Privacy Questions and Answers

This notice describes how AirCadetCentral, or ACC for short, collects and uses data about you.

Jump to:

What is ACC?

ACC is an independant web service covering the subject of Air Cadets from around the world. The ACC website primarily uses Discourse open source software for hosting Internet discussion forums and WordPress, an open source software Content Management System. ACC is hosted by Maia Internet Services free of charge and is a 'not for profit' service.

ACC sets only its own privacy practices and is not goverened by any other organisation including it's parent hosting company.

How does ACC collect data about me?

ACC collects data about you:

  • when you browse the ACC website

  • when you create and use an account on the ACC website

  • when you post, send private messages, and otherwise participate in the ACC website

ACC collects data when you use the ACC website, whether you use the ACC website using a web browser on your own computer, or on mobile devices.

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

What data does ACC collect about me, and why?

ACC collects data about visits to the ACC website.

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

ACC uses data about how you use the website to:

  • optimise 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

ACC 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, ACC may preserve log data longer, for analysis. ACC stores aggregate statistics about the use of the forum indefinitely, but those statistics don’t include data identifiable to you personally.

ACC collects account data.

Many features of the ACC website require an ACC account. For example, ACC requires an account to post and reply to topics on the forum.

To sign up for an ACC account, the ACC website requires your name, a user name, and an e-mail address.

ACC uses your account data to identify you on the website, and to create pages specific to you, like your profile page. As the website is public, ACC publishes your account data and is available to everyone who can access the forum, according to the website administrator’s configuration.

ACC uses your e-mail address to:

  • notify you about posts and other activity on the website

  • 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. ACC makes that data available to others who can access the website. You don’t have to provide this additional information, and you can erase it at any time.

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

ACC collects data about posts and other activity on the website.

ACC 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 website. As the website is public, ACC publishes your activity. Some access restrictions do apply to specific areas so ACC makes your activity available only to those users permitted to see it.

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

ACC 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. As the ACC website uses access restrictions that vary by category, you can choose who will see your post by choosing the appropriate category.

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

Where does ACC store data about me?

The ACC website, in it's entirety, is hosted on a server located at the Roubaix Data Centre, Paris, France.

Does ACC comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation?

ACC respects privacy rights under Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Information that GDPR requires ACC 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 ACC website. 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. The settings for a particular forum may also allow you to close your account, on the settings page for your account. Closing your account starts a process of erasing or anonymizing ACC’s records of data you provided for your account. Forum administrators can also erase and anonymize accounts.

The ACC website allows you to edit, anonymize, or erase your posts. When you edit posts, ACC will keep all versions of your posts. ACC website administrators can view old versions of posts and optionally make them visible to other forum visitors.

Does ACC make automated decisions based on data about me?

ACC classifies posts as spam automatically.

ACC uses data about your posts and other activity to make automated decisions about whether your posts to aircadetcentral.net 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 an ACC moderator. They can override the decision that a post was spam.

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

The ACC website uses 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 an ACC administrator. They can manually adjust the trust level of your account.

Does ACC share data about me with others?

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

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

Apart from making data available to the owner of the ACC website, ACC does not sell or give information about you to other companies or services. However, ACC does use services from other companies. 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 on some forums
Google Analytics https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/ Compiles visitor statistics on some websites, including aircadetcentral.net. You can opt out of Google Analytics using a browser extension.
Jetpack https://jetpack.com/support/privacy/ Allows social media integration and distributed asset management.
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 ACC publishes, such as your posts to public forums.

How can I contact ACC about privacy?

You can send questions and complaints to:

Air Cadet Central
djrice@aircadetcentral.net

For complaints under GDPR more generally, users may lodge complaints with their local data protection supervisory authorities.

How can I find out about changes?

This version of ACC’s privacy questions and answers took effect May 15, 2018.

ACC will post the next version at https://forum.aircadetcentral.net/privacy. ACC may change how it announces changes in the future.

In the meantime, ACC may update its contact information without announcing a change. Please refer to https://forum.aircadetcentral.net/privacy for the latest contact information at any time.