Virtual Reality Oracle - Privacy Policy

Data protection

We have written this privacy policy (05/03/2021, last updated 31/03/23) to explain to you, in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016 / 679, what information we collect, how we use data and what decision-making options you have as a visitor to this website and a user of the Virtual Reality Oracle Immersive Experience.

Who we are

The Virtual Reality Oracle is an academic research project led by the University of Bristol department of Classics and Ancient History. The project is funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (Grant Reference: AH/T004673/1)

The principal investigator of the project is Professor Esther Eidinow (esther.eidinow@bristol.ac.uk), University of Bristol, Beacon House, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1QU, UK.

What is the Virtual Reality Oracle?

The Virtual Reality Oracle is a virtual reality / immersive experience (app) and an accompanying website (www.vroracle.co.uk).

Both the website and app (all supported platforms) are provided free of charge. We collect no personal data for any purpose beyond what is absolutely necessary to support their basic operation (see below for a detailed breakdown).

The Virtual Reality Oracle Immersive Experience (App)

The Virtual Reality Oracle Immersive Experience app can be installed on 1.) compatible mobile smartphones via the Google Play app store; 2.) Meta Quest / Quest 2 virtual reality headsets via the Meta app store.

The VRO app is provided 'as is' and is free of charge. It collects no personal information of any kind.

Automatic data storage for www.vroracle.co.uk

When you visit websites today, certain information is automatically created and stored, including on this website.

If you visit our website, our web server (computer on which this website is stored) automatically saves data such as

the address (URL) of the website you are visiting
browser and browser version
the operating system used
the address (URL) of the previously visited page (referrer URL)
the host name and IP address of the device from which it is being accessed
date and time

in files (web server log files).

We do not operate a strict policy regarding the management of server log files. Typically, web server log files are stored for at least two weeks. We do not archive these records. We do not disclose this information, but we cannot rule out that it will be seen in the event of unlawful behavior.

The legal basis, according to Article 6 (1f) of the GDPR (lawfulness of processing), is that there is a legitimate interest in enabling the error-free operation of this website by capturing web server log files.

Storage of personal data

This website does not provide any mechanism for storing personal data beyond what is captured automatically through its operation. We do, however, offer an external link to the Mailchimp service for visitors to subscribe to our mailing list.

If you send us personal information by e-mail - outside this website - we cannot guarantee secure transmission and protection of your data. We recommend that you never send confidential data by e-mail.

Rights according to the General Data Protection Regulation

According to the regulations of the GDPR you have the following rights:

Right to rectification (Article 16 GDPR)
Right to cancellation (“Right to be forgotten”) (Article 17 GDPR)
Right to restriction of processing (Article 18 GDPR)
Right to a notification - Obligation to notify in connection with the correction or deletion of personal data or limitation of processing (Article 19 GDPR)
Right to data portability (Article 20 GDPR)
Right of objection (Article 21 GDPR)
Right not to be subjected to a decision based solely on automated processing - including profiling - (Article 22 GDPR)

If you believe that the processing of your data violates data protection law or your data protection claims have otherwise been violated in any way, you can complain to the relevant supervisory authority for your country of residence. For the UK, this would be the Information Commissioners Office.

Evaluation of visitor behavior

In the following privacy policy we inform you about whether and how we evaluate data of your visit to this website. The evaluation of the collected data is usually anonymous and we cannot infer from your behavior on this website on your person.

You can read more about the possibilities of this evaluation of the visit data in the following privacy statement.

Cookies

Our website uses HTTP cookies to store user-specific data. A cookie is a short data packet that is exchanged between the web browser and the web server, but is completely meaningless to them and is only used for the web application, e.g. an online store can save the contents of a virtual shopping cart.

There are two types of cookies: first-party cookies are created by our website, and third-party cookies are created by other websites (e.g. Google Analytics).

Example cookie data:

Name: _ga
Expiration time: 2 years
Use: Differentiation of website visitors
Exemplary value: GA1.2.1326744211.152111097873

There are three categories of cookies: essential cookies to ensure basic functionality of the website, functional cookies to ensure website performance and targeted cookies to enhance the user experience.

How do we use cookies?

Videos embedded in our pages use cookies for the playback control.

Enabling these cookies is not strictly necessary for the website to work but it will provide you with a better browsing experience. You can delete or block these cookies, but if you do that some features of this site may not work as intended.

How to control cookies?

You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish – for details, see aboutcookies.org. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site and some services and functionalities may not work.

If you subscribe to our mailing you give us the right to contact you by email. We use the data stored in the registration for the mailing list exclusively for our mailing list and do not pass this on.

If you unsubscribe from the mailing list - you will find the link in each mail from us at the bottom - then we delete all data that was saved with the registration for the mailing list.

MailChimp Privacy Policy

We send out newsletters with MailChimp and use features of the MailChimp service of The Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE, Suite 5000, Atlanta, GA 30308 USA to record mailing list subscriptions.

General information about MailChimp

Rocket Science Group LLC (MailChimp) maintains online platforms that enable our users to stay in touch with their subscribers, primarily via email. They allow users, to upload e-mail addresses, and other subscriber profile information, such as name, physical address, and other demographic information to the MailChimp database. This information is used to send emails and allow the use of certain other MailChimp features for these users. In accordance with the published privacy policy, MailChimp shares some information with third parties to provide and support the services that MailChimp provides to users. MailChimp also shares some information with third party advertisers to better understand users’ needs and interests so that more relevant content and targeted advertising can be provided to these users and other users.

When you sign up for our mailing list on our website, the data entered will be stored by MailChimp.

Deletion of your data

You can withdraw your consent to receive messages from us via our mailing list at any time within the received e-mail by clicking on the link at the bottom. If you have unsubscribed by clicking on the unsubscribe link, your data will be deleted at MailChimp.

When you receive a message from us via MailChimp, information such as IP address, browser type and e-mail program are stored to give us information about the performance of our message. MailChimp can use the images in the HTML emails called Web Beacons (see kb.mailchimp.com/reports/about-open-tracking for details) to see if the email has arrived, whether it was opened and if links were clicked. All this information is stored on the servers of MailChimp, not on this website.

MailChimp is an active participant in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. More information can be found at www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG. You can read more about the use of cookies at MailChimp at mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/, for information on privacy at MailChimp (Privacy), please refer to mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.

Google Analytics Privacy Policy

We use Google Analytics from Google LLC (1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) to statistically analyze visitor data. Google Analytics uses targeted cookies.

Cookies from Google Analytics:

_ga
- Expiration time: 2 years
- Use: Differentiation of website visitors
- Exemplary value: GA1.2.1326744211.152111097873
_gid
- Expiration time: 24 hours
- Use: Differentiation of website visitors
- Exemplary value: GA1.2.1687193234.152111097873
_gat_gtag_UA_
- Expiry time: 1 minute
- Use: Used to throttle the request rate. If Google Analytics is provided through Google Tag Manager, this cookie will be named _dcgtm
- Exemplary value: 1

For more information about Terms of Use and Privacy, please visit www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html or support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en.

Deactivation of data collection by Google Analytics

The browser add-on to disable Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, dc.js) allows site visitors to prevent Google Analytics from using their data. You may prevent the collection by Google of the data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website as well as the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under the following link: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

YouTube Privacy Policy

We use YouTube, the company YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA on this website. By accessing pages of our website that have integrated YouTube videos, data is transmitted to YouTube, stored and evaluated. If you have a YouTube account and you are signed in, it will be associated with your personal account and the data stored in it. What data Google collects and how it uses this information can be found at www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/.