|
myDanwei Privacy Notice
June 19, 2007
Summary
If you only read the myDanwei websites, no more information is collected than is
typically collected in server logs by web sites in general.
If you contribute to the myDanwei website, you are publishing every word you post publicly.
If you write something, assume that it will be retained forever. This includes comments,
user pages and information pages. Some limited exceptions are described below.
Publishing on myDanwei and public data
Simply visiting the web site does not expose your identity publicly (but see private logging below).
When you edit any page in myDanwei, 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 myDanwei, you must be logged in, and 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.
When using a pseudonym, your IP address, a series of four numbers which identifies the
Internet address from which you are contacting myDanwei, will not be available to the
public except in cases of abuse, including vandalism of a page by you or by another
user with the same IP address. In all cases, your IP address will be stored on myDanwei
servers and can be seen by myDanwei's 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).
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
MyDanwei will set temporary session cookies whenever you visit the site.
If you do not intend to ever log in, you may deny them, but you cannot log in without them.
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.)
- Passwords
Many aspects of the myDanwei's community interactions depend on the reputation and respect that
is built up through a history of valued contributions. User passwords are the only guarantee of
the integrity of a user's edit history. 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 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 myDanwei 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 about two weeks.
These logs are used to produce the site statistics pages; the raw log data is not made public,
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 myDanwei,
including the suspected use of malicious "sockpuppets" (duplicate accounts), vandalism,
harassment of other users, or disruption of myDanwei.
- Policy on release of data derived from page logs
It is the policy of myDanwei that 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:
- In response to a valid subpoena or other compulsory request from law enforcement;
- With permission of the affected user;
- To the myDanwei management team, the legal counsel, the designee, when necessary for investigation of abuse complaints.
- Where the information pertains to page views generated by a spider or bot and its dissemination is necessary to illustrate or resolve technical issues;
- 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;
- Where it is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of the myDanwei Foundation, its users or the public.
myDanwei 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 myDanwei is available for reuse.
myDanwei 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
MyDanwei takes appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or
unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. These include internal reviews
of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, as well as
physical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to systems where we store
personal data.
We restrict access to personal information to myDanwei employees, contractors and agents
who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve our services.
These individuals are bound by confidentiality obligations and may be subject to discipline,
including termination and criminal prosecution, if they fail to meet these obligations.
E-mail
You must provide at least one of your e-mail addresses to myDanwei in order to create your account.
Your addresses will not be revealed to third parties. The email addresses may be used by myDanwei
to communicate with users on a wider scale.
You need your email address to reset your password if you forget it.
However, you may contact one of the myDanwei server 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.
Removal of user accounts
Once created, user accounts will not be removed. It may be possible for a username to be changed.
MyDanwei does not guarantee that a name will be changed on request.
Whether specific user information is deleted is dependant on the deletion policies of myDanwei.
Deletion of content
Removing text from myDanwei does not permanently delete it. If an article is "deleted", any user
with "administrator" access on myDanwei, 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.
Changes to this privacy policy
myDanwei may update this privacy policy. In the event there are significant changes in the way we
treat your personally identifiable information, we will display a notice on this site.
Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that we have
about you and your account.
|
