Privacy Policy
Short summary: we only collect strictly necessary information, only set strictly necessary cookies, do not track users, and never sell or give your information to third parties.
CellMarkers is committed to protecting the privacy of users. This "Privacy Policy" details how we might access, collect, store, use, and/or share information about you when you use our websites, databases, apps, APIs, and other services (collectively, the "Services").
This Privacy Policy applies to anyone using our Services. By using our Services, you agree to the collection and use of your information according to this Privacy Policy. Please see the Terms of Service and Copyright page before using our Services. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, do not use our Services. If you have questions or concerns, please contact us at cellmarkersdatabase@gmail.com.
Sections
Information we collect and how it is used and shared
When using our Services, we collect information in the following ways:
We use this information to:
- provide our Services
- secure our Services
- troubleshoot issues with our Services
- personalize your experience on our Services
Information you provide
Summary: We collect personal information that you supply to us and use it to provide our Services. We do not share any information with third parties. The personal information we collect may include the following:
- email address
- job title
- name
- organization
- password
Basic account information
We ask for basic information from you in order to set up your account. Creating an account is voluntary, but is required if you wish to submit content to our Services. If you create an account, you must provide your name, email, and a password. Creating an account provides you with a personalized experience on our Services (ability to log in, perform certain actions, save preferences). Your name will be displayed on your public profile. Your email is private information and can only be accessed by CellMarkers admins. We cannot view your password, as it is stored as a cryptographic hash. We may use your email address to communicate critical information regarding our Services, such as updates to this Privacy Policy. We do not send marketing emails and do not share your account information with any third parties. This information will be stored as long as we provide our Services or until you request account deletion.
Public profile information
If you create an account, we may collect information that you voluntarily provide for your public profile. This includes your job title, organization, or an "about me" description. This information is completely optional, but will be displayed on your public profile if provided. We signal to Internet search engines to skip indexing profile pages. This profile information is not used for any other purpose, is not shared with third parties, and is only retained as long as you keep it on your profile.
Content you submit
We collect any scientific content (e.g. scientific information, data, knowledge, or reports) that you intentionally upload, submit, or provide to our Services. This content may include raw data, text, links/URLs, and images. As a scientific database, our core mission is to publicly share this scientific information. Any visitors to and users of our Services will be able to see that content, your name associated with that content, and the date and time the content was submitted or edited. Our scientific content may be shared through public or private APIs provided by our services. Additionally, Internet search engines like Google or Bing may index this scientific content. Please see our Copyright page for more information on how scientific content is made publicly available. Scientific content that you provide will be publicly linked to your account and your name will be displayed on data pages you have uploaded or edited. Upon account deletion, this information will be unlinked from your account and de-identified, but the scientific content itself will remain publicly available. We will retain this information as long as our Services are provided.
Other information
We may collect other information that you voluntarily provide to us, such as survey results and feature feedback. Collection of this information will be opt-in, anonymous, and not linked to your account. We may use this information to determine how our Services are used or to improve features in our Services. This information is not public and will not be shared with third parties. We will retain this information only as long as necessary to improve our Services or specific features and no longer than twelve months.
Information collected automatically
Summary: Some information is collected automatically when you use or visit our Services. We do not share any information with third parties. The personal information we automatically collect may include the following:
- browser characteristics
- device characteristics
- internet protocol (IP) addresses
Log and usage data
When you access and/or visit our Services we log your IP address, user-agent string, browser characteristics, device characteristics, operating system, and activity on our Services. Activities logged include page visits, content downloaded or printed, and search queries. These logs do not identify you and are not associated with your account. Your IP may be associated with your account for security purposes. We use log data to maintain security, ensure reliability, and prevent unwanted "spam" content. Browser user-agent information is used to ensure web browser compatibility. Usage pattern information is used to determine how our Services are used and to improve them. Log and usage data are not shared publicly or with third parties.
Cookies and similar technologies
// eslint-disable-next-line vue/singleline-html-element-content-newline We use cookies and similar technologies to store small amounts of data in your browser. When you access our Services, we may retrieve information from these cookies or similar technologies. We only set, use, and access cookies from within our own Services. We do not use or set third-party cookies and we do not use cookies to track user activities or behavior. For descriptive cookie information, see our Cookie Policy. Our Services may link to third-party websites that may set their own cookies if you use their services.
Legal bases for data processing
For European Union (EU) residents, these are the legal bases for processing information about you:
- We have a legitimate interest in using your information: to provide and update our Services; to improve our Services; to safeguard our Services; to communicate with you; to monitor and prevent any problems with our Services; and to personalize your experience.
- The use is necessary in order to fulfill our commitments to you: for example, in order to enable access to our website on your device or to provide you with access to our Services.
- You have given us your consent: to create an account for you; and to display optional public profile information you voluntarily provided. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
For California residents, we have collected the following categories of personal information in the last 12 months, depending on the Services used:
- Identifiers and account information, like your name, email address, IP address.
- Internet or other electronic network activity information, like your activity on our Services.
- Professional or employment-related information or demographic information, but only if you explicitly provided it to us.
International information transfer
Our servers are located in the United States. If you are accessing our Services from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored by, and processed by us on servers the United States.
If you are a resident in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or Switzerland, then the United States may not necessarily have data protection laws or other similar laws as comprehensive as those in your country. However, we will take all necessary measures to protect your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable law.
Third-party privacy
Our Services may link or otherwise refer to third-party websites, APIs, databases, apps, stores, or services. We are not affiliated with these third parties. Accordingly, any data collected by third parties is not covered by this Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for the content or privacy and security practices of any third parties.
Information storage and security
CellMarkers is committed to the security and protection of users of our Services. While no online service is 100% secure, we take appropriate steps to ensure the security and safety of user information collected by our Services. User credentials are stored securely on our servers. We restrict staff access to private information collected by our Services. Staff can never access or see your password. We also utilize rate limiting and spam blocking technologies to protect our Services.
Your choices regarding this information
Changing your information
You may change your account and profile information provided to us by editing your account preferences at any time.
Requesting your information
Regardless of where you live, you may request a free copy of your personal information collected and stored by our Services by contacting us from your account email and mentioning the data request. We will promptly respond to such requests.
Deleting your account
Regardless of where you live, you may send us a request to delete your account information at any time. Account deletion is permanent and cannot be reversed. Upon requesting account deletion, and confirming that request, we will destroy any public and private account information collected for your account. Note that scientific content provided by you will not be destroyed. Instead, it will be unlinked from your account and de-identified (we will remove the public name on the content).
If you wish to delete your account, please contact us from your account email and mention account deletion in the email.
Cookie Policy
Cookies and similar technologies are only set from within our own Services. We do not set or use third-party cookies on our Services. We only use strictly necessary cookies and similar technologies to store small amounts of information in your browser. This information includes account information and authorization tokens. We use these cookies or similar technologies to keep your account logged in and to provide authorization to perform certain actions. We do not use these technologies to track users or obtain analytics data. Please note that if you disable cookies while on our Services, some features may not work to their full capacity (you won't stay logged in). If you do not check the "remember me" box when logging in, your browser should remove all cookies when you close your browser.
Anyone using our Services acknowledges that we utilize strictly necessary cookies and similar technologies as a part of normal operation. If you object to the usage of cookies and similar technologies, please do not create an account on our Services or disable cookie usage in your browser.
The table below explains what strictly necessary cookies are set by our Services.
| Cookie | Duration (default) | Purpose |
| session | 90 days | User session management (tells us you are logged in) |
| user | 90 days | User session management (tells us your account info) |
The table below explains what strictly necessary LocalStorage data are set by our Services.
| Key | Purpose |
| token | Security token (prevents someone tricking you to perform an action) |
Do Not Track
Many browsers provide a mechanism to send a "Do Not Track" signal to websites. Since we do not track users using cookies or related technologies on our Services, we do not acknowledge these signals.
Copyrighted, trademarked, or protected content
We respect the copyright and trademarks of others. If you believe copyrighted content, trademarked work, or otherwise protected content has been inappropriately added to our Services, please see our Copyright page. If appropriate, we will remove such content from our Services.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Changes to this Privacy Policy may occur from time to time. When we make a revision, we will update the date at the top of this page and list a summary of the changes below. Users will be notified if substantial changes are made to this Privacy Policy. This notice will be delivered via our Services and/or email well before the significant changes to this Privacy Policy come into effect. Changes to this Privacy Policy should be reviewed before you continue using our Services.
Changelog:
- March 24, 2025: Published the Privacy Policy.
- April 10, 2025: Clarified cookies set by the site.