Privacy Policy & Terms

1. Who We Are

Chiropedia is a non-profit association (asociación sin ánimo de lucro) registered in Spain that operates an open-access, collaborative knowledge platform for the global chiropractic profession at www.chiropedia.org (the "Platform"). Our mission is to curate, preserve and share evidence-informed chiropractic knowledge freely and transparently across borders.

As the organisation responsible for determining how your personal data is handled, Chiropedia is the data controller for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Our full legal name, registered address and contact details appear in Section 9.

Because we serve practitioners and students from every part of the world — including countries outside the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA) — this policy is written to be meaningful to an international audience. Regardless of where you are located, we are committed to handling your personal information with care and transparency.

2. The Legal Framework Governing This Policy

Our primary legal obligations are set by:

• •Regulation (EU) 2016/679 — the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which applies to us as an entity established in Spain and governs how we handle the personal data of any individual in the world whose data we process;
• •Spain's Organic Law 3/2018 of 5 December on the Protection of Personal Data and the Guarantee of Digital Rights (LOPDGDD), which implements and supplements GDPR in Spain; and
• •Royal Decree-Law 13/2012 and related regulations implementing the EU ePrivacy Directive with respect to electronic communications and cookies.

For users and Authors located outside the EEA, we apply GDPR as a baseline standard. We also recognise that many countries have their own data protection laws — including but not limited to the following — and we take these into account where practicable:

• •United States: while the US does not have a single federal privacy law, various state laws (including the California Consumer Privacy Act, CCPA, as amended by the CPRA) and sector-specific regulations may apply to US-resident users. We honour any rights conferred by applicable US state law to users in those states.
• •United Kingdom: following the UK's departure from the EU, the UK GDPR (retained EU law) and the Data Protection Act 2018 govern processing of personal data relating to UK residents. We apply GDPR-equivalent standards to all UK users.
• •Australia: the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) apply to personal information relating to Australian residents. We apply these principles in handling data relating to Australian users.
• •Canada: the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial laws govern personal information relating to Canadian residents. We comply with PIPEDA's consent and accountability requirements.
• •Japan: the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) governs personal data relating to individuals in Japan.
• •Other jurisdictions: many countries — including Brazil (LGPD), South Africa (POPIA), New Zealand (Privacy Act 2020), Singapore (PDPA) and others — have enacted comprehensive data protection legislation. Although Chiropedia's registered seat is in Spain, we recognise these frameworks and aim to meet internationally accepted standards across all our operations.

In the event of any conflict between GDPR requirements and the requirements of another applicable jurisdiction, we will apply whichever standard affords greater protection to the individual.

3. Scope of This Policy

This policy covers all personal data processed by Chiropedia in connection with:

• •your use of the Platform, including the Chiropedia wiki, knowledge articles and associated resources;
• •your registration and activity as a Chiropedia Author;
• •your communications with us by any channel; and
• •any donations, event registrations or other interactions with Chiropedia as an organisation.

What this policy does not cover: Third-party websites that may be linked from the Platform are not subject to this policy. Those sites operate under their own privacy policies, which we encourage you to read before providing any personal information to them. Chiropedia does not control and is not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party services.

4. What Personal Data We Collect and Why

We collect only the personal data that is necessary for us to operate the Platform and fulfil our mission. The following describes each category of data, how it is collected, why we collect it and the legal basis for doing so.

4.1 Data Collected from All Visitors

Technical connection data: When you visit the Platform, our servers automatically record your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URL, pages visited and timestamps. This data is used to maintain the security and performance of the Platform, to diagnose technical issues and, in aggregate, to understand how the Platform is used. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in operating a secure and functional platform (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). We do not use this data to identify individual visitors except where security concerns require us to do so.

Cookies and similar technologies: We use cookies and comparable tracking technologies on the Platform. Strictly necessary cookies (those required for the Platform to function) are placed without your consent on the basis of our legitimate interests. All other cookies — including those used for analytics, functionality enhancements or advertising — require your prior consent, which we obtain through our cookie preference centre when you first visit the Platform. You may withdraw or amend your cookie preferences at any time through the cookie settings link in our site footer. Full details of every cookie we use, its purpose and its lifespan are set out in our separate Cookie Policy.

Enquiry and correspondence data: If you contact us through our contact form, by email or by any other means, we will collect the information you provide (typically your name, email address and the content of your enquiry) and use it to respond to you. We retain correspondence for as long as necessary to address your enquiry and for a reasonable period thereafter for quality and accountability purposes. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(b) GDPR (taking steps at your request) and Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (our legitimate interest in maintaining records of our communications).

4.2 Data Collected When You Register as an Author

Contributing content to Chiropedia requires registration as an Author. Registration data is processed on the basis of Article 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of the Author agreement between you and Chiropedia) and, where relevant, Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.

Account and identity data: We collect your full name, email address and, where applicable, your professional registration number or equivalent credential. This information is used to verify that you meet Chiropedia's authorship standards, to communicate with you about your account and the Platform, and to attribute your contributions accurately.

Professional profile data: Authors are required to maintain a public profile disclosing their professional qualifications, institutional or practice affiliation, and any financial interests relevant to the content they contribute — including any compensation received from organisations whose products, services or claims may relate to content on the Platform. This disclosure requirement reflects standard practice in the health sciences and supports the editorial neutrality and trustworthiness of the knowledge resource. Your profile is publicly visible on the Platform and accessible worldwide.

Contribution data: All content you submit to the Platform is associated with your Author profile and becomes publicly accessible globally. The full revision history of all articles — including content that has been edited, removed or replaced — is preserved to maintain editorial transparency. Deletion of your account does not erase your contribution history from our systems; any rights you hold under applicable law (see Section 8) may allow you to request further action in specific circumstances.

Activity and recognition data: We record metadata about your authoring activity on the Platform, including the dates and frequency of your contributions. Where you are recognised through Chiropedia's recognition programme (such as Author of the Month or tiered authorship awards), your name and recognition status may be made publicly visible. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in acknowledging and incentivising high-quality contributions to the resource.

Platform communications: We may contact you by email about matters relating to your account, significant changes to the Platform or this policy, and periodic updates about Chiropedia's activities. You may opt out of non-essential communications at any time by following the unsubscribe link in any email we send or by contacting us directly.

IP address data: Your IP address is logged in connection with your contributions and account activity. This enables us to detect and prevent abuse, fraud and unauthorised activity on the Platform. Where your IP address is used for this purpose, the legal basis is our legitimate interest in protecting the integrity of the Platform (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). This data is retained only for as long as reasonably necessary for security purposes.

Contact invitation data: If you use any feature that allows you to invite colleagues to join Chiropedia, we will use the names and email addresses you provide solely to send the invitation and any follow-up reminder. By submitting a third party's contact details, you confirm that you have that person's permission to do so. We do not use such contact data for any other purpose or share it with third parties.

4.3 Donations and Financial Transactions

If you make a donation to Chiropedia, we will collect the personal and financial data necessary to process the transaction and, where required by Spanish and EU law, to maintain appropriate financial records. Payment processing is handled by third-party payment providers under their own privacy and security terms. We do not store your full card details on our own servers. Donation records are retained for the period required by applicable tax and accounting law.

5. Summary of Legal Bases

The following table summarises the legal bases on which we process personal data under GDPR:

• •Contract performance (Article 6(1)(b)): processing necessary to fulfil the Author registration agreement and provide the services you have requested.
• •Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)): operating and securing the Platform; maintaining contribution records and attribution; detecting abuse and fraud; recognising author contributions; improving the quality of our services.
• •Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)): compliance with applicable financial, tax, and regulatory requirements.
• •Consent (Article 6(1)(a)): non-essential cookies and, where applicable, marketing communications. Consent may be withdrawn at any time.

We do not use automated decision-making (including profiling) that produces legal or similarly significant effects on individuals.

6. A Note on Health-Related and Special Category Data

Chiropedia is a knowledge platform about chiropractic — a health discipline. In the ordinary course of using the Platform, Authors and visitors are unlikely to submit personal health data relating to themselves. However:

• •Authors' professional credentials and affiliations may in some cases reveal information about their professional field that could constitute health-related data. We treat this information with heightened care.
• •If you submit, through any feature of the Platform, any information that could be considered special category data under Article 9 GDPR (which includes data concerning health, biometric data, or religious or philosophical beliefs) or equivalent categories under other applicable laws, we will only process that data on the basis of your explicit consent or another applicable legal ground.
• •If you are uncertain whether information you wish to submit falls into a sensitive category, please contact us before submitting it.

We strongly advise against submitting identifiable patient data through any part of the Platform. Chiropedia is a knowledge resource, not a clinical records system, and we do not have systems in place to handle patient-level health data securely.

7. Children and Age of Consent

Chiropedia is a professional knowledge platform intended exclusively for qualified chiropractors, chiropractic students, researchers, and other healthcare professionals. It is not directed at, and is not intended for use by, children or minors. We do not knowingly collect, process or store personal data from anyone who does not meet the applicable minimum age threshold for the service they are using.

7.1 Age Thresholds Across Jurisdictions

Because Chiropedia serves an international community, the applicable minimum age for consent to data processing varies depending on where you are located. The principal thresholds are as follows:

• •Spain (GDPR and LOPDGDD): The LOPDGDD sets 14 years as the age at which a minor may independently consent to the processing of their personal data for information society services. Below this age, the consent of a parent or legal guardian is required under Article 8 GDPR as implemented in Spain. As Chiropedia is established in Spain, this is our primary reference threshold.
• •European Union (GDPR default): GDPR Article 8 sets 16 years as the default age of digital consent, while permitting member states to lower this to a minimum of 13. The threshold therefore varies across EU member states (from 13 to 16), and we apply the threshold applicable to the member state of the user concerned where this can be determined.
• •United Kingdom: The Age Appropriate Design Code and the UK GDPR establish 13 as the age of digital consent in the UK. Given that Chiropedia is a professional platform not directed at children, we will not knowingly process data relating to UK users under 13.
• •United States — COPPA: The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act prohibits the collection of personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent. Chiropedia does not direct its service at children and does not knowingly collect personal information from any person under 13 in the United States. If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personal information from a child under 13, we will delete it promptly.
• •Australia: The Privacy Act 1988 does not prescribe a single age of consent; however, children generally require parental consent for data processing where they cannot fully understand the implications. Chiropedia does not target this age group.
• •Canada: PIPEDA and provincial privacy laws require meaningful consent for data processing. For children, this typically requires parental or guardian consent. Chiropedia will not knowingly process data relating to Canadian minors.
• •Other jurisdictions: Where no specific digital consent age has been established by national law, we apply a default threshold of 14 years consistent with our Spanish registration, or such higher threshold as applies in the user's jurisdiction.

7.2 Our Approach

Because Chiropedia is a professional platform for healthcare practitioners — and chiropractic study and registration typically requires post-secondary education — it is highly unlikely that any user will fall below the applicable minimum age. Nevertheless, we take the following measures:

• •Registration as an Author requires disclosure of professional credentials and institutional or practice affiliation, providing a practical safeguard against registration by individuals who are not qualified practitioners or advanced students.
• •We do not knowingly collect personal data from children below the minimum applicable age. If you are below the minimum age in your jurisdiction, you must not register as an Author or provide personal information through the Platform.
• •If a parent, guardian or any person becomes aware that a child has provided us with personal information without appropriate consent, they should contact us immediately at privacy@chiropedia.org. We will investigate and, where confirmed, delete the relevant data without undue delay.
• •We do not deploy advertising targeting minors and do not use data from any user for behavioural profiling directed at minors.
• •Where Chiropedia content is publicly accessible without registration, we do not collect personal data from unregistered visitors beyond technical connection data, and we do not use that data to identify or profile individuals.

7.3 Chiropractic Students

We recognise that chiropractic education typically begins at undergraduate level, meaning some enrolled students may be under 18 in certain jurisdictions. Where a student who is under the applicable age of digital consent in their jurisdiction wishes to register as an Author, the following applies:

• •The student's educational institution or supervising clinician should contact us to facilitate registration under an institutional authorisation arrangement.
• •The student must not register independently without the prior consent of their parent or guardian, unless the applicable national law permits independent consent at their age.
• •We will maintain a record of any institutional authorisation and will apply appropriate additional safeguards to the data of any Author we are aware is under the applicable age threshold.

8. Your Rights Regarding Your Personal Data

Depending on where you are located, you may have some or all of the following rights with respect to the personal data we hold about you. We honour these rights regardless of your location.

8.1 Rights Under GDPR (EU/EEA and UK Users)

• •Right of access (Article 15): to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and information about how it is processed.
• •Right to rectification (Article 16): to have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected.
• •Right to erasure (Article 17): in defined circumstances, to have your personal data deleted. Note that where your data forms part of the permanent editorial record of the Platform (e.g. contribution history), full erasure may not be possible without compromising the integrity of the knowledge resource; we will explain this clearly if you make such a request.
• •Right to restriction (Article 18): to ask us to limit the ways in which we process your data while a dispute or query is resolved.
• •Right to data portability (Article 20): where processing is based on your consent or on a contract and carried out by automated means, to receive your data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
• •Right to object (Article 21): to object to processing based on legitimate interests, including any profiling.
• •Right to withdraw consent: where we rely on your consent as the legal basis for processing, to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.
• •Right not to be subject to automated decisions: we do not carry out solely automated decision-making with legal or significant effects.

8.2 Rights of Users in Other Jurisdictions

We recognise that users outside the EU may have equivalent or overlapping rights under their national law. In particular:

• •California residents (CCPA/CPRA): you have the right to know what personal information we have collected about you and to whom it has been disclosed; the right to delete personal information (subject to certain exceptions); the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information (we do not sell personal information); and the right to non-discrimination for exercising your privacy rights.
• •UK residents: your rights under the UK GDPR mirror those described in Section 8.1 above and are exercisable through the same process.
• •Australian residents: under the Privacy Act 1988 and the APPs, you have the right to access personal information held about you and to request its correction. Complaints may be directed to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
• •Canadian residents: you have the right to access your personal information and to challenge its accuracy. Complaints may be directed to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
• •Residents of other jurisdictions: if you believe you have privacy rights under your national law that are not addressed in this section, please contact us. We will consider your request in good faith and apply the higher standard where there is any doubt.

8.3 How to Exercise Your Rights

To exercise any of the rights described in this section, please contact us at privacy@chiropedia.org. We will acknowledge your request within five working days and respond substantively within one calendar month. Where a request is complex or where you have submitted multiple requests, we may extend this period by a further two months, and will inform you accordingly.

We will not charge a fee for processing requests unless they are manifestly unfounded or excessive, in which case we may charge a reasonable administrative fee or decline to act, explaining our reasons.

Where we cannot fully comply with a request — for example because doing so would compromise the integrity of the Platform's editorial record — we will explain our position clearly and inform you of any alternative steps available to you.

9. International Data Transfers

Chiropedia is established in Spain and processes data primarily within the EEA. However, because we operate a global platform, personal data may be transferred to, stored in, or accessed from countries outside the EEA in the following circumstances:

• •Where we engage service providers (such as hosting, analytics or email delivery services) whose infrastructure or staff are located outside the EEA;
• •Where Authors or administrators access Platform systems from outside the EEA; or
• •Where content you contribute is accessed by users located outside the EEA (which is an inherent feature of the Platform's open-access mission).

For transfers to countries not covered by an EU adequacy decision, we rely on the following safeguards as appropriate:

• •Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) as adopted by the European Commission;
• •Binding Corporate Rules, where applicable;
• •Supplementary technical and organisational measures where required by the EDPB's recommendations.

Specific information about the safeguards applicable to any particular transfer is available on request by contacting us at privacy@chiropedia.org.

We note that publishing an Author's profile and contributions publicly — which is central to the Platform's purpose — constitutes an international transfer by its nature, as this content will be accessible worldwide. Authors consent to this transfer as part of the Author registration process and in accordance with the open-access terms of the Platform.

10. How Long We Keep Your Data

We apply the following general retention principles:

• •Account and profile data: retained for the duration of your account and for a reasonable period thereafter to allow for the resolution of any disputes or compliance obligations. Where an account is closed, data that forms part of the permanent editorial record (such as contribution history) may be retained indefinitely to preserve the integrity of the knowledge resource.
• •Contribution data: stored indefinitely as part of the public editorial record of the Platform, consistent with the Platform's mission of maintaining a permanent, auditable knowledge resource.
• •Technical connection and security data (including IP address logs): retained for a maximum of [12 months / to be confirmed with legal advice] unless a specific security incident requires longer retention.
• •Email and correspondence: retained for [24 months] after resolution of the matter to which the correspondence relates, unless a longer period is required by law.
• •Donation and financial records: retained for the period required by Spanish tax and accounting law, currently [5 years] from the date of the transaction.
• •Cookie and analytics data: retained for the period specified in our Cookie Policy for each category of cookie.

Where we are unable to delete data — for example because it is embedded in the permanent editorial record — we will restrict access to that data as far as technically feasible.

11. Contact Us and How to Make a Complaint

11.1 Data Controller

• Organisation name: Chiropedia — [Full registered Spanish name]
• Registered address: [Address in Spain]
• Registration number: [Spanish association registration number]
• Privacy contact email: privacy@chiropedia.org
• Data Protection Officer: [Name and contact details, or confirm DPO not required — seek legal advice]

11.2 Supervisory Authorities

If you believe that we have not handled your personal data in compliance with applicable law, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority. The competent authority for complaints relating to our processing as a Spanish-established organisation is:

Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD)
www.aepd.es

Users in other jurisdictions may also direct complaints to their national supervisory authority:

• •UK: Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) — ico.org.uk
• •Australia: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) — oaic.gov.au
• •Canada: Office of the Privacy Commissioner — priv.gc.ca
• •New Zealand: Office of the Privacy Commissioner — privacy.org.nz
• •Other jurisdictions: please contact us and we will identify the appropriate authority for your location.

You also retain the right to seek a judicial remedy in the courts of your country of residence or in Spain, as applicable.

11.3 Resolving Concerns Informally

We encourage you to contact us directly before submitting a complaint to a supervisory authority. Many concerns can be resolved quickly and informally, and we are committed to engaging with any query about our data practices in a timely and transparent manner.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We will review and update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in how we operate, changes in applicable law, or other relevant developments. Where we make changes that materially affect the way we process your personal data, we will notify registered Authors by email before the changes take effect and will post a prominent notice on the Platform.

The date of the most recent revision is shown at the top of this document. For significant changes, we will also maintain an accessible version history so that you can compare previous and current versions.

Continued use of the Platform after the effective date of a revised policy constitutes your acknowledgement of the changes. If you do not agree with a material change, you should cease using the Platform and may request deletion of your account.