last revised 4/04/2012
PRIVACY AND TERMS OF USE
Our software collects what could reasonably be considered personally identifiable information. We may look at it for statistical purposes, but usually we don’t. We don’t ordinarily try to figure out who our users are, beyond the names you use in comments.
Note the use of the word “ordinarily.” We offer no promise that we won’t use it. It’s just a statement that right now we don’t see any need to do it on a regular basis.
In any event, we don’t sell, voluntarily exchange or intentionally give away your information to others. Ever.
If you send us something with your name or e-mail address, we don’t sell or give it to any third parties, either. But – if you put it in a post we may leave it there. If it’s an offensive or obviously fake name or address we may delete it, or not, depending upon whether we figure it out in time or whether we’re feeling like it. It’s your risk. If you don’t want us to use it for something, don’t send it to us. That includes things we might not have figured out yet and things you might not have figured out yet.
We promise not to send unsolicited commercial e-mail or give any e-mail addresses to people who do that sort of thing. We may not even respond personally to your questions. Generally if you send a question we answer it on the site. That may mean your e-mail containing the question may get used on the site.
If you send us something with your name on it, some lawyers have tried to claim that your name or e-mail address is “personally identifiable data.” If you sent us an e-mail with your name or e-mail address, hey, no mystery, we know what you’ve sent us. We also know what your e-mail to us says, including each word that you used.
This doesn’t come as any mystery to you, we know – you sent us the message, right?
If you send it to us, you are granting us permission to use it. Any way we want. Even if you don’t like it. Even if the e-mail or message contains something saying DO NOT USE THIS, or something equally clear to us, although we’ll try to honor your request, if we make a mistake on that, your sending it to us is a waiver of any remedy for our mistake – it’s permission to use it, no matter what you say. So you don’t get to sue us, or get to do anything other than complain to us if we post it anyway. This is our way of saying we’ll do our best, but you don’t get a guarantee.
If you don’t want us to use it, don’t send it to us.
IP addresses: The only things we look at from time to time are things like numbers of hits to various pages, the times at which those hits occur, and aggregate data that shows us what internet service providers those hits come from. For example we may notice that we get a large number of hits from people using rr.com (that’s Roadrunner, we think) – but we can’t tell where on the Roadrunner system they come from.
We can see the IP address from which a comment is posted, though we can’t identify who the IP address belongs to. Therefore, we do not regard your IP address as “personally identifiable data.” We use IP addresses from time as one way to try to prevent individuals from posting under multiple names. We also use IP addresses to prevent message spam.
But we want to keep those pesky little twerps in legal happy, and off our backs. So, here you go. If you have any questions about our policy, send us a message with “DO NOT PUBLISH THIS” on it, or just use our comment function. We’ll try to answer your questions on the site, if nowhere else.
ABOUT POSTS AND COMMENTS
We strive for accuracy in our posts. We disclaim responsibility for comments made by others. We do not fact check them, we do not screen them for content. Sometimes we comment on them ourselves if they catch our eye, and our rudimentary filters can catch most obscenities and most spam, which we try to filter out. But we are not professional publishers or editors, and have neither the capability nor the time to deal with the vast numbers of comments that are posted each day. Most of them go through reasonably automatically.
Unlike other sites, comments don’t get posted because we agree with them or withheld because we don’t. Ever.
Things we don’t post in comments: Spam. Obscenity. Things that we think might be libelous or which accuse someone of a crime. We don’t care what side of an issue you’re on, but we appreciate civility.
If a comment contains nothing but personal attacks it’s not going up. If you have a comment related to an issue, it will go through. If it’s in between, depending on the mood of whoever is doing the reviewing, it may go up with deletions or get left behind – or it may be deleted entirely.
At the end of the day, the decision of whoever moderates your comment is final. It may seem arbitrary, and for that, we apologize. We try to be fair, but we’re not perfect.
If you don’t like the policy here, post somewhere else.
COOKIES
We don’t know if the site drops cookies. It may. If it does, we don’t look at them or the data in them. The only reason we reserve the right to drop cookies is if the software needs them in order to enhance its ability to make the site work. If you use a cookie blocker, that’s fine with us, but we can’t guarantee that the site will work without cookies. The fact is we don’t know.
COPYRIGHTS
If you write it and send it to us or post it here, you are granting us a license to use it for as long as we want to, even if you have a copyright on it. You’re also giving us permission by way of a non exclusive license to alter it, edit it, change it, transmit it, distribute it, sublicense it or use it any way we want to anywhere and in any medium we want to.
If you didn’t write it but took it from somewhere else, you promise not to post it here unless you have permission from whoever it is that owns the copyright. If someone posted something you have the copyright to and you object to that please let us know and we’ll get on it right away. Use the e-mail address editor at sagaftrawatch.net.
If you want to use stuff we wrote or copy it you may under the following rules: you may link to it. You may quote up to two sentences of it without a link, but if you do, you have to credit us. No implied right to publish is granted by your use of this site.
GENERAL POLICY AND COPPA
We may change these policies from time to time. We also reserve the right to take steps to prevent misuse of the system, and we want you to understand that our definition of misuse may not be the same as yours. Our defnition controls. That means that if we believe you are misusing the system, we may take steps we deem appropriate to prevent the misuse. That may include publishing that information we have which suggests that you’re engaged in misuse, including your IP address and any e-mail address or other information we may have about you.
If the site gets transferred, sold or given to some other entity or person or persons, they may get the information on the site. If you don’t want your information to get transferred to that third party, two choices: 1) don’t send it to us or give it to us. 2) If you can figure out what your information is or guide us to it we’ll try to remove it before we transfer the site — assuming that some day we transfer the site.
This site is not intended for those under 13 years old. If you’re under 13, go away.
CHOICE OF FORUM
If you use this site you agree to bring any lawsuit against us in the courts of Nova Scotia.