Privacy policy

(effective 2019-09-13)

Cyburbia is an independent, privately owned Web site. Just like you have the right to know who's visiting your house, we have the right to know who's visiting Cyburbia, and why they're here.

That being said, we respect your privacy. We'll keep all information that we collect strictly confidential, and not give it to others. We won't use that information in ways you didn't consent to.

Information we collect

We collect limited information about visits to Cyburbia. We use this information to measure the number of visitors to various pages, analyze usage patterns, find evidence of hacking or suspicious activity, and help make the site more useful. Information that Cyburbia automatically collects includes:

• Your IP address (forum software).
• Date and time of your visit (forum software).
• Pages that you visit (cookies and temporary logs).
• Date, time, and IP address of messages or posts you make (forum software).
• The address of the Web site you came from, if a link on it brought you to Cyburbia (temporary logs).

We don't use this information to associate search terms or patterns of site usage with individual users, except in cases of hacking, spamming, or other abusive or suspicious behavior. We also use Google Analytics to learn more about how people use Cyburbia.

If you want to know the personal data we hold about you, please contact us.

Cyburbia member email addresses and personal information

We don't share any personal information about Cyburbia members with third parties. Exceptions are if:

• We have your consent.
• We get a legitmate subpoena, court order, or request from a law enforcement agency.
• We think it's necessary to protect you or others from physical harm; or to take action regarding illegal activities or fraud.
• You create an account with the intent to hack, spam, or otherwise abuse this site.

Only moderators and administrators can see member email addresses. Email addresses won't be visible to other registered users, unregistered visitors, or search engines.

Annoucements via email

We send out very little email to other Cyburbia members; about 2 to 6 messages a year at the most. If you don't want any email from Cyburbia, period, you can change your email preferences in your user profile, or click the "unsubscribe" link in the message. With that, you give up the right to say "Why didn't anybody tell me?" if we have something really important to announce that might affect you.

Cookies

XenForo (Cyburbia Forums message board software) uses multi-session (persistent) cookies to store information on your computer, like your registration information, user preferences, and login status. Other Web sites can't read cookies from Cyburbia, and vice versa. You can delete cookies in your browser, but you may have to log in again when you return. More information about message board cookies is on this page.

Information third parties collect

Cyburbia has no advertising, and doesn't use cookies related to advertising.

Google Analytics uses cookies to measure user interactions on Cyburbia (and millions of other Web sites).

If you use an account on another Web site (Facebook, Google, Reddit, and so on) to access your Cyburbia account, information about your use of that service for logging in (and nothing else) is in your user profile. That other site may also get information about how you're using an account for their service to log into Cyburbia.

Do not track

This site doesn't take any action in response to a "do not track" signal or browser setting.

Changing user names

At your request, we'll make a minor change to your username that still keeps it recognizable (examples: correcting a typo, making a long username simpler) anytime.

At your request, we'll change yout username to something that leaves no trace of your original username (1) anytime if you have less than 25 posts; and (2) once every two years if you have 25 or more posts.

At your request, we'll change your username (1) to remove personally identifiable information, or (2) when if there's an emergency (example: someone is stalking or harassing you) anytime.

Because it will take hours, if not days, of tedious editing, we can't edit messages that reference an old username.

Account locking and removal

If you never made a post, we'll completely remove your account at your request.

To preserve board content and the context of threads, we won't delete your account or any posts you made. if you have one post or more. However, we'll "soft delete' your account at yout request. This involves removing all contact and personally identifying information from your profile, changing your username if it has personally identifying information, and making the account inactive by scrambling the password. You will not be able to login to your old account. A soft deletion is permanent.

Content download and removal

Cyburbia's message board software (XenForo) can't export all the messages posted by an individual user.

To preserve board content and the context of threads, we won't bulk delete any of your old posts. We may delete individual posts, on a case-by-case basis, at our discretion.

Children and privacy

Cyburbia is a "safe for work" site, and it's generally safe for kids. While Cyburbia is helpful for learning more about urban planning, it doesn't have any information specifically for children. There may be discussion about planning and zoning issues related to sexually oriented businesses or uses. An occasional post or thread may have profanity, or mildly risqué or irreverent humor. There's (mostly non-sexual) discussion about relationships and dating in some off-topic threads.

We don't intend to solicit or collect any information from children 13 years old or younger. If you believe we've received information from someone received information from someone who's 13 or younger, please contact us at cyburbia (at) cyburbia (dot) org.

Jurisdiction

Cyburbia is based in (upstate) New York, in the United States of America. Cyburbia's Web server is in Michigan. Rust Belt proud!

Updates

We may update this privacy policy at any time.

Questions

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please post them in the Cyburbia Issues and Help subforum, or send an email to cyburbia [at] cyburbia [dot] org.