Legal API Downloader — Privacy Policy
The Legal API Downloader is operated by Free Law Project, a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to making the legal ecosystem more fair and competitive. As used in this Privacy Policy, the "Downloader System" collectively refers to the following components, which this policy governs:
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The Legal API Downloader clients, whether for macOS, docker, Python, or another platform or programming language (the "Clients").
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The Legal API Server, with which the Clients interact (the "Backend Server").
YOUR USE OF THE DOWNLOADER SYSTEM CONSTITUTES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THESE TERMS AND ANY SUBSEQUENT CHANGES TO THESE TERMS. DO NOT USE THE DOWNLOADER SYSTEM IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF THESE TERMS.
Free Law Project is committed to preserving your privacy and being transparent about how we use information collected through the Downloader System. This document describes what information we collect from our users and what we will and will not do with it. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to email us.
About & Background
Our Downloader System allows collective action to pull information from the Harvard Law Library. If you install one of our Clients into a computer you control, it will contact the Backend Server to request an assignment. The assignment tells the Client which items to download from Harvard, and the Client then does so.
As Clients collect information from the Harvard Law Library, they send that information to our Backend Server, which uploads that information to the Internet Archive (“IA”), a 501(c)(3) non-profit tasked with building an Internet library with permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.
Information Collected and Disclosed
Personal Information We Collect
The Backend Server keeps logs for maintenance and debugging purposes. It logs Client IP addresses and Client types (whether it's a macOS app, docker app, a Python script, etc) but no other personal information.
Free Law Project purges the above mentioned logs when they are 12 weeks old, but reserves the right to compute standard aggregate statistics such as total number of uploads, queries, and unique users before purging our logs.
Disclosure of Information
Free Law Project will not publicly display log records or client IP addresses. Free Law Project will not sell logs to third parties. Free Law Project will only release logs to a third party if compelled to do so by a court order.
Roles
The Role of the Internet Archive
Because IA has no control over the Downloader System provided by Free Law Project, and because the IA servers never receive any sensitive information about Downloader System users from the Downloader System, the IA servers are considered to be outside of the Downloader System, and this privacy policy should not be construed to bind IA. Users of the Downloader System may wish to review IA’s own Privacy Policy, which is available at http://www.archive.org/about/terms.php.
The Role of Harvard Law Library
If you install and enable the Client, it will use your API key to interact with the Harvard Law Library servers, according to their Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and any other terms they may have. You may wish to review those terms and policies. The only information the Client shares with the Harvard Law Library is the information needed to use their API, such as such as your API key and your IP address.
Changes
We reserve the right to change our privacy policy from time to time at our sole discretion. Please periodically check this section to review the current version of the Privacy Policy. Your continued use of the RECAP System following the posting of such changes will constitute your assent to all such changes.
