Privacy - Getting Free

We’re hosting our own discussion system on Getting Free instead of using existing social networks or hosted commenting services because we think privacy is a fundamental human right.

That said, it’s impossible to host a discussion without making some decisions about how we collect and share your information.

What information do we collect?

We collect information from you when you sign up, and when you participate in discussions by reading, writing, and interacting with what you and other people have written here.

You may visit our site without registering. If you sign up, you will be asked to enter your name and email address. Your email address will be verified by an email containing a unique link. When you visit that link, it will confirm that you have access to that email address.

When you write posts or replies, we record the IP address of the computer your writing originated from. We retain server logs which include the IP address of every request to our server.

What do we use your information for?

To personalize your experience of Getting Free.
To improve Getting Free.
To send emails, including notifications that you ask for about changes to a particular topic or in response to a mention of your user name.

How do we protect your information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you enter, submit, or access your personal information.

What is your data retention policy?

We will make a good faith effort to:

Retain server logs containing the IP address of all requests to this server no more than 90 days.
Retain the IP addresses associated with registered users and their posts no more than 5 years.

Do we use cookies?

Yes. Cookies are small files that sites download to your computer’s hard drive through your browser. These cookies allow the site to recognize your browser and associate it with your registered account.

We use cookies to understand and save your preferences for future visits and compile aggregate data about site traffic. We may contract with third-party service providers to help us better understand this traffic. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us improve Getting Free.

Do we disclose any information to outside parties?

We will not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. The only exception to this is trusted third parties who assist us in operating our site, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety.

Third party links

We may include third party products or services on our site. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. We always welcome feedback about these sites.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

Our site, products and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older. If this server is in the USA, and you are under the age of 13, per the requirements of COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), do not use this site.