Privacy Policy
This page describes Loadstone's privacy policy for services formally
operated
and provided by the Loadstone Team. It describes what personal
information we may be gathering from you, who can
see this information, and what options you have for controlling
this.
The Loadstone name and logo may be used to set up groups or services
on third-party web sites. For example,
there might be a Facebook page, a Google Plus page, a Slack channel,
a page on
Xing or LinkedIn, a Meetup group, and so on. Such services are
outside
our control and might be located in countries with different data
protection
rules. Data you share on these platforms cannot, therefore, be
covered by this
policy.
Policy Contents
- Community development
- Other Policies
- Privacy Policy
- Points Data
- User location
- Email Addresses
- Log files and Information submitted to Loadstone Services
- Communication via Loadstone provided Systems
- Account Removal
- Cookies
- Contact
Community development
Development of Loadstone is a community-supported effort, with many
contributors involved and work taking place on many separate
components.
Generally a good level of care is being taken to ensure that
personal information of contributors will not fall into the wrong hands. This
has come
about as a series of independent decisions within the design of the
various components.
The following descriptions are a de facto accumulation of this into
a 'privacy policy' describing how we work with the data. We are working to
improve the technology to offer a more coherent privacy model.
You should always view Loadstone systems and software with a questioning mind, and feel free to raise any concerns you have about matters of privacy via our Contact channels.
Other Policies
As well as privacy issues, users and contributors must also be aware of the Loadstone Terms of Use.
We also have an Acceptable Use Policy covering various types of server usage.
Points Data
The uploading of points data is entirely optional and not a prerequisite for contributions to Loadstone. If you do submit points data it is uploaded in the form of individual CSV files. These are imported into the database. Individual points can be marked "private" by the uploader.
All points recorded in the database are saved with the user ID of the user uploading the point.
User location
When downloading data from Pointshare, Loadstone may send your
current location to aid with suggesting default values. This location is not
stored
or shared with anyone.
Email Addresses
The registered email address for a Pointshare user account, will
never intentionally be published on the internet anywhere, shared with
third party
organizations, or revealed directly to other logged in users.
Only System Administrators will have direct access to email address data. It may be used by these people to contact
users directly
about their edits or other Loadstone related issues.
Note that some other types of Accounts used by developers/contributors do expose email address information more publicly (due to technical limitations of the software used, rather than policy decisions.)
The mailing list system exposes email addresses of people posting
messages, in the archive web pages, but with obfuscation. If you want to post to
the list, the system also requires you to register with your proper 'from'
address, not a
forwarding address.
Log files and Information submitted to Loadstone Services
The Loadstone Team operates a number of services for the Loadstone community, examples are the Loadstone-gps.com website and the
Loadstone
Pointshare.
Accessing any of the services via a browser or via applications that
utilize the provided APIs produces records of that use, for example in
webserver log files. Further we may operate user interaction tracking software
that will generate additional records of user activity, for example Piwik.
Services
that use Geo-DNS or similar mechanisms to distribute load to
geographically distributed servers will potentially generate a record of your
location at a
large scale.
- These records are used or can be used in the following ways:
- in support of the operation of the services from a technical, security and planning point of view.
- as anonymised, summarized data for research and other purposes.
- to improve the Loadstone dataset.
The data collected on the systems will be accessible by the system administrators and the appropriate Loadstone contributors. No personal information or information that could be linked to an individual will be released to third parties, except as required by law. Third party services providing content linked to via or third party JavaScript files utilized by Loadstone provided sites are not covered by this policy and you will need to refer to the respective service providers for more information.
Communication via Loadstone provided Systems
The Loadstone community uses a number of channels for public and
interpersonal communication. Examples are the Loadstone mailing lists.
By using those that are provided by Loadstone, for example the
mailing lists, you agree to your communications being intercepted by
Loadstone system managers when necessary to address operational
issues, to enforce our Acceptable Use Policies, most notably to prevent SPAM,
and to fulfill any legal obligations.
You should be aware of the above when communicating sensitive information and you should employ encryption to protect your communications content.
Account Removal
You can request your account to be removed and we will honor such
requests as far as possible. If you have not actively contributed to the project
we will not retain any records. If you have contributed your account will be
retained.
Cookies
Numerous Loadstone operated services use cookies to store information on your login and site navigation state.
Contact
If you have questions or concerns with respect to this policy,
please contact the Loadstone Team at legal-questions@loadstone-gps.com or start a
public discussion via our Contact channels.
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