Terms of Use

Effective date: August 11, 2026

Welcome to WantToKnow.info.

WantToKnow.info is operated by Public Education and Empowerment Resource Service (“PEERS,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), a nonprofit organization dedicated to public education and informed discussion.

These Terms of Use explain the basic rules that apply when you use WantToKnow.info (the “Site”).

We have tried to write these Terms in ordinary language rather than legal jargon.

By using the Site, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree with them, please do not use the Site.

1. What WantToKnow.info Is For

WantToKnow.info provides news, research, investigations, historical information, source documents, educational material, search tools, and links to information published elsewhere.

Our goal is to help people explore important issues, examine evidence, question assumptions, and participate in informed public discussion.

The Site is provided for educational and informational purposes.

2. Use Your Own Judgment

We work carefully, but no website can guarantee that everything it publishes is complete, current, or free of error.

Information can change. Sources can conflict. Historical records can contain errors. Investigative subjects often involve uncertainty and disagreement.

We encourage readers to:

follow source links;
examine original documents when available;
compare different accounts;
distinguish evidence from interpretation; and
reach their own conclusions.

Nothing on WantToKnow.info should be treated as a substitute for qualified professional advice when professional advice is appropriate.

In particular, material concerning health, medicine, law, finance, personal safety, or other specialized subjects is provided for general informational purposes and is not individual medical, legal, financial, or other professional advice.

3. Editorial Independence

PEERS is responsible for the editorial decisions made by WantToKnow.info.

The inclusion of a source, article, document, quotation, video, link, or point of view does not necessarily mean that PEERS agrees with or endorses every statement it contains.

Our work often examines controversial subjects and presents evidence from people or organizations with differing views.

Readers should evaluate the evidence for themselves.

4. Artificial Intelligence

We use artificial intelligence for some research, proofreading, software-development, and search-related purposes.

We do not use AI to choose or curate the news articles featured in our newsletters, to write or summarize those news articles, or to write the text or video scripts of our investigations.

Some search tools may use AI to summarize information found in search results. When a summary shown to readers is generated by AI, we clearly label it as AI-generated.

AI systems can make mistakes, omit context, or misinterpret sources. An AI-generated summary should therefore be treated as a navigation or research aid rather than as an authoritative source.

For more information, see How We Use AI.

5. Our Original Material

We want useful information to circulate.

Unless a page specifically says otherwise, you are welcome to copy, quote, repost, distribute, link to, or otherwise share original material created and owned by PEERS or WantToKnow.info.

We appreciate attribution and a link to WantToKnow.info because they help people find the original material and its sources, but we do not require attribution as a condition of this permission.

You may also adapt our original material, provided that you do not falsely state or imply that PEERS or WantToKnow.info created, approved, sponsored, or endorsed your altered version.

This permission applies only to material for which PEERS or WantToKnow.info owns the applicable rights.

6. Third-Party Material and Fair Use

WantToKnow.info contains a large amount of material originating with other people and organizations.

Depending on the material, it may be:

quoted or excerpted;
summarized or discussed;
reproduced for research or documentation;
embedded or linked;
available in the public domain;
used with permission;
subject to another license; or
used in circumstances where we believe the use is permitted by fair-use principles or other provisions of law.

WantToKnow.info is a nonprofit public-interest project. Our use of third-party material may serve purposes including education, research, criticism, commentary, news reporting, historical documentation, investigation, and furthering public discussion of matters of public interest.

Where material remains protected by copyright and permission has not otherwise been obtained, we seek to use it only in circumstances we believe are consistent with applicable law, including the fair-use principles of United States copyright law.

The fact that third-party material appears on WantToKnow.info does not mean that PEERS owns it or can give you permission to reproduce it.

If you want to republish third-party material that you found through our Site, you are responsible for determining what permission, license, fair-use principle, public-domain status, or other legal basis applies to your own use.

7. Copyright Concerns

We respect the rights of authors, journalists, photographers, publishers, filmmakers, researchers, and other creators.

If you own or represent the rights to material appearing on WantToKnow.info and believe our use of it is inappropriate, please contact us.

Please identify:

the material involved;
where it appears on WantToKnow.info;
your relationship to the material; and
why you believe the use should be changed or removed.

We will review legitimate concerns in good faith.

Contact information appears at the end of these Terms.

8. Links and Outside Sources

WantToKnow.info contains many links to material operated or published by other people and organizations.

We provide these links because we believe access to original sources and differing viewpoints is important.

We do not control outside websites and cannot guarantee their availability, accuracy, security, privacy practices, or content.

A link from WantToKnow.info does not by itself mean that PEERS endorses the linked person, organization, website, product, or every statement found there.

9. Historical and Archived Material

Some material on WantToKnow.info documents what a person, publication, government agency, company, or other source said or reported at a particular point in time.

Later evidence may change the understanding of an event or claim.

We may keep older material available because it remains useful as a historical record even when some details have later been updated, challenged, corrected, or superseded.

Whenever a question matters to you, we encourage you to check dates and review the most current available evidence.

10. Search and Research Tools

WantToKnow.info may provide search engines, databases, research tools, AI-assisted summaries, document viewers, and other interactive features.

These tools are intended to help people find and understand source material.

Search rankings, automated classifications, summaries, extracted text, transcriptions, metadata, and similar machine-produced information may contain errors.

Whenever possible, important claims should be checked against the underlying source.

11. Reasonable Automated Access

We support research, preservation, public-interest investigation, and the sharing of information.

Reasonable automated access to publicly available material on WantToKnow.info for legitimate research, indexing, archiving, or similar purposes is generally welcome.

However, you may not use automated tools in a way that:

materially interferes with the Site;
places an unreasonable load on our systems;
attempts to defeat security or access controls;
damages or disrupts our infrastructure; or
prevents other people from using the Site.

We may temporarily limit traffic when necessary to protect the availability or security of the Site.

Nothing in this section gives permission to reproduce third-party copyrighted material beyond whatever rights you independently have to use that material.

12. Other Prohibited Uses

You may not use WantToKnow.info to:

attack, damage, disable, or disrupt the Site;
attempt to gain unauthorized access to systems or data;
introduce malicious software or code;
impersonate PEERS or another person;
falsely suggest that PEERS endorses you or your activities;
use the Site to violate applicable law; or
interfere with other people's ability to use the Site.

These restrictions are intended to protect the Site and its users, not to prevent good-faith criticism, research, quotation, linking, or discussion of our work.

13. Information You Send Us

If you send us information, documents, research tips, or other material, you remain responsible for making sure you have the right to send it.

Sending something to us does not guarantee that we will publish, investigate, retain, or respond to it.

Unless we specifically agree otherwise, ordinary email and website communications should not be assumed to be confidential or legally privileged.

Please use appropriate caution before sending highly sensitive personal information.

14. Donations

PEERS may accept voluntary donations to support its nonprofit work.

Making a donation does not buy editorial influence, guarantee publication of any particular viewpoint, or create a professional or commercial relationship between the donor and PEERS.

Donation transactions may be handled by outside payment or donation processors as described in our Privacy Policy.

15. Availability of the Site

We hope to keep WantToKnow.info widely and continuously available, but we cannot guarantee that every page, tool, database, link, or other feature will always be available.

We may change, repair, update, move, remove, or discontinue features or material when reasonably necessary.

We may also restrict access temporarily to respond to technical problems, security threats, unusually heavy traffic, or other operational needs.

16. No Guarantee or Warranty

WantToKnow.info is provided on an “as available” basis.

We make reasonable efforts to provide useful and reliable information, but we cannot guarantee that the Site or everything available through it will always be accurate, complete, current, secure, uninterrupted, or free of errors.

To the extent allowed by law, PEERS does not make warranties that are not expressly stated in these Terms.

Nothing in these Terms removes any warranty or right that applicable law does not allow us to exclude.

17. Responsibility for How You Use the Site

You are responsible for the decisions you make based on information found through WantToKnow.info.

To the extent permitted by law, PEERS, its officers, employees, volunteers, and contractors are not responsible for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential losses resulting from your use of, inability to use, or reliance on the Site or material reached through it.

This does not limit responsibility in circumstances where applicable law does not allow liability to be excluded or limited.

18. Privacy

Our collection and use of personal information is described in our Privacy Policy.

Our approach to artificial intelligence is described in How We Use AI.

Those pages form part of our public explanation of how WantToKnow.info operates.

19. Changes to These Terms

WantToKnow.info and the technologies we use may change.

We may update these Terms when needed to reflect changes in the Site, our practices, or applicable law.

When we make a material change, we will update the effective date at the top of this page.

Your continued use of the Site after updated Terms take effect means the updated Terms apply to your subsequent use of the Site, to the extent permitted by law.

20. Governing Law

PEERS is based in California.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, these Terms and use of WantToKnow.info are governed by the laws of the United States and the State of California, without regard to rules that would require the application of another jurisdiction's laws.

Nothing in this section takes away rights that applicable law gives you and does not permit you to waive.

21. If Part of These Terms Is Invalid

If a court or other authority finds that one part of these Terms cannot legally be enforced, the remaining parts will continue to apply to the extent permitted by law.

22. Contact

Questions about these Terms, requests concerning our material, or copyright concerns may be sent to:

Public Education and Empowerment Resource Service WantToKnow.info 16791 Greenhorn Road Grass Valley, CA 95945 United States

By email write to: contact [at] wanttoknow [dot] info
Replace “[at]” with “@” and “[dot]” with “.”

You may also contact us by physical mail.