1 Collection, Storage & Use
We respect users privacy. However, there is a minimum requirement for the collection of personal information in order for Xiaopan Forums to function. At most this consists of your registration email address, username and password. We will never distribute personal contact details to any 3rd Party, unless with prior consent or if someone is of risk of harm. At times we may need to release information of those who are spamming, hacking the Xiaopan.co website or cyberbullying members to alert appropriate parties.
It is the responsibility of members to choose what personal information they would like to share, particularly in signatures and user profiles. It is recommended that members use usernames or aliases in the forums to ensure that members are not readily identifiable or subjected to criticism from their posts and comments. We also encourage writers and posters to submit anonymously (under a false name) if they feel that it might be controversial or detrimental to future job prospects.
2 Security Measures
Our data is encrypted in a MySQL database and we run the latest software to protect personal information. We work closely with our Australian hosting provider Crazy Domains to implement security measures to protect members’ data and accounts. We also make daily backups. However, in the unlikely event that a security breach occurs, we will notify our host provider immediately and Xiaopan will be taken offline until the security breach is resolved. All members will be notified through their email address. Notification will be posted on the Xiaopan website as well as through Xiaopan Forums on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ accounts. As an additional security measure it is recommended that when you request your @xiaopan.co email address and Forum membership accounts that you use a unique password that you have never used to prevent access to your other online accounts.
3 Emails
When you signup to Xiaopan you will not get unsolicited emails, spyware or phishing attempts. If you get an email from us requesting personal information please report it immediately here (fixup). As part of the signup process you will be issued with a confirmation email. Users have the ability to control what emails they receive you can opt out or unsubscribe from our mailing list at anytime. Forum users can also control alerts and opt out of email notifications, have the ability to block members and report incidents to Xiaopan. Xiaopan recommends that you never publish your email address on the site as web crawlers and email harvesters can extract your email address and use it for the purposes of spamming or other malicious purposes. If you would still like to add an email address in a signature you are more than welcome to. To send personal messages to people you can do that via Conversations.
4 Statistics & Tracking
As with many websites, statistics are measured through Google Analytics to determine site performance, popular pages, search terms, bounce rates and so forth. Analytics is a powerful tool that allows us to optimise traffic, accessibility and deliver content worldwide. Location of visitors is tracked through Analytics through visitors’ IP address and plotted on a map. The data only identifies where someone has visited from a city to suburb level. We might also collect and analyse data such as IP addresses to find out where referral links come from, evidences of hacking, image leeching and click fraud. There is no attempt to link log information with individuals that actually browse the site, except in cases of hacking, spamming or other abuse. If you are concerned you can use a proxy or implement plugins designed to block the Analytics tracking code or opt out (beta). HTTP outbound links are not tracked by other parties because we use an anonymous external URL link provided by Anonym.to.
5 Cookies
Xiaopan Forums requires cookies of the users internet browser to function and essentially store web information locally to your computer. This information can consist of alert notifications and registration information. You can delete your cookies through clearing your browsers data anytime or you can simply log out a the end of your Xiaopan Forums visit. Logging out also protects you from people using your account from a logged in state.
More Info About Cookies and how to delete them
If you have a general enquiry about our Privacy Policy or can suggest improvements, please feel free to Contact Us.
To report a privacy issue, please use our Privacy Form.