Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used. To make this notice easy to find, we make it available in our forum's footer and at every point where personally identifiable information may be requested.

This privacy policy has been compiled to better serve those who are concerned with how their 'Personally Identifiable Information' (PII) is being used online. PII, as described in privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. Please read our privacy policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your Personally Identifiable Information at HotSpot Outdoors Forum.

What personal information do we collect from the people that visit our forum?

When ordering subscriptions or registering on our forum, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your email address or other details to help you with your experience.

When do we collect information?

We collect information from you when you register on our forum, subscribe to a newsletter, fill out a form, open a Support ticket or enter information on our forum to provide us with feedback on our services.

How do we use your information?

We may use the information we collect from you when you register, sign up for our newsletter, respond to a marketing communication, surf the forum, or use certain other forum features in the following ways:

• To personalize your experience and to allow us to deliver the type of content and product offerings in which you are most interested.
• To improve our forum in order to better serve you.
• To allow us to better service you in responding to your customer service requests.
• To send periodic emails regarding your services.
• To follow up with them after correspondence (live chat, email or phone inquiries).

GDPR - How do we protect your information?

Under GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) EU and other data protection laws, we follow strict security procedures in the storage and disclosure of information which you have given us, to prevent unauthorized access. Your information is stored in a database on our secure web server. We use regular Malware Scanning of our forum/web server to ensure PCI standards. Your personal information is contained in secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. We have a dedicated DPO (Data Protection Officer), who conducts a regular audit of the data for its safety and to ensure GDPR compliance. In addition, all sensitive information you supply during login is encrypted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology.

We only provide articles and information. We implement a variety of security measures when a user submits or accesses their information to maintain the safety of your personal information. We never ask for your credit card information.

Protection through forum software:

We use a licensed forum software from IPS Inc Ltd, US (Invision Power Services) which is the most secure and globally renowned forum software. We do NOT use any Nulled/Warez/Cracked software/applications/plugins that may breach the forum's security or leech your identity/information.

Ads:

HotSpot Outdoors serves ads from Google Adsense based on user's visit to serve personalized ads. You may opt out of the use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. In accordance with EU user consent policy, we only may collect, share, and use your PII for personalization of ads.

Do we use 'cookies'?

Yes. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site's or service provider's systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. They are used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity, which enables us to provide you with improved services. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about forum's traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.

We use cookies to:

• Understand and save user's preferences for their content and future visits.
• Serve ads from Google Adsense based on a user's prior visits.
• Compile aggregate data about forum traffic and site interactions in order to offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may also use trusted third-party services such as Google that track this information on our behalf.
• You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings. Since the browser is a little different, look at your browser's Help Menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies. If you turn cookies off, some of the forum features might be disabled that make your site experience more efficient and may not function properly. However, you will still be able to log in, access user preferences - or in case otherwise, enquire about by contacting customer service.

Third-party disclosure:

We do NOT at any cost - sell, trade, rent or otherwise transfer your Personally Identifiable Information to outside parties.

Government requests for member's data:

HotSpot Outdoors Forum, under GDPR EU and other data protection laws, is required to share customer data when it receives valid legal process from a government agency with jurisdiction. We review each request very carefully to ensure that the government is entitled to the data they seek with the level of the process they have obtained. Where appropriate, we also negotiate with the requesting agency to narrow the scope of the data sought.

We stand with our users when a government agency asks us for data. We don’t voluntarily cooperate with authorities unless either legally compelled to do so, or in the case of imminent harm emergencies. We have processes in place to closely scrutinize law enforcement requests, and we disregard when something is not right. We will notify forum members of government requests for their information (unless we are prohibited by the law from doing so), and we give our forum members time to legally challenge or quash the request whenever possible.

Third-party links:

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third-party products or services on our forum. These third-party sites such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Viglink etc have separate and independent privacy policies. We, therefore, have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.

SPAM Protection:

Besides automated anti-SPAM service by IPS forum software, we use Google reCAPTCHA (Google Inc.) to help prevent spam abuse. Google reCAPTCHA is a SPAM protection service provided by Google Inc. The use of reCAPTCHA is subject to the Google privacy policy and terms of use.

California Online Privacy Protection Act (US):

CalOPPA is the first state law in the US to require commercial websites and online services to post a privacy policy. The law's reach stretches well beyond California to require any person or company in the United States (and conceivably the world) that operates websites collecting Personally Identifiable Information from California consumers to post a conspicuous privacy policy on its website stating exactly the information being collected and those individuals or companies with whom it is being shared.

According to CalOPPA, we agree to the following:

• Users can visit our site anonymously.
• Once this privacy policy is created, we will add a link to it on our homepage or as a minimum, on the first significant page after entering our website.
• Our Privacy Policy link includes the word 'Privacy' and can be easily be found on the page specified above.

Changes to Personal Information:

You may change your personal information:

• By emailing us
• By logging in to your account settings
• By chatting with us or by sending us a support ticket

How does our site handle Do Not Track signals?

We honor Do Not Track signals and Do Not Track, plant cookies, or use advertising when a Do Not Track (DNT) browser mechanism is in place.

COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act)

When it comes to the collection of personal information from children under the age of 13 years old, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) puts parents in control. The Federal Trade Commission, United States' consumer protection agency, enforces the COPPA Rule, which spells out what operators of websites and online services must do to protect children's privacy and safety online. In this regard, we do NOT market to children under the age of 13 years old. Moreover, we never collect or maintain information at our forum from those we actually know are under 13, and no part of our website is structured to attract anyone under 13.

Fair Information Practices

The Fair Information Practices Principles form the backbone of privacy law and the concepts they include have played a significant role in the development of data protection laws around the globe. Understanding the Fair Information Practice Principles and how they should be implemented is critical to comply with the various privacy laws that protect personal information. In order to be in line with Fair Information Practices, we will take the following responsive action, should a data breach occur:

• We will notify you via email within 1 business day.
• We will notify the users via in-site notification within 1 business day.

We also agree to the Individual Redress Principle which requires that individuals have the right to legally pursue enforceable rights against data collectors and processors who fail to adhere to the law. This principle requires not only that individuals have enforceable rights against data users, but also that individuals have recourse to courts or government agencies to investigate and/or prosecute non-compliance by data processors.

CAN SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations. We collect your email address in order to:

• Send information, respond to inquiries, and/or other requests or questions
• Send you additional information related to your product and/or service.
• Send you notifications you have opted for or about the content you are following or mentioned/participated therein.

To be in accordance with CANSPAM, we agree to the following:

• Not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses.
• Identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way.
• Include the physical address of our business or forum.
• Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly.
• Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email.

If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can contact us via forum's Contact Us form located at the bottom of every page or follow the instructions at the bottom of each email and we will promptly remove you from ALL correspondences.

Log Files

Log files are maintained and analyzed of all requests for files on this forums' web servers. Log files do not capture personal information but do capture the user's IP address, which is automatically recognized by our web server.

Changes to Privacy Policy

You will be notified of any Privacy Policy changes on our Privacy Policy page and/or by notifications.