Privacy Policy

As a courtesy to all visitors, this page outlines everything you need to know about how any personally identifiable information (that you give by consent) or any generic information (collected automatically) is potentially retrieved and handled from any and all visits to IronSpider.ca.

Overview

In a nutshell, you have nothing to worry about.

More specifically...

NO PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION IS COLLECTED ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE WITHOUT YOUR EXPRESS PERMISSION.
NO PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION COLLECTED ON THIS SITE IS EVER GIVEN OR SOLD TO THIRD PARTIES.

Express permission means that you knowingly entered information into a web form and then clicked on the 'Submit' button (or equivalent) for that form. Any such form at this site is entirely optional and facilitates various optional services.

Some completely generic information may be collected about all visitors to this site. Some of it is collected through the use of web server log files. Other generic information may be collected through the use of cookies. This information is used to provide aggregate statistical data about user trends connected with this website (e.g., how many hits to which web pages, which country most visitors come from, etc).

The setting of cookies can be directly managed from your web browser's Options or Preferences dialog.

All of the above is outlined in much greater detail in the following...

Personally Identifiable Information

You are not required to fill out any forms providing personally identifiable information in order to browse this site. All forms requesting such information are entirely optional and facilitate various optional services. There are only four places on this site where you might be asked to submit personally identifiable information.

These are:

My contact form — There are only two required fields in this form which are Your Name and Comments. Your email address is not required. (Although obviously, I cannot reply to you if you do not submit your email address. In this case, it would simply be a one-way communication, i.e., you send me a comment and that's it. End of story. If you're paranoid about using your real name then simply use a pseudonym.
My blog comment form — This includes any comment form at the bottom of any post to my blog. Here there are three required fields: Name, Email and Comment. This is the default setting imposed by the blogging software I use (Wordpress). Once again, if you're paranoid about using your real name then simply use a pseudonym. Blog comments are generally one-way communications although occasionally people ask for technical support. 99% of the time, I will reply by posting a comment to my blog directly below yours. Occasionally, if a public reply is not appropriate, I will send a reply to the email address you entered. If you know that a personal email reply won't be necessary and you're paranoid about using your real email address then simply enter me@example.com in the Email field and that'll do fine.
MySpace Layouts Link Removal License Page — On this page, if you decide to purchase an Iron Spider MySpace Layouts Link Removal License for your MySpace page, I'll need the MySpace URL you are purchasing the link removal license for. This information is entered into my offline database in order to help me keep track of exactly which MySpace URLs have officially paid for link removal privileges. Obviously, you want me to have this information (and the correct information) and in fact without it, I cannot sell you a link removal license. No one else has access to this MySpace URL database except me nor is any of this information given or sold to third parties.
Super EZ Profile Tweaker Download Page — If you purchase an Iron Spider MySpace Layouts Link Removal License (see above), when you visit the Super EZ Profile Tweaker download page, there will be a form you can fill in to sign up for the Iron Spider MySpace Layouts / Profile Tweaker Updates newsletter. This form only requires your email address. Your email address will only be submitted to the YourMailingListProvider.com private database to handle the mailing of my newsletter. Outside of that, your email address will not be shared or sold to any third parties nor will submitting your email address subject you to spam.

Web Server Log Files

IronSpider.ca is hosted at Lunarpages and, like most professional web hosts, the web servers at Lunarpages makes use of log files. The information collected by the log files is taken from the standard HTTP headers sent by all major web browsers. Every time you visit a web page at this site, one or more entries will be entered into the web server's log files depending on how many web files (HTML, CSS, Javascript, graphics files) are associated with web page you visited. This information contains no personally identifiable information and typically includes:

Your IP address
The date and time you visited the web page
The web page/file requested
The type of HTTP request
Whether the web page/file request was successful or not
Which web browser you're using
The page you visited directly before (known as the referring URL)
The search engine used to get to the web page (if applicable)
Keywords used in a search engine to find the web page (if applicable)
Which operating system is installed on your computer

This information is fed into web statistics programs such as Analog and Webalizer to provide aggregate statistical data about user trends connected with this website (e.g., how many hits to which web pages, which country most visitors come from, etc). Using web statistics programs to glean information from web server log files is standard across the internet and is part of the basic web hosting package at Lunarpages.

Your IP Address

The only information in any web server log file that even comes close to personally identifying you as an individual is your IP address. An IP address is a special number assigned to each and every computer hooked up to the internet. Your IP address is typically assigned to your computer by your internet service provider. It is constructed of four numbers ranging from 0 to 255 and each number is separated by a dot.

An example of an IP address: 172.16.254.1

You can get your IP address by visiting WhatIsMyIP.com (or simply type "what is my ip" into Google).

Knowing your IP address presents no security risk as it can only be used to find the geographical location and/or the host name of your internet service provider. You can see an example of this by visiting an IP address locator (or simply type "ip address locator" into Google).

Beyond that, your internet service provider is legally responsible for all the data that actually connects your IP address to you as an individual (according to the laws of your country). Typically, the only way anyone can connect your IP address to you as an individual is if they contact your internet service provider directly and specifically demand this information. And typically, only proper authorities are permitted to make such requests and only under extreme circumstances (such as you are suspected of committing a heinous internet crime). You should visit and peruse the security and privacy policy of your internet service provider for more details about this.

If you're still really paranoid about leaving this kind of standard information on web servers as you surf around the internet, you can do a search on Google for "web proxy" to learn how to surf the internet anonymously (although surfing anonymously has problems of its own).

Cookies

Cookies are simple and secure .txt files set to be saved on your computer. They are set by the Javascript and/or PHP coding of the web pages you visit as you surf around the internet. All major web browsers are designed to read and write cookies. They are standard and widely in effect. Here at IronSpider.ca, cookies are set for your web browsing convenience and are also used for web analytics and by some of my business partners for monitoring advertisements that I allow to be placed on this site.

More specifically...

Some cookies set by this site are for your browsing convenience. I personally set up the implementation of these cookies or installed programs that use such cookies. These three cookies in particular are:
1. Blog Comments — If you leave a comment on my blog, you are required to enter your name and your email address (see personally identifiable information for details). The cookie set by my blog program (Wordpress) will remember this information so that you don't have to re-enter it if you return to my blog to post another comment. This is for your convenience.
2. MySpace Layouts Clickwrap Agreement — If you expressly accept the Iron Spider MySpace Layouts Terms of Use by clicking on the 'clickwrap' agreement which appears when attempting to retrieve any MySpace layout code from this site (i.e., "By clicking here, I signify my agreement to the TERMS OF USE..."), a cookie will be set. The only purpose of this cookie is to prevent the clickwrap agreement from appearing for the next 24 hours should you wish to access another MySpace layout code from this site within that period (you are still legally bound by the terms of use however). This cookie contains no personally identifiable information and is set entirely for your convenience.
3. Super EZ Profile Tweaker Download Page — If you purchase an Iron Spider MySpace Layouts Link Removal License, visiting the Super EZ Profile Tweaker download page will set a cookie in your browser to prevent the MySpace layouts clickwrap agreement (as per above) from appearing for the next year. This is your privilege as an official Iron Spider MySpace Layout Link Removal Licensee. You can reset the cookie at any time for another year by simply visiting the Profile Tweaker download page again. This cookie contains no personally identifiable information and is set entirely for your convenience.
Some cookies may be set by external web analytics programs. These programs provide aggregate statistical data about user trends connected with this website (e.g., how many hits to which web pages, which country most visitors come from, etc). This helps me analyze visitor traffic for the purposes of user friendliness and quality control. For example, placing a link to this privacy policy in a different spot in the menu may result in more people visiting this page. Information like this is extremely important to me and is ultimately important to you as a user of this site. The external web analytics programs used here at Iron Spider are Google Analytics and Statcounter. I have no access or control over cookies set by these external web analytics programs. Please see other privacy policies for more information.
Some cookies may be set by business partners (e.g., advertisements and third party advertisements on this site). I have no access or control over cookies set by business partners. Please see other privacy policies for more information.
Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site. These cookies include the use of the DoubleDART cookie which may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. For more information about the DoubleDART cookie and for an easy one-click method of opting out of it, visit this page at Google.

All major web browsers provide a means to control the setting of cookies in the browser itself. Please see your web browser options and/or documentation for more information.

Some examples of accessing cookie control in web browsers:

For Internet Explorer, click on Tools » Internet Options » Privacy » Advanced
For Firefox, click on Tools » Options » Privacy

Be advised that completely disabling the setting of cookies in your web browser can ultimately result in some inconvenience as you browse the internet. For example, when visiting a website that requires a username and password —such as a forum— you'll have to manually type this information in each and every time. The popular 'Remember Me' option will no longer work because this typically relies on cookies being enabled in your web browser.

Other Privacy Policies

Here are the privacy policies of various business partners and external web analytics programs affiliated with or used by IronSpider.ca:

Who's in Charge Here

My name is Robert Darrell (although I prefer Rob). I own the domain name IronSpider.ca and I handcoded this website entirely from scratch —including all the free website templates and all the MySpace layouts. I am fully in charge of all maintenance and all updates here at this site. I currently reside in Montreal, Canada. I can be contacted here.

Best regards,
Rob Darrell
Proprietor and webmaster of ironspider.ca

See also:

Conventions Used on this Website

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