EuroPython Privacy Policy

We respect your personal data and privacy.

Overview

The EuroPython Society (EPS) runs several websites to manage the organization and communication of our conferences and operations. We are ultimately responsible for everything related to data privacy with respect to the EuroPython conferences and the organization around it.

This is a partial list of websites we maintain:

In addition, we are hosting a number of conference websites for previous editions. Most of those are static website copies at this point.

The following sections apply to our websites, mailing lists and backend operations for running our conferences.

No spam

If you subscribe to our newsletter or mailing-list, your email address will be used only to deliver mailing list messages, and will not otherwise be used or shared. You can unsubscribe at any time by following the link at the bottom of each email.

If you opt-in to receive job offerings from our sponsors that are looking for hires, no personal information (including name and email address) will be shared with those sponsors: all emails will go through our systems to protect your privacy. You can opt-out at any time from your profile page of the conference website. The same applies to sponsor mailings we may occasionally send out to attendees.

Personal Information

Under no circumstances would we ever sell, rent or distribute your personal information (including your email address, name, or anything else you entered in your profile) to third-party entities, unless authorized by you to do so. Only our system administrators and our support team have access to your data and we are making sure that they comply with EU and country data protection requirements in their volunteer work. You can amend and remove any information at any time, from your profile page of the conference website.

We have taken care to ask for as little personal information as possible throughout our websites and assure that all data we do collect is only used based on your explicit consent.

Conference speakers are asked to submit additional personal information, part of which will become public (e.g. full bio). The talk submission form explains what data will be published and what data will be kept private, and each speaker can preview his/her public page before it is made public, and can amend its contents at any time.

Conference participants can optionally opt-in to publish their profile page to other EuroPython participants, to help connect and network during the event.

We use the information you give us to create and find badges, track helpdesk questions, write invoices, show your profile (if made public), contact you with updates regarding the conference and provide you with access to announcements for subsequent events. For speakers, we may also use the information in the conference booklet, the schedule and on web pages of the conference website. In some cases, we may also use the information to contact you in case we need your help or to address issues we find with the registration data or to resolve helpdesk issues.

Some of the information is also used to create demographics for the conference in anonymous and aggregated form. We use this for advertising the conference to potential sponsors.

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children engaged with us through our website and/or conferences. We define children as anyone younger than 18 years old.

Should a child participate in our conferences either as a general attendee or a speaker, the consent to the privacy policies throughout our websites has to be given by an adult who is the holder of parental responsibilities over the child, i.e. a legal guardian of the child.

In the case of a conference speaker being a child, any additional information submitted to form their public speaker profile needs to be reviewed and agreed upon by a legal guardian of the child. Any speaker release agreement regarding the recording, reproduction and distribution of the child's presentation at the conference should also be signed by a legal guardian of the child.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links leaving our site, we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites, which are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Audio, video recordings and photography

We will have audio and video recordings during the event (for e.g. the talk recordings), as well as one or more photographers taking pictures to help us with marketing the conference.

We may publish these photos and recordings on our websites, or third-party sites such as Flickr, Archive.org or YouTube, social media, and in other marketing material such as brochures, flyers and promotional videos.

We will take care not to make public photos, videos or audio recordings which could cause harm to the individuals shown/heard on them. If you do find such pictures/videos/audio recordings on any of our sites or accounts, please write to privacy@europython.eu to ask for review.

Use of cookies

Some services on our websites are hosted by third party service providers which may use cookies for tracking. Our website does not use cookies

The EuroPython Society is considered a data controller under the terms of the Regulation (EU) No. 2016/679 (GDPR). All organizers of the event are required to state their compliance with the rules and regulations of the GDPR.

Third-party services

A few third-party services help us run the website and the conference. We might share some information on our visitors with them, as part of their service. They have been carefully selected because we believe that they are well-behaved privacy-wise and comply to the EU data privacy regulations. Please note that the list below is a sample of services we use. As much as we try to provide a full picture, the list might not be exhaustive.

Attendify (privacy policy). We use Attendify for the in-person conference mobile app. Since the app is not connected to our website, you have to create a new login for using it on the Attendify platform. The platform provides the EuroPython admins with insights on how the app is being used and gives us access to the public messages sent through the app. We use this information for demographics, to improve the conference app and to address any issues we find with the app or how it is being used. What platform we will use for the hybrid setup in 2022 is to be determined.

ClickUp (privacy policy). We use ClickUp as part of the project management of the conference. In some cases, we will also store information in ClickUp, which may include personal information of attendees, sponsors or vendors. If you have questions about this, please write to helpdesk@europython.eu.

Discord (privacy policy). In Oct 2021, we moved from Telegram to Discord for internal chats, video calls between teams responsible for organizing and running the EPS, EuroPython teams and coordinating onsite volunteers during in-person conferences. We used Discord as our conference chat server for EP2020. Chat messages are hosted by Discord and recorded on their servers. In order to use our Discord server, you have to create an account, providing your name and email address.

eGenix (privacy policy). The internal mailing lists used by the EPS have been historically hosted on eGenix servers. eGenix is the company of Marc-André Lemburg, the chair of the EPS between 2015-2021. Most of these mailing lists have already migrated or will soon to Google Workspace or python.org in 2022.

Element.io (privacy policy). Our Matrix.org server used for EP2021 may in some cases contact Element’s integration server (vector.im) for providing chat room integrations.

Google Analytics (privacy policy). Prior to 2022, we used the website analytics service to review performance of the website and help improve it. After 2022, we have switched to Plausible as our web analytics tools.

Google Workspace (privacy policy). Since December 2021, we have moved to Google Workspace to manage much of the EuroPython conference and Society organization. This includes:

Gmail. All teams will rely on Gmail in the form of direct or group emails to communicate internally and externally. For the purpose of communicating with you with regards to the conference or EuroPython Society matters, your information may be collected when you send an email to our helpdesk, or to any teams such as the Board, Program, Sponsor, Financial Aid, Communication & Design or Operations.

Google Forms. For some services such as financial aid, sponsorship signup, feedback forms or signups to special events, we use Google Forms. If you'd rather not make use of these, please email our helpdesk@europython.eu. Please do note that we may not be able to process your request if it is not entered via Google Forms, because we have to optimize our workflows as much as possible in order to stay on top of things with our small team of volunteers.

Google Drive, Docs & Sheets . In order to keep our documents in one place, we use Google Drive for storage. Some of the information we collect for the purpose of running EuroPython, including personal data, will be stored in spreadsheets, documents or similar files on Google Drive. If you have questions about this, please write to helpdesk@europython.eu.

Google Fonts (privacy policy), jQuery CDN, FontAwesome CDN and Bootstrap CDN hosted by Stackpath (privacy policy). We use these CDN services to provide faster loading of the website.

Jitsi (privacy policy). For EP2021, we made use of Jitsi for audio / video conferencing integrated into the Matrix.org server.

Mailgun (privacy policy). From 2022, we are sending EuroPython newsletters to our EuroPython Blog subscribers. This requires us to use Mailgun’s bulk email API. We might also use Mailgun as a SMTP relay to send out conference information to attendees and speakers.

To optimize the future editions of our newsletter, we will be collecting data on the newsletters' open and read. The practice would be reviewed at the end of April 2022.

Plausible (data policy). From 2022 we are using Plausible for web analytics for our website (including 2022 and above conference website) and for our blog, replacing Google Analytics. It collects anonymous data, which we rely on to make improvement and adjustment. It does not use cookies and or collect personal data.

Pretalx (privacy policy). From 2022, we are using Pretalx for talk selection. As a submitter or speaker, all your submitted data is stored on pretalx.com’s servers in Germany and shared (except your passwords) with conference organizers. Some data will be made public upon your talk is accepted. Conference attendees will not be tracked through the use of any cookies.

Pretix (privacy policy). From 2022, we are using Pretix for ticketing services. If you buy a ticket, Pretix uses cookies to keep track of your cart and enhance the ordering process. All data submitted to Pretix is located on servers in Germany.

Signup Zone (privacy policy). We used Signup Zone to run the volunteer app for the in-person conferences. Volunteers are asked to create an account with Signup Zone to sign up for volunteer time slots. Our work groups then use this information to coordinate the volunteer efforts and make sure the on-site organization runs smoothly. After the conference, we publish the names of the volunteers on the conference website to recognize them for their help. Volunteers that did not want your name published could opt out by contacting us. What software we will use for volunteer coordination in 2022 is to be determined.

SpreadShirt.ie (privacy policy). Our merchandise shop is provided by SpreadShirt. You will interact with them whenever you buy goods from our shop.

StreamYard (privacy policy). We used StreamYard for staging the EP2021 talks. As such, speakers and other presenters were invited to use the service from their browser. The content streamed via StreamYard was then disseminated to several media channels (YouTube, Vimeo and a self hosted RTMP server to provide an additional backup). The platform we will use for the hybrid setup in 2022 is to be determined.

Stripe (privacy policy). We use Stripe for processing credit card payments when buying tickets to our conferences. Since we cannot easily handle cash or bank transfers, this is the only payment form we provide to attendees for purchases on our websites.

Telegram (privacy policy). Before gradually shifting to Discord in Oct 2021, we used Telegram between 2016 and 2021 for internal chat groups for organizing and running the EPS, EuroPython Workgroups and coordinating onsite volunteers during in-person conferences. The data has remained there for archival purposes.

Trello (privacy policy). We're using trello as project and task management. In some cases, we will also store information in Trello, which may include personal information of attendees, sponsors or vendors.

Tumblr (privacy policy). We used to use Tumblr to run our blog, the pre-launch websites and the EuroPython Society (EPS) website. These sites may also include social media buttons or links for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Flickr, LinkedIn and GitHub (see below for their privacy policies). Since 2021, we have migrated all current blogs and websites to self-hosted Ghost blog instances, but some resources may still be loaded from Tumblr, e.g. images in older blog posts.

Wonder.me (privacy policy). Wonder.me virtual meeting rooms were used during EP2021 for social gatherings, the lounge and other occasions where conference attendees get together. The service can be used from a browser to chat, stream audio and video.

Zapier (privacy policy). We use Zapier to automate some of the internal workflows and connect between third party services we're using. In some cases data passing through Zapier may include personal information of participants, sponsors or vendors.

Zoom (privacy policy). We use Zoom to provide interactive audio/video presentations for our online events and also for the internal organization. Audio/video information will flow through their servers. In some cases, you will need to create an account with them, e.g. if you are a speaker and have to use the Zoom client application. Regular conference attendees can use their browser to access the presentations and do not need an account. However, for webinars (used for the main talk tracks), you will need to provide your name and email address when registering. Depending on how we set up the integration with Zoom, we may register you automatically with each webinar used for the online event to provide a better user experience. In both cases, Zoom will receive your name and email address. If you have questions about this, please write to helpdesk@europython.eu.

Other Services

Other services we use to provide and manage social media channels, videos, photos, code or user interaction:

Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, dev.to and GitHub

Please refer to their privacy policies for details on the collected data and how you can manage this. We have added links to the policies in the above list.

Additional services

We will list additional services here as we add them to the website or use them for the organization of the conference.

Whenever we add new services, we will make sure that the service providers have proper EU data privacy regulation compliant privacy policies in place.

Services we host ourselves

We run a number of services on our own rented root servers or VMs. Most of these are provided by Hetzner, but in some cases, we may also use Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Hetzner (privacy policy)
AWS (privacy policy)

These services are run on this infrastructure:

Email server. We run our own email server for incoming and outgoing email. When emails are not just forwarded to accounts of EuroPython workgroup members or other systems, they are stored on the servers themselves.

Web servers. We run a number of web servers for static sites, blogs and as front-ends for our conference systems. For blogs, we are currently using Ghost installations. All files and databases associated with these servers are kept on the servers themselves.

Conference systems. In the past, the interactive conference websites were run using Django on our infrastructure. We typically only keep them running for a few years, after which we convert them to static websites. All files and databases associated with these systems are kept on the servers themselves.

Helpdesk system. For providing an email based helpdesk, we are deploying a Zammad based system running on our servers. The data of those servers is stored on the servers themselves. From 2022, the email data will be stored on EuroPython Society’s Google Workspace various Gmail inboxes associated with each helpdesk queue. We used to run a Django Helpdesk based system for conferences before EP2020.

Matrix.org server. For EP2021, we run our own Matrix.org server installation, consisting of several components for providing the chat server, the web UI and integration with audio / video systems.

Backup storage. Backups and long term archives are currently stored on Hetzner Storage Boxes, but may in the future also be moved to AWS S3.

Vendors

As part of organizing and running the EuroPython conference, we have to share some personal data with vendors, e.g. to print badges, tickets, etc.

In all such cases, we will make sure that the vendors have proper EU data privacy regulation compliant privacy policies in place and will only share the absolute minimum needed for them to carry out the task at hand.

Informing you about updates regarding this policy

We may have to update this policy every now and then to add new services or make changes to adapt it to new regulations.

In order to keep you up to date with changes to our policy, we will issue notices on our website, our news channels and in some cases also send you an email explaining the change.

In case of a possible data breach, we will try to contact you directly via email, if we believe that your data was affected.

Removing your information

If you want to delete your account and all the information therein, you need to write us an email requesting so to privacy@europython.eu. Please include information proving your identity when requesting the deletion of data.

Our staff will erase your data from all files, database records and backups. You will be informed at the end of the process. Information cannot be restored afterwards.

The only exception to data wiping is invoices and accounting data: if you have bought something on our website, we are legally required to preserve the invoices for at least 5 years after the conference.

Contacts and legal owner of the website

This website and the conference is run by the EuroPython Society (EPS), a non-profit organization registered in Sweden. To contact us, please visit the contacts page. For additional legal information, please see the about page.

History of changes

2024-03-29: Updated list of 3rd party services.
2022-04-08: Added explanation of Mailgun usage.
2022-03-03: Updated list of 3rd party services.
2021-01-20: Updated the list and descriptions of 3rd party services. Added description of the self-hosted helpdesk that now uses 3 party email services.
2021-04-05: Updated list of 3rd party services. Added list of self-hosted services.
2021-03-30: Merged the EP2020 website privacy policy into this policy, to have a single privacy policy.
2021-02-24: Updated the list of 3rd party tools.
2018-05-24: Updated to new EU data privacy requirements.