TERMS OF USE
Last Updated: Feb 8, 2026
1. Introduction
Welcome to How AI Sees Your City (the "Project"), a research initiative conducted by the Center for Collective Learning at the Toulouse School of Economics. By accessing or participating in this Project, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use this website or participate in the study.
2. Legal notice
The website (cities.centerforcollectivelearning.org) is published by the Center for Collective Learning, directed by César A. Hidalgo: cesar.hidalgo@tse-fr.eu
The Project is an open research initiative whose code, data, and outputs may be released under permissive open-source licenses and reused by the project authors or affiliated entities.
Postal address: 1, Esplanade de l’Université - F-31080 Toulouse Cedex 6
The owner of the website is:
Ecole d’économie et de sciences sociales quantitatives de Toulouse-TSE
Address : 1, Esplanade de l’Université - F-31080 Toulouse Cedex 6
Contact : https://www.tse-fr.eu/fr/contact
Phone number: +33(0)5 61 63 35 86
SIRET number of the establishment: N°13003062000012
The following person is designated as the publication director: Arnaud Reynaud, arnaud.reynaud@tse-fr.eu
3. Eligibility
By participating in this Project, you represent and warrant that:
- You are at least 18 years of age.
- You have the legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement.
- You are voluntarily agreeing to participate in the study.
4. Nature of the Project
The goal of this Project is to generate evaluative maps of cities using street-level imagery to understand human and machine preferences for urban environments. Participation involves viewing imagery and providing feedback or choices aimed at city upgrading.
Voluntary Participation & Withdrawal: You acknowledge that your participation is entirely voluntary. You are free to withdraw from the study at any time before submitting your responses by simply closing your browser or exiting the application. Responses are pseudonymized immediately so that it is not possible to withdraw your data once it has been submitted.
5. Third-Party Services (Google APIs)
This Project utilizes the Google Street View Static API to display urban imagery. By using this application, you acknowledge and agree that:
- You are bound by Google’s Terms of Service.
- The Project receives pseudonymized data relevant to the research goals, but server logs may collect IP addresses for security and quality control as described in our Privacy Policy and Google’s Privacy Policy.
6. Intellectual Property and Research Data
- Research Output:
The pseudonymized data collected through this Project will be used exclusively for academic and scientific research purposes. This includes, but is not limited to, research activities, academic publications, and presentations at scientific conferences. The data may be made available to the scientific community to encourage further research on urban perception. Under no circumstances will the data be used for commercial purposes.
- Open-Source License:
The code, models, and derived outputs produced by this Project may be released under an open-source license, including but not limited to the MIT License, or other permissive licenses, at the discretion of the Project maintainers. The researchers and project maintainers are authorized to release such materials under open-source licenses, including the MIT License, and to grant the necessary rights for their commercial reuse by themselves or affiliated entities.
- Reuse and Commercialization:
The Project maintainers, contributors, or affiliated entities may use, modify, commercialize, sublicense, or redistribute the code and models of the Project without restriction, subject only to the terms of the applicable open-source license. The research data are excluded from such use and remain limited to academic and scientific purposes only.
- User Contributions:
By submitting responses, you grant the researchers a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, and analyze the anonymized data strictly for academic and scientific research purposes.
- No Compensation:
You acknowledge that you will not receive any compensation, royalties, or other consideration for your participation in this research project.
7. Privacy and Data Protection (GDPR)
Our data handling practices are governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and are strictly for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest (Article 6, 1e).
- Pseudonymity of data: We collect response data that is pseudonymized . We do not collect names, emails, or personal identifiers linked to your choices. IP addresses are collected solely for operational security and quality control, stored separately under restricted access, and are not linked to your research data.
- Limitations on Rights (Rectification & Deletion):
o Before Submission: You may object to the processing or stop participating at any time prior to submitting your answers.
o After Submission: Because the data we collect is pseudonymized so that we cannot trace it back to your specific identity. Thus, it is technologically impossible for us to identify, retrieve, rectify, or remove your specific data once it has been submitted. Consequently, the rights to access, rectification, and erasure cannot be exercised after submission.
For general questions regarding the study or data handling practices, please contact the research team at cities@centerforcollectivelearning.org.
If you have further concerns regarding your data rights, you may contact the CNRS Data Protection Officer at dpd.demandes@cnrs.fr or lodge a complaint with the CNIL.
8. User Conduct
- Use the Project website for any unlawful purpose.
- Attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any aspect of the website.
- Submit false or misleading information intentionally to skew research results.
- Interfere with the proper operation of the website or the API integrations.
9. Limitation of Liability
The Project is provided "as is" for research purposes. The Toulouse School of Economics, the Center for Collective Learning, and associated researchers shall not be held liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your participation in the Project or use of the site.
10. Governing Law
These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of France. Any disputes relating to these Terms or the Project shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in France.
11. Contact Information
If you have any questions about the study or these Terms, please contact the research team at: cities@centerforcollectivelearning.org
12. Open-Source Distribution
Portions of the Project, including software, models, and documentation, may be released under open-source licenses, including the MIT License or similar permissive licenses.
Such materials are provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind, and may be used for any lawful purpose, including commercial applications, subject to the terms of the applicable license.
For the avoidance of doubt, this open-source distribution applies only to software, models, and technical components. The research data collected through this Project are excluded from this distribution and remain restricted to academic and scientific use only, and may not be used for commercial purposes.
Derivative or extended versions of the Project, including those released under different names or by affiliated entities, shall be considered independent works governed solely by the terms of the applicable open-source license.
