Privacy Policy

Our Privacy and Cookie Policies.

Your privacy is important to us. We have tailored these Policies to reflect the regulations of the new GDPR law pending for May 25th, 2018. Our goal is to provide you with a personalized online experience that provides you with the information, resources, and services that are most relevant and helpful to you. This Privacy Policy has been written to describe the conditions under which this web site is being made available to you. The Privacy Policy discusses, among other things, how data obtained during your visit to this web site may be collected and used. We strongly recommend that you read the Privacy Policy carefully. By using this web site, you agree to be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not accept the terms of the Privacy Policy, you are directed to discontinue accessing or otherwise using the web site or any materials obtained from it. If you are dissatisfied with the web site, by all means  contact walkradmin@gmail.com  otherwise, your only recourse is to disconnect from this site and refrain from visiting the site in the future.

The process of maintaining a web site is an evolving one, and the Operators may decide at some point in the future, without advance notice, to modify the terms of this Privacy Policy. Your use of the web site, or materials obtained from the web site, indicates your assent to the Privacy Policy at the time of such use. The effective Privacy Policy will be posted on the web site, and you should check upon every visit for any changes. The operator will endeavor to post notices of updates if possible.

Sites Covered by this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to all the Operators-maintained web sites, domains, information portals, and registries. The Forum Arcade for members only is covered under this Policy.

Children’s Privacy

The Operators are committed to protecting the privacy needs of children, and we encourage parents and guardians to take an active role in their children’s online activities and interests. The Country Depot Forum does not intentionally collect information from minors, and does not target its web site specifically to children.

Links to Non-Operators Web Sites

The Country Depot Forum may provide links to third-party web sites for the convenience of our users. If you access those links, you will leave the The Country Depot Forum. the Operators do not control these third-party websites and cannot represent that their policies and practices will be consistent with this Privacy Policy. For example, other web sites may collect or use personal information about you in a manner different from that described in this document. Therefore, you should use other web sites with caution, and you do so at your own risk. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any web site before submitting personal information.

Types of Information We Collect

Non-Personal Information

Non-personal information is data about usage and service operation that is not directly associated with a specific personal identity. The Country Depot Forum may collect and analyze non-personal information to evaluate how visitors use The Country Depot Forum.

Aggregate Information

The Country Depot Forum may gather aggregate information, which refers to information your computer automatically provides to us and that cannot be tied back to you as a specific individual. Examples include referral data (the web sites you visited just before and just after our site), the pages viewed, time spent at our Web site, and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet. For example, when you request a page from one of our sites, our servers log your IP address to create aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns and for purposes of system administration.

Information About Your Device and Internet Connection

When you use the Website, we automatically gather information made available by your web browser (such as Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome), Internet service provider (such as Comcast or Cox), and device (such as your computer, mobile phone, or tablet), depending on your settings for each. For example, we may collect your IP address, information about the operating system or type of device you use, and the location of your device. This helps you know if someone else may have accessed your account.

Log Files

Every time you request or download a file from the web site, the The Country Depot Forum may store data about these events and your IP address in a log file. The Country Depot Forum may use this information to analyze trends, administer the web site, track users’ movements, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use to and improve/enhance the site.

Cookies

Our site may use a feature of your browser to set a “cookie” on your computer. Cookies are small packets of information that a web site’s computer stores on your computer. The Operators’s web sites can then read the cookies whenever you visit our site. We may use cookies in a number of ways, such as to save your password so you don’t have to re-enter it each time you visit our site, to deliver content specific to your interests and to track the pages you’ve visited. These cookies allow us to use the information we collect to customize your experience so that your visit to our site is as relevant and as valuable to you as possible.

Most browser software can be set up to deal with cookies. You may modify your browser preference to provide you with choices relating to cookies. You have the choice to accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set or to reject all cookies. If you choose to reject cookies, certain functions and conveniences of our web site may not work properly, and you may be unable to use those of the The Country Depot Forum services that require registration in order to participate, or you will have to re-register each time you visit our site. Most browsers offer instructions on how to reset the browser to reject cookies in the “Help” section of the toolbar. We do not link non-personal information from cookies to personally identifiable information without your permission.

Web Beacons

The The Country Depot Forum also may use web beacons to collect non-personal information about your use of our web site. The information collected by web beacons allows us to statistically monitor how many people are using our web site and selected sponsors’ sites; how many people open our emails; and for what purposes these actions are being taken. Our web beacons are not used to track your activity outside of our web site. The Country Depot Forum does not link non-personal information from web beacons to personally identifiable information without your permission.

Personal Information

Personal information is information that is associated with your name or personal identity. The Depot uses personal information to better understand your needs and interests and to provide you with better service. On some of the Depot's web pages, you may be able to request information, subscribe to mailing lists, participate in online discussions, collaborate on documents, provide feedback, submit information into registries, register for events, apply for membership, or join technical committees or working groups. The types of personal information you provide to us on these pages may include name, address, phone number, e-mail address, user IDs, passwords. 

How We Use Your Information

The Depot may use non-personal data that is aggregated for reporting about the Depot's web site usability, performance, and effectiveness. It may be used to improve the experience, usability, and content of the site.

The Depot may use personal information to provide services that support the activities of the Depot's members and their collaboration on the Depot's standards and projects. When accessing the Depot's members-only web pages, your personal user information may be tracked by the Depot in order to support collaboration, ensure authorized access, and enable communication between members.

Information Sharing

The The Country Depot Forum does not sell, rent, or lease any individual’s personal information or lists of email addresses to anyone for marketing purposes, and we take reasonable steps to maintain the security of this information.  We also reserve the right to release personal information to protect our systems, when we reasonably believe you to be in violation of our Terms of Use or if we reasonably believe you to have initiated or participated in any illegal activity. In addition, please be aware that in certain circumstances, The Country Depot Forum may be obligated to release your personal information pursuant to judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants, or other orders.

In keeping with our open process, the The Country Depot Forum may maintain publicly accessible archives for the majority of our activities. For example, posting an email to any of the Depot's-hosted public mail lists or discussion forums, subscribing to one of our newsletters may result in your email address becoming part of the publicly accessible archives.

If you are a registered member of a The Country Depot Forum's website or email list, you should be aware that some items of your personal information may be visible to other members and to the public. The Depot's member databases may retain information about your name, e-mail address, company affiliation (if an organizational member), and such other personal address and identifying data as you choose to supply. That data may be visible to other of the Depot's members and to the public. 

Please remember that any information (including personal information) that you disclose in public areas of our web site, such as forums, message boards, and news groups, becomes public information that others may collect, circulate, and use. Because we cannot and do not control the acts of others, you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose information about yourself or others in public forums such as these.

Given the international scope of the The Country Depot Forum's website, personal information may be visible to persons outside your country of residence, including to persons in countries that your own country’s privacy laws and regulations deem deficient in ensuring an adequate level of protection for such information. If you are unsure whether this Privacy Policy is in conflict with applicable local rules, you should not submit your information. If you are located within the European Union, you should note that your information will be transferred to the United States. The Country Depot Forum follows the GDPR act of May 25th, 2018 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, individuals located in countries outside of the United States of America who submit personal information do thereby consent to the general use of such information as provided in this Privacy Policy and to its transfer to and/or storage in the United States of America.

If you do not want your personal information collected and used by The Country Depot Forum, please do not visit the The Country Depot Forum or apply for membership of any of the The Country Depot Forum's websites or email lists.

Access to and Accuracy of Member Information

The The Country Depot Forum is committed to keeping the personal information of our members accurate. All the information you have submitted to us can be verified and changed by the member. In order to do this, visit your Profile/Account section. We provide members with online access to their own personal profiles, enabling them to update or delete information at any time. To protect our members’ privacy and security, we also may take reasonable steps to verify identity, such as a user ID and password, before granting access to modify personal profile data. Certain areas of the Operators’s web sites may limit access to specific individuals through the use of passwords or other personal identifiers; a password prompt is your indication that a members-only resource is being accessed.

Security

The Operators make every effort to protect personal information by users of the web site, including using firewalls and other security measures on its servers. No server, however, is 100% secure, and you should take this into account when submitting personal or confidential information about yourself on any web site, including this one. Much of the personal information is used in conjunction with member services such as collaboration and discussion, so some types of personal information such as your name, company affiliation, and email address will be visible to other Country Depots members and to the public. The Country Depot Forum assumes no liability for the interception, alteration, or misuse of the information you provide. You alone are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your personal information. Please use care when using any web site and providing personal information. The Country Depot utilizes several security measures to keep sensitive data secure.

• Hosting our servers within secure data center facilities;
• Use the services of Cloudflare to block DDoS attacks, bots, malicious traffic, and secure our login systems with HTTPS/SSL;
• Store passwords in a encrypted, salted hash format, not plain text;
• Use firewalls and perform automated, and periodic manual scans of our server to provide further security to our systems; and
• Maintain a thorough Cyber Security Response Plan.

Opting Out

From time to time The Country Depot Forum may email you electronic newsletters, announcements, surveys or other information. If you prefer not to receive any or all of these communications, you may opt out by following the directions provided within the electronic newsletters and announcements.

If you have questions regarding this privacy policy, please contact us.

Posted May 23, 2018