Ensuring privacy and safety is fundamental to online environments. And, of course, privacy and safety are essential and evolving themes of the internet itself. The following guidelines describe how we apply these ideas and principles to the work that we do in the Lab.

Privacy, Confidentiality, and Sharing of Personal Information

The Lab is hosted on a cloud-based service. By using the Lab, you are consenting to the storage of your content and user information in the United States. If you choose not to provide your consent, please consult with the instructor to make alternate arrangements.

You are not required to share your true identity on this site. When you sign in for the first time, you can change your username and any other potentially identifying information that is contained within your user account (such as your avatar). If you decide to use an alias, the only person who needs to know your actual identity is the instructor (for administrative purposes). You have the means to post anonymously. If you wish to take advantage of this, you are welcome to do so.

You will not be asked to submit voice recordings or videos of yourself, or to provide any identifying information that is not protected by your user account settings (which you control).

You will not be asked or required to submit any information that a reasonable person would view as potentially controversial or sensitive, or that would be specific enough to identify you; for example, personal and political views, religious beliefs, medical information, and personal experiences.

If you want to share personal, political, or religious views, or personal experiences (or similar) on the pages you create on this site, you are welcome to do so. However, as the project descriptions emphasize, any subject that is challenging for you to talk about openly (or for others to hear) is a subject you should probably not write about — especially on a public platform such as this. In particular, subjects involving violence, abuse, trauma, death, mental illness, and related themes (whether they happened to you, happened to someone else, or are imagined) reliably activate strong emotions in ourselves and others and are generally unsafe to share. While no subject is absolutely off-limits, many subjects pose a risk of harm to you, to the instructor, to others in the class, and to our shared communities. Please consult the code of conduct for further information, or ask the instructor for guidance if you are uncertain.

Do not share your Wagtail user credentials with anyone else. Doing so would be a serious breach of our code of conduct.

Class Discussion

We will review these guidelines in class and make time for a meaningful discussion about how to anonymize personal information online. You will have the opportunity to discuss any concerns that you may have.


These guidelines have been adapted from material developed by KPU's Teaching & Learning Commons and the UBC Learning Technology Hub.