Data governance
A digital archive raises a simple question that is rarely answered: who actually holds the keys? This page answers it.
The principle
EWA’s data is not data about root peoples: it is their data. We provide technical custody; authority belongs to the originating community. That reversal is the heart of the CARE Principles we have adopted — collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility, ethics.
Where the archives are hosted
- Published content is hosted in Europe, with a provider subject to the GDPR.
- On request, every partner community receives a complete copy of its own content on a medium it keeps — independent of us and of any connection.
- Raw recordings are stored separately from published content, on offline media.
Who decides
Each community appoints the person or body that decides on its behalf. That person or council may, without going through us: change the access level of an item, ask for its removal, correct a translation or an attribution, refuse a usage request.
EWA cannot override them. Where a community is internally divided, the rule is the status quo: nothing is published for as long as the disagreement lasts.
Who has access, and how it is logged
- Public content — available without an account.
- Restricted content — named access, on reasoned request approved by the community. Every consultation is logged.
- Community-only content — access limited to members identified by the community itself.
Access logs may be consulted as of right by the community concerned.
Taking back control
At any time, a community may request a full export of its content in open formats readable without our platform — or its permanent deletion from our servers. We undertake to answer within thirty days and to attach no condition to that return.
Duration and permanence
Documenting only makes sense if the archive outlives the project. We use open, documented formats, we keep several copies in separate locations, and our statutes provide that in the event of dissolution the content returns to the originating communities — never to a buyer, never to a third party.
What we will never do
- sell, rent or transfer the data to a third party;
- fund the platform through advertising or by profiling visitors;
- allow a technical or financial partner to acquire any right over the content;
- use the content to train an artificial-intelligence system without the explicit and separate agreement of each community concerned.
Exercise a right over your data
This governance framework is a working document. It will be refined with the first partner communities and completed by the platform’s legal notices.