Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: April 23, 2024, 10:15 pm
Atheist Forums
Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy
This document serves as Atheist Forum's privacy policy. It describes what information we collect and what it's used for. It applies to all interactions with Atheist Forums through any of our domains and sub-domains. Your use of and/or registration with Atheist Forums will constitute your agreement to our policy. If you cannot agree to the terms and conditions set forth below, please do not use our website. Additionally, our privacy policy is part of our Registration Agreement, and by using the site you agree to both.

About this Policy

Atheist Forums is a collection of discussion forums that allows you to communicate about anything you want on any topic you want. We collect some information in order for you to have an account you can use to participate on the site, and other information that is necessary to make the forums work. We don't sell or profit from the information you share with us.

We do take efforts to make sure the forums keep working properly. This includes using your information, where necessary, to stop spam and other activities that violate the rules. We also share your information when we are legally required to do so. Please read this privacy policy carefully. It describes what information we collect, how it is used, and when it is shared so you can make educated decisions about how you use our website.

The structure and some of the content of this privacy policy is based on reddit.com's privacy policy.

What Information We Collect

Registration Information

When you create an account, you are required to provide a username, password, and an email address. You are also required to state your religious views, which is displayed on your profile for the benefit of all members. This information is not checked for validity or accuracy, and is publicly accessible once your account is created. Use of this field is at member discretion. We also log, and retain indefinitely, the IP address from which the account is initially created.

Threads, Posts, Shouts, Kudos, and Messaging Data

The threads, posts, and kudos you make on Atheist Forums are not private, even if made in a forum which is not readily accessible to the public (or restricted from certain members). This means that, by default, they are not deleted from our servers – ever – and will still be accessible if your account is deleted. You are able to edit your posts / threads for two hours after posting them, after which time a member of staff will be required to make edits. Previous versions of posts you have edited are stored on our server for 90 days, but may exist in backups for an additional 30 days. Unlike threads and posts, individual kudos can be deleted by the user, and once this is done, it will no longer be available in the online database, though they may exist in backups.

The shouts you make in the Shoutbox are also not considered to be private. By default, they are not deleted from our servers – ever – and will still be accessible if your account is deleted.

Your messages are generally only viewable by the parties involved, but they may be accessed internally as needed for support or to investigate possible rule violations. Moreover, we keep a complete log of all messages sent on the forums, even when both parties later delete their accounts.

Atheist Forums stores the IP addresses associated with specific posts and shouts indefinitely. IP addresses are not stored for threads, private messages, or kudos.

Log Data

Log data is certain information that is automatically collected by our systems when you visit Atheist Forums through any of our domains or sub-domains. The information collected includes the type of software used to access the site (browser, operating system), the address of the external or internal page that referred you, and your IP address. This information is recorded even if you are logged out of your account. It will be deleted from our servers after 90 days, and is not stored in any backups.

Other Information Related to Your Account

As you interact with Atheist Forums as a registered member, we save certain information about these interactions and your preferences: subscriptions, preferred language, timezone, kudos (given and received), votes in polls, and the date & IP address of your last activity. You may also opt to add your date of birth, website URL, gender, location, bio, custom user title, and contact information to your profile, and this will be stored as well.

How We Use or Disclose Collected Information

Improving Your Experience

It takes a lot of work to keep our site running and prevent abuse, and we sometimes use your data in order to facilitate this. Your information is used internally only where necessary. For instance, we keep IP addresses of all traffic for 90 days in order to investigate issues with our site, track and block suspected spammers, and otherwise maintain the integrity of the community. We keep post and shout IP data indefinitely due to limitations with the MyBB software, and because it makes it easier for us to identify sock accounts.

Not For Sale

Whilst we may share anonymous or non-personal information (i.e. usernames, emails) with trusted third parties (see below), we will never sell or share your personal data to anyone, unless express permission has been given by the user in question.

Trusted Third Party Disclosure

Atheist Forums works closely with Stop Forum Spam to detect and help prevent spammers. When registering for a new account, your current IP address and provided email address are sent to Stop Forum Spam's servers in order to check them against their database of known spammers. If a match against either is found, this information, including the username you were trying to register with, is automatically submitted to Stop Forum Spam to help in their spam prevention efforts. Your registration attempt will subsequently be denied, though you may contact us if you believe this is a mistake, and we can delete our entries from Stop Forum Spam (though entries made by other Stop Forum Spam affiliates may still exist).

We use CloudFlare to provide DNS, caching, and security services. As a result, by connecting to this site, your connection and data will go through CloudFlare's network. CloudFlare's privacy and security policy can be found here: https://www.cloudflare.com/security-policy.

In addition, Atheist Forums makes use of Google Analytics, which captures information about how you use the site so that we can monitor how people find us, and how the site is navigated. All data collected by Google Analytics is anonymised before being stored.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose – or preserve for future disclosure – your information if we believe, after due consideration, that doing so is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation, or legal request. If we are going to release your information, we will do our best to provide you with notice in advance via the private messaging system unless we are prohibited by court order from doing so.

Your Information May Be Disclosed By Us In An Emergency or to Keep our Services Running

Other extraordinary circumstances may require disclosure: we may also disclose your information when we believe it's necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm to a person; to address fraud, security, or spam; or to protect our rights or property.

Cookie Policy

Cookies are small data files placed on your computer by websites you visit in order to help them remember certain information about you. At Atheist Forums, we set only a few cookies for tracking user actions, handling authentication, and collecting anonymous analytics data. Each of these uses is described in greater detail below.

User Actions

When you visit Atheist Forums, even if not logged in, two cookies will be set called mybb[lastvisit] and mybb[lastactive]. These cookies track the time at which you last visited the forum, and the time at which you were last active respectively. This is useful in showing users which new posts have been made. Additionally, using the multiquote feature will add a cookie called multiquote which tracks the IDs of all posts that have been selected for later quoting.

Authentication

When you log in, three cookies are set. The loginattempts cookie helps track the number of login attempts you have made. The mybbuser and sid cookies are types of session cookie that allow you to remain logged into the site.

Anonymous Analytics Data

As mentioned previously, Google Analytics is installed to provide us with data about visitors to the forum, where they come from, what they did to get here, etc. This service sets a number of cookies, all of which are documented here. If you object to these cookies, you can install various browser addons like Ghostery, Disconnect, and DoNotTrackMe which can block Google Analytics and similar tracking products without affecting the site you are browsing.

Disabling Cookies

Most browsers include an option to clear existing cookies or reject new ones. However, if you do this, portions of the forums may not function as intended.

Account Deletion

Currently, there is no way to delete your account. However, you may request that the staff disable your account so that you no longer have access, and that any personal information you have linked on your account be removed.

Data Security

Atheist Forums will make every effort to secure any private information submitted to us by our users. However, no data transmission over the internet is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee the absolute security of this data. You use the service at your own risk, and are responsible for taking reasonable measures to secure your account (such as carefully maintaining the secrecy of your password). To further increase the security of your data, you may wish to browse Atheist Forums with SSL / TLS enabled by using "https://" instead of "http://" in the URL.

Policy Changes

We reserve the right to change this policy to meet the changing needs of Atheist Forums, or for any other reason. If we make changes, we will notify our users.