INTRODUCTION
CA News Forum is a private online discussion forum where Members in good standing can converse with each other and share a common interactive experience. The site is intended for use by adults over the age of 18. In order to participate on this site, whether to post comments or create discussions for others to converse about, you will need a Member account. There are several reasons why we require user accounts: Firstly, all comments posted on this site are stored locally and are attributed to a particular user account. Secondly, user accounts allow us to assign and, if necessary, revoke user privileges on the site. Thirdly, it helps us to protect our Members from any attempts by unscrupulous third parties to spoof their identities for nefarious purposes. Finally, it helps us prevent spam discussions and comments from being posted, which leads to a better online experience for you and our other Members.
Comments are hosted locally on this site using wpDiscuz. Please be aware that our site is publicly viewable and that anyone may search for, see, use, or re-post any of the comments or content you post here. CA News Forum has no control over what third parties may do with such material. As such, we strongly discourage the sharing of any personally-identifiable information such as your real name, your email address or personal photographs in comments. Those who choose to ignore this advice do so at their own risk.
PURPOSE OF THIS POLICY
The owners of CA News Forum provide this Privacy Policy to inform you about our policies and activities regarding the collection, use, disclosure and protection of your personal information, and your rights regarding the handling of that information. Please read this policy in its entirety so that you understand your rights.
This Privacy Policy is subject to periodic amendments, additions, changes or modifications. The revised Privacy Policy will take effect on the date and time it is published on this site. By continuing to use CA News Forum, and by registering for a Member account, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and any amendments thereto. Each time you use the site, the then-current version of this Privacy Policy will apply.
The owners of this site are internet users and we value our privacy online. We extend to you the courtesy of respecting your privacy as well. We are extremely selective about the information that we collect about you through the use of this site.
PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED
When you visit our site, we may collect basic, “non-personally identifiable information” and “personally identifiable information” about you. We collect this information generally for functionality, to troubleshoot and improve the site, and to provide you with the best possible online experience. We will never under any circumstances sell, trade or rent this information to third parties, for any reason. Your information will only ever be used as described in this Privacy Policy. This is our solemn pledge to you, our Members.
1. Non-Personally Identifiable Information
Your IP address is a unique string of numbers that identifies each computer using the Internet Protocol to communicate over the internet. It allows websites to exchange packets of information with your computer and to track your activities on that particular website, as we do here on CA News Forum. Your IP address allows us to detect problems with our server, and for us to administer the site. In addition, this Non-Personally Identifiable Information is compiled and analyzed on an aggregate basis by services like Google Analytics, to help us gauge things like online traffic and user experiences. By using this website, you agree to the use of your IP address for these purposes.
Q&A: Exactly what does your IP address reveal about you? Through services like Whois, a website owner can use your IP address to determine your general location and the name of your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Your IP address is not publicly linked to your name or physical address, and your ISP will not provide such information to any third party other than law enforcement, if compelled by law. To reiterate: Your IP address does not reveal to us who you are or where you live. Your IP address is visible to the site owners, but not to the moderating staff or to other community Members.
Q&A: What is a VPN? For those users who prefer to be extra cautious, the use of a Virtual Private Network service, or VPN, will actively mask your true IP address and related information from even the owners of this site. Be aware, however, that the use of a VPN can prevent some websites from loading properly. That is, unfortunately, beyond our control.
2. Personally Identifiable Information
When you sign up for a Member account on CA News, you will have to provide us with your desired screen name and a functioning email address. For this purpose, we encourage the use of an anonymized email address that does not include your actual name and it costs you nothing to register for one. We will never ask you for your real name, your home address or your phone number, that’s more information than we need.
OTHER INFORMATION
Cookies
Cookies are text files which contain small bits of data relating to your interactions on a particular website. On CA News Forum cookies are used to keep track of your current session. Turning cookies off may prevent the site from recognizing that you are signed in, which can interfere with your ability to post comments and author discussions. As such, you should always enable cookies for our site. Cookies reside on your own computer and may be deleted manually by you or automatically after your session ends, depending upon your browser settings. Cookies typically expire and get deleted after one day.
Notifications
Our commenting system can advise you when you receive a reply to one of your comments by sending you a notification to your CA News profile or by sending you an email push notifications. The notifications include a link that, when clicked, will open a browser window or tab and scroll down to the comment that was replied to. This feature is enabled manually by activating the notification bell next to the Post Comment button prior to posting your comment. Clicking on it will turn it blue, indicating you are subscribed, and clicking on it again will turn the bell back off. This option allows you to subscribe to notifications relating to that one particular comment only and must be done before you post your comment.
You also have several other notification options available to you:
• Subscribe to receive notifications whenever someone replies to any of your comments on a particular discussion page, which is easier than subscribing for notifications for multiple individual comments.
• Receive notifications whenever someone posts any comment on a particular discussion page, whether they are replying to your own comments directly or not.
• Follow another user to receive notifications any time they post a comment anywhere on our site.
• Follow a particular comment by another user to receive notifications any time someone replies to that particular comment.
Once subscribed, you can unsubscribe any time, whether by clicking the Unsubscribe link in the notification email you receive, or by going to your Subscriptions tab to manually remove one or more subscriptions.
Embedded Content
Discussions on our site often include embedded content such as articles, images and videos which link to external, third party sites. Embedded content behaves the same way as if you are visiting the source website. These linked source websites may collect data about you, use cookies, allow third party tracking and monitor your interaction with the embedded content, including your activities if you log in to the source website. Please review the Privacy Policies of these source websites so that you will be aware of what they may do with your personal information.
Your Rights
You may at any time request that we delete your user account, which will remove any personal information we retain about you as well as all of your comments and any discussions you may have authored. Removal of your account will rescind all your privileges on the site and you will not be able to post comments or discussions.
