Who we are

We are the International Society for Artificial Life. To learn more about us, see our about page. Our website address is: https://alife.org.

 

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

 

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

 

What data we collect

When you fill out a form on our website we collect the following information:

  • Form Fields Data: Forms Fields data includes the available field types when creating a form. We’ll use this to, for example, collect information like Name, Email and other available fields.
  • Location, IP address and browser type: we’ll use this for purposes like geolocating users and reducing fraudulent activities.

We’ll also use cookies to keep track of form elements while you’re browsing our site.

 

Payments

When new members register for ISAL via our website, we process payments via Wild Apricot, our membership management service. When you register as a member or renew your membership, all of the information you enter into the form will be sent to Wild Apricot.

 

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish anything (a job posting, an encyclopedia article, etc.), an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

To learn more about the specifics of cookies we use, check out our cookie policy.

 

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website. To turn off this behavior, you can set your cookie preferences (available in the lower left corner of the page) to reject third-party cookies. Doing so will break embedded media.

 

Who we share your data with

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

Our log-in system is managed by our membership management service, Wild Apricot. If you log in, your log-in credentials will be sent to them for verification. When you register for the society or update your Wild Apricot profile, that information will also be sent to Wild Apricot and retained there until you delete it.

If you become an ISAL member, we will share you information with MIT Press to let them know that you should have access to the Artifial Life journal (which they publish). When you use your membership to access the Artificial Life journal (published by MIT Press) through our website, we will also share with them the fact that we have authenticated you as member for that specific browsing session.

We will never sell your data.

 

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For society members that log in, we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

 

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

If you want to delete a job that you posted, you are free to do so yourself or you may request that we do it for you.

The once exception is contributions that you make to the ALife encyclopedia. By contributing to the Encyclopedia of Artificial Life, you agree that the text and images you contribute are perpetually and irrevocably available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License. That said, if for some reason it is really important that you remove content that you previously contributed to the encyclopedia, please contact us about it and we’ll see if we can find a solution.

 

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.