PlanningWiki:Privacy policy

From PlanningWiki

Contents 1 Summary 2 Publishing on PlanningWiki and public data 2.1 Identification of an author 2.2 Cookies 3 Private logging 3.1 Policy on release of data derived from page logs 4 Sharing information with third parties 5 Security of information 6 E-mail, mailing lists and IRC 6.1 E-mail 7 User data 7.1 Removal of user accounts 8 Deletion of content

Summary

This privacy policy is based on that of the MediaWiki project, and is comparable to the privacy policy on Cyburbia.

If you only read PlanningWiki, no more information is collected than is typically collected in server logs by web sites in general.

If you contribute to PlanningWiki, you are publishing every word you post publicly. If you write something, assume that it will be kept forever. This includes articles, user pages and talk pages. Some limited exceptions are described below.

Publishing on PlanningWiki and public data

Simply visiting PlanningWiki does not expose your identity publicly (but see private logging below).

When you edit any page in PlanningWiki, you are publishing a document. This is a public act, and you are identified publicly with that edit as its author.

Identification of an author

When you publish a page in PlanningWiki, you may be logged in or not.

If you are logged in, you will be identified by your user name. This may be your real name if you so choose, or you may choose to publish under a pseudonym, whatever user name you selected when you created your account.

If you have not logged in, you will be identified by your network IP address. 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 except in cases of abuse, including vandalism of a wiki page by you or by another user with the same IP address. In all cases, your IP address will be stored on the wiki servers and can be seen by server administrators and by users who have been granted CheckUser access. Your IP address, and its connection to any usernames that share it may be released under certain circumstances (see below).

If you use a company mail server from home or telecommute and use a DSL or cable Internet connection, it is likely to be very easy for your employer to identify your IP address and find all of your IP based PlanningWiki project contributions. Using a user name is a better way of preserving your privacy in this situation. However, remember to log out or disconnect yourself after each session using a pseudonym on a shared computer, to avoid allowing others to use your identity.

Cookies

The wiki 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 may be set when you log in, to avoid typing in your user name (or optionally 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. (If so, clear the browser cache as well.)

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 can be used to get an overall picture of what pages are popular, what other sites link to this one, and what web browsers people are using. It is not the intention of PlanningWiki or Cyburbia to use this information to keep track of legitimate users.

These logs are used to compile statistics about bandwidth consumption, user visits/hits, and similar data. The raw log data is not made public, and is normally discarded after about two weeks.

Log data may be examined by developers in the course of solving technical problems and in tracking down badly-behaved web spiders that overwhelm the site. IP addresses of users, derived either from those logs or from records in the database are frequently used to correlate usernames and network addresses of edits in investigating abuse of the wiki, including the suspected use of malicious "sockpuppets" (duplicate accounts), vandalism, harassment of other users, or disruption of the wiki.

Policy on release of data derived from page logs

Personally identifiable data collected in the server logs, or through records in the database via the CheckUser feature, may be released by the system administrators or users with CheckUser access, in the following situations:

1. In response to a valid subpoena or other compulsory request from law enforcement
2. With permission of the affected user
3. When necessary for investigation of abuse complaints.
4. Where the information pertains to page views generated by a spider or bot and its dissemination is necessary to illustrate or resolve technical issues.
5. Where the user has been vandalising articles or persistently behaving in a disruptive way, data may be released to assist in the targeting of IP blocks, or to assist in the formulation of a complaint to relevant Internet service providers
6. Where it is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of PlanningWiki, Cyburbia, its users or the public.

PlanningWiki policy does not permit public distribution of such information under any circumstances, except as described above.

Sharing information with third parties

Except where otherwise specified, all text added to PlanningWiki projects is available for reuse under the terms of the GFDL.

PlanningWiki and Cyburbia will not sell or share private information, such as email addresses, with third parties, unless you agree to release this information, or it is required by law to release the information.

Security of information

PlanningWiki and Cyburbia make no guarantee against unauthorized access to any information you provide. This information may be available to anyone with access to the servers.

E-mail, mailing lists and IRC

E-mail

You may provide your email address in your Preferences and enable other logged-in users to send email to you through the wiki. Your address will not be revealed to them unless you respond, or possibly if the email bounces. The email address may be used by PlanningWiki or Cyburbia to communicate with users on a wider scale.

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 one of the Cyburbia administrators to enter a new mail address in your preferences.

You can remove your email address from your preferences at any time to prevent it being used.

User data

Data on users, such as the times at which they edited and the number of edits they have made are publicly available via "user contributions" lists, and in aggregated forms published by other users.

Removal of user accounts

Once created, user accounts will not be removed. It may be possible for a username to be changed (depending on the policies of your local wiki and on the number of edits you have) under very limited circumstances. Cyburbia does not guarantee that a name will be changed on request.

Upon request, Cyburbia Forums staff will close (but not remove) your account and remove personally identifying information. However, we will not remove any contributions you have made to PlanningWiki or the Cyburbia Forums. If you have a closed account and you wish to contribute to PlanningWiki again, you MUST write to a Cyburbia administrator to reactivate the account. Creating a second account is a violation of Cyburbia Forums rules, and may be subject to permanent banning from Cyburbia and PlanningWiki.

Deletion of content

Removing text from PlanningWiki projects does not permanently delete it. In normal articles, anyone can look at a previous version and see what was there. If an article is "deleted", any user with "administrator" access on the wiki, meaning almost anyone trusted not to abuse the deletion capability, can see what was deleted. Information can be permanently deleted by those people with access to the servers, but there is no guarantee this will happen except in response to legal action.