Privacy policy
Version 5 · Last updated 17 October 2026
In short
The Human Trust (THT) is a nonprofit data trust. Our trustees have a legal duty to act in the interest of our members, and this policy explains how we keep that promise with your data.
- We never sell or rent your data, and we never use it for advertising.
- Your account is stored in the European Union, and each study's consent tells you where that study's data is kept.
- Studies see only a pseudonym, never your name or email, and each study sees a different one.
- Every use needs your permission, recorded with the exact words you agreed to.
- You can see, download or withdraw your data from your account page at any time.
- We tell you plainly when something can't stay inside these lines, such as AI processing in another country.
Who we are
The Human Trust is the controller of the personal data described here: we decide how it is used, and we answer to you for it.
- Organization: The Human Trust, a nonprofit data trust, 1442a Walnut St. #66, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA.
- Privacy questions and requests: privacy@thehumantrust.org
- Account help: support@thehumantrust.org
When a study is run with a research partner, the study's consent names that partner and a researcher you can contact. For the 2026 Hybrid Intelligence Study, the partner is INSEAD, and the research contact is ville.satopaa@insead.edu.
What we collect, and why
We collect only what membership and the studies you join need. We don't use passwords: you sign in with a one-time code sent to your email.
| What | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your email address | When you join | To identify your account and send you sign-in codes and messages you've agreed to |
| Sign-in records: your email, a scrambled (hashed) copy of the code, and the number of tries | Each time you sign in | To sign you in securely and limit misuse; deleted automatically within about two days |
| Consent records: each agreement or withdrawal, the exact wording you saw, and when | Each time you agree to or withdraw something | To show what you agreed to, and to honor withdrawals |
| Your optional choices: future contact, future study invitations, reuse of questionnaire scores | When you choose, or change them | To do only what you've chosen |
| Questionnaire answers, the order questions were shown, and timing | In each study you join | For the research that study's consent describes |
| Live session data: your seat and team, your private and team forecasts, team chat messages (including messages to and from the AI), timing, and two integrity signals (when the page was hidden, and when text was pasted) | During a live session | For the research that study's consent describes, and to check the session ran fairly |
| Server logs: the internet address, browser type, time and page requested | Each time you visit | Security and troubleshooting |
| Messages you send us | When you write to us | To answer you |
If you donate, the payment is handled by Stripe, our payment processor; we receive your name, email and the amount, never your card details.
How studies are kept apart from who you are
Your identity and your research data are held in separate places, so a study never knows who you are.
- Your account (your email and consent records) is held in THT's core system.
- Each study is held in its own separate, protected environment, and sees you only under a random pseudonym.
- Each study gets a different pseudonym, so studies can't be linked to each other, or to you, without the core system. Only THT can make that link, and only to run the studies you've joined, such as showing you your own progress or reminding you to finish, or to carry out your requests, such as downloading or withdrawing your data.
When you join a live session, the core system hands the study a signed pass carrying only your pseudonym and seat, never your name or email.
Who else handles your data
We use as few outside services as possible, and each is bound by a data processing agreement that limits it to working on our instructions.
| Service | What it does for us | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| Google Cloud | Hosts THT's systems and databases; runs the AI models used in studies | Everything we store, held on our behalf; for AI, the conversation it is asked to answer |
| Brevo (France) | Sends sign-in codes and other emails | Your email address and the message. Brevo keeps copies of the emails it sends, so our emails contain only codes or short notices: never links, results or study data |
Research partners. THT holds study data and runs the analyses. Researchers from partner institutions, such as INSEAD, work only with pseudonymized data inside THT's protected environment, or with combined results that can't identify anyone. They never receive your name or email.
Published research data. Journals often ask researchers to publish the data behind their findings, so others can check them. When a study's consent says so, we publish a de-identified copy of that study's data with its results. Before publishing, we:
- replace pseudonyms with new random IDs, and keep no record linking them back to anyone;
- leave out names, email addresses and the text of chat messages, which appear only as counts and coded measures;
- group details that could single someone out, such as age or job, into broad categories.
Researchers who need the full study data, including chat text, can apply to work with it inside THT's protected environment, on the same terms as our research partners. Once published, a de-identified copy can't be withdrawn, because no one, THT included, can link it back to you.
Nobody else. We don't sell, rent or share your data with advertisers, data brokers or anyone not described here. We disclose data to authorities only when the law requires it, and where allowed we will tell you first and challenge requests we believe are improper.
Where your data is stored and processed
Your account (your email, choices and consent records) is stored in the European Union, in Google Cloud data centers in the Netherlands and the EU, wherever you live. Each study's data is stored where its consent says, and stays there. The 2026 Hybrid Intelligence Study, for example, is held in the EU.
AI processing. Some studies include an AI teammate. The most capable current AI models are offered only through Google's global service, so the conversation the AI answers may be processed outside the place where the study is stored, for example in the United States. We send it your team's messages under labels such as "Teammate A", never your name or email. We don't store the conversation there, and the transfer is covered by the standard contractual clauses in Google Cloud's terms. Each study's consent says whether it uses such a model, before you agree.
Separate environments for some studies. Studies that must follow US health-data rules, such as research with medical records, are held in a separate, specially protected US environment. Their consent says so.
If a study's data is stored outside the country where you live, for example if you take part in the Singapore study, which is held in the EU, your data is transferred there under the protections described in this policy.
How long we keep it
We keep data only as long as it serves the purpose you agreed to.
| Data | How long |
|---|---|
| Your account and optional choices | Until you leave THT |
| Sign-in records | Deleted automatically within about two days |
| Study data | As each study's consent states, or until you withdraw |
| De-identified data published with a study's results | Permanently, as part of the scientific record |
| Consent and withdrawal records | For 6 years after you leave, so we can show we had your permission; nothing else is kept with them |
| Server logs | 30 days |
| Messages you send us | 2 years after your question is resolved |
Results already published in combined form, and de-identified data published with them, can't be withdrawn, because they can't be linked back to you.
Your rights
Most of these you can use yourself, at any time, from your account page at members.thehumantrust.org. For anything else, write to privacy@thehumantrust.org and we'll answer within one month.
- See and download everything we hold about you.
- Correct anything that is wrong.
- Change your choices, such as whether we may invite you to future studies.
- Withdraw from a study, which stops your participation at once; your study data is then deleted within 30 days, except results and de-identified data already published. In a team session, your teammates' messages, the AI's replies and your team's joint forecasts remain, with nothing linking them to you.
- Leave THT altogether, which closes your account and withdraws you from every study.
- Object to a use of your data, or ask us to limit it.
- Complain to a data protection authority: in the EU, the authority where you live; in Singapore, the Personal Data Protection Commission. We'd be grateful for the chance to put things right first.
Cookies and tracking
We use only the cookies needed to sign you in: on the member site, one that remembers a sign-in in progress (15 minutes) and one that keeps you signed in (30 days, or until you sign out); and, if you join a live session, one on the session site that holds your seat pass (up to 12 hours). We use no advertising, analytics or tracking cookies, and our pages load no outside fonts, scripts or trackers.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Sign-in codes and session identifiers are stored only in scrambled (hashed) form. Access to THT's systems is limited to the few people who run them, and studies are walled off from identities as described above. No system is perfectly secure, but we design ours so that a breach of any one part reveals as little as possible.
Children
Members must be 18 or older.
Changes to this policy
If we make a significant change, we'll email members before it takes effect. The date at the top shows when this policy last changed. Uses of your data that need your permission will always ask for it again.