Privacy
Last updated 2 August 2026. Written in plain language on purpose. If anything here is unclear, ask us and we will explain it.
The short version
We collect as little as we can. Your drawing goes into a public library under a name you choose, which can be a made-up one. Your real name and email, if we have them at all, are kept somewhere separate that this website cannot reach. You can have your drawing taken down at any time.
Visiting this website
This site sets no cookies and runs no advertising or tracking scripts. We do not build a profile of you, and nothing you do here is sold or shared with anyone.
Our host keeps ordinary server logs, which include IP addresses, for a short period for security and to keep the site running. We do not use those logs to identify individual visitors.
If we ever add any measurement of how many people visit, it will be a cookieless, privacy-preserving one that does not follow you across sites, and we will say so here first.
The host waitlist
If you join the waitlist to host your own Ourtopia, we store your email address and nothing else. We use it only to tell you about hosting and to send you the workshop kit. We do not sell it, and we do not add you to anything else.
Every email we send has an unsubscribe link. You can also ask us to delete your address at any time and we will, without asking why.
Coming to an Ourtopia
Taking part means your drawing, and anything you write about why you drew it, may be shared publicly in the Ourtopia library and shown at exhibitions. We say this before every event, in the starter-kit email you receive beforehand, so it is never a surprise.
You choose the name your drawing goes up under. It can be your real name, a nickname, or something invented. We never publish your real name unless you choose it as your display name, and we never publish an email address, an age, an address, or anything like it.
We ask people not to write real addresses or personal details into their drawings. If something slips through, tell us and we will take it down.
Ourtopia events are for adults. If a workshop is ever run for people under 18, that needs a separate written parental consent process, and no drawing or information from anyone under 18 is collected or published before that is in place.
Your two numbers
Each drawing gets a catalogue number, like OUR-0001. That one is public and appears next to your drawing in the library. It identifies the drawing, not you.
You also get a private code on a slip of paper at the event. That one is a secret. It is how we know it is really you if you ask for your drawing back or ask us to remove it. It is never published anywhere and it is not stored on this website. Keep it somewhere safe.
Where things are kept
The public library (the drawings, the display names, the statements, the catalogue numbers) is part of this website. There is nothing personal in it beyond what you chose to put there.
The list that connects a private code to a real person is a small, separate, encrypted file that Gianna keeps. It holds a first name, a private code, and an email address only if you asked to be sent your scan. It is not part of this website, not part of the code that builds it, and cannot be reached from the internet. As few people as possible have access to it.
How long we keep things
- Your drawing and statement: kept indefinitely, as part of the archive, unless you ask us to withdraw them. That is the point of a library.
- The private code list: kept only for as long as we offer to retrieve drawings for people, and reviewed every year. It is deleted when that offer ends, and we will announce it here before that happens.
- Waitlist emails: kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them.
Taking your drawing down
Email us your private code and say you want your drawing withdrawn. We will take it out of the library at the next update, usually within a day or two. We do not ask for a reason.
A withdrawn drawing stops appearing anywhere public. Its catalogue number is retired and never given to anyone else.
Your rights
Ourtopia is based in Belfast, so UK data protection law applies. You have the right to ask what we hold about you, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, and to object to how we use it. Ask us and we will sort it out, free, normally within a month.
If you are not happy with how we handle it, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk (opens in a new tab) .