REFORM wiki:Privacy policy

Privacy Policy

This policy covers personally identifiable information collected or stored in the FORECASTER web-based tool.

Public and collaborative nature of the information

All wiki pages in the FORECASTER web-based tool are open for editing to registered users. Anyone with Internet access may register to the system and obtain editing rights. By doing this, editors create a published document, and a public record of every word added, subtracted, or changed. This is a public act, and editors are identified publicly as the author of such changes. All contributions made to wiki pages, and all publicly available information about those contributions, are irrevocably licensed and may be freely copied, quoted, reused and adapted by third parties.

User accounts and authorship

Users have to register to the system to obtain editing rights. Registered users are identified by their chosen username and IP address. Users select a password, which is confidential and used to verify the integrity of their account. Except insofar as it may be required by law, no person should disclose, or knowingly expose, either user passwords and/or cookies generated to identify a user. Once created, user accounts will not be removed, unless abuse is proven, in which case the account will be deleted and the IP address of the owner will be blocked from accessing the system.

Purpose of the collection of private information

The administrator of this web site limits the collection of personally identifiable user data to purposes which serve the well-being of the tool, including but not limited to the following:

• To enhance the public accountability on the information posted. Any system that is open enough to allow the greatest possible participation of the general public will also be vulnerable to certain kinds of abuse and counterproductive behavior. The administrator has established a number of mechanisms to prevent or remedy abusive activities. For example, when registering a new account, users are asked to solve a simple arithmetical equation, to prevent the automatic registration of spam. The IP addresses of users (derived either from those logs or from records in the database) may be used to identify the source(s) of the abusive behavior. Users that abuse the system, will be prevented from further access to it.
• To provide site statistics. The administrator may statistically sample raw log data from users' visits. These logs are used to produce the site statistics pages; the raw log data is not made public.
• To solve technical problems. 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.

Details of data retention

IP and other technical information: When a page is edited by a registered user, the server confidentially stores related IP information from the user. This information is automatically deleted after a defined period of time.

Page history: Edits to wiki pages are generally retained forever. Removing text from a page does not permanently delete it. Normally, registered users can look at previous versions of the page. Information can be permanently deleted only by the administrator.

Reading wiki pages: No more information on users and other visitors reading pages is collected than is typically collected in server logs by web sites. Aside from the above raw log data collected for general purposes, page visits do not expose a visitor's identity publicly. Sampled raw log data may include the IP address of any user, but it is not reproduced publicly.

Editing wiki pages: Edits to wiki pages are identified with the username and network IP address of the editor, and editing history is aggregated by author in a contribution list. This information is available only to the server administrator.

Logged in registered users: Logged in users do not expose their IP address to the public except in cases of abuse, including vandalism of a wiki page by the user or by another user with the same IP address. A user's IP address is stored on the wiki servers for a period of time, during which it can be seen by server administrators.

Via email: Providing an email address when registering is optional. Users who provide a valid email address can be reminded of their password in case they forget.

Disclaimer

This web-based tool is an online open-content repository of information about river restoration experiences. Its structure allows anyone with an Internet connection and World Wide Web browser to alter its contents. Therefore, the FORECASTER consortium does not take responsibility for the veracity and completeness of the information entered in the WIKI pages, nor is liable for the use that third parties may give to this information.