Boards.ie Privacy Statement

Revised: 23/12/2009

Introduction

This privacy statement sets out how Boards.ie Ltd. and Adverts Marketplace Ltd. collect, use and protect any information you give us when you use Boards.ie, Adverts.ie, Social.ie and Journals.ie (collectively “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 this policy from time to time. If we do 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.

Children under the age of 13

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 below 13 may not register with Boards.ie. We do not knowingly collect information from or about children below the age of 13. If we discover that we have collected personal information from a child below 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.

Persons aged 13 to 17

We recommend that young people aged 13 years of age or older ask their parents or legal guardians for permission before using Boards.ie or sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet.

What we collect

We collect the following information:

• Information which you supply on registration or as part of your profile;
• Information which you provide in relation to any payment;
• Information which you post on Boards.ie;
• Information which you otherwise provide to us (for example by email or private message); and
• Information relating to your use of Boards.ie generally. This includes, for example, private messages, login and logout times, polls you’ve voted on, threads to which you have subscribed and posts you’ve thanked.

Technical details in connection with visits to this website are logged by our internet service provider for our statistical purposes. The technical details logged include:

• The IP address of a visitor and the top-level domain name used (for example .ie, .com, .org, .net);
• The previous website address from which a visitor reached us, including any search terms used;
• “Clickstream” data which shows the traffic of visitors around Boards.ie (for example pages accessed and documents downloaded); and
• the type of web browser used by a visitor.

This technical information will be used only by Boards.ie and only for statistical and other administrative purposes.

In common with many sites we use outside providers for web-site statistics. Please note that to provide statistics these use visitors’ IP addresses but do not have access to any Boards.ie usernames or email address. The providers we use are Google Analytics and IrelandMetrix. You can find further information on these at the following locations: Google Analytics - http://www.google.com/analytics/; IrelandMetrix - http://www.irelandmetrix.com/. We also use http://www.big-boards.com - http://www.big-boards.com/about/#faq

Cookies

By default, Boards.ie uses cookies to facilitate functionality for members. You can use Boards.ie with minimal loss of functionality if cookies are disabled from the web browser.

External providers

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.

What we do with the information we collect

We require 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 may use this information for our administration, record keeping and in connection with any payment;
• We may transfer this information from Boards.ie Ltd. to Adverts Marketplace Ltd. or vice versa where necessary for your use of the site;
• We may use this information for technical processing and to address technical problems or service complaints;
• We may disclose this information where required by law to do so;
• We may disclose this information to law enforcement, government officials or courts where we believe that disclosure is necessary and proportionate; and
• We may disclose this information where we believe that disclosure is necessary and proportionate for the protection of the legitimate interests of ourselves or of a third party.

We will not otherwise disclose, sell or distribute your information to any third party without your permission.

Anonymous and aggregated data

We 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.

Nuisance posts

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 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.

Information you post

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 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.

Anonymous / pseudonymous users

You are free (if you wish) 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.

User status

Please note that your user status will appear in connection with your username. For example, should you receive an infraction then a yellow should you be banned from using Boards.ie, the word “Banned” will appear under your username. Similarly, should you receive a warning relating to your use of Boards.ie, a yellow card will appear.

Controlling your personal information

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you or rectify any personal information which is incorrect or incomplete under the Data Protection Acts 1988-2003.

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.

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.php and then contact us at hello@boards.ie.

Security

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.

Glossary of technical terms used

Web browser

The piece of software you use to read web pages. Examples are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera.

IP address

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.

Cookies

Small pieces of information, stored in simple text files, placed on your computer by a web site.