Privacy Policy
Created: 15 July 2020
Last Updated: 13 November 2026
Climate TRACE respects your right to privacy. This Privacy & Cookies Policy describes who we are, what information we might collect about you, how we might use that information, who may access that information, and how you can manage your preferences.
Who We Are and How to Contact Us
Climate TRACE is a coalition created to make meaningful climate action faster and easier by mobilizing the global tech community to track greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with unprecedented detail and speed. Our public, open dashboard—and the data behind it—makes humanity’s GHG emissions transparent, accessible, and actionable for all.
Our founding members include Carbon Yield, CTrees, Duke University Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Earth Genome, Global Energy Monitor, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, OceanMind, RMI, TransitionZero, and WattTime, as well as climate leader and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. The coalition also includes over 150 other contributing institutions and individual experts, mostly nonprofits and academic institutions.
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please email coalition@climatetrace.org or contact us in writing by mail:
WattTime (co-founding member and Secretariat)
490 43rd Street Unit 221
Oakland, CA 94609, USA
Personal Data We Collect
We sometimes collect your personal information in order to provide and improve products and services, and to communicate with you about Climate TRACE, our members and partners, and related developments.
Information You Give Us:
In the course of submitting contact, subscribe, and/or other web forms; direct correspondence with Climate TRACE team members and representatives; and/or other activities, you may provide to us and we may collect from you information potentially including details such as your name, job title, organization, email address, and other basic info.
Automatic Information:
If you subscribe to our email newsletter, we automatically receive and store information that helps us improve our content, products, and services, such as whether you’ve opened an email and which links you clicked in that email.
Cookies
Cookies are small files containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer when you visit a website. Cookies may store user preferences and other information—within your current browsing session, across multiple sessions when you return to the site, or both.
The only cookies in use on our site are:
- Recaptcha for spam protection of the contact form (which cannot be opted out)
- Site settings storage cookies (which cannot be opted out)
- To analyze our website traffic and deliver better content to you, we use the web analytics service Matomo, which anonymizes all users (including their IP address) and then aggregates that information (can be opted out).
Your activity browsing this website is not tracked on an individual level, nor is it connected to or in any way affiliated with information you might supply to us (such as contacting our team via the website contact form).
The Climate TRACE AI Assistant
Our website includes an AI assistant that answers questions about Climate TRACE data in plain language. The Assistant draws on Climate TRACE’s data and documentation to respond.
What happens to your questions? When you use the assistant, the questions you type and the conversation so far are sent to Google's Vertex AI service. Google's Gemini model uses them, together with the Climate TRACE data that the assistant looks up, to write the answers. Earth Genome, a Climate TRACE coalition member, operates the assistant for the coalition.
Google's role. Google processes this content for us as a service provider, under the Google Cloud Data Processing Addendum. According to Google’s terms, they do not use user content to train its models. Google also states that it may retain the data briefly: for up to 24 hours to answer faster, and, if its automated systems flag a request as possible misuse, for up to 90 days so that Google can check it for abuse.
What Climate TRACE keeps. Climate TRACE does not store the content of your conversations on its servers. Your browser keeps up to ten of your conversations, so that you can return to them, and deletes each one automatically 7 days after its last message. You can delete a conversation yourself at any time, or clear this site's data in your browser. If you use a shared computer, the next person who uses the same browser could see your recent conversations. Please do not include personal or confidential information in your questions.
Sharing a chart. When you share a chart, your browser creates the image, and you download or share it from there. We don't receive or store it.
Contact us from the assistant. If you choose to include your conversation when you contact us, we receive it with your message and handle it as described under "Information You Give Us".
Measuring use. We count how the assistant is used with Matomo, as described under "Cookies": for example, which buttons are clicked, how long a question is, and which data an answer used. These counts never include the text of your questions.
As with any AI tool, the assistant's answers can contain errors; see our Terms of Use.
Who Has Access to Your Information
We will never sell, lease, or otherwise share your personal information with unaffiliated, third-party individuals and organizations except as stated below.
As a co-founding member acting on behalf of the Climate TRACE coalition, nonprofit WattTime is the data controller. When appropriate, we may relay your information—and any associated inquiry—to the coalition member best suited to address your communication.
We use the following third-party services to deliver products, services, and communications.
Communications: If you sign up for Climate TRACE’s newsletter or other alerts, you consent to the use of Mailchimp as our data processor as provided below:
- Your information will NOT be shared with partners or third parties without your consent.
- You may receive separate opportunities to opt-in to additional communications directly from Climate TRACE member organizations.
- You will only receive further communications directly from affiliated organizations if you opt in to those subscriptions.
Site analytics: We use Matomo for anonymized website analytics tracking. By accepting cookies, you consent to sharing data with Matomo (see the section on cookies for more details).
AI Assistant: We use Google's Vertex AI service. By using the AI assistant and accepting the terms, you consent to sharing data with Google (see section on AI assistant to know what data gets shared with Google).
How We Use Your Information
Your information will be used to improve Climate TRACE products, services, and communications, potentially including (but not limited to):
- Delivery of email communications to which you directly subscribed or requested
- Delivery of other marketing and communications
- Delivery of targeted Climate TRACE content from other platforms (e.g., YouTube videos embedded in this website)
Options for Managing Your Personal Information
You can manage your email subscription preferences, unsubscribe, resubscribe, etc. at any time by following the links contained in any email communication from us.
You can also contact us in writing at the email and/or mailing address above to update your preferences or to be removed from our system.