Privacy

What the records say about people

The database records the benefits of AI systems from published sources. Public bodies, companies, officials, researchers and public figures appear in the records under the names used in the sources.

Since 31 October 2026 private individuals are not named in the records. They include people suspected, charged or convicted of an offense, patients, people injured in accidents, recipients of aid, minors and relatives whose names would identify them. Such a person is described by role or age, such as “a 30-year-old woman”. Inside a quotation, the replacement stands in square brackets.

Some source links keep a name in their address, such as the file name of a court filing. They stay so that readers can check the source.

The legal basis

For people in the European Union and the United Kingdom, the database processes personal data from published sources. It does so for research and for the public interest in knowing what AI systems do. The legal basis is legitimate interests, under Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation.

For health information in a published source, the basis is that the person made it public, under Article 9(2)(e). It may also be that the processing serves research with safeguards, under Articles 9(2)(j) and 89. The safeguards are that private individuals are not named and that each record keeps only the details that its benefit requires.

What the website collects

The website runs no analytics and sets no cookies. Some pages keep your settings and the records that you select in your browser’s local storage, and they never leave your device.

GitHub hosts the website. GitHub logs the IP address of each visit for security, under the GitHub General Privacy Statement.

Corrections and removal

If you are named in a record, or described so that others can recognize you, you can ask for a change or a removal. Write to peter.vartanian@icloud.com with the record number and your request. You will receive an answer within 30 days.

A person who is not a public figure is removed from the record or described by role. The change appears in the record’s revision history without your name.

Harvard Dataverse archives each edition of the data. When a request concerns an archived edition, the affected versions are withdrawn from public view and a corrected edition replaces them.

Who decides

Peter H. Vartanian edits the database and decides how its data are used.