Privacy Policy of the NY-NJ Trail Conference Web Site

Site Wide Info

Home

Site Map

Search

Search Site by FreeFind.

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. 

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

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

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).

Action Network

The Action Network is funded by the Sierra Club's NJ Chapter, a member of the NY-NJ Trail Conference. Through an agreement between our two organizations, Dennis Schvejda, formerly of NJ Sierra, and now Advocacy Director for the NYNJTC, will maintain the system and post alerts and messages. All information gathered by the system is confidential and used only for Action Network purposes.

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

• FTC Privacy Initiatives
• OECD Guidelines on Data Privacy
• Electronic Privacy Information Center
• Junkbusters, Inc.
• Gartner Group Spam Study
• US Legislation
• Opt-Out Get Off the Lists
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Cookie Central
• Cookies and Privacy FAQ
• The EPIC Cookies Page
• Story In Defense of Cookies (They Aren't as Crummy as You Think)