Privacy Questions and Answers

This notice describes how Vegan Talk Forums, or VegTalk.org for short, collects and uses data about you.

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What is VegTalk.org?

VegTalk.org or Vegan Talk Forums is an online discussion forum open to the public.

VegTalk.org sets only its own privacy practices, not the privacy practices of VegTalk.org partners that help us in providing this online service like hosting and analytics companies. You should ask for information about their privacy practices from them.

How does VegTalk.org collect data about me?

VegTalk.org collects data about you:

  • when you browse a forum on VegTalk.org

  • when you create and use an account on VegTalk.org

  • when you post, send private messages, and otherwise participate in a forum on VegTalk.org

VegTalk.org collects data when you use forums, whether you use the forums using a web browser on your own computer, or use VegTalk.org’s apps for mobile devices.

VegTalk.org does not buy or otherwise receive data about you from data brokers.

What data does VegTalk.org collect about me, and why?

VegTalk.org collects data about visits to forums.

When you visit a forum on VegTalk.org, whether you have an account or not, the forum uses cookies, server logs, and other methods to collect data about what pages you visit and when.

VegTalk.org uses data about how you use the website to:

  • optimize the forum, so that it’s quick and easy to use

  • diagnose and debug technical errors

  • defend the forum from abuse and technical attacks

  • compile statistics on forum and topic popularity

  • compile statistics on the kinds of software and computers visitors use

VegTalk.org usually stores data about how you use the forum in identifiable form for just a few weeks. In special circumstances, like extended investigations about technical attacks, VegTalk.org may preserve log data longer, for analysis. VegTalk.org stores aggregate statistics about use of the forum for as long as VegTalk.org hosts the forum, but those statistics don’t include data identifiable to you personally.

VegTalk.org collects account data.

Many features of forums on VegTalk.org require a forum account. For example, most forums on VegTalk.org require an account to post and reply to topics.

To sign up for a forum account, VegTalk.org requires your name, a user name, and an e-mail address.

VegTalk.org uses your account data to identify you on the forum and to create pages specific to you, such as your profile page. If the forum is public, VegTalk.org publishes your account data according to the forum configuration. If the forum is access-restricted, VegTalk.org makes your account data available to everyone who can access the forum, according to the forum configuration.

VegTalk.org uses your e-mail address to:

  • notify you about posts and other activity on the forum

  • reset your password and help keep your account secure

  • contact you in special circumstances related to your account

  • contact you about legal requests, like DMCA takedown requests

You may provide additional data for your account, like a short biography, your location, or your birthday, on the profile settings page for your account. VegTalk.org makes that data available to others who can access the forum. You don’t have to provide this additional information, and you can erase it at any time.

VegTalk.org stores your account data as long as your account remains open.

VegTalk.org collects data about posts and other activity on the forum.

VegTalk.org collects the content of your posts, plus data about bookmarks, likes, and links you follow in order to share that data with others, through the forum. If the forum is public, VegTalk.org publishes your activity. If the forum is access-restricted, or access restrictions apply to the specific post, VegTalk.org makes your activity available only to users permitted to see it.

VegTalk.org also collects data about private messages that you send through the forum. VegTalk.org makes private messages available to senders and their recipients, and also to forum administrators.

VegTalk.org stores your posts and other activity as long as your account remains open.

VegTalk.org uses cookies.

HTTP cookies are small bits of data that websites, like Discourse forums, send to your computer when you visit. When you return to those websites, your computer sends the cookies on your computer back to the website.

Have a look at the privacy notice for your specific forum to find out which cookies that forum uses. By default, all Discourse forums use these cookies:

Name Essential Expires Purpose
email Yes Session remembers your e-mail as you create an account
destination_url Yes Session helps redirect you to your requested page after logging in
sso_destination_url Yes Session helps redirect you to your request page after single sign on
authentication_data Yes Next Page View temporarily stores user information during login flows
theme_key Yes Forever remembers your theme personalization if you don’t tick “Make this my default theme on all my devices”
cn Yes Next Page View temporarily stores notification read state
_bypass_cache Yes Session allows the server-side cache to be bypassed during login flows
_t Yes 1440 Hours remembers who you are when you log in
_forum_session Yes Session associates an ID, and other security-related information, with your browsing session
dosp Yes Next Page View enables client denial of service protection, a security protection
__profilin No Session used by software developers to bypass rack-mini-profiler

Discourse forums that configure Google Analytics, such as meta.discourse.org, also use cookies from Google. Refer to Google’s page on Google Analytics cookies for the latest details.

Discourse forums that serve advertisements, such as with the ads plugin, may also set cookies used to track you and serve advertisements.

Your web browser can show you the cookies you have for any website and help you manage them.

How can I make choices about data collection?

You can make choices about how data about you is used on the settings page for your account. When a forum uses access restrictions that vary by category, you can choose who will see your post by choosing the appropriate category.

Most web browsers let you make choices about whether to accept cookies, for specific websites or more generally. aboutcookies.org has instructions for many different web browsers. youronlinechoices.eu and aboutads.info have more information specifically about cookies used for advertising.

VegTalk.org does not respond to the Do Not Track HTTP header.

Where does VegTalk.org store data about me?

Data on VegTalk.org is stored on private servers hosted in data centers in European Union.

Does VegTalk.org comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation?

VegTalk.org respects privacy rights under Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Information that GDPR requires VegTalk.org to give can be found throughout this privacy notice. So can information about specific rights, like access, rectification, erasure, data portability, and objection to automated decision-making.

Does VegTalk.org comply with the California Consumer Privacy Regulation?

VegTalk.org respects the rights of California residents under the California Consumer Privacy Regulation. VegTalk.org does not sell your personal information within the meaning of that regulation. Other information that CCPA requires VegTalk.org to give can be found throughout this privacy notice. So can information about specific rights, like requesting disclosure about information VegTalk.org collects and requesting deletion of your data.

Where can I access data about me?

You can see your account data at any time by visiting your account page on the forum. Your account page also lists your posts and other activity on the forum.

Your account activity page also includes a link to download all of your activity in standard comma-separated values format.

How can I change or erase data about me?

You can change your account data at any time by visiting the profile settings page for your account. The settings also allow you to close your account, on the settings page for your account. Closing your account starts a process of erasing or anonymizing VegTalk.org’s records of data you provided for your account. Forum administrators can also erase and anonymize accounts.

Depending on the settings for your particular forum, you may also be able to edit, anonymize, or erase your posts. When you edit posts, VegTalk.org will keep all versions of your posts. Forum administrators can view old versions of posts, and optionally make them visible to other forum visitors.

Does VegTalk.org make automated decisions based on data about me?

VegTalk.org classifies posts as spam automatically.

VegTalk.org uses data about your posts and other activity on many forums to make automated decisions about whether your posts on VegTalk.org are spam. When Akismet decides that a post is likely spam, the forum refuses to accept the post.

If you think a post has been wrongly blocked or removed, contact an administrator of your forum. They can override the decision that a post was spam.

VegTalk.org uses data about posts and activity to set trust levels automatically.

The forum may use data about your posts and activity to award you badges and calculate a trust level for your account. Your trust level may affect how you can participate in the forum, such as whether you can upload images, as well as give you access to moderation and management powers in the forum. Your trust level therefore reflects forum administrators’ confidence in you, and their willingness to delegate community management functions, like moderation.

If you think your trust level has been set incorrectly, contact an administrator of your forum. They can manually adjust the trust level of your account.

Does VegTalk.org share data about me with others?

VegTalk.org shares account data with others as mentioned in the section about account data.

VegTalk.org shares data about your posts and other forum activity with others as mentioned in the section about forum data.

VegTalk.org does not sell or give information about you to other companies or services. However, VegTalk.org does use services from other companies. The companies behind those services may collect data about you on their own, for their own purposes. Some of these services may be used to collect information about your online activities across different websites.

Service Description
Akismet reduces spam posts on some forums
Google Analytics Compiles visitor statistics. You can opt out of Google Analytics using a browser extension.
KeyCDN Provides a content delivery network of servers that host copies of content like images and website files, so that users around the world can download them quickly, from servers close to where they are.
Apple Push Notification Service Sends push notifications to users of the VegTalk.org iOS app.
Google Cloud Messaging Sends push notifications to users of the VegTalk.org Android app.

Other individuals and companies may also reuse data about you that VegTalk.org publishes, such as your posts to public forums.

How can I contact VegTalk.org about privacy?

You can send questions and complaints to:

Vegan Talk Forums privacy@vegtalk.org

For complaints under GDPR, European Union users may lodge complaints with their local data protection supervisory authorities.

How can I find out about changes?

This version of VegTalk.org’s privacy questions and answers took effect October 7, 2021.

VegTalk.org will post the next version at https://forum.vegtalk.org/privacy. VegTalk.org may change how it announces changes in future versions.

In the meantime, VegTalk.org may update its contact information without announcing a change. Please refer to https://forum.vegtalk.org/privacy for the latest contact information at any time.