Last updated: August 28, 2026
This site documents a proposed data center project in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. People who contact us are often residents raising concerns about a powerful institution, and we treat that seriously. This policy explains exactly what we collect, what we do not, and what we cannot promise.
The short version
- We do not run analytics, advertising, or third-party tracking on this site.
- We do not sell, rent, or share your information with anyone for marketing.
- We collect only what you choose to send us, plus the ordinary technical records any web server keeps.
- We will not publish your name or contact details without your permission.
- We are a small volunteer effort, not a secure communications channel. Please read the last section before sending anything sensitive.
Who runs this site
This site is operated by Datacenter Detective, a resident-run project based in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. It is not affiliated with the University of Michigan, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Ypsilanti Township government, or any political party or campaign committee.
Questions about this policy, or requests to see or delete what we hold about you: [email protected]
What we collect
Contact form
If you use our contact form, we receive whatever you type into it — typically your name, email address, and message — along with the date and time. Submissions are delivered to us by email and are not stored in a database on this website.
Outgoing email from this site is relayed through a third-party email service, Resend, which processes the message in transit. If the form allows file attachments, any file you attach travels the same way.
Comments
If you leave a comment, we collect the name, email address, and any website address you provide, the comment text, and your IP address and browser user-agent string. WordPress collects the IP address and user-agent as a standard spam-prevention measure.
The name you enter and your comment become publicly visible if the comment is approved. Your email address and IP address are not published. If you do not want your name attached to a public statement, use a first name only, a pseudonym, or write to us privately instead.
If you leave a comment, your browser may store your name, email, and website in cookies so you do not have to retype them. These last about a year and you can clear them in your browser at any time.
Server logs
Like every website, our web host keeps automatic access logs. These typically record IP addresses, the pages requested, timestamps, browser and device information, and referring pages. We do not use these logs to build profiles of visitors. They are retained by our host, [HOSTING PROVIDER], under its own retention schedule.
Cookies
We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. The only cookies this site sets are the standard WordPress ones: comment-author cookies described above, and login and session cookies for site administrators.
Embedded content and outbound links
Some pages may embed content from other sites, such as video or maps. Embedded content behaves exactly as if you had visited that site directly, and those providers may collect data and set their own cookies. We have no control over that.
We link extensively to government records, university pages, research reports, and news coverage. Following a link takes you to a site with its own privacy practices. We are not responsible for them.
What we do not do
- We do not run Google Analytics or any other analytics or tracking service.
- We do not display advertising and we do not have advertisers.
- We do not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise disclose your information for marketing.
- We do not use your information to target you with political messaging.
- We do not attempt to identify anonymous visitors.
How long we keep things
Approved comments and their metadata stay published indefinitely so that discussion remains readable, unless you ask us to remove them. Contact form emails are kept as long as they are useful to the work, and we delete them on request. Server logs are retained by our host under its own schedule and are not under our direct control.
Your choices
Write to us at [email protected] and you can ask us to:
- tell you what personal information we hold about you;
- correct anything inaccurate;
- delete your comments, your name from a comment, or your contact form correspondence.
We will honor these requests. Depending on where you live, you may have additional legal rights under laws such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation; we will do our best to comply with any that apply.
Children
This site is intended for adults and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
What we cannot promise
We want to be straightforward about this rather than reassuring.
This is a volunteer-run WordPress site. It is not an anonymous tip line and it is not a secure communications channel. Email sent through a contact form passes through a hosting provider and an email relay, both of which keep their own records. We take reasonable care with what you send us, but we cannot guarantee that any system is secure against a determined adversary, and we will not pretend otherwise.
We also cannot promise confidentiality against legal process. If we are served with a valid subpoena or court order, we may be legally required to produce records we hold. We are not lawyers, journalists with a shield privilege, or an organization with the resources to fight compelled disclosure.
If you have information you consider sensitive — particularly if you are an employee of any organization involved in this project — please do not send it through this website. Speak to a lawyer about your protections first, or approach a news organization that has proper source protection practices. We would rather lose a story than expose someone who trusted us.
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top and describe the change. We will not make a change that retroactively reduces protection for information already given to us.