Our Privacy Policy

At GeorgiaHikes, your privacy is important.  As our patron, we'd like you to know what information we gather when you visit this site, how it is used, and who we may or may not share it with.

What information do we collect and why?

• We may build a pseudononymous profile of your online habits, interests and activities when you use our Site. This profile will not reveal or be linked to your personal identity. We compile these profiles from demographic information that is voluntarily provided.  We use it to refine our content and to more effectively target any advertising to our audience.  No personal information is ever used in this manner.
  
• We May Collect Your Email Address. We may request your email address, or other information needed to contact you online. This information does not necessarily reveal who you are and we will not link it to your personal identity. We use it to limit anonymous postings in our forums as well as possibly to contact you about issues related to this site or your interactions with this site and its activities.  This information may be aggregated with similar data in a manner that does not reveal your personal identity and may be disclosed only to our staff and to our immediate agents.  By the way, both of which are me.

We May Collect Other Kinds of Information from You: 
When you use our Site, we may collect personal information about you described below. You may later access the information. However, you may not modify or remove it from the system yourself.

• You May be Prompted for a UserID and Password. We may ask you to enter a web site ID, password or other identifier. This information will not reveal your identity or be linked to you personally. We use this information to complete and support the immediate activity requested, and to comply with any requirements of law. This information may be disclosed only to our staff and to our immediate agents.
  
• We May Collect Purchase Information. We may collect information actively generated by the purchase of a product or service, such as a payment method. This information will not inherently reveal your identity or be linked to you personally. We use this information to complete and support the immediate activity requested, and to comply with any requirements of law. This information may be aggregated with similar data in a manner that does not reveal your personal identity and may be disclosed only to our staff and to our immediate agents.  So far we're not selling anything so this really doesn't apply, but that may change in the future.
  
• We May Collect Information About Your Computer. When you visit our Site, we may automatically collect information about your computer configuration, such as your browser type, operating system, IP address or ISP domain name. In some cases, this information may reveal your identity or be linked to you personally. We use this information to complete and support the immediate activity requested, comply with laws requiring preservation of social histories, and to comply with any requirements of law. This information may be aggregated with similar data in a manner that does not reveal your personal identity and may be disclosed only to our staff and to our immediate agents.
  
• We May Collect Navigation and Clickstream Data. As you browse our Site, we may gather navigational and clickstream data that shows what pages are visited and how long various features are used. This information will not reveal your identity or be linked to you personally. We use this information to administer and run the Site, improve the Site for everyone, and to comply with any requirements of law. This information may be aggregated with similar data in a manner that does not reveal your personal identity and may be disclosed to third parties and in public forums generally.
  
• We May Collect Demographic Data About You. We may request information about your demographic or social characteristics, such as gender, age and income level. This information will not reveal your identity or be linked to you personally. We use this information to improve the Site for everyone, build individual profiles for ongoing research, analysis and reporting, and to comply with any requirements of law. This information may be aggregated with similar data in a manner that does not reveal your personal identity and may be disclosed only to our staff and to our immediate agents.
  
• We May Collect Your Online Postings and Content. Certain features of our Site may allow you to contribute content, such as instant messages, chat room postings and the like. Although you may choose to identify yourself in your postings, contributing content does not inherently reveal your personal identity. We use this information to complete and support the immediate activity requested, administer and run the Site, and to comply with any requirements of law. This information may be aggregated with similar data in a manner that does not reveal your personal identity and may be disclosed to our staff and our immediate agents, and to other organizations adhering to our privacy practices.

Exceptional Discolsures
We may disclose your information if necessary to protect our legal rights or if the information relates to actual or threatened harmful conduct. Disclosure may be required by law or if we receive legal process.

Do We Use Cookies?  Why?
Cookies are small files stored by your browser in your computer when you visit our Site. We use cookies to improve our Site and make it easier to use. Cookies permit us to recognize users and avoid repetitive requests for the same information. We mostly use "session cookies" that are automatically deleted after each visit. Cookies from our Site can't be read by other sites. Most browsers will accept cookies until you change browser settings to refuse them.  Some sections of this site, such as the forums may require

How is the Information Protected?
We follow reasonable technical and management practices to help protect the confidentiality, security and integrity of data stored on our system. While no computer system is completely secure, we believe the measures implemented by our Site reduce the likelihood of security problems to a level appropriate to the type of data involved.

How Long Do We Keep the Information?
We generally keep user data on our server or in our archives for as long as we reasonably need it. We may alter this practice according to changing requirements. For example, we may delete some data if needed to free up storage space. We may keep other data for longer periods if the law requires it.

You Consent
By using our Site, you agree to this Policy. This is our entire and exclusive Privacy Policy and it supersedes any earlier version. Our Terms of Service take precedence over any conflicting Policy provision. We may change our Policy by posting a new version on our Site.

The Standard Legal Disclaimer
This Site operates AS-IS and AS-AVAILABLE, without liability of any kind. We are not responsible for events beyond our direct control. This Policy is governed by Georgia law, excluding conflicts of law principles. This site also advocates certain outdoor activities that may be hazardous or life threatening.  Your participation in these activities is at your own risk.  We assume no liability for any injury or damages you may incur while participating. 

Questions?
If you have a privacy question about our Site, please email: Brian Tant at webmaster@georgiahikes.com.