Copyright © 2000 - 2013 Boards.ie Limited (Hosted by Digiweb Hosting)
boards.ie is a platform to create and participate in discussions, using text, links, profiles, audio, pictures, videos and other media (hereinafter referred to as “Material") appropriately
This privacy statement sets out how Boards.ie Limited collects, uses and protects any information you give us when you use boards.ie.
We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should you give us any information by which you can be identified when using boards.ie then you can be assured that we will use it only in accordance with this privacy statement.
We may change, modify, add or delete portions of this policy from time to time. When we do so we will notify you of such changes by a site-wide announcement. This will be visible on all forum pages for one week from the date of the changes. After that, you can continue to find it in the Announcements forum. Your continued use of boards.ie will constitute your binding acceptance of the change.
boards.ie is not directed at children younger than 13 years of age and is offered only to users who are 13 or older. Children under 13 may not register with boards.ie. We do not knowingly collect information from or about children under the age of 13. If we discover that we have collected personal information from a child under the age of 13 we will delete that information as soon as possible. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at hello@boards.ie.
You are permitted to register as a user of boards.ie and post comments if you are aged 18 or over. If you are aged 13 years or over but under the age of 18 you must obtain the consent of a parent or legal guardian before registering as a user of boards.ie.
If you are aged 13 or over but under the age of 18 you must obtain the consent of a parent or legal guardian each time you post Material on boards.ie.
Any person who registers as a user of boards.ie represents that either they are 18 years of age or older or that they are 13 years or over and have obtained the consent of a parent or legal guardian. Boards.ie Limited cannot and is not required to verify the age of users of the site. Boards.ie Limited hereby notifies you that by posting any material on the website or sending any information about yourself you hereby undertake that you are either over the age of 18 or that you are 13 years or over and have obtained the consent of a parent or legal guardian to do so.
boards.ie collects the following information:
Technical details in connection with visits to this website are logged by us and our internet service provider for our statistical purposes. The technical details logged include:
This technical information will be used only by Boards.ie Limited and only for statistical purposes, other administrative purposes, and for the purposes outlined in our Cookie Policy.
In common with many sites we use outside providers for web-site statistics. Please note that to provide statistics these outside providers use visitors' IP addresses but do not have access to any boards.ie usernames or email address and therefore cannot match a user to an IP address for the purpose of identification. This data may be stored by these providers outside of the EU for processing. The providers we use are Google Analytics and Big-Boards.com. You can find further information on these at the following locations:
Please note that any information that you provide will only be held for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was provided.
Like many websites, Boards.ie Limited use "cookies" to enable us to personalise your visits to this website, simplify the signing-in procedure, keep track of your preferences and to track the usage of this website. Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored in the hard drive of your computer by your browser.
Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but, if you wish, you can change the settings on your browser to reject all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is sent or to accept all cookies. Your browser's help screen or manual will tell you how to do this.
If cookies are disabled then functionality on boards.ie will be slightly reduced but other sites may be affected to a greater extent.
Like all websites, our servers automatically record 'log files' containing information about the volume and characteristics of our website traffic e.g. IP address, numbers of pages viewed, length of time spent on site. We use log files to build pictures of how our site is used that help us to monitor and improve the service.
If you are primarily concerned about third party cookies generated by advertisers, you can turn these off by going to http://www.youronlinechoices.com/ie/
Here is a list of all the cookies that we set and how we use them:
| Cookie Name | Typical Value | Purpose | Expires |
| bbcascade_options | Numerical bitfield | Stores options for the menu for the beta theme | On user logout or 1 year |
| bbboards_logged_in | Boolean - 1 or 0 | Used to store whether the current user is logged in or not | 2 years |
| bbcpsession | Randomly generated alphanumeric string | Used to identify a control panel session | On browser exit |
| bbforum_view | Hexademical string-forumID1-timestamp1-...-forumIDN-timestampN | Timestamps of when a user last visited a forum | On user logout or 1 year |
| bblastactivity | Unix timestamp | Remembers the time the user last performed an action on the site | On user logout or 1 year |
| bblastvisit | Unix timestamp | Remembers the time the user last visited the site | On user logout or 1 year |
| bbnp_notices_display | ID1,ID2,ID3,...IDN | Remembers what site notices have been dismissed by the user | On browser exit |
| bbpassword | MD5 hash of a user's salted password | Set only if 'Remember me' is checked when logging in. Enables auto-login on subsequent visits | On user logout or 2 weeks |
| bbsessionhash | Randomly generated hexadecimal string | Used to identify user session | On user logout or 2 weeks |
| bbthread_lastview | Hexademical string-threadID1-timestamp1-...-threadIDN-timestampN | Timestamps of when a user last visited a thread | On user logout or browser exit |
| bbuserid | Account ID for the user | Set only if 'Remember me' is checked when logging in. Enables auto-login on subsequent visits | On user logout or 2 weeks |
| boards_is_member | Boolean - 1 or 0 | Used to store whether the current user is a boards member (logged in or out) | 2 years |
| boards_talkto_survey | Forum IDs | Remembers forum IDs for which the user has participated in the talk-to survey | On browser exit |
| cookie_dpc_notice | Boolean - 1 or 0 | Used to record if the user has seen the cookie notice | 3 years |
| goauth_apps | [Numeric_string]_[1-3] | Records permissions[1-3] for an app identified by [Numeric_string] that uses Boards Auth (e.g. Adverts.ie) | 1 day |
| iePinning_*boards.ie | "hidden" | Remembers if the user has dismissed the IE9 pinning popup on the homepage | 30 days |
| notification_count | "hidden" | Stores the number of unread notifications a user has | 1 day |
| search_sort | string | Remembers the search results sorting preference for a user | 2 years |
| showforums | "1" | If set then when a user visits the touch site homepage it will default to show followed forums not latest posts | On manual homepage tab change or 1 year |
| touch | "off" | Disables the touch site and forces the use of the full site | 1 year |
| vbulletin_collapse | Numeric strings | Remembers which collapsible items the user has hidden/displayed | On user logout or 1 year |
| vbulletin_inlinepost | Post IDs | Remembers post IDs a moderator selected for quick, inline moderation | 1 hour |
| vbulletin_inlinethread | Thread IDs | Remembers thread IDs a moderator selected for quick, inline moderation | 1 hour |
In addition to the above cookies set by Boards.ie Limited, cookies may also be set by a number of our site partners.
Audience measurement cookies are used to collect information about how our site is used. This information helps us understand our audience and improve the site on an aggregate basis. This information is not used to track individual users. It includes number of visitors to the site, where visitors are visiting from, how many pages they look at and how long they stay on the site.
We also use third party advertisements to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP, the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing location-based advertisements) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).
We also may use DART cookies for ad serving through Google's DoubleClick, which places a cookie on your computer when you are browsing the web and visit a site using DoubleClick advertising (including some Google AdSense advertisements). This cookie is used to serve ads specific to you and your interests ("interest based targeting"). The ads served will be targeted based on your previous browsing history (For example, if you have been viewing sites about visiting Las Vegas, you may see Las Vegas hotel advertisements when viewing a non-related site, such as on a site about hockey). DART uses "non personally identifiable information". It does NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, social security numbers, bank account numbers or credit card numbers. You can opt-out of this ad serving on all sites using this advertising by visiting http://www.doubleclick.com/privacy/dart_adserving.aspx
The following is a list of cookies currently set by site partners:
| Adtech.de (Ad serving) | |||
| CfP | "1" | This is a unique ID for the browser, so we know if an ad has already been seen | On browser exit |
| JEB2 | Alphanumeric string | This is a unique ID for the browser, so we know if an ad has already been placed | 2 years |
| Comscore (Audience Measurement) | |||
| UID | Hexadecimal-ip-numerical | User id | 1 year, 354 days |
| UIDR | Numerical (same as end of UID) | Real user id | 1 year, 354 days |
| Delivery.MyFlashpointMedia.com (Ad serving) | |||
| OAID | Alphanumeric string | Online advertising user tracking | 1 year |
| DoubleClick.net (Ad serving) | |||
| id | Hexadecimal||t=numerical|et=numerical|cs=hexadecimal | User id | 2 years |
| _drt_ | "NO DATA" | DART data | 1 day |
| GetClicky (Audience Measurement) | |||
| _jsuid | Randomly generated number | Usage stats | 20 years |
| Google Analytics (Audience Measurement) | |||
| __utma | Randomly generated number | Usage stats | 2 years |
| __utmb | Randomly generated number | Usage stats | 30 minutes |
| __utmc | Randomly generated number | Usage stats | On browser exit |
| __utmv | Same value as __utmc + Information on the logged in status of the user | Usage stats | 2 years |
| __utmz | Randomly generated number | Usage stats | 6 months |
From time to time we may ask an external provider to provide services, for example we may ask an external company to carry out a survey. If any personal information is required you will be advised beforehand and you will be afforded an opportunity to opt out.
Boards.ie Limited requires this information for the operation of boards.ie, to understand your needs and provide you with a better service. In particular, we may use or disclose your information for the following reasons:
We will not otherwise disclose, sell or distribute your information to any third party without your permission. Boards.ie Limited acts in accordance with the Data Protection Commissioner’s Guidelines in respect of personal data.
Boards.ie Limited may aggregate data in an anonymous manner for disclosure to advertisers or business associates for promotion and marketing purposes. By way of example, we may disclose to an advertiser the number of unique visitors to boards.ie or the percentage age groups of our members. In such an event we undertake to ensure that no such data could be used to personally identify you.
Our first line of defence against nuisance posts is to delete them and to ban the user. Nuisance posts include potentially defamatory material, surreptitious advertising, any other posts which breach the posting guidelines and/or our Terms of Use and any form of messages, posts or emails deemed offensive by the administrators or moderators.
Where a nuisance poster persists, we reserve the right to use email addresses and IP addresses to identify the user and halt the nuisance.
For example, on a very few occasions, we have reported to organisations that it appeared that one of their employees or other users of their computer equipment was repeatedly making nuisance posts on boards.ie and asked them to take steps to stop it. Similarly, where a user recommends the products or services of their employer, they should state their conflict of interest. Where they do not do so, we reserve the right to point out that the user appears to have a conflict of interest.
Boards.ie Limited reserves the right to transfer information including personal data to a third party in the event of its sale, merger, liquidation, receivership or transfer of all or substantially all of its assets provided that the third party agrees to adhere to the terms of this Privacy Statement and provided that the third party only uses your Personal Data for the purpose that you have provided it to us. You will be notified in the event of any such transfer and you will be afforded an opportunity to opt out.
Any personal information which you volunteer in your public profile or post on the forums will be available worldwide to anyone with access to the website.
Please do not post any information you are not happy to leave up indefinitely. We recommend you do not post your name, address, telephone number email address or anything else that may lead someone to identify you if this is something you are uncomfortable with. Please note that we do not delete posts or accounts on request, except in special circumstances.
Please note that certain information (such as photographs) which you may choose to provide might reveal your gender, ethnic origin, nationality, religion and/or sexual orientation.
You are recommended to choose a username which does not reflect your real name. Occasionally users may speculate about the identity of anonymous or pseudonymous users. Such speculation is against our Terms of Use and we delete all such posts which are brought to our attention. However please be aware that we cannot guarantee that other users will not be able to determine your identity. There should be no expectation of complete anonymity anywhere on the internet.
Please note that your user status will appear in connection with your username. For example, should you receive a warning then a yellow card will appear on the post. Similarly, should you receive an infraction relating to your use of boards.ie, a red card will appear. Should you be banned from using boards.ie, the word 'Banned' will appear under your username.
You may request details of personal information under Data Protection legislation which we hold about you or rectify any personal information which is incorrect or incomplete.
If you would like a copy of the information held on you please email us at hello@boards.ie. If you are a registered user please supply details of your username and email address which you supplied when registering. Please note that to protect your privacy we may require further information to verify your identity. There is an administration fee of €5 for such requests which can be paid by cheque or PayPal.
If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please email us as soon as possible at hello@boards.ie. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.
If someone else has posted material about you on boards.ie without your permission and you would like to request that it be removed please read our guidelines at http://www.boards.ie/legal/ and then contact us at hello@boards.ie.
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.
The piece of software you use to read web pages. Examples are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera.
The identifying details for your computer (or your internet company's computer), expressed in 'internet protocol' code (for example 192.168.72.34). Every computer connected to the web has a unique IP address, although the address may not be the same every time a connection is made.