Terms & Privacy
Whatiiif is a free, open-source tool with no accounts and no data collection beyond what's needed to serve requests. This page describes how it works, what's logged, and what the tool does and doesn't promise.
What this is
About the service
Whatiiif.com is a client-side resolver and link generator for IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) manifests. It runs as a static site and a Cloudflare Worker. The tool takes an item URL from a supported institution, resolves it to a IIIF manifest, and renders a viewer for that manifest in your browser. It also generates shareable deep links to specific canvases and image regions.
The source code is available under the MIT license at github.com/natemoo93/whatiiif. Anyone is free to fork, self-host, or modify it. Whatiiif is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the institutions whose collections it accesses unless explicitly stated.
Using the tool
Terms of use
Free to use
Whatiiif is provided free of charge to anyone with a web browser. There are no accounts, no subscriptions, and no usage limits imposed by the tool itself. Organizations that find Whatiiif valuable are welcome to support its continued development through voluntary sponsorship. Sponsorship never affects access to the service or the availability of features.
Content is not hosted here
Whatiiif does not host the digitized items it resolves. All images, manifests, and metadata are served directly from the institutions that publish them. Rights, licenses, and terms of use for that content are governed by the hosting institution, not by whatiiif.com. If you have questions about how you may use a specific item, consult the institution that hosts it.
Acceptable use
Please don't use the tool to attempt to overload institutional servers, circumvent access controls, or scrape at scale. The included CORS proxy exists solely to support viewer functionality and is not intended as general-purpose proxy infrastructure. Automated bulk use may be rate-limited or blocked.
No warranty
The tool is provided "as is," without warranty of any kind. It may go down, break on specific manifests, or behave unexpectedly on institutions it doesn't yet support. Whatiiif is an independent open-source project maintained by its creator. While every effort is made to keep the service available and compatible with supported institutions, no uptime guarantees or service-level agreements are provided. Organizations requiring guaranteed availability or support may contact the project to discuss a separate service agreement.
Changes
These terms may change over time as the project evolves. Material changes will be reflected in the "last updated" date above.
What is and isn't collected
Privacy
No accounts, no tracking
Whatiiif does not require an account, does not use analytics scripts (no Google Analytics, no tag manager, no third-party trackers), and does not set tracking cookies. No advertising is served. No user profile is built.
What the server logs
No personal information is intentionally collected beyond standard web request information necessary to operate the service. Requests to whatiiif.com pass through Cloudflare and are handled by a Cloudflare Worker. Cloudflare's standard request logs are retained for a 7-day period and include:
- The request URL and query parameters
- Your IP address
- Your browser's User-Agent string
- The referring page, if your browser sends one
- Approximate geographic location (typically city and country, derived from IP)
- Timestamp of the request
These are standard web server logs. They are used to keep the service running, diagnose bugs, and understand aggregate usage patterns — for example, which institutions' manifests are being resolved most often, or whether a handler is failing. Logs are not sold, shared with third parties, or used to identify individual users.
Manifest URLs in logs
Because the tool works by resolving item URLs, the manifest or item URL you're viewing appears in the request URL and is therefore captured in server logs. If you consider the specific item you're viewing to be sensitive, be aware that it is briefly recorded in Cloudflare's logs as part of the request. Nothing about the item's content is stored beyond the URL itself.
Cookies
Whatiiif itself does not set cookies. Cloudflare may set a small number of operational cookies (for example, to identify malicious traffic) as part of its standard service. See Cloudflare's privacy policy for details.
If you email nate@whatiiif.com, your message is delivered via Cloudflare Email Routing to a separate inbox. Emails are retained as long as needed to correspond with you and are not shared with third parties. If you'd rather not have your message retained, say so and it will be deleted after the conversation.
Third-party services on linked institutions
When the tool resolves and displays an item hosted by another institution, your browser makes requests directly to that institution's servers to load the images. Those institutions have their own logging and privacy practices, which whatiiif has no control over.
Requests for log data
If you'd like to know what, if anything, has been logged about a request you made, email nate@whatiiif.com. Given short retention windows and the absence of user accounts, matching a specific request to a specific person is often not possible, but reasonable requests will be honored where feasible.
GDPR, CCPA, and similar frameworks
Whatiiif is operated from the United States but is used internationally. The service does not require an account, collect personal identifiers, or build user profiles, so most obligations under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and similar frameworks are minimal in practice. To the extent these frameworks apply to the limited log data described above, users have the right to request information about what has been logged in connection with their requests, to request deletion of that data, and to raise concerns about how it is handled. Requests can be made by emailing nate@whatiiif.com, and will be responded to within 30 days where feasible given the short log retention window. Whatiiif acts as the data controller for the purposes of these frameworks; Cloudflare acts as a processor, and its own data handling practices are described in its privacy policy linked above.
Legal
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, United States, without regard to conflict of laws principles. Any disputes arising from the use of whatiiif.com will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Illinois.
Questions
Contact
Questions about these terms, the tool, or your data can be sent to nate@whatiiif.com. See the contact page for other ways to reach the project.