Posting and Privacy Policy 

Blog and Comments Policy

The blogs section of the Dialogues Network is an open community forum. Blogs posted on the Dialogues Network are posted by the users of our website and do not reflect the opinions of the NSRC. Bloggers on the Dialogues Network reflect a wide variety of experiences and we ask that readers be respectful of the different social positions of all the bloggers on the Dialogues Network.

The NSRC website is designed to provide a safe and open forum for discussing issues of sexuality. While we encourage a diversity of opinions and understand how personal these issues are to our readers, comments on posts must be respectful of writers’ and other users’ opinions. Given the function of this site to promote productive conversations around issues of sexuality, we also ask that readers keep their comments on the topics at hand. Personal attacks, inflammatory comments and posts that are irrelevant to the topic of the post being commented on will be removed at the discretion of NSRC staff without further notice.

The comments sections on our site are designed to support ongoing conversation around issues addressed in articles and users’ blogs. Spamming and comments designed solely for self-promotion will be deleted at the discretion of NSRC staff. Commercial links posted in users’ comments may be removed or lead to the deletion of the comment at the discretion of the NSRC staff. While the staff at the NSRC monitors comments for spam and personal attacks, we may not always immediately see inappropriate comments and ask for your patience as we remove them.

While we encourage interaction between writers and readers on the site, the writers on the NSRC web site are not regular staff of the NSRC and thus may not be available to respond to comments from readers. Readers should not expect that writers will respond to comments on their work. Likewise, while the NSRC supports dialogue between writers and readers, we discourage readers from posting contact information with their comments. Phone numbers and addresses left with comments may leave readers who post this information open to unwanted contact or harassment; the NSRC staff may edit comments to remove unnecessary or excessive contact information.

Collection and disclosure of information

We collect Personal Information from eligible individuals who affirmatively request to receive e-mail or other services from us. We collect this Personal Information in order to provide these eligible individuals with timely information via e-mail regarding events, resources and issues. We also collect Personal Information from those who make online contributions to the organization, in order to process and report the contributions.

It is our general policy not to make Personal Information available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents.

Online petitions and Personal Information

We treat your name, city, state, and any comments as public information. We may, for example, provide compilations of petitions, with your comments, to national leaders, without disclosing email addresses. We may also make comments along with your city and state available to the press and public online.
Opting out and modifying information:

Subscribers to our e-mail list may terminate their subscriptions via a link at the bottom of each email sent from the National Sexuality Resource Center.

Privacy of our email lists

As noted above, we maintain e-mail lists to keep interested, eligible individuals informed about important topics, and individuals must affirmatively request to join them. We configure our list server software to refuse to divulge the email addresses of our list subscribers to anyone other than those whom we authorize. However, we are not the author of this software, and are not responsible for any failures in the software to preserve subscriber anonymity.
Browser information collected on the web site

We log IP addresses, which are the locations of computers or networks on the Internet, and analyze them in order to improve the value of our site. We also collect aggregate numbers of page hits in order to track the popularity of certain pages and improve the value of our site. We do not gather, request, record, require, collect or track any Internet users' Personal Information through these processes.

Website Usage Terms

The use of this website is subject to the following terms of use:

* The content of the pages of this website is for your general information and use only. It is subject to change without notice.
* Neither we nor any third parties provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials found or offered on this website for any particular purpose. You acknowledge that such information and materials may contain inaccuracies or errors and we expressly exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors to the fullest extent permitted by law.
* Your use of any information or materials on this website is entirely at your own risk, for which we shall not be liable. It shall be your own responsibility to ensure that any products, services or information available through this website meet your specific requirements.
* This website contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. This material includes, but is not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice, which forms part of these terms and conditions.
* From time to time this website may also include links to other websites. These links are provided for your convenience to provide further information. They do not signify that we endorse the website(s). We have no responsibility for the content of the linked website(s).

Children's privacy

Because we care about the safety and privacy of children online, we comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). COPPA and its accompanying FTC regulation establish United States federal law that protects the privacy of children using the Internet. We do not knowingly contact or collect personal information from children under 13. Our site is not intended to solicit information of any kind from children under 13.

It is possible that by fraud or deception we may receive information pertaining to children under 13. If we are notified of this, as soon as we verify the information, we will immediately obtain parental consent or otherwise delete the information from our servers. If you want to notify us of our receipt of information by children under 13, please do so by emailing us at nsrcinfo@sfsu.edu.
Changes to this policy

We will revise or update this policy if our practices change, or as we develop better ways to keep you informed about them. You should refer back to this page often for the latest information and the effective date of any changes. If we decide to change this policy, we will post a new policy on our site and change the date at the bottom. Changes to the policy shall not apply retroactively.

The Information We Collect

When you visit Dialogues you provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected by us and Web Site use information collected by us as you interact with our Web Site.

When you register with Dialogues, you provide us with certain personal information, such as your name, your email address, your telephone number, your address, your school, and any other personal or preference information that you provide to us.

When you enter Dialogues, we collect your browser type and IP address. This information is gathered for all Dialogues visitors. In addition, we store certain information from your browser using "cookies." A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user. We use session ID cookies to confirm that users are logged in. These cookies terminate once the user closes the browser. By default, we use a persistent cookie that stores your login ID (but not your password) to make it easier for you to login when you come back to Dialogues. You can remove or block this cookie using the settings in your browser if you want to disable this convenience feature.

When you use Dialogues, you may set up your personal profile, form relationships, send messages, perform searches and queries, form groups, set up events, add applications, and transmit information through various channels. We collect this information so that we can provide you the service and offer personalized features. In most cases, we retain it so that, for instance, you can return to view prior messages you have sent or easily see your friend list. When you update information, we usually keep a backup copy of the prior version for a reasonable period of time to enable reversion to the prior version of that information.

You post User Content on the Site at your own risk. Although we allow you to set privacy options that limit access to your pages, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. We cannot control the actions of other Users with whom you may choose to share your pages and information. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that User Content you post on the Site will not be viewed by unauthorized persons. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site. You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal, copies of User Content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other Users have copied or stored your User Content.

Any improper collection or misuse of information provided on Dialogues is a violation of the Dialogues Terms of Service and should be reported to nsrcinfo@sfsu.edu.

If you choose to use our invitation service to tell a friend about our site, we will ask you for information needed to send the invitation, such as your friend's email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email or instant message inviting him or her to visit the site. Dialogues stores this information to send this one-time invitation, to register a friend connection if your invitation is accepted, and to track the success of our referral program. Your friend may contact us at nsrcinfo@sfsu.edu to request that we remove this information from our database.

Dialogues may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the Dialogues service through the operation of the service (e.g., photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience.

By using Dialogues, you are consenting to have your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States.

Children Under Age 13

Dialogues does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register. If you are under 13, please do not attempt to register for Dialogues or send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under age 13 may provide any personal information to or on Dialogues. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at nsrcinfo@sfsu.edu.
Children Between the Ages of 13 and 18

We recommend that minors over the age of 13 ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet.

Use of Information Obtained by Dialogues

When you register with Dialogues, you create your own profile and privacy settings. Your profile information, as well as your name, email and photo, are displayed to people in the networks specified in your privacy settings to enable you to connect with people on Dialogues. We may occasionally use your name and email address to send you notifications regarding new services offered by Dialogues that we think you may find valuable.

Profile information is used by Dialogues primarily to be presented back to and edited by you when you access the service and to be presented to others permitted to view that information by your privacy settings. In some cases where your privacy settings permit it (e.g., posting to your wall), other Dialogues users may be able to supplement your profile.

Profile information you submit to Dialogues will be available to users of Dialogues who belong to at least one of the networks you allow to access the information through your privacy settings (e.g., school, geography, friends of friends). Your name, network names, and profile picture thumbnail will be available in search results across the Dialogues network and those limited pieces of information may be made available to third party search engines. This is primarily so your friends can find you and send a friend request. People who see your name in searches, however, will not be able to access your profile information unless they have a relationship to you (friend, friend of friend, member of your networks, etc.) that allows such access based on your privacy settings.

Dialogues may send you service-related announcements from time to time through the general operation of the service. For instance, if a friend sends you a new message or poke, or someone posts on your wall, you may receive an email alerting you to that fact.

We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, Dialogues Platform developers and other users of Dialogues, to supplement your profile. Where such information is used, we generally allow you to specify in your privacy settings that you do not want this to be done or to take other actions that limit the connection of this information to your profile (e.g., removing photo tag links).