Some personal information is required in order to create a forum and or ID on Hostboard. This information includes your email address that allows the Hostboard server to route important messages to your existing email account. Forum notifications, Hostboard newsletters, and messages sent to you all rely on the email address you provide when you signup. You have the ability to change your email address that is associated with your Hostboard account at any time. Hostboard will not disclose your email address to any Hostboard member, or to any third party, without your permission with the exception of requests by legal authorities pending investigation of illicite activities whereby Hostboard will fully co-oporate with them.
Other required information provides aggregate demographic data that we use to better understand the types of people using Hostboard. This information allows us to do a better job of recommending content that may be of interest to you on Hostboard, and to show you advertisements that are relevant to your age and geographic location. Similar to television, radio, and magazines, Hostboard relies primarily on revenue from advertising to subsidize the cost of providing you with free services. To help enhance the relevance and effectiveness of ads, Hostboard provides advertisers demographic information on an aggregate basis (not linked to your personal name or email address). For example, Hostboard will report to advertisers that "45% of members are female and the average age is 28."
The above describes information that is provided "actively" - meaning, you choose to submit this information to us when you join Hostboard, or update your account at any point after having joined. Some other information is provided "passively" - meaning, that Hostboard obtains this information when you login to your Hostboard account and use the service. This is done primarily through the use of "cookies". Cookies are used on Hostboard to verify your login information, and to optionally store your password in your browser so that you do not need to type it in each time you visit Hostboard. Any time that you point your browser to a 'members-only' area, Hostboard checks your browser's cookie file to see if you have already logged in, and if you have, you're taken right to the page that you have requested. If not, you'll be directed to the Hostboard login screen, where you can quickly and easily login to your account, or signup for a Hostboard account if you are not yet a member. Cookies are also used in conjunction with some ad banners to determine their effectiveness.
When a user posts on Hostboard, that user's IP (Internet Protocol) address number is collected by our software. Only users with administrative or moderation powers are given the option of using our "Display Poster/member's IP" feature, which causes the Internet Protocol (IP) address, from which the information was sent, to appear under the posting user's name in each post. Hostboard does not routinely review this information. However, Hostboard will observe and track user IPs when investigating complaints that a user has violated our Terms of Use or committed an illegal act through the use of our service.
Hostboard has formed partnerships with other Web-based services, in the interest of bringing the highest quality services to you "under one roof". Hostboard also requires from its partner sites the same level of respect and privacy for members' personal information that Hostboard adheres to, and as a result will not redistribute any of your account information without your consent.
Hostboard, as well as its partner sites, may send you email messages on a regular basis to keep you apprised of your membership status and inform you of new services available to you. Examples of this on Hostboard include the personalized 'My Hostboard' email, which shows you an overview of activity in your favorite Hostboard message board, and the Hostboard newsletter. If you create your own forum on Hostboard, we may also email you traffic summary reports of your forum on a regular basis. Included in each of these messages are simple instructions on how to remove yourself from these mailings if you do not wish to receive them in the future. Our partner sites will also include similar instructions to be removed from their own regular mailings should you not wish to receive email correspondence from any of them as well.
Hostboard does not routinely terminate user accounts, nor do we delete Hostboard communities unless they continualy violate our policies and warning messages are disreguarded. If you no longer wish to use your account, simply let it go unused or you can delete it from the system from within "my profile". If you wish to remove your message board and its contents you can let it go unused and it will remain secure up to 90 days where upon it will be deleted for inactivity. If you no longer wish to receive emails from Hostboard, you can turn off the ability to allow administrators and modertaors to send you e-mail noticies as well as the ability to keep your e-mail address viewable when you are posting through updating "my profile".
In this electronic era, when personal information can easily be obtained through various sources, Hostboard appreciates the sensitivity of any private information that you disclose to us. It is our intention to treat your account information with the highest level of care. If you have further questions about our practices and policies with regard to how your account information is treated, please contact us at any time through our Help Desk..
Hostboard works with a third party that serves ads to this site. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. Hostboard does not openly share, lease or rent this information with these advertisers. This information how ever can be collected by these third party advertisers once you leave the Hostboard system.
