Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

The SF Bay Area IMC intends to give you the user as much control as possible over your personal information. We will let each user know how we will use the personal information derived from each user's access to and use of the web site services.

NOTICE

The SF Bay Area IMC web server does not normally track the domains or IP addresses from which people visit and/or post to the SF Bay Area Indymedia web site. Usage of other services, however, may be logged.

Due to repeated denial-of-service (DOS)/spam attacks conducted against the SF Bay Area Indymedia website, SF Bay Area IMC may at times log all webserver activity, including client IP addresses. Any such logs will be stored on a RAM disk and discarded within 24 to 48 hours. SF Bay Area IMC reserves the right to send reports of DOS/spam activity to the spammer's internet service provider, and to post them publicly on its website. Only log entries pertaining directly to clear cases of website abuse will be so disseminated and/or preserved.

The SF Bay Area IMC web site contains links to other websites, whether controlled by Indymedia affiliates or unrelated third parties. The SF Bay Area IMC is not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of any linked website.

Currently, the SF Bay Area IMC uses personal information as a basis for identifying the authors of published articles, and in order to allow individual user login to certain site functions, including ratings and admin. Names (and additional information that a user may choose to post) are publicly available on the SF Bay Area IMC site.

All e-mail sent to the SF Bay Area IMC is stored and accessible to members of Indybay's private email list, including the sender's reported name and e-mail address.

CHOICE

Cookies

The SF Bay Area IMC web site employs "cookies" as part of certain web site functions, including ratings and admin. A "cookie" is an element of data which a Service or site, when visited by a user, sends to that user's browser which, in turn, may store that element on the user's hard drive or memory. Cookies are sent only to users attempting to login to a particular function of the site; any cookies sent by the SF Bay Area Indymedia website will be marked so that they will only be accessible to our web site. At their option and at their sole responsibility, any user may block or delete our cookies from their hard drive. However, by disabling cookies, the login features and functionality may no longer work properly, or at all.

Subscription-based News Emails

Users may subscribe to receive site notifications, newsletters or other information via email. Users may remove themselves from such services at their discretion. Any email sent to an SF Bay Area IMC list will include directions for how a user may remove themself from the list, or a URL where the user may find such directions.

Other Notification

In order to arrange for the production of web content, print publications, and audio and video features, the SF Bay Area IMC may use personal information to contact users on an individual basis.

Name, E-mail, Phone Number, Address Display

Users' personal information may be publicly available through a user's published articles. Users have the option to opt out of publicly displaying their real names by typing in a pseudonym; users may choose to not disclose address or telephone contact information at all. Requests to remove personal identifying information from published articles must be e-mailed to indybay@lists.riseup.net.

General

In cases where users voluntarily and publicly disclose personal information in conjunction with content published subject to the SF Bay Area IMC content usage policy, such personal information may or may not be disclosed as part of a non-commercial assemblage of Indymedia content, whether in print, electronic, audio or video. The producers of any such compilation will make every effort to contact the original author to determine whether credit/disclosure is desired.

At no time, unless a user specifically authorizes such disclosure, will the SF Bay Area IMC disclose individual user personal information that is not publicly available to unrelated third parties.

The SF Bay Area IMC e-mail lists, hosted at lists.riseup.net, are configured such that all text messages sent to the list, along with names and e-mail addresses, are disclosed in the message archive. In addition, a complete list of subscribers may be available to third parties at the lists web site, although users can opt to conceal themselves from the subscriber list. Users concerned with privacy issues are encouraged to sign up for an anonymous e-mail service.

ACCESS

When technically feasible, users will be permitted to update their personal information directly through SF Bay Area IMC web site services. While such updating service is not technically feasible, the SF Bay Area IMC will make reasonable efforts to assist users in updating their personal information. Please e-mail indybay@lists.riseup.net for assistance.

SECURITY

To secure site integrity, the SF Bay Area IMC employs measures including but not limited to security audits, use of encryption tools and software, and other reasonable security measures and procedures. Internal access to web server access logs and any nonpublic user information is restricted to site administrators and individuals on a need-to-know basis.

ENFORCEMENT

In the event that the SF Bay Area IMC becomes aware that site security is compromised or nonpublic user information has been disclosed to unrelated third parties as a result of external activity, including but not limited to law enforcement activities or external security attacks, the SF Bay Area IMC shall take reasonable measures which it deems appropriate, including internal investigation and, if required, cooperation with our web hosts.

If the SF Bay Area IMC becomes aware that a user's personal information provided to the SF Bay Area IMC has been disclosed in a manner not permitted by this Privacy Policy, the SF Bay Area IMC shall make reasonable efforts to notify the affected user, as soon as reasonably possible, of what information has been disclosed, to the extent that the SF Bay Area IMC knows this information.

SECURE HTTP

To better protect readers' and contributors' privacy, Indybay is only available via HTTP over TLS encryption (HTTPS). Indybay has implemented HTTP strict transport security (HSTS) preload, OCSP stapling and TLS forward secrecy.

UPDATES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY

To update the privacy policy, we will post the changed version and its effective date at https://www.indybay.org/.