Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to the Trail Conference. This statement discloses
the information practices for this Web site, including what type of information
is gathered and tracked, how the information is used, and with whom the
information is shared. 

To be very clear: We will not obtain personally-identifying information about you when you visit our site, unless you choose to provide us with such information.

Information gathered

In general all the information gathered is anonymous except when you send us
email, fill out forms that contain personal information, or buy things from the
Hikers' Market Place. 

On the Viewpoint forum you can choose to be anonymous, reveal only your name,
or reveal your email address, as well as anything you say becomes public.

Our server collects the usual anonymous data about what URL you came from,
your IP address, your domain, etc. In addition we use third parties to collect
hit counts and other information on a few pages. If you click on the black world
icon on the home page, you can see what is collected. Other pages use other
providers to collect similar information.

If you use the search box, information about what search terms are used is
recorded. Only lists of words and counts are recorded without any tracking as to
who did the query.

Information use

The anonymous statistical information gathered by the server, hit counters
and search mechanism is only used to improve the site by noticing which areas
are actually used heavily and might warrant improvement.

If you contact us by postal mail, telephone, or electronically, via an
on-line form, the material you submit may be seen by various staff or office
volunteers. We may enter the information you send into our electronic database.
In limited circumstances, including requests from courts or private individuals,
we may be required by law to disclose information you submit. (Freedom of
Information Act)

Information sharing

The Trail Conference makes heavy use of email to keep postage costs down and
get timely information out quickly. We strive to keep the frequency down and
relevance high by focusing on selective groups. We urge you to sign up or stay
on as many email lists as you find useful.

Suggestions for additional or removal of lists as well as content you would like to get via email are welcome.

E-mail addresses and phone numbers will not be released to any organization
outside the Trail Conference and in general will only be used for communication
with you or others that you explicitly permit, e.g. general news mailings to
members.

If you join as a member, you can opt-out of sharing addresses with other
organizations. We do exchange mailing labels with other hiking/environmental
organizations (primarily for soliciting new members).

Information security

E-mail is not necessarily secure against interception. If your communication
is very sensitive, or includes personal information like your bank account,
charge card, or social security number, you might want to send it by postal mail
instead.

Online store connections are via SSL and hence secure.

Other issues

External links

If you use our site to reach other sites via links on our pages, they may
collect more or less information and you should consult their privacy policy. If
you use the Barnes and Noble links or other affiliates to browse or order from
them, on which we earn a small commission, we may have access to other
information about what was ordered and when but not by who. This information
will be used only for accounting purposes and improving our affiliate links.

Cookies

We use cookies as part of the Hikers' Market Place and to allow you to adjust
font sizes. There is a technology call "cookies" which can be use to provide you
with tailored information from a Web site. A cookie is an element of data that a
Web site can send to your browser, which may then store it on your system and
retrieve it when you return to the Web site at some later time. This cookie
contains only information you supplied to our server and is not available to
other Web sites (except possibly via bugs in your browser). We do not store the
cookie on the server. You can set most browsers to either accept, reject or
prompt for attempts to store a cookie on your system. See links
below for more information.

Web beacons, etc.

We do not use any of the more obscure mechanisms for tracking user
behaviour.

Children's data

While few pages of this site are directed towards children, we are committed
to comply with applicable laws and requirements, such as the United States'
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Specifically:

  • You may Contact operator of web site for
    resolution of problems.
  • No information is requested from children under 13, nor is any attempt made
    to ascertain the age of respondents. Such requests may be made incidentally and
    children may fill out forms that reveal private information. Children are
    encouraged to read the information on the web site and to respond via forms or
    email if appropriate. They should not give out any private information about
    themselves other than that necessary to respond to them.
  • Any private information collected will be kept internally or discarded and
    not given to third parties. It will only be used to respond to requests.
    Information posted to the Viewpoint forum will be monitored and if we know that
    the information is from a child under 13, we may delete it (and reply privately)
    or modify it to contain less private information. 
  • Parents may request that we delete any information submitted by their
    children.
  • Copy of FCC
    Child Protection Policy Rules

General links for more information about privacy