Privacy policy
Privacy policy
Last updated: 17 August 2026
1. What we keep — and why
This Privacy Policy explains how Em Dash Rights, an independent civic and editorial initiative based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, handles personal information collected through emdashrights.org.
We collect only the information reasonably needed to operate the Declaration, review and maintain the case archive, verify organisational endorsements, communicate with people who contact us, and protect the website from abuse.
Where applicable, we handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.
2. Who collects this information
Personal information submitted through this website is collected and handled under the name Em Dash Rights.
For privacy questions, access or correction requests, or concerns about how information has been handled, contact:
For legal notices or requests concerning published content:
Em Dash Rights operates from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
We do not publish the private residential address or personal contact details of individual administrators or contributors.
3. What we collect
The information we collect depends on how you use the site.
Public declarations
When you make the Declaration, we record:
- the display identity you choose — a name, a username, or Anonymous;
- a sequential Declaration Number;
- the time of the declaration; and
- an optional one-sentence reason, if you provide one.
We do not require an email address to make the Declaration.
Network addresses and other abuse-prevention signals may be processed to protect the registry. They are not published on declaration pages, certificates, Open Graph images or the public registry.
Declaration signatures
When you sign the Declaration, we may ask for:
- your name;
- your role or description;
- your country; and
- your email address.
We do not require your date of birth, residential address, phone number or gender to sign the Declaration.
We do not require the name of your school or employer unless a separate feature expressly asks for it.
Story and case submissions
A story submission may include:
- a case category;
- country or general location;
- your account of what happened;
- information you choose to provide in support of that account;
- supporting documents or correspondence;
- contact details where required for review; and
- your publication and anonymity choices.
You should provide only information reasonably necessary for us to understand the case.
Do not include unnecessary personal information about yourself or another person.
Organisational endorsements
Where an endorsement is submitted in the name of an organisation, we may collect:
- the organisation’s name;
- the representative’s name or role;
- a contact email address; and
- information reasonably necessary to confirm that the endorsement is genuine and authorised.
Correspondence
If you contact Em Dash Rights, we may retain your email address, your message and information reasonably necessary to respond to or keep a record of the enquiry.
Technical and security information
The website and its infrastructure may process technical information needed to deliver and protect the service.
This can include information such as:
- IP address;
- browser and device information;
- network and security signals; and
- information used for rate-limiting, fraud prevention or automated abuse detection.
Em Dash Rights uses Cloudflare services, including website infrastructure, database services and Cloudflare Turnstile, to help operate and protect the site.
4. Why we collect information
We may use information collected through the site to:
- record a public declaration and issue a Declaration Number;
- record a Declaration signature;
- maintain the Declaration ledger and registry;
- display signatory information where public display has been chosen;
- review stories and case submissions;
- communicate with contributors about a submission;
- assess supporting material;
- edit and anonymise material before publication;
- verify organisational endorsements;
- respond to privacy, editorial and legal enquiries;
- investigate suspected abuse or security incidents;
- protect the website against spam, bots and other misuse;
- maintain the integrity and security of the service; and
- understand recurring issues relevant to the purpose of Em Dash Rights.
We do not sell personal information.
We do not use private submissions to create advertising profiles.
5. What becomes public
Information supplied to Em Dash Rights is not automatically public.
Public declarations
A public declaration becomes a permanent public record at a short URL such as emdashrights.org/d/421.
The public record may include your chosen display identity, Declaration Number, date, the declaration text, and your optional reason. It does not include email addresses, IP addresses, internal database identifiers or administrative notes.
If you choose Anonymous, the public record, certificate and link preview show Anonymous. A name or username entered and then discarded is not published.
Declaration signatures
Your email address is not displayed as part of the public signatory list.
Your name or other signatory information is displayed publicly only where the signing process clearly indicates that it will be public and you choose that option.
Where a public-display choice is offered, choosing not to display your name does not prevent your signature from being recorded privately.
Story submissions
Story submissions are private while they are being reviewed unless you have expressly agreed otherwise.
Submitting a story does not automatically authorise publication.
Consent to publish a story is separate from consent to publish:
- your name;
- another person’s name;
- the name of an institution;
- an email or message;
- a supporting document; or
- other identifying information.
We may publish less identifying information than you have authorised where we consider that appropriate.
We aim to remove unnecessary identifying details before publication.
However, complete anonymity cannot always be guaranteed where the facts, institution, circumstances or other contextual information could allow someone familiar with the events to recognise the case.
Supporting material
Providing documents or correspondence for editorial review does not, by itself, authorise us to publish those documents in full.
Supporting material may be used privately to assess, understand or verify a submission.
Organisational endorsements
The organisation’s name and endorsement may be displayed publicly if the endorsement is accepted.
Contact details used to verify the endorsement are not published unless publication has been separately authorised.
6. Information about other people
A submission may sometimes refer to another person.
You should avoid providing another person’s personal information unless it is reasonably necessary to explain the case and you have an appropriate basis for providing it.
In particular, avoid including unnecessary:
- home addresses;
- personal phone numbers;
- private email addresses;
- identification documents;
- health information;
- family information;
- photographs;
- private messages; or
- other sensitive or highly personal information.
We may remove, generalise or decline to use third-party information where we consider it unnecessary, unsafe, inappropriate or legally problematic.
The fact that information can be found publicly elsewhere does not mean that Em Dash Rights will necessarily republish it.
7. Young people
Em Dash Rights may receive submissions concerning school or educational experiences.
If you are under 18, you should be especially careful not to submit unnecessary identifying information about yourself or another student.
We may anonymise, restrict or decline publication of information where we consider publication could create an unreasonable privacy or safety risk.
A contributor’s request to publish information does not require Em Dash Rights to publish it.
8. Email updates
We may offer you the option to receive significant updates about Em Dash Rights.
We will only send those optional updates where you have chosen to receive them or where another lawful basis permits the communication.
You can ask to stop receiving optional updates at any time.
Operational messages directly connected with something you have submitted — for example, a question about a case or endorsement — are separate from optional movement updates.
9. Service providers
Em Dash Rights uses third-party infrastructure providers where reasonably necessary to operate and secure the site.
At present, this includes Cloudflare, including services used for website delivery, database infrastructure and abuse prevention.
These providers may process technical information and information stored through the service in accordance with their own infrastructure, contractual and privacy arrangements.
We do not authorise service providers to use Em Dash Rights submission data for unrelated advertising on our behalf.
10. Cloudflare Turnstile
We use Cloudflare Turnstile to help distinguish legitimate visitors from automated or abusive traffic.
Turnstile may process technical and browser-related security signals when a protected form is used.
Turnstile is used for website security and abuse prevention, not to determine the content of a submission.
Cloudflare’s handling of information processed through Turnstile is described in the Cloudflare Turnstile Privacy Addendum.
11. Overseas processing
Em Dash Rights is based in Australia, but the internet infrastructure and service providers used to operate this site may process or store information outside Australia.
We therefore do not represent that all information submitted through Em Dash Rights remains physically stored in Australia.
Where applicable law imposes requirements relating to overseas disclosure or processing of personal information, we will take reasonable steps required by that law.
12. How long we keep information
Different records may be retained for different periods depending on why they were collected.
Declaration records
Signature records may be retained while the Em Dash Rights Declaration and its public record are maintained.
Private contact information does not need to remain publicly associated with a signature.
Where appropriate, we may separate, anonymise or delete contact information while retaining a non-identifying record that a signature existed.
Stories and case submissions
Unpublished submissions may be retained while they are being reviewed and, where appropriate, for a reasonable period afterwards for editorial, record-keeping, dispute-resolution or research purposes consistent with this Policy.
Published case records may be retained as part of the archive unless they are later corrected, anonymised, restricted or removed.
Verification and correspondence
Records relating to organisational verification, privacy requests, legal complaints and important editorial decisions may be retained where reasonably necessary to document those actions.
Technical records
Technical and security records may be retained for as long as reasonably required for security, abuse prevention, troubleshooting or infrastructure operation.
We do not keep personal information merely because it might be useful someday.
13. Deletion and withdrawal requests
You may ask us to delete, anonymise or stop publicly displaying personal information associated with you.
A request to stop public display is not necessarily the same as a request to erase every underlying record.
We will consider the nature of the information, why it is held, whether it has already been published, applicable legal obligations and any legitimate need to retain a limited record.
Where appropriate, we may:
- remove your public name;
- anonymise a case;
- delete private contact information;
- remove unpublished material;
- remove or restrict a published page; or
- retain only limited information needed for legal, security or record-keeping purposes.
Removal from the live website may not immediately remove copies held temporarily in routine backups, caches or third-party indexing systems outside our direct control.
Contact privacy@emdashrights.org for privacy-related deletion requests or legal@emdashrights.org where the request concerns published material.
14. Access and correction
You may ask what personal information Em Dash Rights holds about you and request correction of information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.
We may ask for enough information to reasonably verify that the request relates to you before providing access to private information or changing a record.
Requests should be sent to:
We will consider requests within a reasonable period and explain where we cannot provide the requested access, correction or deletion.
15. Security
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect information held through Em Dash Rights from unauthorised access, misuse, interference, loss or unauthorised disclosure.
These measures may include access controls, abuse prevention, restricted administrative access and security features provided by our infrastructure providers.
No internet service or storage system can guarantee absolute security.
If we become aware of a data breach, we may investigate it, take steps to contain it and notify affected people or relevant authorities where required by applicable law.
16. Legal requests
We may preserve or disclose information where reasonably necessary to:
- comply with applicable law or a valid legal process;
- respond to a court order or other legally enforceable requirement;
- protect the security or integrity of the service;
- investigate fraud, abuse or unlawful activity; or
- establish, exercise or defend legal rights.
We do not disclose private submission information merely because a third party asks for it.
17. Privacy complaints
If you believe Em Dash Rights has mishandled personal information about you, contact:
Please describe the information concerned and what you believe should be corrected or addressed.
We will review the complaint and may ask for additional information where necessary.
Where the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) applies to the relevant handling of your personal information, you may also have the right to complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) if the matter is not resolved.
Nothing in this Policy limits any privacy right that applies to you under mandatory law.
18. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy when the site, submission process, service providers or applicable legal requirements change.
The current version will be published on this page with its updated date.
A change to this Privacy Policy does not, by itself, convert information submitted privately into information authorised for public publication.
19. Contact
Privacy enquiries, access, correction and deletion
Legal notices and published-content requests
General enquiries
Press enquiries
See also: