Frequently Asked Questions

Diversity can be any attribute that makes us different from one another. Diversity is both attributive and cognitive, and can refer to differences based on cultural heritage, gender, age, language, religion, disability and sexual orientation, and to many more dimensions such as education, occupation, tenure, personality, socioeconomic status, marital or parental status, and so on. The list is almost endless!

We have given great consideration to the metrics that best capture salient diversity for any organisation. We regularly review and conduct research in order to ensure Diversity Atlas captures key diversity data. We emphasise cultural diversity, demographic diversity and intersectionality in order to provide nuanced, considered and useful insights in diversity results.

The data is stored in accordance with our privacy policy.

Each page of DA has an SSL certificate. Our web servers are located in highly secured domains where security is guaranteed. All website data is backed up on a daily, weekly and monthly basis – The integrity and availability of any data on DA is our highest priority, and all data is encrypted in transit and at rest. All personal data is protected in line with any or all statutory authorities in any country, state or jurisdiction in which the survey is deployed, including but not limited to GDPR (EU).

We use the UN database of countries and follow the UN’s classification of countries and dependent territories. The criteria for the selection of countries listed in Diversity Atlas can be categorised as:

• A full member of the United Nations
• UN Non-Member Permanent Observer States
  Members of specialized agencies of the UN
• Countries connected to a full member and in the process of being decolonized
• Islands associated with a Full Member State – e.g, Christmas Island and Norfolk Island are part of Australia.
• Non-Self Governing Territories

Or a region/ overseas territory connected to a country which is a full member of the UN such as the following:

• Overseas Territories/Collectivity/Departments/Regions of France
• Overseas Territories/Department of Britain
• Constituent Country
  Unincorporated Territories of the US & Commonwealth
• Constituent State/Country – e.g, Antigua is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
• Associated State

We also list countries that fulfil the following three criteria:

• Recognised by at least two UN full member states.
• Are self-governing
• Have their own official currency, or utilise a currency from a major multi-lateral movement or a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Worldview is the term we use to encompass both secular and religious beliefs. We acknowledge that the term ‘worldview’ can have a variety of meanings, and in this context, we draw from the sociology of religion, and its use in reference to both religious and non-religious worldviews.  We use the term ‘worldview’ to refer to profound questions such as those about the nature of reality. While religious traditions have historically been the dominant voices in answering these questions, there are of course spiritual, folk, non-religious, and/or secular frameworks from which people derive meaning. For instance, Australia’s Census has shown a significant shift in how Australians identify in terms of their beliefs, and there has been a shift towards ‘No religion’ which includes secular beliefs, new age religious beliefs, atheism and the like.

Based on these trends in a global and ever-changing religious demographic and in line with academic practice, we have used the term ‘worldview’, and have worked to formulate a question that is inclusive to people regardless of their beliefs and invites all users to participate.
We even have Jedi!

Note: We have been asked to include political or socio-political movements into our Worldview datasets, such as ‘Neo-Marxist’ and ‘Conservative’ but thus far we have resisted. This is because we believe that the spirit of the query is to do with one’s perception of reality, not one’s perception of economic or political structures.

Typologies of religious hierarchies are complex because they consider a range of social, organisational and belief (spiritual/existential) factors. We use an (up to) three-tiered structure to classify religious groups which allows users to precisely specify their religious affiliation, as the nuance of differing branches of any religious or spiritual movement are often quite pronounced.

At the top of the hierarchy sits the dominant category of what is, in the case of Christian religions for instance, the ‘church’, with sub-categories of each church listed within the database as well, should participants wish to take a ‘deeper dive’.

Note: We also have options such as ‘Self Defined Christian’ and ‘Non-Religious Buddhist in our datasets.

Examples:

• Christian → Catholic → Roman Catholic
• Christian → Orthodox → Greek Orthodox
• Islam → Sunni → Hanafi
• Buddhist → Mahayana → Zen
• Hindu → Vaishnava → Smarta
• Spiritism → Afro Brazilian → Candomble
• Humanist → at present we do not have other branches or sub groups listed for humanism. Know of any? Please get in touch!

Your ancestors may have belonged to different cultures to you, but the influence of these cultures may still resonate. For us, we are interested just as much by where you came from as who you are now. The dataset contains almost 10,000 options – some are broad descriptors such as ‘European’ but many are very precise, such as the thousands of tribes and mobs around the world, people groups, ethnic groups and nations. You can pick up to four.

Likewise, your sense of cultural belonging may differ from your ancestry, or you may have the same answer/s for both questions. You can select up to four cultures / people-groups that describe the culture to which you feel that you belong.

The database has drawn from a range of sources including Ethnologue, AIATSIS (The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies), the UN and also many years of ongoing research by various members and partners of Diversity Atlas. An important feature of the databases is the ongoing coding and grouping of data according to zones, relational aspect and, where possible, the flow of communities across the globe.

Some entries such as ‘Black British’ came about after feedback from our participants. If any new cultural group is brought to our attention, we ensure research is conducted, citations and references noted, and our panel of SME’s are in agreeance before they are added to our database. This most wonderful act of ‘citizen science’ quite often brings forth real-world cultural identities than western academia has thus far ignored or failed to include.

Our database is an ongoing work, representative of our lifetime commitment to Diversity Atlas becoming a repository for all data around languages, speech communities, worldviews/religions, cultural heritage and national identities, which will ultimately help us to understand the human journey to its fullest.

Disability is any self-reported personal, physical, mental or emotional condition that impacts a person’s life long term.  We use the term ‘disability’ rather than other nomenclatures for reasons best expressed by the Australian Network on Disability, who write on their website:

“Differently abled”, “people of all abilities”, “disAbility”, “diffAbled”, “special needs” and the like, are all euphemistic and can be considered patronising. While the intention is usually good, these phrases tend to fall into the trap of making people with disability out to be special or inspirational, just for living with disability.”

• We take a multi-layered approach to privacy. We don’t collect names – only your email as an identifier. This identifier is stored in a separate database from the survey responses – so your identifier is only used to approve or delete your My Story.
• While the combination of survey answers could potentially identify someone, we implement security measures and strict access controls to protect your data. You maintain control at every step – from choosing what to share, to deciding whether to publish your story, to requesting deletion of your data using your email address.
• Survey Data and Identifying information is stored separately on secure servers.
• We implement strict access controls and encryption.
• Regular security assessments ensure systems remain secure.

• Your email survey responses are linked only to your email address and an internal ID.
• We recognize that email addresses often contain personal names and are considered personal data. The AI uses your de-identified survey data to generate your story. Your email is essential – it’s how we notify you when your story is ready AND the only way we can verify your identity if you want to delete your data later. You decide whether to publish your story, and you can request deletion at any point, but only if we can verify your email. While we don’t collect names separately, we treat email addresses as personal data.
• Email addresses are stored securely and separately from survey data.
• Email address is essential for both notifications and verifying your identity.
• Your survey responses are deleted following processing.
  No raw personal data is shared with employers

• Only you can see your story initially. It’s sent to you for review, and it’s entirely your choice whether to publish it on the Diversity Atlas website.
• Even after publishing, you can remove it at any time.
• Unpublished stories are only visible to you and authorised Diversity Atlas personnel
• Published stories appear without personally identifying information.

• Our AI processing is based on explicit consent that you provide before participating.
• The AI only works with de-identified data.
• Survey responses are deleted after processing.
• You may opt out of AI processing and request deletion of your data at any time.

• You have control over your data, requesting deletion is a simple matter of requesting removal using your email to verify the request.
• To exercise your ‘right to be forgotten,’ you must contact us from the same email you used for the survey – it’s the only way we can verify your identity and link to your data in our system.”

• We only keep your personal information for as long as is necessary.
• Your survey responses are only kept until processing, at which time they are deleted.
• If you publish your story, we retain the story data until you request removal.
• You can request deletion at any time.

• We collect participant email address, which often contains personal names and is considered personal data under privacy laws. This identifying information is stored separately and securely from the survey responses and is used solely for notification and removal of data.
• We acknowledge that the combination of various responses could potentially allow identification in some cases. This is why we seek additional consent prior to publishing any story.