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The following statements outline the activities and privacy issues for three classes of user: non-members, members, editors. See the summaries here and the full statements below.
Guests (non-members) can carry out the following activities:
- all levels of search
- browse and view any published documents
- view any "about" and "help" documentation
- produce simple locality maps
- join to become a member
As with all WWW servers, every time a web page is visited, the server will automatically log certain basic information about the visitor. This includes the date and time, the URL of the requested page, and the Internet address of the visitor. This information is summarised and presented to each member so that they can see the popularity and access trends of their documents. Search terms are also summarised. We use this summary information to help improve the content of Eco Companion, determine which pages and topics are popular, and to detect any errors such as missing links.
Apart from that basic logging, your visits to our site are entirely anonymous. There is no way for us to find out or record your email address (nor do we want to). We do not store "cookies" in your browser so that we can subsequently identify your visits, nor do we use any Java trickery.
Members can carry out all guest activities and also the following member activities (depending on the member's level of membership):
- manage and publish documents as catalogue records
- view their own documents that are in preparation
- view detailed access statistics about their own documents (not the documents of other members)
As with all WWW servers, every time a web page is visited, the server will automatically log certain basic information about the visitor. This includes the date and time, the URL of the requested page, and the Internet address of the visitor. This information is summarised and presented to each member so that they can see the popularity and access trends of their documents. We also use this summary information to help improve the content of Eco Companion, determine which pages are popular, and to detect any errors such as missing links.
We do not store "cookies" in your browser so that we can subsequently identify your visits, nor do we use any Java trickery.
The Eco Companion catalogue is built upon the individual contributions of the members. Of course, we would not carry out any activity that would compromise the integrity of Eco Companion or the trust of our members.
When you join Eco Companion you will be required to provide your email address. This is necessary for a number of reasons: so that no-one can join by masquerading as you, the editors can contact you if they need to discuss any aspect of your published documents, you can configure the system to send regular email reports about your documents.
The list of member contact details is never divulged, only individual member documents that the member chooses to publish. Searching facilities do not show the email address in any summary list of document hits.
When you log on to Eco Companion to use the member services, you will be required to enter your username and password. A tamper-proof numeric code is generated and will be used for the duration of your visit. You will see this code in the "location" window at the top of your WWW browser. This procedure ensures the consistency of your own documents and prevents any other member from editing your documents.
Certain activities by members are also logged, for example: scheduling a document to be published, and utilisation of member services. This is necessary to manage the content of the catalogue, keep the search indexes up-to-date, determine which facilities are popular or under-utilised, present new information to the member, and for other service improvement reasons.
All members are provided with a private space on our server where they can develop documents prior to publishing. Members can only view documents that are in their own preparation area, and cannot view the private documents of other members.
Members only publish the information about themselves that they wish to be made public. For example, if you do not want anyone to know your telephone number, then do not publish it. Members have control.
Editors can view the documents that are prepared by members so that they can provide assistance and so that they can ensure the quality and integrity of the catalogue.
Editors can carry out all member activities and also the following editor activities:
- block all access to published documents that they consider offensive
- block access by a certain member and delete that member
- view any member's documents that are in preparation
- search through the WWW log files
- editor activities are explained in more detail
Editors are Eco Companion members that have additional powers to investigate and supervise the catalogue. So the editors have the same privacy as members. The name and identity of an editor is only revealed to other members if that editor so chooses.
The Eco Companion catalogue and document management service is developed and managed by IndexGeo Pty Ltd - a reputable Australian information technology company. We have a solid background and history in the fields of land and environmental information, resource discovery, and Internet development.
More information about our company and specific contact details are provided on the home page.
URL:http://www.indexgeo.com.au/ec/about/privacy.html
Last Modified: 21 September 2001