Privacy Policy Print E-mail
The following statement explains our policy regarding the personal information we collect about you.
Statement of intent
Information on visitors
What is a cookie?
Submitting personal information
1. Statement of intent
From time to time, you will be asked to submit personal information about yourself (e.g. name and email address etc) in order to receive or use services on our website. Such services include the galleries, bonsai diagnostic form, community profile, and Internet Bonsai Club membership.
By entering your details in the fields requested, you enable the Internet Bonsai Club and its service providers to provide you with the services you select. Whenever you provide such personal information, we will treat that information in accordance with this policy. Our services are designed to give you the information that you want to receive. The Internet Bonsai Club will act in accordance with current legislation and aim to meet current Internet best practice.
2. Information on visitors
During the course of any visit to the Internet Bonsai Club, the pages you see are downloaded to your computer. If you wish to use the Galleries, or log in to the site a cookie is placed on your computer (see point 3 for more on this). Most, if not all, websites do this, because cookies allow the website publisher to do useful things such as permitting you to login.
The cookie provides non-personal statistical information about visits to pages on the site, the duration of individual page view, paths taken by visitors through the site, data on visitors' screen settings and other general information. The Internet Bonsai Club uses this type of information to help it improve the services to its users.
Internet Bonsai Club does not sell, distribute, or use your information in any way except to provide you with access to the Forum and Community Directory, unless required by court order.
3. What is a cookie?
When you enter a site your computer will automatically be issued with a cookie. Cookies are text files that identify your computer to our server. Cookies in themselves do not identify the individual user, just the computer used. Many sites do this whenever a user visits their site in order to track traffic flows.
Cookies themselves only record those areas of the site that have been visited by the computer in question, and for how long. Users have the opportunity to set their computers to accept all cookies, to notify them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time. The last of these, of course, means that certain personalised services cannot then be provided to that user.
NB: Even if you haven't set your computer to reject cookies you can still browse our site anonymously until such time as you register for Internet Bonsai Club services.
4. Use and storage of your personal information
When you supply any personal information to the Internet Bonsai Club we have legal obligations towards you in the way we deal with that data. We must collect the information fairly, that is, we must explain how we will use it (see the notices on particular webpages that let you know why we are requesting the information) and tell you if we want to pass the information on to anyone else. Any information you provide to the Internet Bonsai Club will only be used within the Internet Bonsai Club and by its service providers. It will never be supplied to anyone outside the Internet Bonsai Club unless we are obliged by law to disclose it. Also, if you post or send offensive or inappropriate content anywhere on or to the Internet Bonsai Club or otherwise engage in any disruptive behaviour on the Internet Bonsai Club, and the Internet Bonsai Club considers such behaviour to be serious and/or repeated, the Internet Bonsai Club can use whatever information that is available to it about you to stop such behaviour. This may include informing relevant third parties such as your employer, school or e-mail provider about the content and your behaviour.
We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as you use the service you have requested, and remove it in the event that the purpose has been met, or, if you no longer wish to continue your registration on the Internet Bonsai Club's website. For safety reasons, however, the Internet Bonsai Club may store messaging transcript data (including message content, member names, times and dates) arising from the use of Internet Bonsai Club. All information is held in an encrypted form and stored safely.
