Privacy & data statement.

One Simple Thing is an independent environmental education organization founded and directed by Dr. James Dalton. The project conducts an ongoing educational tour of university and high school campuses across the United States, inviting participants to identify one science-backed action they can take to support the living world.

This site collects limited personal information through two forms — the Intention Form and the Tour Form — and through an optional story submission system. This statement describes each of those data flows in plain language.

After setting an intention, participants receive a confirmation email containing a unique link. That link allows them to return to the site and view or update their intention without creating an account or password. The link is tied to their database record by an internal identifier — it does not expose their name, email, or any other personal information in the URL itself.

The Live Map displays intention dots by zip code only. Each dot represents a geographic area, not an individual. No name, email, or other identifying information is ever displayed on the map or in any public-facing visualization.

One Simple Thing visits high school classrooms as well as university campuses. When presenting to audiences that include minors, we follow these additional practices:

• Participation in the intention-setting activity is always voluntary. No student is required to submit any information.
• Story submissions from participants who identify themselves as under 18 require a parent or guardian email address at submission. The story is held in a pending state and a consent request is sent to that address before any review or publication occurs.
• We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If a submission is identified as coming from a child under 13, it is deleted from our records.
• Campus and school hosts are encouraged to review this privacy statement before confirming a visit. We are happy to provide additional documentation for IRB review, student affairs offices, or school district compliance requirements upon request.

Participant data is stored in a managed MySQL database hosted within GoDaddy's infrastructure. Access to the database is restricted to the project director and is protected by authentication. The site is served over HTTPS. We do not sell, rent, or share participant data with any third party for marketing or commercial purposes.

We retain participant records for the duration of the project. Participants may request deletion of their record at any time by emailing the address below. Deletion requests are processed within 14 days.

The One Simple Thing tour is designed in part as an observational study of how environmental education affects student engagement and intention. Aggregate data — total number of participants, distribution of chosen species and categories, geographic spread, and anonymized written responses — may be used in academic presentations, published papers, or public reports about the project's findings.

No individual participant is identified in any research output without their explicit written consent. Participants who wish to be acknowledged by name in research outputs may indicate this preference by contacting us directly.

Pre- and post-visit response data collected at campus events is used solely to measure the educational impact of the tour. This data is stored separately from the public intention database and is accessible only to the project director.

You have the right to access the personal information we hold about you, to correct inaccuracies, to request deletion, and to withdraw consent for any optional use (such as story publication or email updates) at any time. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the address below. We will respond within 14 days.

Questions about this privacy statement, requests for IRB documentation, or data deletion requests should be directed to: