Privacy Questions and Answers

This notice describes how The Young Protectors Community, or TYPC for short, collects and uses data about you.

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What is TYPC?

TYPC is a Discourse forum hosted by Alex Woolfson that he created so his readers could discuss his comics as well as stories with LGBT heroes in general.

Alex Woolfson sets only his own privacy practices, not the privacy practices of TYPC readers or others who visit and/or post on this site.

How does TYPC collect data about me?

TYPC collects data about you:

  • when you browse this forum

  • when you create and use an account on this forum

  • when you post, send private messages, and otherwise participate in this forum

TYPC collects data when you use this forum, whether you use the forums using a web browser on your own computer/mobile device, or use the Discourse app for mobile devices.

TYPC does not buy or otherwise receive data about you from data brokers.

What data does TYPC collect about me, and why?

TYPC collects data about visits to this forum.

When you visit this forum, whether you have an account or not, the forum uses cookies, server logs, and other methods to collect data about what pages you visit and when.

TYPC uses data about how you use the website to:

  • optimize the forum, so that it’s quick and easy to use

  • diagnose and debug technical errors

  • defend the forum from abuse and technical attacks

  • compile statistics on forum and topic popularity

  • compile statistics on the kinds of software and computers visitors use

TYPC usually stores data about how you use the forum in identifiable form for just a few weeks. In special circumstances, like extended investigations about technical attacks, TYPC may preserve log data longer, for analysis. TYPC will store aggregate statistics about use of the forum for as long as the forum is hosted, but those statistics don’t include data identifiable to you personally.

TYPC collects account data.

Many features of this forum require a forum account. For example, this forum requires an account to post and reply to topics.

To sign up for a forum account, whether directly, or through a third-party sign-in (such as Patreon), Discourse requires your name, a user name, and an e-mail address.

TYPC uses your account data to identify you on the forum, and to create pages specific to you, like your profile page. TYPC makes your account data available to everyone who can access the forum.

TYPC uses your e-mail address to:

  • notify you about posts and other activity on the forum

  • reset your password and help keep your account secure

  • contact you in special circumstances related to your account

  • contact you about legal requests, like DMCA takedown requests

You may provide additional data for your account, like a short biography, your location, or your birthday, on the profile settings page for your account. TYPC makes that data available to others who can access the forum. You don’t have to provide this additional information, and you can erase it at any time.

TYPC stores your account data as long as your account remains open.

TYPC collects data about posts and other activity on the forum.

TYPC collects the content of your posts, plus data about bookmarks, likes, and links you follow in order to share that data with others, through the forum. If access restrictions apply to a specific post, TYPC makes your activity available only to users permitted to see it.

TYPC also collects data about private messages that you send through the forum. TYPC makes private messages available to senders and their recipients, and also to forum administrators.

TYPC stores your posts and other activity as long as your account remains open.

How can I make choices about data collection?

You can make choices about how data about is used on the settings page for your account.

This forum uses access restrictions that vary by category, so you can choose who will see your post by choosing the appropriate category.

TYPC does not respond to the Do Not Track HTTP header.

Where does TYPC store data about me?

Aside from encrypted backups stored with Amazon Web Services as well as locally in San Francisco, this forum stores all data in Digital Ocean’s data center in New York City, New York, USA.

Does TYPC comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation?

TYPC respects privacy rights under Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Information that GDPR requires TYPC to give can be found throughout this privacy notice. So can information about specific rights, like access, rectification, erasure, data portability, and objection to automated decision-making.

Where can I access data about me?

You can see your account data at any time by visiting your account page on the forum. Your account page also lists your posts and other activity on the forum.

Your account activity page also includes a link to download all of your activity in standard comma-separated values format.

How can I change or erase data about me?

You can change your account data at any time by visiting the profile settings page for your account. If you wish to close your account, please contact Alex Woolfson at https://amwcomics.com/contact/ with that request. Closing your account starts a process of anonymizing TYPC’s records of data you provided for your account.

You can also edit your posts. When you edit posts, TYPC will keep all versions of your posts. Forum administrators can view old versions of posts, and optionally make them visible to other forum visitors.

Does TYPC make automated decisions based on data about me?

TYPC classifies posts as spam automatically.

TYPC uses data about your posts and other activity to make automated decisions about whether your posts to this forum are spam. When Akismet decides that a post is likely spam, the forum refuses to accept the post.

If you think a post has been wrongly blocked or removed, contact one of our staff: https://community.amwcomics.com/about. They can override the decision that a post was spam.

TYPC uses data about posts and activity to set trust levels automatically.

The forum may use data about your posts and activity to award you badges and calculate a trust level for your account. Your trust level may affect how you can participate in the forum, such as whether you can upload images, as well as give you access to moderation and management powers in the forum. Your trust level therefore reflects forum administrators’ confidence in you, and their willingness to delegate community management functions, like moderation.

If you think your trust level has been set incorrectly, contact Alex Woolfson at https://amwcomics.com/contact/. He can manually adjust the trust level of your account.

Does TYPC share data about me with others?

TYPC shares account data with others as mentioned in the section about account data.

TYPC shares data about your posts and other forum activity with others as mentioned in the section about posts and other activity.

TYPC does not sell or give information about you to other companies or services. However, TYPC does use services from other companies on this forum. The companies behind those services may collect data about you on their own, for their own purposes. Some of these services may be used to collect information about your online activities across different websites. All of these services are based in the United States.

Service Privacy Notice Description
Akismet https://automattic.com/privacy/ reduces spam posts
Google Analytics https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/ Compiles visitor statistics. You can opt out of Google Analytics using a browser extension.
Amazon Web Services https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/ Provides cloud servers and services, in service regions across the world, to back up this forum.
Digital Ocean https://www.digitalocean.com/legal/privacy/ Hosts this forum and stores backups.
MaxCDN https://www.maxcdn.com/legal/#pp Provides a content delivery network.
Apple Push Notification Service https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/ Sends push notifications to users of the Discourse iOS app.
Google Cloud Messaging https://policies.google.com/privacy Sends push notifications to users of the Discourse Android app.

Other individuals and companies may also reuse data about you that TYPC publishes, such as your posts to public forums.

How can I contact TYPC about privacy?

You can send questions and concerns to:

Alex Woolfson at https://amwcomics.com/contact/

How can I find out about changes?

This version of TYPC’s privacy questions and answers took effect January 22, 2019.

TYPC will post the next version at https://community.amwcomics.com/t/privacy-policy/6. TYPC may change how it announces changes in future versions.

In the meantime, TYPC may update its contact information without announcing a change. Please refer to https://community.amwcomics.com/t/privacy-policy/6 for the latest contact information at any time.