Who we are
We are researchers collaborating on academic data analysis competitions. Our official website addresses are: www.weather4cast.org and www.weather4cast.net.
Posts, Comments, and Submissions
When visitors make a submission to the competition, post on the forums, or leave comments on the web site then we collect the data provided by the visitors, and also their IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from registered user email addresses (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if they are using it. The Gravatar service Privacy Policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your post or comment, your gravatar profile picture will be visible to the public in the context of your post or comment.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you may want to 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.
Cookies
If you post on the forums or 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 forum posts or an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the ID of the post or article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Posts or pages 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. You can install web-browser extensions like uMatrix to block such content.
Who we share your data with
Automated emails are sent through the WP Mail SMTP plugin and GMail. If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
How long we retain your data
If you make a submission to the competition, post on the forums, or leave a comment, your contribution and its metadata are retained indefinitely unless you ask for them to be removed. For submissions and posts, this is needed for the competition or forums to funcion. For comments, this is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website 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 made submissions, posted on the forums, or 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.
Where your data is sent
Visitor posts or comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. Automated emails are sent through the WP Mail SMTP plugin and GMail.