online offerings. If you wish to shift your registration to a future iteration of a course, please apply for a full refund and then re-enroll in the new course when offered. We will only honor refund requests within 30 days after the start date of the course. To inquire about a refund, please contact us at: info@ancestralmedicine.org.
30-Day Money Back Guarantee (for full-length online courses only)
If you are not satisfied with the course after completing at least one lesson, we will issue a full refund. We will only honor refund requests within 30 days after the start date of the course. This policy only applies to full-length courses (8 weeks or more) and not to shorter courses, live teaching series, or archived/self-paced courses. If refunds are offered for a course, the refund policy will be stated on the accompanying course or payment pages once we open for registration. To inquire about a refund, please contact us at: info@ancestralmedicine.org.
Accessing the Website and Account Security
We reserve the right to withdraw or amend this Website, and any service or material we provide on the Website, in our sole discretion without notice. We will not be liable if for any reason all or any part of the Website is unavailable at any time or for any period. From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of the Website, or the entire Website, to users, including registered users.
You are responsible for both:
- Making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to the Website.
- Ensuring that all persons who access the Website through your internet connection are aware of these Terms of Use and comply with them.
To access the Website or some of the resources it offers, you may be asked to provide certain registration details or other information. It is a condition of your use of the Website that all the information you provide on the Website is correct, current, and complete. You agree that all information you provide to register with this Website or otherwise, including, but not limited to, through the use of any interactive features on the Website, is governed by our Privacy Policy, and you consent to all actions we take with respect to your information consistent with our Privacy Policy.
If you choose, or are provided with, a user name, password, or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any other person or entity. You also acknowledge that your account is personal to you and agree not to provide any other person with access to this Website or portions of it using your user name, password, or other security information. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to or use of your user name or password or any other breach of security. You should use particular caution when accessing your account from a public or shared computer so that others are not able to view or record your password or other personal information.
We have the right to disable any user name, password, or other identifier, whether chosen by you or provided by us, at any time in our sole discretion for any or no reason, including if, in our opinion, you have violated any provision of these Terms of Use.
Intellectual Property Rights
The Website and its entire contents, features, and functionality (including but not limited to all information, software, text, displays, images, video, and audio, and the design, selection, and arrangement thereof) are owned by the Company, its licensors, or other providers of such material and are protected by United States and international copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, and other intellectual property or proprietary rights laws.
These Terms of Use permit you to use the Website for your personal, non-commercial use only. You must not reproduce, distribute, modify, create derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, republish, download, store, or transmit any of the material on our Website, except as follows:
- Your computer may temporarily store copies of such materials in RAM incidental to your accessing and viewing those materials.
- You may store files that are automatically cached by your Web browser for display enhancement purposes.
- You may print or download one copy of a reasonable number of pages of the Website for your own personal, non-commercial use and not for further reproduction, publication, or distribution.
- If we provide social media features with certain content, you may take such actions as are enabled by such features.
You must not:
- Modify copies of any materials from this site.
- Use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences, or any graphics separately from the accompanying text.
- Delete or alter any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary rights notices from copies of materials from this site.
You must not access or use for any commercial purposes any part of the Website or any services or materials available through the Website.
If you wish to make any use of material on the Website other than that set out in this section, please address your request to: info@ancestralmedicine.org.
If you print, copy, modify, download, or otherwise use or provide any other person with access to any part of the Website in breach of the Terms of Use, your right to use the Website will stop immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made. No right, title, or interest in or to the Website or any content on the Website is transferred to you, and all rights not expressly granted are reserved by the Company. Any use of the Website not expressly permitted by these Terms of Use is a breach of these Terms of Use and may violate copyright, trademark, and other laws.
Trademarks
The Company name, the Company logo, and all related names, logos, product and service names, designs, and slogans are trademarks of the Company or its affiliates or licensors. You must not use such marks without the prior written permission of the Company. All other names, logos, product and service names, designs, and slogans on this Website are the trademarks of their respective owners.
Copyright Infringement
We take claims of copyright infringement seriously. We will respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with applicable law. If you believe any materials accessible on or from this site (the “Website“) infringe your copyright, you may request removal of those materials (or access to them) from the Website by submitting written notification to our copyright agent designated below. In accordance with the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512) (“DMCA“), the written notice (the “DMCA Notice“) must include:
- Your physical or electronic signature.
- Identification of the copyrighted work you believe to have been infringed or, if the claim involves multiple works on the Website, a representative list of such works.
- Identification of the material you believe to be infringing in a sufficiently precise manner to allow us to locate that material.
- Adequate information by which we can contact you (including your name, postal address, telephone number, and, if available, email address).
- A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
- A statement that the information in the written notice is accurate.
- A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
If you fail to comply with all of the requirements of Section 512(c)(3) of the DMCA, your DMCA Notice may not be effective.
Please be aware that if you knowingly materially misrepresent that material or activity on the Website is infringing your copyright, you may be held liable for damages (including costs and attorneys’ fees) under Section 512(f) of the DMCA.
Send all requests and DMCA Notices to info@ancestralmedicine.org.
Counter Notification Procedures
If you believe that material you posted on the Website was removed or access to it was disabled by mistake or misidentification, you may file a counter notification with us (a “Counter Notice“) by submitting written notification.. Pursuant to the DMCA, the Counter Notice must include the following:
- Your physical or electronic signature.
- An identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access disabled.
- Adequate information by which we can contact you (including your name, postal address, telephone number, and, if available, email address).
- A statement under penalty of perjury by you that you have a good faith belief that the material identified above was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.
- A statement that you will consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or if you reside outside the United States for any judicial district in which the Website may be found) and that you will accept service from the person (or an agent of that person) who provided the Website with the complaint at issue.
Please send all Counter Notices to: info@ancestralmedicine.org.
The DMCA allows us to restore the removed content if the party filing the original DMCA Notice does not file a court action against you within ten business days of receiving the copy of your Counter Notice.
Please be aware that if you knowingly materially misrepresent that material or activity on the Website was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, you may be held liable for damages (including costs and attorneys’ fees) under Section 512(f) of the DMCA.
Prohibited Uses
You may use the Website only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms of Use. You agree not to use the Website:
- In any way that violates any applicable federal, state, local, or international law or regulation (including, without limitation, any laws regarding the export of data or software to and from the US or other countries).
- For the purpose of exploiting, harming, or attempting to exploit or harm minors in any way by exposing them to inappropriate content, asking for personally identifiable information, or otherwise.
- To send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use, or re-use any material that does not comply with the Content Standards set out in these Terms of Use.
- To transmit, or procure the sending of, any advertising or promotional material without our prior written consent, including any “junk mail,” “chain letter,” “spam,” or any other similar solicitation.
- To impersonate or attempt to impersonate the Company, a Company employee, another user, or any other person or entity (including, without limitation, by using email addresses or screen names associated with any of the foregoing).
- To engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits anyone’s use or enjoyment of the Website, or which, as determined by us, may harm the Company or users of the Website, or expose them to liability.
Additionally, you agree not to:
- Use the Website in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the site or interfere with any other party’s use of the Website, including their ability to engage in real time activities through the Website.
- Use any robot, spider, or other automatic device, process, or means to access the Website for any purpose, including monitoring or copying any of the material on the Website.
- Use any manual process to monitor or copy any of the material on the Website, or for any other purpose not expressly authorized in these Terms of Use, without our prior written consent.
- Use any device, software, or routine that interferes with the proper working of the Website.
- Introduce any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, logic bombs, or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful.
- Attempt to gain unauthorized access to, interfere with, damage, or disrupt any parts of the Website, the server on which the Website is stored, or any server, computer, or database connected to the Website.
- Attack the Website via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack.
- Otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website.
User Contributions
The Website may contain comments, message boards, forums, and other interactive features (collectively, “Interactive Services“) that allow users to post, submit, publish, display, or transmit to other users or other persons (hereinafter, “post“) content or materials (collectively, “User Contributions“) on or through the Website.
All User Contributions must comply with the Content Standards set out in these Terms of Use.
Any User Contribution you post to the site will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. By providing any User Contribution on the Website, you grant us and our affiliates and service providers, and each of their and our respective licensees, successors, and assigns the right to use, reproduce, modify, perform, display, distribute, and otherwise disclose to third parties any such material for any purpose/according to your account settings.
You represent and warrant that:
- You own or control all rights in and to the User Contributions and have the right to grant the license granted above to us and our affiliates and service providers, and each of their and our respective licensees, successors, and assigns.
- All of your User Contributions do and will comply with these Terms of Use.
You understand and acknowledge that you are responsible for any User Contributions you submit or contribute, and you, not the Company, have full responsibility for such content, including its legality, reliability, accuracy, and appropriateness.
Users are able to request a data export from the platform.
To request a data export:
- Login to your account
- Go to account settings
- Click on the Data Export tab
- Click on the button Request Data Export
- You will receive a confirmation email that a Data export has been sent to Ancestral Medicine
- Once we approve it you will receive an email with your data file.
We are not responsible or liable to any third party for the content or accuracy of any User Contributions posted by you or any other user of the Website.
Monitoring and Enforcement; Termination
We have the right to:
- Remove or refuse to post any User Contributions for any or no reason at our sole discretion.
- Take any action with respect to any User Contribution that we deem necessary or appropriate in our sole discretion, including if we believe that such User Contribution violates the Terms of Use, including the Content Standards, infringes any intellectual property right or other right of any person or entity, threatens the personal safety of users of the Website or the public, or could create liability for the Company.
- Disclose your identity or other information about you to any third party who claims that material posted by you violates their rights, including their intellectual property rights or their right to privacy.
- Take appropriate legal action, including without limitation, referral to law enforcement, for any illegal or unauthorized use of the Website.
- Terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the Website or other Services for any or no reason, including without limitation, any violation of these Terms of Use.
Without limiting the foregoing, we have the right to cooperate fully with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing us to disclose the identity or other information of anyone posting any materials on or through the Website. You waive and hold harmless the company and its affiliates, licensees, and service providers from any claims resulting from any action taken by the company/any of the foregoing parties during, or taken as a consequence of, investigations by either the company/such parties or law enforcement authorities.
However, we do not undertake to review all material before it is posted on the Website, and cannot ensure prompt removal of objectionable material after it has been posted. Accordingly, we assume no liability for any action or inaction regarding transmissions, communications, or content provided by any user or third party. We have no liability or responsibility to anyone for performance or nonperformance of the activities described in this section.
Content Standards
These content standards apply to any and all User Contributions and use of Interactive Services. User Contributions must in their entirety comply with all applicable federal, state, local, and international laws and regulations. Without limiting the foregoing, User Contributions must not:
- Contain any material that is defamatory, obscene, indecent, abusive, offensive, harassing, violent, hateful, inflammatory, or otherwise objectionable.
- Promote sexually explicit or pornographic material, violence, or discrimination based on race, sex, gender, religion, nationality, ability, sexual orientation, or age.
- Infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other intellectual property or other rights of any other person.
- Violate the legal rights (including the rights of publicity and privacy) of others or contain any material that could give rise to any civil or criminal liability under applicable laws or regulations or that otherwise may be in conflict with these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.
- Be likely to deceive any person.
- Promote any illegal activity, or advocate, promote, or assist any unlawful act.
- Impersonate any person, or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person or organization.
- Involve commercial activities or sales, such as contests, sweepstakes, and other sales promotions, barter, or advertising.
- Give the impression that they emanate from or are endorsed by us or any other person or entity, if this is not the case.
Reliance on Information Posted
The information presented on or through the Website is made available solely for general information purposes. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of this information. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk. We disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by you or any other visitor to the Website, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.
This Website may include content provided by third parties, including materials provided by other users, bloggers, authors, third-party licensors, syndicators, aggregators, and/or reporting services. All statements and/or opinions expressed in these materials, and all articles and responses to questions and other content, other than the content provided by the Company, are solely the opinions and the responsibility of the person or entity providing those materials. These materials do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Company. We are not responsible, or liable to you or any third party, for the content or accuracy of any materials provided by any third parties.
Changes to the Website
We may update the content on this Website from time to time, but its content is not necessarily complete or up-to-date. Any of the material on the Website may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.
Linking to the Website and Social Media Features
You may link to our homepage, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval, or endorsement on our part.
This Website may provide certain social media features that enable you to link from your own or certain third-party websites to certain content on this Website.
You may use this feature solely as they are provided by us and solely with respect to the content they are displayed with. Subject to the foregoing, you must not:
- Establish a link from any website that is not owned by you.
- Cause the Website or portions of it to be displayed on, or appear to be displayed by, any other site, for example, framing, deep linking, or in-line linking.
- Otherwise take any action with respect to the materials on this Website that is inconsistent with any other provision of these Terms of Use.
- You agree to cooperate with us in causing any unauthorized framing or linking immediately to stop. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.
- We may disable all or any social media features and any links at any time without notice at our discretion.
Links from the Website
If the Website contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your convenience only. This includes links contained in advertisements, including banner advertisements and sponsored links. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. If you decide to access any of the third-party websites linked to this Website, you do so entirely at your own risk and subject to the terms and conditions of use for such websites.
Disclaimer of Warranties
We cannot and do not guarantee or warrant that files available for downloading from the internet or the Website will be free of viruses or other destructive code. You are responsible for implementing sufficient procedures and checkpoints to satisfy your particular requirements for anti-virus protection and accuracy of data input and output, and for maintaining a means external to our site for any reconstruction of lost data. To the fullest extent provided by law, we will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data, or other proprietary material due to your use of the Website or any services or items obtained through the Website or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.
Your use of the Website, its content, and any services or items obtained through the website is at your own risk. Neither the company nor any person associated with the company makes any warranty or representation with respect to the completeness, security, reliability, quality, accuracy, or availability of the website. Without limiting the foregoing, neither the company nor anyone associated with the company represents or warrants that the website, its content, or any services or items obtained through the website will be accurate, reliable, error-free, or uninterrupted, that defects will be corrected, that our site or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or other harmful components, or that the website or any services or items obtained through the website will otherwise meet your needs or expectations.
Limitation on Liability
To the fullest extent provided by law, in no event will the collective liability of the company and its subsidiaries and affiliates, and their licensors, service providers, employees, agents, officers, and directors, to any party (regardless of the form of action, whether in contract, tort, or otherwise) exceed the amount you have paid to the company for the applicable content, product, or service in the last 12 months out of which liability arose.
The limitation of liability set out above does not apply to liability resulting from our gross negligence or willful misconduct.
The foregoing does not affect any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.
Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Company, its affiliates, licensors, and service providers, and its and their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, suppliers, successors, and assignees from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses, or fees (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to your violation of these Terms of Use or your use of the Website, including, but not limited to, your User Contributions, any use of the Website’s content, services, and products other than as expressly authorized in these Terms of Use, or your use of any information obtained from the Website.
Governing Law and Jurisdiction
All matters relating to the Website and these Terms of Use, and any dispute or claim arising therefrom or related thereto (in each case, including non-contractual disputes or claims), shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the State of North Carolina without giving effect to any choice or conflict of law provision or rule (whether of the State of North Carolina or any other jurisdiction).
Any legal suit, action, or proceeding arising out of, or related to, these Terms of Use or the Website shall be instituted exclusively in the federal courts of the United States or the courts of the State of North Carolina, in each case located in the City of Swannanoa and County of Buncombe, although we retain the right to bring any suit, action, or proceeding against you for breach of these Terms of Use in your country of residence or any other relevant country. You waive any and all objections to the exercise of jurisdiction over you by such courts and to venue in such courts.
Limitation on Time to File Claims
Any cause of action or claim you may have arising out of or relating to these terms of use or the website must be commenced within one (1) year after the cause of action accrues; otherwise, such cause of action or claim is permanently barred.
Mediation
In the event a dispute arises between You and Ancestral Medicine, and the dispute does not lend itself to direct resolution, the parties agree to participate in good faith in mediation and to share the costs of the mediation process. The mediation shall be administered in North Carolina unless otherwise agreed upon by both parties.
Waiver and Severability
No waiver by the Company of any term or condition set out in these Terms of Use shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or a waiver of any other term or condition, and any failure of the Company to assert a right or provision under these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.
If any provision of these Terms of Use is held by a court or other tribunal of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be eliminated or limited to the minimum extent such that the remaining provisions of the Terms of Use will continue in full force and effect.
Your Comments and Concerns
Thanks for reading through these terms and conditions. Agreement to these terms and conditions is required to participate in Ancestral Medicine offerings. Please reach out if you have any questions.
This website is operated by Ancestral Medicine, Inc., PO Box 351, Union, Washington, 98592, USA.
All other feedback, comments, requests for technical support, and other communications relating to the Website should be directed to: info@ancestralmedicine.org.
These Terms of Use and Privacy Policy will be deemed the final and integrated agreement between you and us on the matters contained in these Terms.
Practitioner Directory
Disclosure and Disclaimer
The Ancestral Healing Practitioner Directory can help you to connect with a certified practitioner of ancestral healing or a practitioner-in-training (trainee) in the Ancestral Healing Practitioner Network.
Although Ancestral Medicine maintains the certification of practitioners and the active status of trainees, we cannot and do not guarantee that any individual would be suitable for the needs of a particular individual. This includes when Ancestral Medicine staff or other teams members have participated in making a referral to a specific practitioner or trainee.
All practitioners and trainees agree to follow the Ancestral Healing Practitioner Code of Ethics and to honor that ancestral healing services are not a substitute for other appropriate and often essential forms of physical, psychological, cultural, and spiritual medicine and healing.
Users of the directory understand and agree that Ancestral Medicine provides the Directory as a resource for the user’s convenience. In the capacity that the practitioners and trainees provide services such that they are listed in this directory, the practitioners and trainees are not employees, contractors, or agents of Ancestral Medicine. User understands that when a practitioner or trainee listed in the directory is also an employee or contractor with Ancestral Medicine, the scope of the engagement between Ancestral Medicine and the practitioner does not encompass the delivery of the ancestral healing sessions. Ancestral Medicine is neither liable nor responsible for the actions of the practitioners and trainees included in the Directory or for the actions of those using the Directory.
Google reCAPTCHA Privacy Policy
Our primary goal is to provide you an experience on our website that is as secure and protected as possible. To do this, we use Google reCAPTCHA from Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). With reCAPTCHA we can determine whether you are a real person from flesh and bones, and not a robot or a spam software. By spam we mean any electronically undesirable information we receive involuntarily. Classic CAPTCHAS usually needed you to solve text or picture puzzles to check. But thanks to Google’s reCAPTCHA you usually do have to do such puzzles. Most of the times it is enough to simply tick a box and confirm you are not a bot. With the new Invisible reCAPTCHA version you don’t even have to tick a box. In this privacy policy you will find out how exactly this works, and what data is used for it.
What is reCAPTCHA?
reCAPTCHA is a free captcha service from Google that protects websites from spam software and misuse by non-human visitors. This service is used the most when you fill out forms on the Internet. A captcha service is a type of automatic Turing-test that is designed to ensure specific actions on the Internet are done by human beings and not bots. During the classic Turing-test (named after computer scientist Alan Turing), a person differentiates between bot and human. With Captchas, a computer or software program does the same. Classic captchas function with small tasks that are easy to solve for humans but provide considerable difficulties to machines. With reCAPTCHA, you no longer must actively solve puzzles. The tool uses modern risk techniques to distinguish people from bots. The only thing you must do there, is to tick the text field “I am not a robot”. However, with Invisible reCAPTCHA even that is no longer necessary. reCAPTCHA, integrates a JavaScript element into the source text, after which the tool then runs in the background and analyses your user behaviour. The software calculates a so-called captcha score from your user actions. Google uses this score to calculate the likelihood of you being a human, before entering the captcha. reCAPTCHA and Captchas in general are used every time bots could manipulate or misuse certain actions (such as registrations, surveys, etc.).
Why do we use reCAPTCHA on our website?
We only want to welcome people from flesh and bones on our side and want bots or spam software of all kinds to stay away. Therefore, we are doing everything we can to stay protected and to offer you the highest possible user friendliness. For this reason, we use Google reCAPTCHA from Google. Thus, we can be pretty sure that we will remain a “bot-free” website. Using reCAPTCHA, data is transmitted to Google to determine whether you genuinely are human. reCAPTCHA thus ensures our website’s and subsequently your security. Without reCAPTCHA it could e.g. happen that a bot would register as many email addresses as possible when registering, in order to subsequently “spam” forums or blogs with unwanted advertising content. With reCAPTCHA we can avoid such bot attacks.
What data is stored by reCAPTCHA?
reCAPTCHA collects personal user data to determine whether the actions on our website are made by people. Thus, IP addresses and other data Google needs for its reCAPTCHA service, may be sent to Google. Within member states of the European Economic Area, IP addresses are almost always compressed before the data makes its way to a server in the USA.
Moreover, your IP address will not be combined with any other of Google’s data, unless you are logged into your Google account while using reCAPTCHA. Firstly, the reCAPTCHA algorithm checks whether Google cookies from other Google services (YouTube, Gmail, etc.) have already been placed in your browser. Then reCAPTCHA sets an additional cookie in your browser and takes a snapshot of your browser window.
The following list of collected browser and user data is not exhaustive. Rather, it provides examples of data, which to our knowledge, is processed by Google.
- Referrer URL (the address of the page the visitor has come from)
- IP-address (z.B. 256.123.123.1)
Information on the operating system (the software that enables the operation of your computers. Popular operating systems are Windows, Mac OS X or Linux)
- Cookies (small text files that save data in your browser)
Mouse and keyboard behaviour (every action you take with your mouse or keyboard is stored)
- Date and language settings (the language and date you have set on your PC is saved)
- All Javascript objects (JavaScript is a programming language that allows websites to adapt to the user. JavaScript objects can collect all kinds of data under one name)
- Screen resolution (shows how many pixels the image display consists of)
Google may use and analyse this data even before you click on the “I am not a robot” checkmark. In the Invisible reCAPTCHA version, there is no need to even tick at all, as the entire recognition process runs in the background. Moreover, Google have not given details on what information and how much data they retain.
The following cookies are used by reCAPTCHA: With the following list we are referring to Google’s reCAPTCHA demo version at https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api2/demo.
For tracking purposes, all these cookies require a unique identifier. Here is a list of cookies that Google reCAPTCHA has set in the demo version:
Name: IDE
Value: WqTUmlnmv_qXyi_DGNPLESKnRNrpgXoy1K-pAZtAkMbHI-111401120-8
Purpose:This cookie is set by DoubleClick (which is owned by Google) to register and report a user’s interactions with advertisements. With it, ad effectiveness can be measured, and appropriate optimisation measures can be taken. IDE is stored in browsers under the domain doubleclick.net.
Expiry date: after one year
Name: 1P_JAR
Value: 2019-5-14-12
Purpose: This cookie collects website usage statistics and measures conversions. A conversion e.g. takes place, when a user becomes a buyer. The cookie is also used to display relevant adverts to users. Furthermore, the cookie can prevent a user from seeing the same ad more than once.
Expiry date: after one month
Name: ANID
Value: U7j1v3dZa1114011200xgZFmiqWppRWKOr
Purpose:We could not find out much about this cookie. In Google’s privacy statement, the cookie is mentioned in connection with “advertising cookies” such as “DSID”, “FLC”, “AID” and “TAID”. ANID is stored under the domain google.com.
Expiry date: after 9 months
Name: CONSENT
Value: YES+AT.de+20150628-20-0
Purpose: This cookie stores the status of a user’s consent to the use of various Google services. CONSENT also serves to prevent fraudulent logins and to protect user data from unauthorised attacks.
Expiry date: after 19 years
Name: NID
Value: 0WmuWqy111401120zILzqV_nmt3sDXwPeM5Q
Purpose: Google uses NID to customise advertisements to your Google searches. With the help of cookies, Google “remembers” your most frequently entered search queries or your previous ad interactions. Thus, you always receive advertisements tailored to you. The cookie contains a unique ID to collect users’ personal settings for advertising purposes.
Expiry date: after 6 months
Name: DV
Value: gEAABBCjJMXcI0dSAAAANbqc111401120-4
Purpose: This cookie is set when you tick the “I am not a robot” checkmark. Google Analytics uses the cookie personalised advertising. DV collects anonymous information and is also used to distinct between users.
Expiry date: after 10 minutes
Note: We do not claim for this list to be extensive, as Google often change the choice of their cookies.
How long and where are the data stored?
Due to the integration of reCAPTCHA, your data will be transferred to the Google server. Google have not disclosed where exactly this data is stored, despite repeated inquiries. But even without confirmation from Google, it can be assumed that data such as mouse interaction, length of stay on a website or language settings are stored on the European or American Google servers. The IP address that your browser transmits to Google does generally not get merged with other Google data from the company’s other services.
However, the data will be merged if you are logged in to your Google account while using the reCAPTCHA plug-in. Google’s diverging privacy policy applies for this.
How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?
If you want to prevent any data about you and your behaviour to be transmitted to Google, you must fully log out of Google and delete all Google cookies before visiting our website or use the reCAPTCHA software. Generally, the data is automatically sent to Google as soon as you visit our website. To delete this data, you must contact Google Support at https://support.google.com/?hl=en-GB&tid=111401120.
If you use our website, you agree that Google LLC and its representatives automatically collect, edit and use data.
You can find out more about reCAPTCHA on Google’s Developers page at https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/. While Google do give more detail on the technical development of reCAPTCHA there, they have not disclosed precise information about data retention and data protection. A good, basic overview of the use of data however, can be found in the company’s internal privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.
