Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

This website is operated by the Digital Literacy Hub, a research group based at the Department of Communication Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam), De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The hub is led by Dr. Philipp K. Masur. For questions about this privacy policy or your personal data, please contact us at p.k.masur@vu.nl.

2. What data we collect

This website does not use cookies, tracking technologies, or analytics tools, and does not collect any personal data from visitors simply browsing the site.

The only situation in which personal data is collected is when you voluntarily submit the contact form. In that case, the following data is collected:

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your message
• Your stated background or role (e.g. researcher, journalist)

3. Why we collect it

Contact form data is collected solely to respond to your enquiry. The legal basis for processing this data is legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) — specifically, the legitimate interest in being able to respond to messages sent to us through the site.

4. How data is processed — Formspree

Contact form submissions are handled by Formspree, a third-party form processing service operated by Formspree, Inc. (United States). When you submit the contact form, your data is transmitted to and temporarily stored on Formspree's servers before being forwarded to us by email.

Formspree acts as a data processor on our behalf. The transfer of data to the US is based on Formspree's compliance with applicable data transfer mechanisms. For more information, see Formspree's privacy policy.

5. How long we keep your data

We retain contact form submissions only as long as necessary to handle your enquiry, typically no longer than 12 months. You can request deletion at any time by contacting us at p.k.masur@vu.nl.

6. Your rights under GDPR

If you are based in the EU/EEA, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access — you can request a copy of the data we hold about you
• Right to rectification — you can ask us to correct inaccurate data
• Right to erasure — you can ask us to delete your data
• Right to restrict processing — you can ask us to limit how we use your data
• Right to object — you can object to our processing based on legitimate interest

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at p.k.masur@vu.nl. We will respond within 30 days.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.

7. External links

This website contains links to external websites (e.g. published research, VU Amsterdam pages). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites and encourage you to review their respective privacy policies.

8. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page reflects when it was last revised. We encourage you to review it periodically.