Privacy Statement - our data handling policy
This statement covers data collected by the Forum.
- What information do we gather about you? We require a valid email address for all users of the Forum. You may provide other information to the Forum in the form of a personal profile or posts ('threads') on a voluntary basis. In addition, we automatically track usage, and collect browser parameters, such as IP address, browser type, referral agent (Google, Yahoo or other search engine if used) and the page you last visited before coming to our site.
- What is your information used for? Your email address allows us to contact you as necessary to answer questions you have asked, or for the administration of the Forum. Our communications with you may carry some advertising content, and occasionally we may contact you with offers or promotions likely to be of interest to users of the Forum. You can 'opt out' from receiving promotional emails. Usage information allows us to monitor and optimise the website performance. Other information is used for market research (answering how people find the Forum, for example), and to protect the Forum - IP addresses associated with behaviour considered by us to be malicious, defamatory or illegal will be banned.
- Disclosure of your information. Any information held by us may be passed to the police if we are required to do so by law. Otherwise, we will not disclose your email address to third parties without your expressed permission. We may share website usage information with third parties for the purpose of market research, in this instance we undertake that the data will be shared in a form whereby usage activity cannot be linked to individual users of the Forum (the data will be 'annonymised'). Your personal profile and any posts you make to the Forum will be in the public domain.
- Security of your information. PayPal deals with all payments, we do not store card details online. We make every effort to keep your email address secure. The Forum, however, is a public space. You can select what you publish in your personal profile to establish an online persona, which will be visible to the general public. Your identity is concealed behind your online persona, and you are advised to be selective of the extent of information you provide on the Forum, and to other users of the Forum in private communications with them.
- How long do we keep your information? Members are free to delete or amend their personal information at any time. Do this by logging in to you User CP ('User Control Panel' - a link towards the top of the page after you have logged in). Postings you make to the Forum are in the public domain, and we will not normally delete these, unless it becomes apparent that they have been posted maliciously.
- Is the information we hold accurate? Our information is as good as you, our Forum members provide. Users of the Forum are advised that online personas may not be accurate reflections of the person who created them! All users should be aware of the possibility of malicious postings, particularly if these are being used to plan a dive or other potentially hazardous activity.
- Your rights in law: Data provided by you will be handled in accordance with the legal requirements of the Data Protection Act and associated UK legislation. There is no right of free speech in the UK, so to protect the Forum from legal action we endeavour to remove postings which might be in breach of various laws of copyright, libel, decency, blasphemy etc. promptly. Such postings would be in contravention of any membership agreement you have with us, as well as being actionable in law.
- Changes to our policy. Any changes to our policy will be posted here.
*Our, Us and We refer to SeaArch Ltd. (the owners of Lochaline Dive Centre), our employees and designated agents.
This statement has been prepared according to ICO guidelines as published in their 'Data Protection Checklist'. See www.ico.gov.uk for further details, and a full explanation of your rights to privacy under UK law.