Privacy and Cookies

1. When using personal information, as in all other matters, we will always endeavour to apply ‘best practice’ as far as we know it and to act in accordance with current legislation & regulation.

 

2. We respect the confidentiality of others. We will use any personal information that we obtain only for the purposes of operating our Membership Scheme. We intend & expect never to obtain anyone’s personal data unless that person has voluntarily provided that data to us.
* The computer databases we maintain are those that came with the WordPress template and plug-ins
* The manual databases we maintain are of subscription fees received and free membership periods granted.
* The only time we are likely to consider using email addresses for a mass-contact exercise is if there is a major change to the site.
* See the note on ‘Use of e-mail addresses’ on Terms of use.

 

3. We will not disclose any personal information obtained through this web site to anyone other than:
(a) as required by law or in support of a request by an official investigatory or regulatory body if it would be ‘good practice’ to comply with that request; or
(b) as is necessary for the purposes of preparing accounts or tax returns or for the development of the systems required for such preparations.

 

4. Whilst we have obligations to maintain & retain records for our corporate purposes, we accept that people have a right to ensure that the personal data we hold on them is correct & valid and necessary for our purposes. We do not retain information about people’s payment details.

1. One of the Terms & Conditions that we require people to agree to before they register an account with us is that they agree to and accept our use of cookies.

 

2. A cookie is a small data file sent to your computer from a web site’s computer which, if permitted by your browser, is stored on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies normally include a series of codes that enable the web site’s computer to identify whether or not your computer has registered itself with that web site in some way. Cookies may be used to record information about your past dealings with that web site. Browsers should only permit a web site to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites. Users can set their browsers to accept or reject all cookies and to notify them each time a cookie is sent to you. Rejection of a cookie may mean that you are not able to access certain services offered by that web site. However, blind acceptance of all cookies might leave your computer open to attack by viruses, spyware and such. Each browser is different so we suggest that you check the “Help” menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences. Your file management and/or browser software should contain information on how to locate the file or directory that stores cookies and how to delete them.

 

3. Two web sites that provide general information about cookies are www.aboutcookies.org and www.allaboutcookies.org which also provide independent advice on how to control and delete them.

1. Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) then you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

 

2. The cookies we use are “functional” and “analytical” cookies. The functional cookies are needed to make the site work. The analytical cookies allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the site when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily. You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below. Please note that this table does not represent a definitive list of the cookies we use and is subject to change. You are therefore advised to check this policy regularly.

 

Cookie	Name	Purpose	More Information
WordPress	wordpress_logged_in_*wp-settings-*	These cookies are used by the content management system that powers this site, WordPress. They store information ascertaining to the current logged in user.	The cookies are set to expire two weeks from the time they are set.
Stirnet	stirnet_ref_url	This cookie is used during the registration process to remember at which point the registration process was started. This allows the visitor to return back to that point once registration is complete.	This cookie expires one hour after it’s been set.
Google Analytics (when participating in the AdSense Programme – not active at the moment)	_utma_utmb_utmc_utmv_utmz	These cookies allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the site when they are using it.	These cookies help us to improve the way our website works (for example by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily)._utma and _utmv expire after 2 years._utmb expires after 30 minutes._utmc expires when you close your browser._utmz expires after 6 months.

 

3. From time to time this site may participate in the Google AdSense Programme through its display of advertisements selected by Google. Google has reported that clicking on one of these adverts is likely to lead to Google sending your computer a cookie which may gather information about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and would like to know your options in relation to·not having this information used by Google, click here (which opens a page in Google’s website). We do not ourselves identify or (to our knowledge) have any access to information that could help us identify what other sites our visitors have visited, whether before or after visiting our site, other than a simple analysis of the search engines & sites that have ‘referred’ visitors to our site.

Although we have no plans to change this Privacy Policy, we reserve the right to do so at any time.