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Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 12, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes what information Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages ("we", "us", or "our") collects when you use Living Dictionaries at https://livingdictionaries.app (the "Site"), how we use it, and the choices you have.

Living Dictionaries is a language-documentation platform. Some information added to the Site is intentionally public language data; other information is account, collaboration, support, diagnostic, or operational data. We do not sell personal information, and we do not use advertising trackers.

Information We Collect

Account information

When you create or use an account, we may collect:

  • Email address for sign-in, invitations, account notices, and support.
  • Name and avatar if you provide them or sign in with Google.
  • Sign-in provider information showing whether you used email sign-in or Google sign-in.
  • Preferred locale, unsubscribe status, account creation/update timestamps, and last-visit information.

You can sign in with a one-time code sent to your email or with your Google account. If you use Google sign-in, Google may share your name, email address, and profile picture with us, subject to Google's Privacy Policy.

Dictionary and collaboration information

The Site stores dictionary metadata and content, including dictionary names, URLs, alternate names, language and gloss languages, locations, coordinates, ISO or Glottolog identifiers, public/private status, print/export settings, community-permission notes, author-connection notes, citations, grammar notes, partners, collaborators, roles, and invitations.

Dictionary content may include entries, senses, definitions, glosses, example sentences, texts, audio, photos, videos, tags, dialect labels, sources, notes, and other language-documentation data.

Public dictionaries are visible to anyone. Private dictionaries are visible to authorized collaborators and administrators. If a dictionary is public or export/print access is enabled, its content may be viewed, printed, downloaded, indexed by search engines, or shared outside the Site.

Media and speaker information

Contributors may add audio recordings, photos, videos, and related metadata such as source, photographer, videographer, and links to hosted videos. Contributors may also add speaker records, including name, decade of birth, gender, birthplace, and regional information.

Contributors are responsible for obtaining necessary speaker, rights-holder, and community permission before adding media, speaker details, or public language materials.

Messages you send us

If you use the Contact form or email us, we collect the message, your name and email address, related URL, reply metadata, and any attachments so we can respond and manage support conversations.

Usage, analytics, and diagnostic data

Like nearly every website, our servers keep standard request logs, which may include IP address, browser type, pages requested, timestamps, and related technical information.

The app also records first-party diagnostic and usage events in our own server database. These may include error reports, crash diagnostics, session starts, heartbeats, navigation events, URL, user agent, app version, build target, a session identifier, and related troubleshooting context. We use this information for security, troubleshooting, performance, reliability, and understanding how the Site is used so we can improve it.

We do not use Google Analytics in the new Site, and we do not use advertising analytics, cross-site tracking, or profiling for advertising.

Cookies

We use an essential session cookie to keep you signed in. It is required for signed-in parts of the Site to work and expires after 30 days or when you log out.

We do not use advertising cookies or third-party tracking cookies. Third-party services you choose to use, such as Google sign-in or embedded YouTube/Vimeo content, may set their own cookies or use their own tracking technologies under their own policies.

Storage on Your Device

To make the Site fast, resilient, and usable with local-first sync, the app stores dictionary data and app state in your browser's local site storage, including browser-managed SQLite storage. Diagnostic logs may also be buffered locally before being sent to our server.

This local data stays on your device unless it is synced to the Site as part of normal app operation. You can remove it by clearing your browser's site data for livingdictionaries.app, though doing so may remove offline data and require the app to re-sync.

How We Use Information

We use information to:

  • Provide, sync, back up, display, search, print, and export dictionaries and related language materials.
  • Keep you signed in and manage your account.
  • Send one-time sign-in codes, invitations, account notices, support replies, and other transactional email.
  • Manage dictionary roles, collaborators, invitations, and permissions.
  • Respond to messages, support requests, copyright notices, community requests, and abuse reports.
  • Protect the Site, prevent misuse, investigate errors, and maintain reliable service.
  • Understand aggregate usage and improve the Site without advertising profiling.
  • Comply with legal obligations and enforce our terms and policies.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing.

Service Providers

We share information with a small number of providers only as needed to operate the Site:

  • Google for optional sign-in, media storage, and media delivery infrastructure.
  • Amazon Web Services for sending transactional email such as sign-in codes and notifications.
  • Cloudflare for object storage, email routing, and related infrastructure.
  • Mapbox for maps and map tiles, which may receive request information such as IP address when maps load.
  • YouTube and Vimeo when contributors embed or link hosted videos.
  • Hosting and infrastructure providers that run the servers, databases, backups, and network services supporting the Site.

Each provider receives only what is needed to perform its function, and each provider's use of information is governed by its own terms and privacy policy.

Public Content and Embedded Content

Public dictionary pages, media, citations, sources, and other public materials may be viewed by visitors and may be indexed by search engines or archived by third parties. If you include links or embedded content from other websites, those websites may collect data about visitors who interact with that content.

The Site may also contain links to websites we do not operate. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of third-party websites, and we encourage you to review their policies.

Disclosure Required by Law

We may disclose information if required by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities; to protect the rights, property, safety, or cultural interests of language communities, contributors, users, the Site, or the public; to investigate possible wrongdoing; or to enforce our terms and policies.

If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will provide notice before personal information becomes subject to a materially different privacy policy.

International Transfers

The Site is hosted in the United States. If you access the Site from outside the United States, information may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States and other countries where our service providers operate. These countries may have data-protection laws different from those in your location.

Retention, Export, Correction, and Deletion

We keep account information for as long as your account exists, plus any period needed for legal, security, backup, accounting, abuse-prevention, or dispute-resolution purposes. Server logs and diagnostic logs are kept for shorter operational periods unless needed to investigate a problem.

Dictionary content is retained while the dictionary exists or while it is needed for backups, sync, exports, legal compliance, community requests, or dispute resolution. Public and exported content may remain available outside our control if it has been downloaded, printed, indexed, archived, or shared by others.

Dictionary managers can export dictionary data from the Site. To request access to, correction of, export of, or deletion of your account information, contact us at [email protected].

Deletion requests may be limited where information is part of a shared dictionary, needed to preserve language documentation, needed to honor community decisions, required for legal compliance, or retained in backups for a limited period. We will work with affected users, dictionary managers, and language communities to handle removal requests appropriately.

Community and Speaker Requests

If you are a speaker, community member, contributor, or rights holder and believe content about you or your community should not be public, contact us at [email protected]. We may remove, restrict, or review content based on privacy, consent, cultural sensitivity, rights-holder, or community concerns.

Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect information. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Children's Privacy

The Site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without required verifiable parental consent. If you are a parent or guardian and believe a child under 13 has provided personal information to us, contact us and we will remove it as quickly as reasonably practical.

Users under 18 may use the Site only with the consent and supervision of a parent or legal guardian.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the new version on this page and update the "Last updated" date. For material changes, we may also notify users by email or a prominent notice on the Site.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or want to make a privacy, export, correction, deletion, or community-content request, contact us at:

Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages
4676 Commercial St SE, #454
Salem, OR 97302
United States
[email protected]