Privacy Policy

Trail Hiking Australia (THA) is a website developed as a hobby, by Darren Edwards. This is not a commercial initiative. I am committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that gives you the most powerful and safe online experience. This Privacy Policy applies to this community website and governs data collection and usage. By using the THA website you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

Last review date: 11 October 2024

General Policies

My website address is: https://www.trailhiking.com.au

Use of cookies

If you leave a comment on my site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit my login page, I will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, I will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site I collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Submitting an official trail or trip report

Data collected during the submission process

I collect information about you during the ‘submit a hike‘ or ‘submit a trip report‘ process on this site. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, IP address, email address, phone number, address, locations details including GPS co-ordinates and any other details that might be requested from you for the purpose of adding your hiking trail listings.

Handling this data also allows me to:

• Display this information in a public facing manner (such as a web page or API request) and allow website users to search and view submitted listing information.
• Send you important account/order/service information.
• Provide a way for users to contact your listing via the provided contact information.
• Notify you of user interactions such as but not limited to review and contact notifications.
• Respond to your queries or complaints.
• Set up and administer your account, provide technical and/or customer support, spam prevention and to verify your identity. I do this on the basis of my legitimate business interests.

Reviews

I collect information about you during the leave a review process on my site. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, email address, IP address, website URL, image(s), review ratings and review texts. Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Handling this data also allows me to:

• Display this information in a public facing manner (such as a web page or API request).
• Notify you of interactions such as approval or rejection of your review.
• Notify you of user interactions such as reply notifications.
• Spam prevention.

Trail listing contact forms

I may collect information about you when you submit a contact form to a listing. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, email address, IP address and contact texts.

Handling this data also allows me to:

• Send your contact message and details to the listings contact email.
• Monitor the contact system for spam and abuse.

User data/profile

I collect information about you during the registration and edit profile process on my site. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, email address, phone number, address, IP and any other details that might be requested from you for the purpose of building your public profile.

Handling this data also allows me to:

• Send you important account/order/service information.
• Display this information in a public facing manner (such as a web page or API request) and allow website users to search and view submitted information.
• Respond to your queries or complaints.
• Set up and administer your account, provide technical and/or customer support, and to verify your identity. I do this on the basis of my legitimate business interests.

Any profile information provided to this site may be displayed publicly.

I use Forminator PRO to create and embed any forms on my website. When visitors or users submit a form, I capture the IP Address for spam protection. I also capture the email address and might capture other personal data included in the Form fields.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data I hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that I erase any personal data I hold about you. This does not include any data I are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where I send your data

I collect and use your personal information to operate the THA website, and to deliver the products and services associated with this website. I use your personally identifiable information to inform you of products or services available from the website. I may also contact you via email and conduct polls to gather your opinion about the THA website and related activities, or potential new activities that may be offered.

I does not sell, rent or lease your data to third parties. I may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of my partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (name and e-mail address) is not transferred to the third party. In addition, I may share data with trusted partners to help me perform statistical analysis, send you an email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to me, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information. I do not use or disclose sensitive personal information without your explicit consent.

If you request a password reset, your IP address may be included in the reset email.

I keep track of the websites and pages that users visit within the THA website in order to determine what activities and services are the most popular. This data is used to deliver customised content within the THA website.

I will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on me; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of THA; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of the THA website, or the public.

How long I retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so I can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. For users that register on my website (if any), I also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information. When visitors or users submit a form I retain the data for 30 days.

Digital downloads

I collect information about you during the digital downloads checkout process on my store. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, billing address, shipping address, email address, phone number, credit card/payment details and any other details that might be requested from you for the purpose of processing your orders.

Handling this data also allows me to:

• Send you important account/order/service information.
• Respond to your queries, refund requests, or complaints.
• Process payments and to prevent fraudulent transactions. I do this on the basis of my legitimate business interests.
• Set up and administer your account, provide technical and/or customer support, and to verify your identity.

Additionally I may also collect the following information:

• Location and traffic data (including IP address and browser type) if you place an order, or if I need to estimate taxes and shipping costs based on your location.
• Product pages visited and content viewed while your session is active.
• Your comments and product reviews if you choose to leave them on my website.
• Account email/password to allow you to access your account, if you have one.
• If you choose to create an account with us, your name, address, and email address, which will be used to populate the checkout for future orders.

Online trip intentions form

The secure online tip intentions form captures information that might help search and rescue teams find you in the event of an emergency. Your trip details will be sent via encrypted email to the relatives, friends, or trusted person that you nominate, with instructions on how to contact Police Search and Rescue if you don’t return on time.

Your Privacy
The THA website is collecting your personal and health information for the purpose registering your intended hike and to manage your safety and well-being. Personal and health information collected in this form will be shared with you and the emergency contact/s that you have nominated. Your emergency contact may share this information with Police to help facilitate an emergency response, if required. I do not store this information on this website and will not disclose your personal and health information to any other third party.

Consent
By submitting the online trip intention form you confirm that you have read, understood and agree to the following:

• You confirm that the information you have provided in this form is complete and accurate.
• You confirm you have read and understood the Privacy Notice and agree to your personal and health information being collected and managed in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
• You confirm that your listed emergency contact(s) have given you permission to share their personal information.
• You understand the information in this form will be used to generate an email of your trip intentions which will also be sent via email to your emergency contact.
• You understand that if your trip intentions change in any way after submitting this form, you agree to modify this form or notify your emergency contact directly.
• You understand this form does not constitute approval by Police or land managers to undertake the trip.
• You understand and agree that you am responsible for the necessary planning and preparation for your trip.
• You understand that completing and submitting this form does not guarantee a rescue operation if you do not return from my trip.
• You understand that it’s your responsibility to ensure that your emergency contact can notify Police if you have not returned, using the details from this form.
• Even if an alert is raised, you understand there is no guarantee that Police will start a search and rescue operation of a missing person in any circumstance.

Security of your personal information

I secure your personal information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. I secure the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other websites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

What data breach procedures I have in place

In the case of a personal data breach, I shall without undue delay and, where feasible, not later than 72 hours after having become aware of it, notify the personal data breach to the supervisory authority competent in accordance with Article 55, unless the personal data breach is unlikely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons. Where the notification to the supervisory authority is not made within 72 hours, it shall be accompanied by reasons for the delay.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

• IP Address
• Operating System type
• Operating System version
• Device Type
• Language of the website
• Web browser type
• Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.

Anti-spam and user activity

I collect information about visitors who comment or edit trail information on this site. The information I collect  includes the editors/commenter’s IP address, user agent, referrer, and Site URL (along with other information directly provided by the commenter such as their name, username, email address, and the comment itself). If you are a registered user, I collect and save all your site activity such as favourite and completed hikes, edited trail access and feature information and comments on posts and pages.

Changes to this statement

I will occasionally update this Statement of Privacy to reflect user feedback. I encourage you to periodically review this statement to be informed of how I am protecting your information.

Contact Information

I welcome your comments regarding this Privacy Policy. If you believe that I have not adhered to this Policy, please contact me directly at [email protected]

Regards

Darren Edwards
Founder, Trail Hiking Australia

Last review date: 11 October 2024