Posted: 28 August 2019

This Privacy Policy explains what data we collect when you use the Centurial add-on in Firefox.

What is Centurial, and what is Acoose.NET?
Centurial is true evidence-based genealogical software that helps you to with your family history research. The main component of Centurial is the desktop application, which you can download here. Centurial is created by Fouke Boss under the name Acoose.NET. We are based in the Netherlands.

How does the add-on work?
The Centurial add-on allows you to import the current web page you are viewing in Firefox into the Centurial desktop application as a source. When you click the Centurial icon in the Firefox tool bar:

1. The Centurial add-on sends the url and the contents of the web page you are currently viewing to the Centurial desktop application that is installed on your computer.
2. The Centurial desktop application uses a web scraper to extract as much genealogically relevant data from the url and the contents of the page as possible.
3. Optionally, the web scraper requests the add-on to download some more data from the same web site in order to enrich the extracted data.
4. The Centurial desktop application creates a new source in your research project based on the extracted data.

Url and contents
The url of the current web page, and possibly the content of that web page as well if the web site is not publicly available, is personal information. As described above this information is send from the 1. Firefox add-on to the 2. Centurial desktop application where it is processed by a 3. web scraper and stored in your 4. Centurial research project. Each of these 4 components is installed and/or stored on your computer, so this information is not send over the internet and never leaves your computer.

We do however collect the domain and subdomain of the url of your web page. For example, if you use the add-on to import the page https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939F-KXQM-B, we will send the domain https://www.familysearch.org to our servers. So we do know which web site you imported, but not which specific web page on that site.

Web scrapers
A web scraper is a piece of code in the Centurial desktop application that is responsible for extracting the genealogical data from the web page you are importing. Centurial comes with a generic web scraper (that works quite well for all web pages) and with a couple of specific web scrapers for specific web sites. Also, it allows other developers to write their own scrapers for specific web sites through an extension architecture.

These web scrapers run in a sandboxed application domain, within and completely controlled by the Centurial desktop application, with very, very limited permissions. This way we actively ensure that no data whatsoever is send to any third party servers.

If a web scraper runs into an unexpected error, we collect error information: the exception type, exception message and full C# stack trace.

What data does Acoose.NET collect about you, and why?
Summarized: when you use the Centurial add-on in Firefox, we collect which web site (not: web page) you imported. We do this in order to monitor which web sites are imported most frequently, so that later on we are able to improve the data extraction experience for these web sites specifically. Also, we collect error information from the web scraper in case it fails; this allows us to repair bugs in the web scraper code.

What data does Acoose.NET not collect about you?
When using the Centurial add-on in Firefox, we:

1. do not collect the full url of the web page you are importing.
2. do not collect the contents of the web page you are importing.
3. do not collect any personal data other than the url of the domain you are importing.
4. actively prevent third party web scraper developers to collect any data whatsoever.
5. do not collect any genealogical data.
6. do not use any cookies.

Where does Acoose.NET store data about me?
Acoose.NET stores all collected data on secure servers located in the Netherlands.

Does Acoose.NET share data about me with others?
No, we do not and will not ever share the collected data with others.

How can I contact Acoose.NET about privacy?
You can contact Centurial support for any questions or requests regarding privacy.

Additional Information about Centurial privacy
The Centurial add-on can not be used without the Centurial desktop application, which has a privacy policy of its own.