Last Updated: April 1, 2025
Who we are
This website operated by Lumen. This Privacy Policy describes our practices in connection with information that we collect through:
- The website we operate, http://www.nktechlab.org (the “Website”).
- Our social media pages that we control (collectively, our “Social Media Pages”), from which you are accessing this Privacy Policy.
- HTML-formatted email messages that we send to you that link to this Privacy Policy or other communications with you.
Collectively, we refer to the Websites, Social Media Pages, and emails as the “Services.”
Personal Information
“Personal Information” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual. The Services collect Personal Information, including:
- Name
- Postal address (including shipping addresses)
- Telephone number
- Email address
- IP address (we may also derive your approximate location from your IP address)
- Bank account information or financial account information (e.g., when you make a donation via check or other, non-payment card methods)
How Lumen Collects Personal Information
We and our service providers collect Personal Information in a variety of ways, including:
Through the Services. We collect Personal Information through the Services. We do this, for example, when you:
- sign up to receive emails from Lumen;
- register an account to access the Services;
- comment on the Website
- RSVP for or attend one of our events;
- make a donation; or
- participate in a research project or activity.
From Other Sources. We may receive your Personal Information from other sources, for example:
- research partners, event co-sponsors, and other organizations we collaborate with to implement our programs;
- publicly available databases; and
- joint marketing partners, when they share the information with us.
We need to collect Personal Information in order to provide the requested Services to you. If you do not provide the information requested, we may not be able to provide the Services. If you disclose any Personal Information relating to other people to us or to our service providers in connection with the Services, you represent that you have the authority to do so and to permit us to use the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
How Lumen Uses Personal Information
Comments
We and our service providers use Personal Information for many reasons, including the following purposes:
Providing the functionality of the Services and fulfilling your requests.
- To provide the Services’ functionality to you, such as arranging access to your registered account and providing you with related service and support.
- To respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests, when you contact us online or otherwise, for example, when you send us questions, suggestions, compliments or complaints, or when you request other information about our Services.
- To execute research projects, such as by collecting a name in order to verify an account or an event relevant to a research project.
- To complete your donation transactions, verify your information, and provide you with related service and support.
- To send administrative information to you, such as changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
- To allow you to send messages to another person through the Services if you choose to do so.
Providing you with our newsletters and/or other marketing materials and facilitating social sharing.
- To send you emails with information about our services, new stories or events, and other news about Lumen.
- To facilitate social sharing functionality that you choose to use.
- To send you Lumen research products.
- To inquire about your interest in Lumen research, services, events, and activities or in financially supporting Stimson.
Analyzing Personal Information for reporting and providing personalized services.
- To analyze or predict our users’ preferences in order to prepare aggregated trend reports on how our digital content is used, so we can improve our Services.
- To better understand your interests and preferences, so that we can personalize our interactions with you and provide you with information tailored to your interests.
- To better understand your preferences so that we can deliver content via our Services that we believe will be relevant and interesting to you.
Aggregating and/or anonymizing Personal Information
We may aggregate and/or anonymize Personal Information so that it will no longer be considered Personal Information. We do so to generate other data for our use, which we may use and disclose for any purpose, as it no longer identifies you or any other individual.
Accomplishing our general institutional purposes.
- For data analysis, for example, to improve the efficiency of our Services;
- For audits, to verify that our internal processes function as intended and to address legal, regulatory, or contractual requirements;
- For fraud and security monitoring purposes, for example, to detect and prevent cyberattacks or attempts to commit identity theft;
- For developing new programs and services;
- For enhancing, improving, repairing, maintaining, or modifying our current programs and services, as well as undertaking quality and safety assurance measures;
- For identifying usage trends, for example, understanding which parts of our Services are of most interest to users;
- For determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, so that we can adapt our campaigns to the needs and interests of our users; and
- For operating and expanding our institutional activities, for example, understanding which parts of our Services are of most interest to our users so we can focus our energies on meeting our users’ interests.
With Whom Does Lumen Share Personal Information
We disclose Personal Information:
To our research partners.
These can include non-profit organizations, think tanks, and government entities. This information is shared pursuant to research partnerships, or co-sponsored publications and events or similar activities.
To our third-party service providers, to facilitate services they provide to us.
These can include providers of services such as website hosting, data analysis, donation processing, information technology and related infrastructure provision, email delivery, auditing, and other services.
By using the Services, you may elect to disclose Personal Information.
On message boards, chat, profile pages, blogs, and other services to which you are able to post information and content (including, without limitation, our Social Media Pages). Please note that any information you post or disclose through these services will become public and may be available to other users and the general public.
Other Uses and Disclosures
We may also use and disclose Personal Information as we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) to comply with applicable law, to respond to requests from public and government authorities, to cooperate with law enforcement, or for other legal reasons; (b) to enforce our terms and conditions; and (c) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you, or others. We may use, disclose or transfer your information to a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our assets (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).
Other Information
“Other Information” is any information that does not reveal your specific identity or does not directly relate to an identifiable individual. The Services collect Other Information such as:
- Browser and device information.
- Information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies.
- Demographic information and other information provided by you that does not reveal your specific identity (e.g., the organization with which you are affiliated, whether you are a member of the media, your job or occupation, your policy interests, and how you learned about a Lumen event, product, or website).
- Information that has been aggregated in a manner such that it no longer reveals your specific identity.
Other Information Lumen Collects
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Password Resets
If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
Analytics.
We use Google Analytics, which uses cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the Services and report on activities and trends. This service may also collect information regarding the use of other websites, apps and online resources. You can learn about Google’s practices by going to www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/, and exercise the opt-out provided by Google by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where your data is sent
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
Third Party Services
This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information, or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any website or service to which the Services link. The inclusion of a link on the Services does not imply endorsement of the linked site or service by us or by our affiliates.
Use of Services by Minors
The Services are not directed to individuals under the age of thirteen (13), and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information from individuals under 13.
Jurisdiction and Cross-Border Transfer
Your Personal Information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers, and by using the Services you understand that your information will be transferred to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have data protection rules that are different from those of your country. In certain circumstances, courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies or security authorities in those other countries may be entitled to access your Personal Information.
Sensitive Information
Unless we request it, we ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any sensitive Personal Information (e.g., social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, or criminal background) on or through the Services or otherwise to us.
Third Party Donation Service
We may use a third-party payment service to process donations made through the Services. If you wish to make a donation through the Services, your Personal Information will be collected by such third party and not by us, and will be subject to the third party’s privacy policy, rather than this Privacy Policy. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, this third party’s collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information.
Updates to this Privacy Policy
The “Last Updated” legend at the top of this Privacy Policy indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Any changes will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Services.