Privacy policy

Office Hours Global ("OHG", "we", "us") is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation registered in the United States (EIN 87-2070606), mailing address 700 El Camino Real, Suite 120-1076, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.

We are the controller of the personal information described on this page. The site, the shows and the community are run by a globally distributed crew of volunteers. For the detailed legal side (GDPR, UK GDPR, and California law), see our data protection page.

When you sign in. We use Google sign-in. Google shares your name, email address, profile picture and an account ID with us. We don't get your Google password or anything else from your Google account.

What you choose to give us. Depending on what you do on the site, we store:

• volunteer sign-ups and the answers you give in them
• questions you send to the show, topic ideas you suggest and the votes you cast
• gear kits you submit
• favourites, tags and lists you make of episodes and answers
• the show reminders you ask for: which shows, and whether we may email you
• bug reports and feedback you send from the Test Lab

If you appear on the show. Panelists' names and headshots are shown on the About page. They come from our show-production system (Showhub) or from you directly. If your panelist profile is linked to your account, you can hide or replace your own photo at any time.

If you donate. Donations are handled by Givebutter. We receive your name, email address, the amount, and the date so we can thank you and keep proper records. Card and bank details go straight to Givebutter and its payment processors. Those details never touch our servers.

Automatically. Like every website, our servers see your IP address, browser type and the pages you request. We use this only to keep the site running and to stop abuse.

If you accept analytics cookies. Google Analytics records how the site is used: pages viewed, time spent, the device and browser you use, your approximate location (city or country) and how you found us, linked to a random ID stored in a cookie. It does not get your name or email address.

We don't collect government IDs, biometric data or any special-category data, and we ask you not to include such information in questions or feedback.

We use your information to:

• sign you in and show you your own favourites, lists and submissions
• coordinate volunteers and reply to people who want to help
• pick questions and topics for the show, and credit you if you'd like
• send the emails you'd expect, such as confirmations and replies (and alerts to the crew members whose job it is to act on them)
• tell you when a show goes live, if you asked us to — in your notifications on the site and, unless you switched it off, by email
• thank donors and keep the records a US non-profit is required to keep
• understand, in aggregate, which pages and episodes people find useful, so we can make the site better (analytics, if you agree)
• keep the site secure, fix bugs and prevent spam and abuse

Our legal basis (GDPR). We rely on your consent for analytics cookies, for show reminders and for optional things like appearing on the About page, on performing a service you asked for (your account, your submissions, your donation), on our legitimate interest in running and protecting a community site, and on legal obligations such as keeping donation records. You can withdraw consent at any time.

We use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages, shows and episodes people use. We look at the numbers in aggregate — we don't use analytics to identify you or follow you around the web.

• Only with your consent. When you first visit, we ask whether you accept analytics cookies. Until you say yes, Google Analytics sets no cookies. You can change your mind at any time with "Cookie settings" in the footer.
• No advertising. Google's advertising features, ad personalisation and data sharing for Google's own products are switched off.
• Kept for a limited time. Analytics data is deleted automatically after 14 months.

Google processes this data on our behalf. You can also block Google Analytics on every site with Google's opt-out browser add-on.

Our answer archive makes years of past episodes searchable. To build it, we use Anthropic's Claude models to read publicly published episode material — titles, descriptions and transcripts — and pull out the topics, products and people discussed.

We don't send your account details, email address, private messages, donations, volunteer answers or analytics data to AI providers. Anthropic processes the episode content on our behalf and does not use it to train its models under the commercial terms we use.

Names of people who spoke on a public episode can appear in the archive, just as they do in the episode itself. If you'd like something about you corrected or removed, email us.

We don't sell or rent personal information, and we don't share it for advertising. We only share it with the services below, each of which handles it under contract and only to provide its service. We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the safety of our community.

We use a few strictly necessary cookies to keep you signed in and to remember your cookie choice. These are always on because the site can't work without them.

Analytics cookies from Google Analytics are optional and only set after you accept them. Embedded YouTube videos and the Givebutter donation form may set their own cookies.

The full list, with what each cookie does and how long it lasts, is in our cookie policy.

The site and its database run on servers we rent from DigitalOcean. Some of the services we use, including Google, and some of our volunteers are based outside your country, including in the United States.

When personal information from the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland is transferred, we rely on the safeguards the law provides, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, as offered by each provider.

• Your account and what you've saved — until you ask us to delete it.
• Volunteer sign-ups — while you're helping out, and for a reasonable time afterwards so we can welcome you back. Ask and we'll delete it sooner.
• Our log of emails sent — a limited period (currently 30 days), then deleted automatically. Sign-in links and codes are never stored in it.
• Show reminders — your choices until you turn them off or delete your account; the reminders you received stay in your notifications on the site until your account is deleted.
• Analytics data — 14 months in Google Analytics, then deleted automatically.
• Donation records — as long as US tax law requires.
• Contributors board — if you switch on "Show me on the contributors board" (My account), your name, level and badges from approved text suggestions appear on the About page until you switch it off. Your email is never shown.
• Record of changes made by our crew — when a crew member changes something in the site's admin area, we note who did it, when, what changed and their IP address, so mistakes and misuse can be traced and put right. Kept for 2 years, then deleted automatically. If you change your own name or sign out one of your devices, we note that too — without your IP address.
• Server logs — a short period for security, then deleted.

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• give you a copy of the personal information we hold about you, in a portable format
• correct anything that's wrong
• delete your information and your account
• stop or limit a particular use, or withdraw a consent you gave — including analytics, via "Cookie settings" in the footer
• stop show reminders at any time: with the "Stop show reminders" link in any reminder email (no sign-in needed), or under My account → Notifications

If you're in the EU, EEA or UK you have these rights under the GDPR, and you can also complain to your local data protection authority. If you're in California, the CCPA gives you similar rights — and we don't sell or "share" personal information as that law defines it.

To make a request, email privacy@officehours.global from the address on your account. We'll reply within 30 days and never charge for it. Panelists can also hide or replace their own photo from their account page at any time.

Every connection to the site is encrypted with HTTPS. Only a small number of crew members can see personal information, and only what their role requires — every admin screen checks a specific permission before it opens. Sign-in links and codes are never written to our logs. Collecting less is our best protection, so we try hard not to hold what we don't need.

No system is perfectly secure. If a breach ever affects your information, we'll tell you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.

Office Hours Global is made for media and event professionals and is not directed at children under 16. We don't knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has given us personal information, send an email to privacy@officehours.global to have it removed.

When we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page. If a change is significant, we'll also state the change on the site or email you if it affects how we use information you've given us.

Questions, requests or concerns about privacy? Email privacy@officehours.global, or write to Office Hours Global, 700 El Camino Real, Suite 120-1076, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. We answer within 30 days.