Privacy Policy for OzPCTrader

(Established: 29/Sep/2006, last updated: 06/Feb/2007)

• Why a Privacy Policy?

  As this site is all about its customer's information and I collect, analyze and reuse this data I feel it is necessary to outline exactly what data I am collecting and what I am using it for. This is the purpose of this document. If you have any concerns about privacy issues, please read it and email me your comments and suggestions. This policy will be updated from time to time as my site evolves.

• What data am I collecting

  • In my database

    email address (user name), ip address, nickname, date and time, contents of ads and comments

  • In my web server log

    ip address, date and time, requested document, referring document, type of web browser, operating system and web server return code

  • Emails that you send me

    I am saving all messages that I get

  • Search Queries

    All search queries and the relevant ip-address and date/time info is added to my database

• How is the data being used

  • Email address

    • if you are a registered user your email address is your user name
    • reply to a request for information or help
    • inform of updates and other news
    • convey promotional messages to customers who opt in for newsletter

  • IP Address

    • track abuse of system and identify isp of offending customer
    • link to web server log when investigating a problem
    • offending ip addresses will be banned from this web site

  • Nickname

    • Means of individually addressing customer on web page, newsletter or email without having to use their real names

  • Date and Time

    • identify problems in database
    • link to web server log (together with ip address) when investigating a problem
    • track and report system abuse
    • track system problems

  • Comments

    • track customer's opinions and suggestions and use this information to improve the site or identify and remedy problems such as broken links
    • gather data about customer's needs for more information about site or promotions

  • Contents of Ads

    • This is of course what this site is all about. All ads are publicly viewable and searchable. Title, description, brand and model are searchable and price, location, and contact only viewable

  • Requested Page

    • track the performance of link exchanges and search engine listings
    • track system abuse
    • trouble shooting

  • Referring Page

    • track the performance of link exchanges and search engine listings
    • track system abuse
    • trouble shooting

  • Web server return code

    • identify dead links
    • identify attacks on web server

  • Customer's Web Browser

    • different browsers can display the same page differently and certain programs or html code may not work at all in some browsers. This information can be used to make my pages and programs work in the most popular browsers

  • Customer's Operating System

    • the same browser does not behave the same way on different operating systems. same as above - this information can be used to make my pages and programs work on the most popular operating systems

  • Your Email Messages

    • reference purposes and gathering of email addresses (see email address above)

  • Search Queries

    • Used to analyze queries in order to find things such as most and least popular searches and search frequencies

• Who else is data being disclosed to

  I reserve myself the right to, without notice, post the contents of your ads but not your registration details to other websites, directories or databases (see my terms. This is only to help your purpose, making your ads as visible as possible. Other than that your data is only used in conjunction with OzPCTrader and is not passed on to any third party. The only exceptions would be a security breach or an attack on my web server or database. In these cases I would pass all the relevant information to the internet service provider of the offender. In severe cases I would also inform the Australian Federal Police. Obviously any ads that you place are publicly viewable

• How can you opt out on your data being collected

  You cannot opt out on any info that is collected in the server logs, as this is essential for tracking system problems and attacks on the server. Nevertheless you can place an ad by only using a hotmail or yahoo email address. However, the details of your PayPal payment will always appear in my PayPal account. If you want your details deleted just send me an email. Any other changes to your account such as unsubscribing from my newsletter can be done on-line in the account panel

• Children's data

  In general it should not be a problem if children use my service. However, if you find your children using it without your permission please contact me here so I can remove their details from my records

• Links to other sites

  There are some links to other sites on this web site and I am not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these other sites.

• Cookies

  I only use cookies to track my visitors' sessions and they do not contain any personal information. These cookies are session cookies only and expire once the visitor closes the browser.

• Backups and life time of your ads

  Backups are a tricky business. They are required for disaster recovery purposes but might infringe on your privacy. For instance, if you delete all your records from a database they still exist in the backups, as it is basically impossible to delete them from every single backup especially if the backup media is a once only write media such as a CD or DVD. An other issue is that a hosting service provider might also take a backup and the operator of the web service has no control over it. Many operators don't mention these things to their customers but they nevertheless are real privacy issues that need to be dealt with. My strategy of dealing with this is as follows
  • Only take my own backups and don't allow my hosting service to backup my database
  • Destroy all backups, as they become 4 months old. This has the disadvantage that you cannot reuse ads that expired more than 3 months ago. If you choose the "delete on expiry" option when placing an ad it gets deleted as soon as it expires

If you want to know more, have any comments or you think that I am not sticking to my own privacy policy please email me

© Copyright 2007 - 2008 » Andy Reiz » All rights reserved.