Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 31, 2026

I Know History (“IKH,” “we,” “us”) runs www.iknowhistory.org, a platform for student history essays, essay competitions and history questions. IKH is based in Pennsylvania, USA, and serves users around the world. This policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, and the choices you have.

1. Who can use IKH?

You must be at least 13 to create an account. If you live where a higher age applies to consenting to online services, you must meet that age or have a parent or guardian’s consent. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn we have, we’ll delete it. Students under 13 can enter competitions only through a participating school or partner, which handles consent offline. Parents can contact us at admin@iknowhistory.org.

2. Information we collect

Information you give us:

Account details: your name, email address, password (stored encrypted), country, and optionally your school, grade level or institution.
Profile information: your display name, short bio and profile photo, all optional.
Submissions: essays, drafts, sources, AI-use disclosures and any comments you post.
Competition entries: the information each competition requires, such as your school, region, age bracket, and teacher or sponsor contact.
Communications: messages you send us and your replies to surveys.

Information collected automatically:

Usage data: pages visited, quiz answers, levels and streaks, and the time spent on features.
Device data: IP address, browser type, device type, approximate location (country or region), and referring pages.
Cookies and similar technologies: see section 7.

Information from others:

Partner institutions: libraries, museums, universities and schools that co-run competitions may share entrant names, schools and results with us.
Judges: scores and comments on competition entries.

3. How we use information

To create and run your account and keep it secure.
To review, edit, publish and archive essays, and to credit authors.
To run competitions: checking eligibility, anonymized judging, notifying winners and organizing award ceremonies.
To run the questions and mastery features, including tracking your progress and adjusting difficulty.
To send service messages, such as confirmations, competition updates and policy changes. With your permission, we’ll also send newsletters, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.
To detect plagiarism, AI-generated submissions, spam and abuse.
To understand how the site is used and improve it.
To meet legal obligations and enforce our terms.

We don’t sell your personal information. We don’t share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we don’t show targeted ads.

4. What's public?

Published essays show the author’s name as you choose it (by default, your first name and last initial). They may also show your school or region and competition placement, if you choose to display them. Your email, date of birth and contact details are never shown publicly. Competition results may be announced by IKH and the partner institution, including at award ceremonies and in press releases.

5. How we share information

Service providers that host the site, send email, store files, provide analytics or check for plagiarism, under contracts that limit how they use your data. These include GoDaddy, which hosts our website.
Competition partners, for the competition you entered, to verify eligibility, judge entries, present awards and promote results.
Judges, who see entries with identifying information removed wherever possible.
Legal reasons: when the law requires it, or to protect the rights, safety or property of users, IKH or others.
Organizational changes: if IKH merges, is acquired or transfers its assets, this policy continues to apply to your information.

6. International users

IKH is based in the United States, and your information is processed in the US. US data protection laws may differ from those in your country. If you’re in the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland, our legal bases for processing are: performing our agreement with you (your account and submissions), legitimate interests (security, site improvement, running competitions), consent (newsletters, optional cookies) and legal obligation. We use appropriate safeguards, such as Standard Contractual Clauses, for international transfers where they’re required.

7. Cookies

We use essential cookies to keep you signed in and to secure the site. With your consent where the law requires it, we also use analytics cookies to understand site usage. You can control cookies in your browser and through our cookie banner. We don’t use advertising cookies.

8. Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live, including the EU, the UK, California and other US states, you may have the right to:

access the personal information we hold about you;
correct inaccurate information;
delete your account and personal information;
receive a copy of your data in a portable format;
object to or restrict certain processing;
withdraw consent at any time;
not be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

You can edit most of your information in your account settings. To make other requests, email admin@iknowhistory.org. We’ll respond within the time the law requires, usually 30 to 45 days, and may need to verify your identity first. If you’re in the EU or UK, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.

9. Retention

We keep account information while your account is active. Once you delete your account, we delete or anonymize your personal information within 90 days, except where we need it for legal, security or recordkeeping reasons. Competition records (winners, placements and the winning essays) may be kept as part of the competition’s historical archive, as described in the Terms of Use. Backups are overwritten on a regular schedule.

10. Security

We use reasonable safeguards, including encryption in transit, hashed passwords and access controls. No system is completely secure, so please use a strong, unique password and tell us right away if you suspect unauthorized access.

11. Changes to this policy

We’ll post any updates here with a new effective date. For material changes, we’ll notify you by email or on the site before they take effect.

12. Contact

I Know History, 502 W 7th St, Ste 100, Erie, PA 16502, USA · admin@iknowhistory.org

Privacy Policy

1. Who can use IKH?

2. Information we collect

3. How we use information

4. What's public?

5. How we share information

6. International users

7. Cookies

8. Your rights and choices

9. Retention

10. Security

11. Changes to this policy

12. Contact

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