Tildes Privacy Policy
Scope
Tildes ("the site") is operated by Spectria ("we", "us"), a Canadian not-for-profit corporation. Legal issues will be governed by the laws of Canada and the province of Alberta.
By using Tildes, you accept and agree to the terms of this policy.
Security
Tildes runs on dedicated servers located in Canada and rented exclusively to Spectria.
Except when making a donation, third-party assets or scripts are never included on Tildes. Outside of those specific donation pages, using the site involves communicating exclusively with our servers.
All communications with Tildes are encrypted via the HTTPS protocol.
What information we collect
Functionality-related
Tildes collects information that you submit as part of using the site, in order to provide the relevant functionality. This information is generally stored indefinitely, and includes:
- If you register an account, your username and a hashed representation of your password, as well as (if applicable) information about which user invited you.
- Which groups you subscribe to.
- The contents of any topics or comments ("posts") that you submit.
- If you edit a post, the previous content is replaced and not retained.
- If you delete a post, it is marked for deletion and hidden from the site, but the contents are not deleted immediately. The content of deleted posts is removed from our databases 30 days after deletion.
- Your votes and/or tags on posts.
- The contents of messages that you send to other users; and for any message conversations you are a part of, an indicator of whether you have viewed the conversation after the most recent message was sent.
When we store data for functionality-related reasons, we generally also store the date and time that the action took place.
Logging
We automatically log all requests and the associated information (your IP address, user-agent, etc.) that your browser or device sends while using the site. This information may be associated with your user account, if you are logged in at the time.
All personal information logged this way is deleted in 30 days unless:
- We are required to retain it for longer due to a legal obligation such as in response to a valid copyright claim (as required by Canada's Copyright Act ยง 41.26(1)(b)).
- We believe it is necessary to prevent sophisticated or egregious violations of our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, or the law.
Aggregated, non-identifiable information and statistics derived from logs may be retained indefinitely.
Other
If you communicate with us through email, we collect your email address and the contents of the messages.
If you make a donation, we do not handle or have access to any of your sensitive financial information (such as credit card info), but do collect any transaction information sent to us by the relevant payment processor. Please check the privacy policy of the payment processor for details.
How we use and share your information
Your information is used exclusively to operate Tildes. This includes providing the functionality of the site, analyzing usage, troubleshooting site issues, and investigating abuse.
We never sell your information and Tildes does not have advertising.
Your information is not willingly shared with third parties, but we may disclose your information if we believe it is necessary to comply with a valid legal process or to prevent imminent harm (such as suicide).
Cookies
Cookies are small data files stored on your device and sent along with your requests while using the site.
Tildes uses cookies to support users being logged into their accounts, and we may also store user preferences in them (such as which display theme you are using), whether you are logged in or not.
You may configure your browser or device to reject cookies from Tildes, but by doing so you will be unable to log into an account, and some other site functionality may not function properly.
Do Not Track signal
Tildes does not alter its behavior based on whether your browser sends a Do Not Track (DNT) header or not.
Children
Tildes is not intended for use by children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13 years of age (or the minimum legal age in their country). We will delete any collected information if we discover that it was provided to us by a child.
Your choices
To protect your privacy and the privacy of others, we may need to verify your identity or ownership of an account before we can give you access to, or change, information about you.
You may request any of:
- correction or deletion of any of your personal information
- a full export of your personal information
- deletion of your Tildes account (and all associated personal information)
by emailing privacy@tildes.net. If we satisfy a deletion request, the information will be immediately marked for deletion (which removes its visibility from the site), and fully removed from the databases in 30 days.
Any requests will be responded to within 30 days.
Data breach notification
If a data breach that includes personal data is discovered, it will be disclosed to the affected users through private messages if feasible. If notifying individuals is not feasible, the breach will be disclosed publicly on the Tildes blog and/or in an official announcement location on the site.
This disclosure will happen as soon after discovery as we believe it is safe to do so (for example, after fixing the vulnerability that made it possible).
Backups
Tildes maintains backups of its data for up to 30 days. Therefore, any deleted or edited data may persist in its previous form inside backup archives during that period.
Changes to this policy
The date that this policy was last updated is visible at the top of this page, and you can view the entire change history by following the "view history" link.
We will make reasonable efforts to inform you if material changes are made to this policy (such as announcing the changes on the Tildes blog and/or in an official announcement location on the site).
How to contact us
For questions about this privacy policy or other privacy-related concerns, please email privacy@tildes.net.