Privacy policy
The American Society for Psychical Research is a small non-profit research institution. We collect little, we sell nothing, and we do not track you around the internet. This page explains exactly what we hold, why, and how to get it back or have it removed.
1.Who we are
The American Society for Psychical Research (“the Society”, “we”, “us”) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation founded in 1885, incorporated in the State of New York.
American Society for Psychical Research475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115, United States
aspr@aspr.com · 212·799·5050
2.What we collect, and why
We only collect information you give us, or that is needed to run the site. We do not buy personal information, and we do not build profiles of visitors.
If you visit without signing in
Nothing is required of you. We do not run analytics, advertising or tracking scripts, and the site makes no requests to third-party servers as you browse it — the typefaces, images and video posters are all served from our own domain. Our web servers keep ordinary technical logs (IP address, page requested, time, browser identifier) for security and troubleshooting.
If you create an account
Your name, email address and a securely hashed password. We record what you save to your library, what you have viewed, your position in a recording, and any subject interests you choose, so the site can carry on where you left off and highlight relevant material.
If you report a case or write to us
Case reports and contact messages are stored with whatever you chose to give us — typically name, email, and the account itself, and optionally a telephone number or address. A case report may be filed anonymously, in which case no name or contact details are stored at all. Case reports also record whether you are willing to discuss the case further and, separately, how (or whether) it may be quoted in the Society’s research. An unanswered consent question is treated as no permission.
If you join the mailing list
Your email address, the date, and which part of the site you signed up from. Every message we send carries a one-click unsubscribe link that works without signing in.
If you take the precognition test
Each trial is recorded — the images offered, your choice, the target the computer generated afterwards, and whether they matched — because that is research data. Trials are tied to an anonymous session identifier, or to your account if you are signed in. Giving your name for the mailing list is optional and the test works without it.
3.Cookies and local storage
We use two cookies. Both are strictly necessary, neither is used for advertising or analytics, and there are no third-party cookies on this site.
| Name | Purpose | Life |
|---|---|---|
aspr_session | Keeps you signed in. Set only when you sign in. | 30 days |
esp_sid | An anonymous identifier that groups your precognition trials so the test can alternate its image sets correctly. It is not linked to you unless you are signed in. | 1 year |
We also store three small values in your browser’s local storage, which never reach our servers: aspr-theme, remembering whether you chose light or dark; aspr-esp-participant, remembering that you have already been offered the mailing list so you are not asked twice; and aspr-cookie-notice, remembering that you have seen the notice at the bottom of the page. That last one is deliberately not a cookie.
Because we set no analytics or advertising cookies, there is nothing here to opt in to. Clearing your browser’s cookies for this site removes all of it.
4.Who else sees your information
We do not sell, rent or trade personal information, and we do not share it for advertising. We use a small number of service providers who process data on our instructions:
- Amazon Web Services — hosting, storage and database, and Amazon SES for the email we send you.
We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of the Society and others.
5.Where your information is held
The Society is based in the United States and our systems are hosted there. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, using this site involves transferring your information to the United States, which may not offer the same level of protection as your home country. Where we rely on a service provider to make such a transfer, we expect them to use appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.
6.Your rights
Depending on where you live you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to our use of your information, to receive a portable copy, and to withdraw consent. We extend the two most important of these to everyone, wherever you are, and you do not have to ask us for them:
- Take a copy. Signed in, go to your account and choose “Download my data”. You get a single machine-readable file containing all your data.
- Close your account. Also under your account. Your profile, saved records, viewing history and subject interests are deleted, and you come off the mailing list.
- Leave the mailing list. Use the unsubscribe link in any message. No account or sign-in required.
Case reports are not deleted automatically when an account is closed. They are research records, often collected under their own consent question and sometimes already cited in published work.
For anything else — corrections, restriction, objection, or a question about this policy — write to aspr@aspr.com.
7.How long we keep things
Account information is kept while your account is open. Donation records are kept as long as our accounting and tax obligations require, in the anonymised form described above once an account is closed. Case reports and correspondence are kept as part of the Society’s permanent research archive. Mailing list entries are kept until you unsubscribe.
8.Security
Traffic is encrypted in transit, passwords are stored hashed and never in readable form, and access to member and correspondence records is limited to Society staff.
9.Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page.
10.Contact
Questions about this policy, or about anything we hold, go to aspr@aspr.com, or write to the address at the top of this page. See also our terms of service.