Privacy Notice

Who is responsible

The Aeilus Value Research Institute (ÆVRI) is an independent initiative operated by Victor Bolshakov, an individual based in Cyprus. He is the data controller for this website.

Contact for any privacy question or request: privacy@aeilus.institute.

What we collect and why

When you read the site

• Server logs: IP address, browser type, requested page and time. Used to keep the site secure and working. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in running a secure website.
• Technical cookies: a session cookie set by the site platform, needed for forms and security. We do not use advertising cookies or third-party analytics, and we do not track you across other sites. If you agree, we use our own value-profile cookie, described below.

When you join or submit research

• Application details: name, email, country (optional), role (optional) and what you would like to do.
• Profile details you choose to add: author type, organisation or affiliation, short bio, public links and areas of expertise.
• Your research draft and files: the fields of the publication standard, co-authors you name, and attachments.
• A draft cookie (AEVRI_DRAFT, 30 days) so you can return to your unfinished draft from the same browser.
• A hashed network identifier (a one-way hash of your IP address) to limit spam applications.

We use this data to handle your application, review your work, contact you about it, and publish it if it is accepted. Legal basis: steps you ask us to take before and during publication (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR) and our legitimate interest in preventing abuse (Article 6(1)(f)).

If you name co-authors, please make sure they agree to be named. We use their names and affiliations only to credit the work.

When you sign in

You can sign in with Google, ORCID, LinkedIn or a one-time email link. When you use it, we receive your name, email address and an account identifier from the service you choose, and use them only to confirm your identity. We do not receive your password.

When you email us

Messages to privacy@aeilus.institute are received by our email provider and forwarded to the operator's mailbox. We use them only to answer you.

When you read and evaluate

• Reading and evaluation: on research and Learn pages the site counts your active reading time and records it as an evaluation (0, +20 or +100), which you see before it is recorded and can replace with a reaction of your own. Signed-in readers choose reactions; guests are counted by reading time only.
• An evaluation cookie for guests (aevri_rk, 12 months) with a random identifier, so that one guest counts once per page. We store only a one-way hash of it, together with a hashed network identifier to limit abuse.
• People's ratings: your rating of a researcher or expert and your comment. An expert reviews it; accepted comments are shown publicly without your name.

Legal basis: our legitimate interest in measuring the value of published work for readers (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). Pages for kids and school students record no evaluations.

Your value profile (optional)

• What it is. If you agree, we remember which parts of the institute are useful to you and why, and arrange the site for you ("My institute"). You can switch to the general view at any time.
• What we store. A random identifier in a cookie (aevri_vp, 12 months); the pages and materials you open, how far you read, your evaluations and searches, the goal you choose, and short reasons you share with our assistant. We do not store your IP address or a device fingerprint, and we do not store the text of your conversations with the assistant, only the goal and reason taken from it.
• Who processes it. Our servers in the EU. The assistant and the analysis of how the site is used run on Claude, provided by Anthropic as our processor, through the Orkestron service operated by the founder. Analysis uses aggregated data, not individual histories. Nothing is sold or shared for advertising.
• Children. Pages for children are never used to build a profile.
• Legal basis. Your consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)). You can withdraw it at any time in your account or with the link in the footer. Withdrawal deletes your profile, reasons and events at once.
• How long. Events 90 days. Profile until you withdraw consent or 12 months without visits.

Personalisation settings

Without your consent we only count visits to pages anonymously, per day, with no identifier and no cookie.

What becomes public

If your work is published, the work itself and your public author details (name, affiliation, country, bio, links and areas of expertise) are visible to everyone. Your email address is never shown publicly. Reader evaluations are shown as totals, not linked to readers' identities.

Who processes data for us

• Hetzner Online GmbH, Germany: hosting of the website and its database.
• Brevo (Sendinblue SAS), France: sending emails and receiving mail sent to aeilus.institute.
• Anthropic PBC, USA: machine translation of texts published or written on the site (works, materials, review comments, expert discussion, ratings) into the site languages. Transfers are covered by standard contractual clauses.
• Orkestron (DigitalOcean, Frankfurt), Germany: the Orkestron relay operated by the founder, which passes texts to Claude for translation, the assistant and aggregated analysis, and keeps no copy.
• Google, ORCID and LinkedIn: only if you choose to sign in with them. Some of them may process data outside the EU under their own safeguards, such as the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses.

We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for advertising.

How long we keep it

• Unsubmitted drafts: until you discard them, and no longer than 12 months after your last change.
• Submitted works and applications: while the work is under review or published, and for up to 3 years after a work is declined or withdrawn, to handle questions about it.
• Emails: as long as needed to answer and follow up.
• Evaluations and ratings: as long as the evaluated work or profile is published.
• Server logs: for a limited period needed for security and troubleshooting.
• Value profile (only with your consent): events 90 days; the profile until you withdraw consent or 12 months without visits.

Your rights

You can ask us to give you a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to its use, or give it to you in a portable format. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. Write to privacy@aeilus.institute; we answer within one month.

You can also complain to the Office of the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection in Cyprus: dataprotection.gov.cy, or to the authority in your own EU country.

Children

Accounts, submissions and ratings are not intended for people under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their data. Learn pages for kids and school students can be read without an account and record no evaluations.

Changes

If we change this notice, we update the date at the top of this page. Significant changes that affect applicants will also be announced by email.