Privacy Statement, Bird Study Group

Our Commitment to Privacy:Your privacy is important to us. To protect your privacy, the Bird Study Group
provides this notice explaining our on-line and off-line information practices.

Privacy Policies and Practices

Information Sharing and Disclosure
The Bird Study Group (BSG) does not collect personally identifiable or aggregate (non-personally identifiable) information on-line at the birdstudygroup.org web site. This site is not designed for the submission or harvesting of on-line information.

The BSG may collect personally identifiable information as a result of the birdstudygroup.org web site under the following conditions:

when a person wishing to become a member or wishing to renew their membership prints and completes the HTML Membership Application and mails (via U.S. Postal Mail) or delivers or causes to be delivered that form to the Bird Study Group,
when a person wishing to acquire a copy of our Birding Hot Spots of Northwestern Louisiana publication corresponds with us via U.S. Postal Mail or e-mail to obtain a copy by U.S. Postal Mail.

Any information we collect is

not accessible on-line by anyone,
used for organization management,
used in the publication of a Membership Directory,
used for the postal mailing of BSG newsletters or BSG publications, and
not shared with third parties (other than the U.S. Post Office for mailings).

What personally identifiable information may be collected:

Name
Address (necessary for delivery of printed newsletter or Hot Spots publication via U.S. Postal mail - otherwise optional, but can be helpful)
phone numbers (optional, but can be helpful)
e-mail address (necessary for subscription to the BSG BirdAlert listserver - otherwise optional, but can be helpful)
additional information provided by the individual.

The BSG maintains a database of members (past and present). The computer on which this database is maintained is a secure computer used by the membership chairperson.

Membership Directory
The BSG periodically publishes a Membership Directory of active members for distribution to BSG members. The directory contains typical personally identifiable information as described above. Prior to publication, members wishing to be "unlisted" are given the opportunity to "opt-out".

Legal Disclaimer:
The BSG reserves the right to disclose the above listed personally identifiable information as required by law, to comply with judicial proceedings, court orders or legal processes served on the BSG.

Registration:
The BSG does not require the submission of personally identifiable or aggregate information in order to view the birdstudygroup.org web site. This is not a "members only" web site. No registration is necessary.

On-line Payments:
The BSG does not accept on-line payments.

Tracking of Visitation / Use of Cookies:
The BSG does not make use of cookies (session or persistent) to track when a computer user visits or returns to the birdstudygroup.org web site. There is a hit counter on the "home page". The hit counter is a Perl script.

Use of Perl scripts:
The BSG utilizes Perl programming in the construction of the "home page" of the birdstudygroup.org web site to display a visit sensitive hit counter which will increment when a browser visits the birdstudygroup.org web site "homepage". This is the only use of Perl programming on the birdstudygroup.org web site.

Use of JAVA scripts:
The BSG utilizes JAVA programming in the construction of the "home page" to display scrolling text in the status bar of various browsers. This scroll may contain informational items or greetings. If JAVA script is not enabled within your browser or the status bar view is not enabled within your browser, you simply will not see the scrolling text. This is the only use of the JAVA programming on the birdstudygroup.org web site.

Links to Other Sites:
This web site contains links to other sites which are not part of the birdstudygroup.org web site. The BSG has no control of and no responsibility for the privacy policies and practices of other web sites. The BSG does review other sites prior to making links to those sites available via the birdstudygroup.org Birding Links page.

We encourage you to be aware that when you leave our site, you should review the privacy policy of the site(s) you are visiting.

Third Party Advertisers / Advertising:
Advertising may be contained in the Bird Study Group Newsletter. These newsletters may be reviewed on-line at the birdstudygroup.org web site Newsletters page or printed from the web site. As a practice, newsletters are not distributed via e-mail by the BSG.

BSG BirdAlert Listserver Postings to this Site:
Posts to the BSG BirdAlert List Server (see below) are manually posted to the Recent Sightings page of the birdstudygroup.org web site. Contents are reviewed and/or edited and/or formatted prior to posting. Driving directions to and addresses of private residences are removed prior to posting. E-mail addresses and personally identifiable information other than contributor name and phone numbers are removed prior to posting.

E-mail addresses are removed to decrease unsolicited e-mail. Persons who specifically wish that their e-mail address be posted on the website may request so via e-mail to: .
Please note the specific pages to which the request applies, (i.e.: Field Trips, Governance, Recent Sightings, etc.) otherwise, ALL Pages will be assumed. Requestor must specify the type of listing, munged (human readable but not clickable) or unmunged (clickable “mailto:” link).

Third Party Service Providers:

BSG BirdAlert Listserver:
A server on the campus of Centenary College of Louisiana (Shreveport) hosts the BSG BirdAlert listserver. This server is not owned by or under the direct control of the Bird Study Group. Subscription and unsubscription to this listserver is manual by the list moderator (a BSG member) following a request by a potential subscriber (via e-mail or membership form) or a remove request. The listserver has not been shown to be a source of UBE/UCE/SPAM to listserver subscribers. Subscriber e-mail which is directed to the listserver by the subscriber is distributed to the other subscribers. E-mail from non-subscribers is refused. Anti-virus software is run on the listserver. Subscribers are responsible for the content of their posts.

Web Site Hosting:
The birdstudygroup.org web site is hosted on a third party server. The current provider is Glob@t.com . This server is not owned by or under the direct control of the Bird Study Group. The privacy policy of this hosting provider is available via the following link: http://www.globat.com/legal/index.php?legal=privacyPolicy.

Reporting Suspected Abuses of This Privacy Policy:
If you suspect your privacy has been compromised as a result of personally identifiable information submitted to the BSG, please e-mail our registered abuse address .