Privacy - The Spaghetti Western Database Forum

This Privacy Policy complements our “Terms of Service”. By using the SWDb Forum (http://forum.spaghetti-western.net) you submit yourself to this policy and agree to the data used and processed as described below by the SWDb and/or third parties.

This page is being updated shortly to reflect the requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

What information do we collect?

We collect information from you when you register on our site and gather data when you participate in the forum by reading, writing, and evaluating the content shared here.

When registering on our site, you may be asked to enter your name and e-mail address. You may, however, visit our site without registering. Your e-mail address will be verified by an email containing a unique link. If that link is visited, we know that you control the e-mail address.

When registered and posting, we record the IP address that the post originated from. We also may retain server logs which include the IP address of every request to our server.

What do we use your information for?

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:

To personalize your experience — your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs.
To improve our site — we continually strive to improve our site offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you.
To improve customer service — your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs.
To send periodic emails — The email address you provide may be used to send you information, notifications that you request about changes to topics or in response to your user name, respond to inquiries, and/or other requests or questions.

Important Note 1: We use Google Mail, a third-party service operated by Google Inc., to process incoming email and email replies. All your communications that are subject to activated email notifications or posted via email reply are thus subject to the policies of this service. Please consult their privacy policies. We encourage you not to communicate sensitive information via our forums.

Important Note 2: We use Sparkpost, a U.S.-based third-party service that reliably sends email on our behalf. Please consult their privacy policies and data protection addendum. We encourage you not to communicate sensitive information via our forums.

Important Note 3: We use Google Analytics, a third-party service operated by Google Inc., to monitor website traffic and understand quantity and quality if its usage. Please consult their privacy policies. We also use Google Adsense, by the same company, to automatically show ads on some of our pages, information about which ads you see and click might be stored and processed by Google anonymously. See their privacy policies.

How do we protect your information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you enter, submit, or access your personal information. However we cannot guarantee the safety of your information from government intrusion or professional hackers, especially because there is no https connection for this forum yet. We encourage you not to share private, sensitive information on this forum or via its personal messaging service.

What is your data retention policy?

We will make a good faith effort to:

Retain server logs containing the IP address of all requests to this server no more than 90 days.
Retain the IP addresses associated with registered users and their posts no more than 5 years.

Please note that we do use a third-party service (Sparkpost) for all outgoing email, and use a third-party service (Google Mail) to process incoming mail and email replies as well as an analytics service (Google Analytics) to understand how the SWDb is being used. All your communications that are subject to activated email notifications or posted via email reply are thus subject to the policies of these services. These third-party service may have their own data retention policy. Again, this is why we encourage you not to communicate sensitive information via our forums.

Do we use cookies?

Yes. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow). These cookies enable the site to recognize your browser and, if you have a registered account, associate it with your registered account.

We use cookies to understand and save your preferences for future visits and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our business (see above).

Do we disclose any information to outside parties?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our site, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Please note that we do use a third-party service (Sparkpost) for all outgoing email, and use a third-party service (Google Mail) to process incoming mail and email replies. All your communications that are subject to activated email notifications or posted via email reply are thus subject to the policies of these services. Again, this is why we encourage you not to communicate sensitive information via our forums.

Third party links

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services on our site. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.

Online Privacy Policy Only

This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our site and not to information collected offline.

Your Consent and Jurisdiction

By using our site, you consent to our web site privacy policy.

This website is governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany (jurisdiction of the website owner), the Kingdom of the Netherlands (jurisdiction of the hosting company Discoursehosting.com) as well as the laws of the European Union and any legal privacy rules and regulations within these territories.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page.

This document is CC-BY-SA. It was last updated November 29, 2015.