Wikisori:Privacy policy

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Summary

If you only read the Wikisori.org project websites, no more information is collected than is typically collected in server logs by web sites in general.
If you contribute to the Wikisori.org project, you are publishing every word you post publicly. If you write something, assume that it will be retained forever. This includes articles, user pages and talk pages. Some limited exceptions are described below.

Publishing on Wikisori and public data

Simply visiting the web site does not expose your identity publicly (but see private logging below).
When you edit any page on Wikisori,  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 on Wikisori, you must be logged in.
When 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.
When publishing any page, in addition to your user name, your IP address is also recorded, but is not viewable to the public.  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 when using 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.)

Passwords

Many aspects of the Wikisori project'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 the Wikisori project 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.
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 Wikisori.

Third Party Advertising

We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.

Policy on release of data derived from page logs

It is the policy of Wikisori 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:

  1. In response to a valid subpoena or other compulsory request from law enforcement
  2. With permission of the affected user
  3. To the chair of Wikisori.org, his/her legal counsel, or his/her designee, 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 vandalizing 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 the Wikisori.org, its users or the public.

Wikisori 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 Wikisori projects is available for reuse under the terms of the Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Wikisori 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. When required by law to release such information, Wikisori.org will notify, when possible, those members of the community whose personally identifiable data has been sought through, or produced as a result of, civil or criminal legal process, except when such notification is forbidden by state or federal law in the United States of America.

Security of information

Wikisori.org makes no guarantee against unauthorized access to any information you provide. This information may be available to anyone with access to the servers.

E-mail

You may provide your e-mail 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 Wikisori.org 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 Wikisori 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.

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.

Deletion of content

Removing text from Wikisori 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.