We hate legalese, so we've tried to make ours readable. If you've got any questions, feel free to ask us, and we'll do our best to answer.
This privacy statement ("Privacy Policy") covers this website (clacks.link) - which is owned and operated by Martin Tithonium ("we", "us", "our") - and its associated services.
We use information you share with us for our internal business purposes. We do not sell your information. This notice tells you what information we collect, how we use it, and steps we take to protect and secure it.
Like most website operators, we collect non-personally-identifying information such as browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request.
We collect this to understand how our visitors use our service, and use it to make decisions about how to change and adapt the service.
From time to time, we may release non-personally-identifying information in aggregate form (for instance, by publishing trends in site usage) to explain our reasoning in making decisions. We will not release individual information, only aggregate information.
We automatically collect personally-identifying information, such as IP address, provided by your browser and your computer.
We collect this information for several purposes:
In order to register for the service, you must give us your email address. We will use your email address to send confirmation of certain actions, such as when you change your password. We will contact you when it's necessary to complete a transaction that you've initiated, or if there's a critical or administrative issue affecting your use of the service.
Once you have created your account, you can choose to subscribe to certain events and have notifications of those events sent to you via email. You will be able to change your mind and opt out of receiving notifications via email at any time.
We will never sell or provide your email address to any third party, with exceptions as set forth below.
As you use the service, you have the option to provide more personal information, through your profile, your posts, or replies you make. Providing this information is strictly optional.
We will show this information to others viewing the site, in accordance with the visibility options you've selected for the information, or publicly if no such options are available. We may also use this information to make decisions about how to change and adapt the service.
From time to time, we may release information in aggregate form (for instance, by publishing trends in site usage) to explain our reasoning in making decisions. We will not release individual information, only aggregate information.
We will not sell or provide this information to any third party, with exceptions as set forth below.
By choosing to make any personally-identifying information public, you recognize and accept that other people, not affiliated with us, may use this data to contact you. We can't be responsible for the use of any information you post publicly.
You may optionally post content to your account with varying visibility levels. To the best of our ability, and limited by the possibility of bugs or technical difficulties, we will honor the visibility levels you choose for your content and display that content only to those whom you have chosen to see it.
The Clacks is a Mastodon server, which is part of a federated social network. As part of the federated social network, account contents associated with some visibility levels are automatically transmitted by The Clacks to third-party servers, and some account contents directed to accounts on third-party servers may also be transmitted to third-party servers, in accordance with participation in the federated social network. The Clacks does not control the privacy policies of third-party servers, and cannot guarantee that such policies are consistent with the policies of The Clacks.
While maintaining the site, Clacks staff may need to view the contents of your account, including information for which you have chosen a restrictive visibility level. Circumstances in which this is necessary include, but are not limited to: troubleshooting and diagnosing technical problems, investigating possible Terms of Service violations, and legal compliance issues.
Clacks staff only use the ability to override your chosen visibility levels during the course of these investigations. At no time is such content disclosed to any third party, except when required by law.
We disclose personally-identifying information only to those of our employees and contractors who (i) need to know that information in order to operate the service and (ii) have agreed not to disclose it to others. Some of these employees and contractors may be located outside your home country. By using this website, you consent to the transfer of your information to them.
If all of our assets were transferred or acquired, your information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party.
We may disclose potentially personally-identifying information when that release is required by law or by court order, or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the safety or rights of us, third parties, or the public at large.
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ('COPPA') requires that we inform parents on how we collect and disclose the personal information of children under the age of 13.
We do not permit anyone under the age of 18 to use our service. If your child under the age of 13 has mis-represented their age at account creation, please contact us at coppa@clacks.link. After confirming your identity, we will remove the account.
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor's computer, and that the visitor's browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. We use cookies to help us identify and track visitors, their usage of the website, and their website access preferences. We also use cookies to govern logging into your account.
Visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using the site, with the drawback that most or all of the site may not function without the aid of cookies.
No data transmisson over the Internet can ever be guaranteed to be 100% secure. You use this service at your own risk. However, we do take steps to ensure security on our systems.
Your account information is password-protected. We recommend that you choose a strong and secure password. We use industry-standard encryption to safeguard any transmission between your computer and ours. We also recommend that you enable two-factor authentication for your account.
If we learn of a system security breach, we will notify you electronically so you can take appropriate steps to protect yourself. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing. To receive free written notice, you should contact us at privacy@clacks.link.
You can change or delete any optional information that you've provided us at any time. If you change or delete any optional information you've provided, the change will take place immediately. Due to the federated nature of the platform, copies of the data may remain on remote servers for some time.
You can also choose to delete your account entirely. If you choose to delete your account entirely, all your personally-identifying information will be removed entirely from our service, with the exception of any records we must retain to document compliance with regulatory requirements.
As part of the day to day operation of The Clacks, we will make regular copies of the data contained in the databases for backup purposes. These backups can potentially contain deleted data for several weeks or months. These backups will also be governed by the rules for disclosure of personally-identifying information.
We reserve the right to contract with third-party vendors to provide site features we are unable to provide ourselves. We will only share personal information with third-party vendors to the extent that is necessary for such affiliates to provide these site features. We require our third-party vendors to provide the same level of privacy protection that we do, and they do not have the right to share or use personal information for any purpose other than for an authorized transaction. Some of our third-party vendors may be located outside of your home country. By using this website, you consent to the transfer of such information to them.
We may change our privacy policy from time to time. If these changes are minor, we will post them to this page. If the changes are major, we will post them to this page and notify users through the site announcements feature. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such changes.
If you have questions about this policy, you can contact us at privacy@clacks.link.
This privacy policy is based on one developed by Dreamwidth Studios (https://www.dreamwidth.org/legal/privacy) and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.