Privacy policy

About Lingscape

Lingscape is a project funded and managed by the University of Luxembourg (the “UniLux”), a public institution of higher education and research governed by the modified Law of 27 June 2018 on the organisation of the University of Luxembourg, registered in RCS Luxembourg under No. J20, whose registered office is at 2, place de l’Université, L-4365 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.

Unless otherwise stated, any reference to “Lingscape” in these Terms and Conditions (the “Terms”) means the UniLux, the legal entity that operates and manages the Lingscape project.

Lingscape is a citizen science project that promotes the diversity and dynamics of public writing. Our goal is to foster a better understanding of the role of language for societies, while supporting open, democratic, and sustainable scientific practice. We provide tools that allow users to upload their own photos or explore a map featuring contributions from others, showcasing signs and lettering from linguistic landscapes around the world.

Acceptance of Terms

These Terms apply to the Lingscape application located at “lingscape-app.uni.lu”, all associated applications and websites (collectively, the “Site”). The Site is the property of Unilux. BY USING THE SITE, YOU AGREE TO THESE TERMS OF USE; IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, PLEASE DO NOT USE THE SITE.

Lingscape reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms, at any time. It is your responsibility to check these Terms periodically for changes. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes will mean that you accept and agree to the changes. As long as you comply with these Terms, Lingscape grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited privilege to enter and use the Site.

For any inquiries regarding Lingscape or these Terms, you may contact us at: .

License to use the Site

Unless otherwise stated, all content available on or through the Site, including, but not limited to, text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, and data compilations, is the exclusive property of Lingscape or its content providers and is protected by the applicable intellectual property laws. Subject to the license below, all these intellectual property rights are reserved.

You may access and use the Service as made available to you, as long as you comply with these Terms and the law. You may view the Content for your personal, non-commercial use.

Unless otherwise stated, the following restrictions apply to content owned or licensed by Lingscape and made available through the Site.

You must not:

• sell or sub-license material from the application;
• show any material from the application in public without attribution to Lingscape;
• reproduce or otherwise exploit material from this application for a commercial purpose;
• edit or otherwise modify any material from the application; or
• redistribute material from this application without attribution to Lingscape.

The restrictions above are without prejudice to any pre-existing licenses applicable to uploaded materials (such as images), including but not limited to Creative Commons licenses.

You may inquire, or request permission to use the copyright materials in the Site by writing to .

Acceptable use

You must not use this Site in any way that causes, or may cause, damage to the Site or impairment of the availability or accessibility of the Site; or in any way which is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful, or in connection with any unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful purpose or activity.

You must not use this Site to copy, store, host, transmit, publish or distribute any material that contains or is linked to, any malware, including but not limited to spyware, computer virus, trojan horse, worm, keystroke logger, rootkit or other malicious software.

You may not use any “deep-link”, “page-scrape”, “robot”, “spider” or other automatic device, program, algorithm or methodology, or any similar or equivalent manual process, to access, acquire, reproduce or monitor any portion of the Site, or in any way reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Site, in order to obtain or attempt to obtain any materials, documents or information through any means not purposely made available through the Site.

You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to any portion or feature of the Site, or any other systems, networks, servers, or services connected to or accessible through the Site, by hacking, password “mining” or any other illegitimate or unlawful means.

You may not probe, scan or test the vulnerability of the Site or any network connected to the Site, nor breach the security or authentication measures on the Site or any network connected to the Site.

You agree not to use any device, software or mechanism to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Site or any transaction being conducted on the Site, or with any other person’s use of the Site.

You must not use this Site to transmit or send unsolicited commercial communications.

Account registration and responsibilities

Certain features offered on or through the Site may require you to open an account for purposes of registering a project. Registered users may also be able to invite new users to join their projects, which would allow them to access and upload data related to the specific project. All users, including those invited to a project by a registered user, are subject to and bound by the Terms. Registered users are responsible for ensuring that invited users understand and comply with the Terms.

You are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the information you hold for your account, including your password, and for any and all activity that occurs under your account as a result of your failing to keep this information secure and confidential.

Access to certain areas of this Site is restricted. Lingscape reserves the right to restrict access to areas of this Site at Lingscape’s discretion.

We may terminate your Lingscape account or restrict your access to and use of Lingscape features if you are in breach of applicable laws or any service terms.

In any event, we will notify you in writing if your Lingscape Account is terminated or your access to Lingscape services is restricted. You may contact us if you believe this decision was made in error.

User content

Under these Terms, “your user content” (the “Content”) means material (including without limitation text, images and meta data) that you submit to this Site, for whatever purpose.

All Content contributed by users to the Site may be made available by Lingscape to third parties in accordance with these Terms.

If you are the proprietor of the Intellectual Property Rights over the Content contributed to the Site, you hereby authorise Lingscape to make that Content available to third parties.

If you are not the proprietor of the Intellectual Property Rights of the Content contributed, you guarantee that either:

• you are authorised by the proprietor of the Intellectual Property Rights of the Content to authorise Lingscape to make that Content available to Third Parties; or
• the Content is in the public domain.

You retain all of your ownership rights in your Content. However, to enable Lingscape to operate the Site, you grant certain rights as outlined below.

If required, and in addition to the rights granted above, you grant Lingscape a free, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, distribute, publicly display, and make your Content available to third parties, to the extent necessary for the operation of the service. This license ends once the Content is removed from the Site by you or by Lingscape, or when your account is suspended or deleted.

Illegal content

User content must not be illegal or unlawful, must not infringe any third party’s legal rights, and must not be capable of giving rise to legal action whether against you or Lingscape or a third party under applicable law.

When uploading content to the Site, you agree not to submit any material that:

• infringes copyright or other intellectual property rights;
• condones or glorifies crimes against humanity or terrorism;
• incites violence, hatred, or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability;
• promotes or depicts child sexual abuse or exploitation;
• incites sexual or gender-based violence;
• violates the dignity or fundamental rights of others, including right to privacy and to personal data protection.

Lingscape, as an intermediary entity, does not have the capability to individually review every submission made by users. Therefore, Lingscape is not responsible for the content uploaded by users, and the user will bear full responsibility for such content. You acknowledge and accept that Lingscape is not responsible or liable for ensuring that visitors comply with the Terms.

Lingscape reserves the right to edit or remove any material submitted to this Site, or stored on Lingscape’s servers, or published in this Site.

Infringement and takedown requests

If your copyright-protected work was posted on Lingscape without your authorization, or if you believe that any content submitted is otherwise illegal, you may submit a removal request by emailing us at .

After a removal request is submitted, Lingscape reviews it to make sure it has the information required by applicable copyright law and shows no signs of abuse. If the removal request passes the review, Lingscape promptly removes the allegedly infringing content to comply with applicable copyright law.

If the removal request is missing information or if more detail is needed, Lingscape will reach out to the claimant for more information. For example, concerning copyright infringement requests, claimants may be asked to:

• provide a more specific title of the copyrighted work;
• submit evidence of authorization to act on behalf of the copyright owner, if applicable;
• confirm whether copyright exceptions, such as fair use or fair dealing, have been considered.

Until we’ve received the required information, the content in question may remain on Lingscape.

When content is removed, Lingscape will make reasonable efforts to notify the user who posted the content, explaining the removal and informing them of their right to submit a counter-notice if they believe the removal was incorrect. Users may submit a counter-notice by contacting us at . Upon receipt of a valid counter-notice, Lingscape will review the information and may reinstate the content if appropriate.

No warranties

The Site is provided “as is” without any representations or warranties, express or implied. Lingscape makes no representations or warranties in relation to the Site or the information and materials provided on the Site.

Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing paragraph, Lingscape does not warrant that:

• the Site will be constantly available, or available at all; or
• the information on the Site is complete, true, accurate or non-misleading.
• any files or data downloaded from the Site will be free of viruses, malware, or other harmful components.

Nothing in the Site constitutes, or is meant to constitute, advice of any kind.

Limitations of liability

Lingscape will not be liable to you in relation to the contents of, or use of, or otherwise in connection with, this Site:

• to the extent that the Site is provided free-of-charge, for any direct loss;
• for any indirect, special, consequential, punitive or exemplary damages; or
• for any business losses, loss of revenue, income, profits or anticipated savings, loss of contracts or business relationships, loss of reputation or goodwill, or loss or corruption of information or data.

Nothing in these Terms is intended to exclude or limit any party’s liability for: death or personal injury; fraud; fraudulent misrepresentation; or any liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law.

Other parties

You agree that the limitations of warranties and liability set out in this Site disclaimer will protect Lingscape’s employees, assigns and sub-contractors as well as Lingscape.

Unenforceable provisions

If any provision on these Terms is, or is found to be, unenforceable under applicable law, that will not affect the enforceability of the other provisions of these Terms.

Indemnity

You hereby indemnify Lingscape and undertake to keep Lingscape indemnified against any losses, damages, costs, liabilities and expenses (including without limitation legal expenses and any amounts paid by Lingscape to a third party in settlement of a claim or dispute) incurred or suffered by Lingscape arising out of any breach by you of any provision of these Terms.

Breaches of these Terms

Without prejudice to Lingscape’s other rights under these Terms, if you breach these Terms in any way, Lingscape may take such action as Lingscape deems appropriate to deal with the breach, including prohibiting you from accessing the Site, blocking devices using your IP address from accessing the application, contacting your service provider to request that they block your access to the Site or bringing court proceedings against you.

Assignment

Lingscape may transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with Lingscape’s rights and obligations under these Terms without notifying you or obtaining your consent.

You may not transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with your rights or obligations under these Terms.

Severability

If a provision of these terms and conditions is determined by any court or other competent authority to be unlawful or unenforceable, the other provisions will continue in effect. If any unlawful or unenforceable provision would be lawful or enforceable if part of it were deleted, that part will be deemed to be deleted, and the rest of the provision will continue in effect.

Entire agreement

These Terms, together with the privacy statement, constitute the entire agreement between you and Lingscape in relation to your use of this Site, and supersede all previous agreements in respect of your use of this Site.

Law and jurisdiction

These terms and conditions will be governed by and construed in accordance with Luxembourg law, and any disputes relating to these terms and conditions will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Luxembourg.

Lingscape’s details

Lingscape is a research project by the Institute for Luxembourgish language and literatures at the University of Luxembourg.

Privacy policy

Your privacy is important to Lingscape. This privacy policy provides information about the personal data that Lingscape collects, and the ways in which Lingscape uses and processes that personal data. This privacy policy is part of the Terms.

Personal data collection

Lingscape will collect and use the following kind of personal data:

• Location: The app uses geolocations for the upload of photos to the server. We will not track or store any movement data from our users. If your operating system location services are activated, the app will use this information for localizing you on the map. The app will ask you for your approval to use the location services within the app. You can revoke this approval at any time in your device’s general settings. The geolocations are uploaded to the server together with the photo. The time and the date the photos are uploaded and the country are also collected as metadata.
• Name: You do not need to enter your name in order to use the app. Be aware that if you enter your name to claim the copyright for your uploaded photos, your name will be stored on Lingscape’s server and published online together with the photos.
• User account information: Your user name and email address only if you create a user account so as to use Lingscape for a specific project as a registered user. Invited users need to provide their first and last name, email and username.

We collect personal data directly from you.

Please note that we collect also a unique identifier (Android ID on Android, identifierForVendor on iOS), that is, a unique combination of your user id, your device and the Lingscape application. This unique identifier is transferred to the server with every photo upload. Lingscape has neither possibilities nor purpose to identify users based upon this identifier. It is collected in order to allow users’ contributions to be linked to the same identifier as before in case users switch to a new device.

The images uploaded do not allow as well by themselves your identification. You could be identified only via the metadata (e.g. geolocation, name), as explained above.

Why do we collect and use your personal data?

Lingscape collects your geolocation data together with further metadata (timestamp, country) in order to be able to localize your uploads on the map. Your name is collected only if you decide to provide it to claim ownership of the photos you upload to Lingscape. This metadata is necessary for running the Lingscape app, that is, locating images on the map, linking it to contributors and sorting them over time.

Your first and last name, user name and email address are collected when you create a user account in order to allow for your registration to Lingscape and the management of your account.

Your personal data will not be included in scientific publications related to Lingscape. Only the images together with the geolocation will be published but it will not be linked to any data that would allow your identification.

What is our legal basis for processing the data?

Your personal data relating will be processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Luxembourg Act of 1 August 2018 on Data Protection. The legal basis for the processing of your personal data in the context of the Lingscape is laid down in Article 6 (1) GDPR:

e) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out by the University in the public interest; in particular, Lingscape will contribute in better understanding the role of language for societies, providing teaching and training resources. Lingscape being a citizen science project, it constitutes a participatory research endeavor in the spirit of open, democratic and sustainable scientific practice.

Who is responsible for the processing of my personal data?

The Data Controller in respect of the processing of your data is the University of Luxembourg, a public institution for higher education and research, whose registered office is at 2 place de l’Université, L-4365 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, acting for the Department of Humanities in the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education (FHSE).

Who can access or see your personal data?

Personal data held by Lingscape will be kept confidential and will be accessible by the staff of the University working on Lingscape. The sub-contractor in charge of the development of the app, IBROS.CH GMBH (Hauptstrasse, 37c CH-5032 AARAU ROHR, Switzerland, email: ), might also have access to the data solely for development and maintenance purposes.

Please be aware that the images and the annotations/comments you submit for publication on the Site, together with certain metadata (geolocation data, timestamp, country) will be accessible from all visitors to the Site, if you decide to host your project publicly on the Site. Private projects are only visible to registered users with access to that project, and Lingscape. Your unique identifier (as described above) will not be accessible by the public.

How do we protect your personal data?

Lingscape will take reasonable technical and organizational measures to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal data.

Passwords must meet complexity requirements to prevent unauthorized access.

A user role is implemented which has specific permissions to access, delete, or modify data.

How long is your personal data stored for?

Lingscape will store all the personal data you provide on the servers of the University for the duration of the Lingscape project.

Do we transfer data outside the European Union?

Information that Lingscape collects is stored and processed in the European Union. However, be aware that personal information that you submit for publication on the website will be published on the internet and may be accessible from all over the world.

Updating the privacy policy

Lingscape may update this privacy policy by posting a new version within the app. You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are familiar with any changes.

Other websites

This application contains links to external websites. Registered users may embed data from their projects hosted on Lingscape into their own website. Lingscape is not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of any third party.

What are your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation?

You will have the right to access and rectify your personal data. In certain cases (in accordance with the conditions set out by the GDPR), you will also have the right to object to the way in which your data is used, to request that your data be deleted, to ask to restrict certain aspects of the processing of your data and to retrieve your data to forward it to a third party (right to data portability).

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Luxembourg National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) regarding the processing of your personal data. Further information is provided at http://www.cnpd.lu. You can also use the CNPD contact form at https://cnpd.public.lu/fr/support/contact.html.