TDWG Terms Wiki:Privacy policy

By using or contributing to this resource, in addition to agreeing to the copyright and licensing conditions, you also agree to the following privacy policy:

Content policies with respect to privacy and protection of minors

Information on this web site may be suitable to identify living or dead persons. When authoring a contribution to this platform, authors must respect all legal requirements for privacy and must avoid unnecessary publication of private information. However, much of this platform will contain scientific and scientific customs will generally require to cite the sources and authors of information, including collectors who have submitted their collections to public collections. Neither such citations, nor any citations by third parties of the contributors to information published on this platform, is considered a violation of privacy rights.

The protection of minors will be carefully observed. This web site is not aware of carrying any information that is not suitable for minors. Please contact us should you detect such information; the information will be checked and any unsuitable materials will be removed as soon as possible.

The use of contact information contained on this web platform (users, imprint, or other addresses) for purposes of commercial advertisement is explicitly not permitted.

Privacy policies applicable when reading content

If you only read information or enter information to perform queries to access information, the only information collected about you is such as typically collected by web sites in general. Your web browser will automatically transmit some information to the server (date, time, operating system, browser type and version, referrer, page viewed, and your IP address). Except for the IP address, this information cannot be traced to a person. The server will store this information, which will be used for statistical purposes and tracing error or problems with the service. The data will not be merged with other data sources and will not be shared with other parties, except as required by the law.

This web application will furthermore set temporary "cookies", small text information stored by your browser, and transmitted to the server. Please allow these cookies. The information will be used only for normal operation, e.g. to recognize signed-in users and user preferences. It will not be shared with others or otherwise used to infringe on your privacy. You can prevent your browser from using cookies; in this case a number of functions of this web site will not work.

Web site analysis: This web site uses a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. (“Google Analytics”). This service also uses cookies to distinguish between new and returning visitors. In contrast to the server-internal statistics mentioned above, this analysis will however, be performed on servers provided by Google. To avoid a violation of your privacy, your IP address will be abbreviated before being transmitted to Google (function “_anonymizeIp”). The web counter supports analyses on the number of visitors, their geographic origin, operating systems, browser type and version, screen resolutions and similar technical parameters. It also allows to analyze which pages are viewed most or least; however, it cannot analyze the pages used by specific users. Google itself will use the data exclusively for statistical purposes. Google will transfer the data to a third party only if legally obliged to do so, or if the third party is performing work for Google. The state-appointed data privacy agency of Hamburg, Germany, has analyzed the use of Google Analytics and agreed to the form used on this site. Should you still have reservations, you can install a browser plugin to completely disable Google Analytics in your browser.

Privacy policies applicable to content contributors

If you contribute works (text, images, other resources) to this collaboration platform, you are performing a publishing act. Your work, your authorship, and the time of publication will be recorded and made publicly available.

Although you may delete all or parts of your contribution from the current version of a page or record, your original contribution will normally still be present in a version history or record change log. You do not reserve a right to delete information from these history mechanisms. This is comparable to writing articles or letters to the editor in a scientific journal; the publication of these works cannot simply be reversed. System administrators will, however, try to solve reasonable requests for to hide public access to sensitive information, as long as not rights or other contributors are affected. System administrators have no rights to remove materials without agreement with the author, unless this is in response to a legal requirement, a court order, or otherwise proven illegal or illicit content.

Creation of user accounts

Most contribution mechanisms available here require you to first create a user account. The following points apply to the creation of user accounts:

• Entering personal or business data is voluntarily. Such information may be used exclusively for educational and scientific purposes. Commercial use is not permitted.
• Name: Because of the importance of authorship to assess quality and validity of scientific contributions, we normally create only accounts under your real name. Only under special circumstances a pseudonym may be considered.
• Password: Users are encouraged to select strong passwords (more than 8 characters, words not found in dictionaries, ideally containing digits or punctuation). Do not share your password or publish it. We cannot guarantee that your password is safe against break-in with hacker tools, but we promise to make every effort to protect your password. Note that passwords are currently not protected against hackers listening on your local network (we use http instead of https).
• Address: Parts of your address such as country and city may be publicly visible, especially if this is necessary to distinguish multiple persons of the same name.
  • If your personal information contains an affiliation with an organization, the organization name and address will be published.
  • We try to keep your private address confidential, except for the country and city you live in. However, other users of this collaboration platform, after authentication (= login), may be able to read such information to contact you directly. By submitting the information, you agree with this practice.
• Once created, user accounts cannot be removed upon your request. They are required to document the history of the contributed content.
• In some cases you may be able to update erroneous information yourself, in other cases a server administrator may have to do this for you.

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See also:

• Terms of Use (including general disclaimer)
• Copyright and licensing conditions
• Contact