Privacy policy for the Community section of scottferguson.com.au

Your privacy is important to me.

Here is information on what types of personal information I receive and collect when you use and visit scottferguson.com.au, how I safeguard your information, how to control what information you make available, how to request I show you or modify the information I have about you, and how to make a complaint.

I will never sell your personal information to third parties, and I will only make your personal information available to third parties where compelled by law - except as detailed below.

Logs

Like most other websites, I collect and use the data contained in my apache log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as BigPond or TPG etc), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Firefox or Chrome), the time you visited this site and which pages you visited throughout the site. This information is used to help me make the website better.

Data Retention

Unless you are a client who has agreed to use your IP address as part of your authentication I keep IP addresses only for 30 days unless you commit a serious offence against this site.

I retain information about pages visited, browsers used, dates and times, and, cities and countries visitors come from - but except in the instances described above, the IP addresses are not kept.

Please note: these policies are slightly different in Clients and Services area of this website for the purposes of providing a business service, and taxation.

Cookies and Web Bugs

I do use cookies to store information, such as which pages you've been to (so the back links will work on the pages) and to store your authorisation information if you are a client and have logged into the private clients section of the site.

I also use third party advertisements. Some of these advertisers use technology such as cookies and web bugs when they advertise on my site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing information relevant to your location, for example).

DoubleClick DART cookies

I also may use DART cookies for ad serving through Google’s DoubleClick, which places a cookie on your computer when you are browsing the web and visit a site using DoubleClick advertising (including some Google AdSense advertisements). This cookie is used to serve ads specific to you and your interests (”interest based targeting”). The ads served will be targeted based on your previous browsing history (For example, if you have been viewing sites about chook juggling, you may see advertisements about dating sites for chook jugglers when viewing another site, such as on a site about poultry breeding). DART uses “non personally identifiable information”. It does NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, social security numbers, bank account numbers or credit card numbers. For more information see Google's Advertising Privacy Policy page.

How NOT to leave personal information on my site

Use a VPN, proxy, and spoof a browser agent. See the page on Web Privacy, and don't forget to delete your cookie files when you leave.

You can choose to disable or selectively turn off my cookies, or third-party cookies in your browser settings. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with my site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to certain areas of this site, or your client account.

Deleting cookies does not mean you are permanently opted out of any advertising program. Unless you have settings that disallow cookies, the next time you visit a site running the advertisements, a new cookie will be added.

How NOT to see the ads on my site

I only advertise products I personally use and believe will be useful, and good value, to visitors. I also (may) receive money for advertising (usually only a lot of people buy the advertised product by following a link from my site). If you chose not to view the ads I recommend you use the AdBlock Plus extension for Firefox/Iceweasel. I also highly recommend the Firefox/Iceweasel web browser.

This information will be expanded on soon.

Keeping your information safe

I don't rely on just a Privacy policy to protect your personal information - all information I retain about site visitors and clients is always kept strongly encrypted.
I strongly recommend you do the same. See my PGP page for more information about encryption.

Request for your information

You can ask me what information I hold about you, or that the information be modified. You will need to prove your identity to do so (there's an irony there somewhere...). You can begin the process by emailing me Scott Ferguson

Make a complaint about a breach of your Personal Privacy

Should you be unsatisfied with how I handled your private information, you can make a formal complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

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