What we collect from research participants, and why.

Your responses.

Free-text answers to three questions about each image: what is happening in it, where you might be in it, and what it would say if it could speak. These responses are the research data.

Background details.

Region of origin, country of residence, first language, professional context, and years of practice. On Prolific, also your industry and whether you have used image-based tools before. We use these only to understand how responses vary across backgrounds.

Session timing.

When each image was shown and when you submitted. A rough measure of engagement, nothing more.

Not your name or email.

Research records are keyed by a study identifier (a per-session research ID, or your Prolific ID), not your identity. We do not ask for your name or email on the research form.

The purpose.

We are validating which images work as projective instruments: images that invite open, varied interpretation. What we learn shapes the Aperture deck.

Sensitive topics may come up.

The questions invite open reflection, so a response may touch on your health, beliefs, background, or other sensitive areas. By giving consent on the form, you explicitly agree that we may process any such information you choose to share, for this research. You are never required to share anything you would rather not.

Consent is yours to give and to take back.

Participation is voluntary. You can withdraw at any time. See § 05.

Our research subprocessors.

We run the research form and database ourselves, on our own server hosted in the European Union (Germany, via Hetzner) and served through Cloudflare. Resend delivers any email we send you. Each of these has a Data Processing Agreement in place. If you joined through Prolific, Prolific recruits and pays participants as an independent controller under its own terms. It is not our processor. See the full subprocessor list.

No advertisers, no brokers.

Research responses are never sold, never shared for advertising, and never used to build a profile of you.

Research responses: three years.

We retain your responses for three years from submission, then anonymize or delete them. Anonymized responses, with no link back to a study identifier, may be retained longer as part of aggregate research findings.

Withdrawal deletes sooner.

If you withdraw consent, we delete your responses on request, ahead of the three-year window.

Access, correction, deletion, withdrawal.

You can ask for a copy of your responses, ask us to correct them, ask us to delete them, or withdraw your consent entirely.

Use your study identifier.

Because we do not hold your name or email, we find your responses by your study identifier (your per-session research ID or Prolific ID). Include it when you write to us. Without it, we may not be able to locate your specific responses.

Withdrawal is clean.

Withdrawing consent stops any further use and deletes your responses. It does not affect anything lawful we did with them before you withdrew.

EU hosting.

The research database is hosted in the European Union (Germany).

How your data is handled across borders.

You provide your responses to us directly, and we process and store them in the European Union (Germany). GDPR and UK GDPR rights are honored throughout.