small print
Chelsea Kaufman
P.O. Box 741936
Los Angeles
CA
90004
United States
Email the Data Protection ContactRuby Central, Inc. collects individual attendee data for two main purposes: to organize and run the registered event, including communication of event details, and, if opted in, to provide information on upcoming Ruby Central conferences within the next year. Attendees can also opt in to receive information from sponsors.
Ruby Central's conference policies prioritize inclusivity, safety, and respect for all participants. The conference policies have clear guidelines regarding accessibility, speaker agreements, social justice commitment, and anti-harassment policies with links to our Code of Conduct. Additionally, it addresses issues such as photography and video release, admission procedures, attendee data privacy, and the admission of minors. Lastly, it includes an assumption of risk, waiver, release, and indemnity policy for attendees.
CONFERENCE PARTICIPANT POLICIES AND GUIDELINES
Ruby Central, Inc. and all associated members of the conference planning team are dedicated to providing an accessible, welcoming, and inclusive environment. If you would like to offer suggestions on how to make Ruby Central stronger, email us at contact@rubycentral.org. The privacy of our conference participants is important to us. To learn about what information we collect from attendees, and how we use that information, please see our Privacy Notice.
Accessibility
When organizing conferences, we identify venues of inclusivity as much as possible but are also aware that we don't always see what might be an obstacle to attendance. If you have questions regarding accessibility or specific needs, please do not hesitate to email us.
Speaker Agreement
Please read our Speaker Agreement if you intend to submit a talk for our conferences.
Commitment Toward Social Justice
Ruby Central is open to any questions and suggestions on how we could best ensure we are being inclusive to all. Email our DEI team at inclusivity@rubycentral.org and help us make our events a positive opportunity.
Anti-Harassment Policy
Ruby Central is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment by or of conference participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery are inappropriate for any conference venue, including talks. Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference at the conference organizers' discretion.
Harassment includes, but is not limited to, offensive verbal comments related to gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion; sexual images in public spaces; deliberate intimidation; stalking; following; harassing photography or recording; sustained disruption of talks or other events; inappropriate physical contact; and any unwelcome sexual attention.
Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. Conference organizers may take any action against harassment as they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference without reimbursement.
If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns regarding violations of this policy, please contact a member of conference staff immediately.
Having a safe environment for our conference participants -- in a physical or virtual setting -- is of paramount importance to us, and we value your help in creating this space.
Code of Conduct
In addition to securing a harassment-free environment, we strive to offer a safe and respectful environment for our conference presenters, sponsors, and vendors. We ask participants to offer their attention to speakers when attending conference sessions, engage in sessions as requested, and minimize disruptions for the sake of presenters and other participants. Participants are to maintain that same respect for vendors, sponsors, and other participants when visiting exhibit hall spaces, sponsor booths, and vendor booths. Conference organizers may take any action against disruptions, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference without reimbursement. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more details.
Photograph and Video Release
When you attend a Ruby Central event or conference, you enter an area where photography, audio, and video recording may occur. By attending the event, you consent to photography, audio recording, video recording and its/their release, publication, exhibition, or reproduction to be used for news, webcasts, promotional purposes, telecasts, advertising, inclusion on websites, or any other purpose by Ruby Central and its affiliates and representatives. You release Ruby Central, its board and employees, and each and all persons involved from any liability connected with the taking, recording, digitizing, or publication of interviews, photographs, computer images, video, and/or sound recordings. By attending the event, you waive all rights you may have to any claims for payment of royalties in connection with any exhibition, streaming, webcasting, televising, or other publication of these materials, regardless of the purpose or sponsoring of such exhibiting, broadcasting, webcasting, or other publication irrespective of whether a fee for admission or sponsorship is charged. You also waive any right to inspect or approve any photo, video, or audio recording taken by Ruby Central or the person or entity designated to do so by Ruby Central. You have been fully informed of your consent, waiver of liability, and release before entering the event.
Admission Badges
While attending conferences, all Participants, Presenters, and Exhibitors are required to wear their admission badge at all times within the conference and event space.
Admission of Minors (under the age of 18)
Minors (under 18 years of age) are not able to register for Ruby Central conference events. Minors who are joining their parent or legal guardian to Ruby Central hosted conference events must be accompanied by their parent or legal guardian at all times while on-site during the entire duration of the conference event.
Attendee Data and Privacy
Our collection and use of participants’ personal information is governed by the Ruby Central Privacy Notice.
ASSUMPTION OF RISK, WAIVER, RELEASE AND INDEMNITY
Please view our Assumption of Risk, Waiver, Release, and Indemnity policy.
Individual Attendee data collected by Ruby Central, Inc. is used for two purposes. The first is to plan, manage, and execute the event for which the Attendee registered, including emailing Attendees with event details. The second is — if the Attendee opts in — to send emails with details of Ruby Central conferences (RailsConf and RubyConf) in the next year. Attendee data is shared with third-party conference vendors only as necessary. Attendee data is also exposed to Ruby Central, Inc. staff and volunteers as they execute onsite duties. Some aggregated Attendee data is shared with conference Sponsors; Ruby Central, Inc. never shares individual Attendee data with Sponsors. Additionally, Attendees can separately opt into directly receiving information from RailsConf 2025 Sponsors.
Last updated: Mar 10, 2025
Ruby Central, Inc. (“Ruby Central”) is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the worldwide Ruby community. We organize conferences, host the RubyGems package repository, and maintain open source software packages that are vital infrastructure for the Ruby programming language. This Privacy Policy describes our policies and procedures about the collection, use, disclosure, and sharing, or other processing of your personal information when you browse our websites (the “Sites”), use the RubyGems.org service (“RubyGems”), register for or attend our conferences, or contribute to our open source projects.
In this Privacy Policy, “personal information” includes references to “personal data” as defined under the EU General Data Production Regulation (GDPR) and other applicable laws. Your use of our Sites and Services, and any dispute over privacy, is subject to this Policy and the relevant terms of any other agreement between you and Ruby Central, including the applicable limitations on damages and the resolution of disputes. Those terms are incorporated by reference into this Policy.
The RubyGems.org service is subject to this Privacy Policy as well as the RubyGems Privacy Notice.
We collect personal information directly from individuals, from third parties, and automatically through the Sites and Service. You do not have to provide us your personal information. However, if you choose not to disclose certain information, we will not be able to provide you with access to certain services or features, including RubyGems account registration, or participation in our conferences or certain aspects of our open source projects.
When you register to attend one of our conferences, we collect certain personal information to help us manage and facilitate the event, and to ensure compliance with necessary regulations.
When you register to attend one of our conferences, we collect the following information:
We collect data through our registration ticket forms, including registrant data.
For emails, promotions, and sales outreach, we track the source of how attendees found out about the event and engagement metrics such as email opens and clicks. Additionally, event page and marketing tool analytics are monitored, including page views, conversion rates, and bounce rates.
We recognize that some of the information we collect is sensitive personal data, such as accessibility needs, food allergies, demographic questions (e.g., ethnicity/race, age range, LGBTQIA+ status), T-shirt sizes, and emergency contact details. Please note that all sensitive data is optional, and you can choose to opt out of responding to these questions. No individual will be required to provide this information in order to participate in the event, and any information you choose to provide will only be used to facilitate your participation and ensure that we can meet your needs.
On the day of the event, we collect data related to your attendance:
When you apply to volunteer at one of our conferences, we collect the following information:
By attending a Ruby Central event or conference, you acknowledge and consent to the possibility of photography, audio, and video recording during the event. These recordings may include images, sounds, and videos where you could be captured as part of the general event activities.
Ruby Central provides "No Photography/No Videography" badges and lanyards for attendees who prefer not to be photographed or recorded during the event. If you wish to opt out of being included in event media, please request one of these badges or lanyards from the event registration desk. By wearing the badge or lanyard, you are indicating your preference to avoid being captured in photographs, videos, or other recordings. However, please note that this will not guarantee complete avoidance of being included in media, as some recordings may still occur in public or common areas of the event.
Purpose of Recording
You understand that the photographs, audio recordings, video recordings, and/or other media taken during the event may be used by Ruby Central and its affiliates for the following purposes:
Consent and Data Processing
By attending the event, you provide your explicit consent for Ruby Central to process the personal data (including images and videos) captured during the event in accordance with the purposes stated above. You are also informed that this consent is provided voluntarily and may be withdrawn at any time by contacting Ruby Central directly, but such withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of the processing carried out prior to the withdrawal.
If you would like more information about how your personal data is processed or if you wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact us at contact@rubycentral.org.
By entering the event premises, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the above terms and consent to the collection and use of your personal data as described.
When applying for a grant, Ruby Central, Inc. collects data from organizers, including the organization or meetup group name, organizer contact details (full name, email address, and optional phone number), and the location of meetup events. Organizers may also provide additional information, such as their website or social media links, average event attendance, and any other comments or feedback they wish to share. Social media mentions are tracked across platforms. As part of the grant agreement, organizers or their company provide their name, address, title, and signatures. In addition to the agreement, consent data is collected for opt-in purposes, including marketing data gathered through scanned leads or QR codes. Grant funds are distributed directly to the organizer’s bank account through the accounting application Bill.com. All collected data is used solely for processing the grant application, evaluating proposed events, and distributing funds.
When you sponsor one of our conferences or become a corporate sponsor, we collect the following information: Company Name, Company Point of Contact, Email, Address, Phone Number.
When you contribute source code, documentation or other content to one of our projects, we collect and store the information and content that you contribute, together with attribution information associated with your contributions that is collected automatically via GitHub.
When you communicate with us (e.g. by email, GitHub, HackerOne), we may maintain a record of your communication.
Ruby Central may automatically collect the following information about users’ use of the Sites or service through cookies, server logs, and other technologies: your browser type and operating system; your IP address; your country of location; the length of time you visit our Site and or use our services; and the referring URL, or the webpage that led you to our Site. We may combine this information with other information that we have collected about you, including, where applicable, your user name, name, and other personal information.
We may de-identify and aggregate certain personal information we collect such that the information no longer identifies or can be linked to a particular user or an individual data subject (“de-identified Information”), subject to the terms of any applicable user agreements. We may use this information to improve our Service, analyze usage of our service, publish market research, and for other marketing, research or statistical purposes, and may disclose such information to third parties for these specific purposes.
Ruby Central collects personal information for the following purposes:
We collect this information to perform our contract with you (e.g. to enable your attendance at a conference, or enroll you as a sponsor), and for our legitimate business purposes. In some cases, we may ask your consent to use your personal information for certain purposes where required by applicable law.
We disclose personal information as set forth below, and where individuals have otherwise consented:
We may share your information with third party service providers who use this information to perform services for us, such as hosting providers, email service providers, auditors, advisors, contractors, and consultants.
We may disclose your information if we are required to do so by law (including to law enforcement in the U.S. and other jurisdictions).
We may disclose information where we believe it necessary to respond to claims asserted against us or, comply with legal process (e.g., subpoenas or warrants), enforce or administer our agreements and terms, for fraud prevention, risk assessment, investigation, and protect the rights, property or safety of Ruby Central, its users, conference attendees, participants in its open source projects, or others.
We may share aggregate or de-identified information with third parties for research, marketing, analytics, and other purposes, provided such information does not identify a particular individual.
We may use cookies, JavaScript, local storage, log files, and other mechanisms to automatically collect and record information about your usage and browsing activities on our Site. We may combine this information with other information we collect about users.
Cookies are small files with a unique identifier that are transferred to your browser through our webSite. They allow us to remember users who are logged in, to understand how users navigate through and use the Site, and to display personalized content. We do not track or enable tracking of individual user activity across Site. For this reason, Ruby Central’s Site and Service do not respond to browser “do not track” signals or other similar mechanisms.
We have implemented reasonable precautions designed to protect the information we collect from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Please be aware that despite our best efforts, no data security measures can guarantee 100% security.
You should take steps to protect against unauthorized access to your passwords, phone, and computer by, among other things, signing off after using a shared computer, choosing robust passwords that nobody else knows or can easily guess, not using a password for more than one site or service, and keeping your log-ins and passwords private. We are not responsible for any lost, stolen, or compromised passwords or for any activity on your account via unauthorized password activity. We ask you to promptly notify us if you become aware that any information provided by or submitted to our Site or through our Service is lost, stolen, or used without permission at [EMAIL].
We generally keep personal information only for as long as required to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected. However, in some circumstances, we may retain personal information for other periods of time, for instance where we are required to do so in accordance with legal, tax and accounting requirements, or if required to do so by a legal process, legal authority, or other governmental entity having authority to make the request, for so long as required. In specific circumstances, we may also retain your personal information for longer periods of time corresponding to a statute of limitation, so that we have an accurate record of your dealings with us in the event of any complaints or challenges. See the related RubyGems Privacy Notice for further details on data retention for RubyGems.
If you are located within the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you should note that your personal information will be transferred to countries outside these jurisdictions, including the United States where Ruby Central is located. The U.S. is deemed by the European Union to provide inadequate data protection. However, we have put in place European Commission approved Standard Contractual Clauses to provide for adequate safeguards to protect personal information transferred outside these jurisdictions. In addition, if personal information is transferred to third party service providers located outside these jurisdictions, we will take steps to ensure that your personal information receives the same level of protection as if it remained within these jurisdictions, including by entering into data transfer agreements, using the European Commission approved Standard Contractual Clauses or other safeguards as approved by the European Commission. You have a right to obtain details of the mechanism under which your personal information is transferred outside of the EU by emailing contact@rubycentral.org.
We do not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of sixteen (16), or knowingly allow such persons to register. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under the relevant age without parental consent, we take steps to delete that information.
The Site may contain links to third party sites or online service. Please refer to the privacy policies of the relevant third party website or service to find out more about how they process and handle personal information.
Access and Amendment. If you have registered a RubyGems account and wish to access or update your personal information, you may do so online by visiting your account dashboard on rubygems.org. You may also contact our privacy coordinator at contact@rubycentral.org to access or amend your personal information.
Additional Rights. Individuals in the European Economic Area (and other jurisdictions where applicable) have additional rights under applicable law:
Lodging a Complaint. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority for data protection, or privacy regulator. A list of data protection supervisory authorities is available here.
Submitting a Request. To exercise the above rights or contact us with questions or complaints regarding our treatment of your personal information, contact us at contact@rubycentral.org. Please note that we may request proof of identity, and we reserve the right to charge a fee where permitted by law, especially if your request is manifestly unfounded or excessive. We will respond to your request within the applicable timeframes set out by law.
California law permits users who are California residents to request and obtain from us once a year, free of charge, a list of the third parties to whom we have disclosed their personal information (if any) for their direct marketing purposes in the prior calendar year, as well as the types of personal information disclosed to those parties. If you are a California resident and would like to request this information, please submit your request in an email to contact@rubycentral.org. We may ask you to verify your California residency.
If you have any questions about our practices or this Privacy Policy, please contact us at contact@rubycentral.org.
This Policy is current as of the effective date set forth above. If we change our privacy policies and procedures, we will post those changes on this page and/or continue to provide access to a copy of the prior version. If we make any changes to this Privacy Policy that materially change how we treat your personal information, we will endeavor to provide you with reasonable notice of such changes, such as via prominent notice on our Site or to your email address of record, and where required by law, we will obtain your consent or give you the opportunity to opt out of such changes.
10 years
If Attendees opt in to receive emails with details of Ruby Central, Inc. conferences, we will keep their email addresses for this purpose for up to 10 years. All Attendee data is retained up to 10 years after the conference. You may opt out or unsubscribe at any time.