Summary
If you only read WhatDoesThatMean.com, no more of your information is collected than is usually collected in server logs by web sites in general.
Whatdoesthatmean.com is a venue. Please consider this site to be a public space, where you and other users may exercise freedom of speech insofar as that does not take away the freedom of speech of other users, disrupt the operation of this site, or violate the laws of the jurisdiction under which this site operates, which is the Province of Ontario, Canada.
If you contribute to WhatDoesThatMean.com, everything you write is available publicly and is associated with your username. If you write something, assume that it will remain public forever. This includes entries, user pages and talk pages.
This Privacy Policy is subject to the terms of the Disclaimers, and the privacy laws of Ontario.
Details
Contributing to WhatDoesThatMean.com
Visiting the web site and reading the content does not expose your identity (but see Private Logging, below).
When you create or edit any page in this site, you are publishing a document. This is a public act, and your username/profile is associated with that act. Further, this site makes use of a Track feature, which monitors the history of individual documents posted to the site, as well as a history of posts made by an individual user. Track information is viewable by the public.
Identification of an Author
If you are logged in, you will be identified by your username. This may be your real name or a pseudonym - whatever username you selected when you registered with WhatDoesThatMean.com.
If you are not logged in, you will be identified by your network IP address. This is a series of numbers which identifies the Internet address from which you are contacting the web site. Depending on your connection, this number may be traceable only to your Internet service provider, or specifically to your school, place of business, or home.
It may be either difficult or easy for a motivated individual to connect your network IP address with your real-life identity. Therefore if you are very concerned about privacy, you may wish to log in and publish under a pseudonym. When using a pseudonym, your IP address will not be available to the public, but it will be stored on the site servers for a period of time. Thus it will be available to the site administrator and may be released under certain circumstances (see policy on release of data below).
If you use a company server, from your place of work, or from home to telecommute, or use a DSL or cable internet connection, remember to log out to avoid allowing others who have access to your computer to publish using your username.
Cookies
The site will set a temporary session cookie (PHPSESSID) whenever you visit the site. If you do not intend to ever log in, you may deny this cookie, but you cannot log in without it. It will be deleted when you close your browser session.
More cookies will be set if you select the Remember my password across sessions option when you log in, so that you can avoid having to type in your user name and/or password on your next visit. These last up to 30 days. You may clear these cookies after use if you are using a public machine and don't wish to expose your username to future users of the machine. We recommend clearing the browser cache as well.
Passwords
All users are encouraged to select strong passwords and to never share them. No one shall knowingly expose the password of another user to public release either directly or indirectly.
Private Logging
Every time you visit a web page, you send a lot of information to the web server. Most web servers routinely maintain access logs with a portion of this information, which is to determine things like how many people visit the site, what sites link to it, and so on. It is not the intention of this site to use this information to keep track of legitimate users.
These logs are used to produce the site statistics pages; the raw log data is not made public, and is normally discarded after a period of time.
Policy on Release of Data Derived from Logs
It is the policy of WhatDoesThatMean.com that personally identifiable data collected in the server logs will not be released by the administrators who have access to it, except as follows:
- When we are required by law or the execution of a legal search warrant to release the information.
- With permission of the affected user.
- Where the user has been using the site inappropriately or in violation of the Disclaimer, data may be released to assist in the prevention of further disruption to the site, including but not limited to:
- Blocking access from selected IP addresses or ranges
- To assist in the formulation of a complaint to relevant Internet Service Providers
- To assist in the formulation of a complaint to law enforcement
- To assist in the formulation of a notification to a third-party blacklisting service
- To update a published list of IP addresses that are currently blocked.
- When we have reason to believe that a user has contributed content which is the copyright property of a third party, or subject to a non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement between the user, their employer or other representative, and a third party.
- For other reasons required or allowed by applicable privacy laws.
Sharing Information with Third Parties
WhatDoesThatMean.com will not sell or share private information, such as email addresses, with third parties, except as listed in the previous section.
Security of Information
WhatDoesThatMean.com makes no guarantee against unauthorized access to any information you provide. This information will be available to all developers and system administrators with access to the server on which the site is hosted.
You may provide your e-mail address in your preferences. This allows other logged-in users to send email to you through the site (unless you disable this in your preferences). Your address will not be revealed to them unless you respond, or possibly if the email bounces. The email address may be used by WhatDoesThatMean.com to communicate with users about information relevant to this site.
If you do not provide an email address, you will not be able to reset your password if you forget it. However, you may contact the site administrator to enter a new mail address in your preferences.
You can remove your email address from your preferences at any time to prevent it from being used.
Never include any third party email address, (and we suggest not even your own), in any content you contribute to this site for publication. If you do so, you are choosing to publish that email address in a public place, where anyone may read it, which is likely to result in messages or spam being sent to that address by third parties. We reserve the right to remove any email addresses.
User Data
Data on users activities, such as the times at which they edited and the number of edits they have made, may be publicly available via "user contributions" lists, and also occasionally in aggregated forms published by other users.
Deletion of Content
Deleting text from this site does not really remove it from public view. In normal articles, anyone may be able to look at a previous version and see what was there. If a whole article is "deleted," any sysop/administrator can see what was deleted and may choose to restore the information. Only the developer can permanently delete information from the site and there is no guarantee this will happen except in response to legal action.
The site administrators may choose to delete or suspend any content in accordance with the Disclaimer.
Dispute Resolution
If you have concerns about your privacy please contact our Privacy Officer via our contact form.
Individuals may review their personal information contained in our files by contacting our Privacy Officer. If an individual believes that any of their personal information is inaccurate, we will make appropriate corrections.
Independent Operation
WhatDoesThatMean.com is operated by Scribendi Inc. (http://www.scribendi.com) as an activity independent of Scribendi Inc.'s core business of editorial, proofreading and translation services, and thus all personal information provided to WhatDoesThatMean.com is protected and remains separate from any personal information provided to Scribendi Inc. through any other means. Information provided to WhatDoesThatMean.com is subject to this privacy policy and not to any other privacy policy used by Scribendi Inc. Scribendi Inc. reserves the right to sell, or otherwise change the ownership of, WhatDoesThatMean.com. We may disclose personal information to another entity purchasing (including for diligence purposes prior to purchase) this site, provided that entity abides by this or a similar privacy policy.
