Difference between revisions of "Hypertwins Community:Privacy policy"
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==Information We Collect== | ==Information We Collect== | ||
[[category:policies]]This web site uses the MediaWiki software, which collects IP addresses and gives you the option to enter your email address when you set up an account. The email address is only necessary for receiving certain kinds of information; you do not have to enter it in order to create an account. | [[category:policies]]This web site uses the MediaWiki software, which collects IP addresses and gives you the option to enter your email address when you set up an account. The email address is only necessary for receiving certain kinds of information; you do not have to enter it in order to create an account. | ||
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To be realistic, I don't think it is. This isn't a heavily interactive site, much less one where sensitive information is being exchanged. That may change in the future as I add more interactive features to the site, but for now there really isn't much reason for this page to be here. | To be realistic, I don't think it is. This isn't a heavily interactive site, much less one where sensitive information is being exchanged. That may change in the future as I add more interactive features to the site, but for now there really isn't much reason for this page to be here. | ||
The | The "privacy policy" link is mainly there because it is included with the default MediaWiki skin. I could remove it, but then I'd have to customize the skin every time I upgrade the site. MediaWiki releases upgrades several times a year, so this would be a lot of unnecessary work. | ||
This is the kind of thing I like to take into consideration when deploying a web site. Is a feature (such as eliminating a link which doesn't really need to be there) worth the maintenance cost? Or is there a better way to solve the problem? In this case, I figured it was better to fill in the blank page with something accurate and maybe a little informative. | This is the kind of thing I like to take into consideration when deploying a web site. Is a feature (such as eliminating a link which doesn't really need to be there) worth the maintenance cost? Or is there a better way to solve the problem? In this case, I figured it was better to fill in the blank page with something accurate and maybe a little informative. | ||
Latest revision as of 13:59, 25 November 2010
Information We Collect
This web site uses the MediaWiki software, which collects IP addresses and gives you the option to enter your email address when you set up an account. The email address is only necessary for receiving certain kinds of information; you do not have to enter it in order to create an account.
It also uses the Apache web server, which collects IP addresses and browser identification strings.
The MediaWiki software allows anyone to enter additional personal information such as phone numbers, although we do not recommend this (email is probably better) unless that information is already posted elsewhere on the web.
If you edit a page (e.g. to post a comment) while not logged in, MediaWiki will display your IP address as an identifier. Anyone who visits the site will be able to see it. (This is not normally a security risk; I'm just trying to be thorough.) If you create an account, then your IP address will not be visible to other visitors when you edit pages.
What We Do With It
I promise that if you set up an account on this wiki, I won't give any of the above information obtained through this web site to anyone else, except to the extent that it is publicly viewable.
Why Is This Important?
To be realistic, I don't think it is. This isn't a heavily interactive site, much less one where sensitive information is being exchanged. That may change in the future as I add more interactive features to the site, but for now there really isn't much reason for this page to be here.
The "privacy policy" link is mainly there because it is included with the default MediaWiki skin. I could remove it, but then I'd have to customize the skin every time I upgrade the site. MediaWiki releases upgrades several times a year, so this would be a lot of unnecessary work.
This is the kind of thing I like to take into consideration when deploying a web site. Is a feature (such as eliminating a link which doesn't really need to be there) worth the maintenance cost? Or is there a better way to solve the problem? In this case, I figured it was better to fill in the blank page with something accurate and maybe a little informative.