Privacy and Cookies

Transgender Zone Privacy Policy

COOKIE POLICY AND THE NEW EU DIRECTIVE

The following statement explains our policy regarding the personal information we collect about you.

•  Statement of intent
•  Information on visitors
•  What is a cookie?
•  Submitting personal information
•  Access to your personal information
•  Users under 18
•  How to find and control your cookies

Statement of intent
From time to time, you will be asked to submit personal information about yourself (eg name and email address etc) in order to receive or use services on our website. Such services include newsletters, live chats, message boards and forums, agony and support services. By entering your details in the fields requested, you enable the Transgender Zone and its service providers to provide you with the services you select. Whenever you provide such personal information, we will treat that information in accordance with this policy. Our services are designed to give you the information that you want to receive.

Information on visitors
During the course of any visit to the Transgender Zone Website, you may see reference to  something called a cookie, these are downloaded to your computer (see point 3 for more on this). Most, if not all, websites do this, because cookies allow the website publisher to do useful things like find out whether the computer (and probably its user) has visited the site before. This is done on a repeat visit by checking to see, and finding, the cookie left there on the last visit. Cookies are essential for correct use of the Transgender Zone Forums to reveal new posts since your last visit. Any information that is supplied by cookies can help us to provide you with a better service and assists us to analyse the profile of our visitors. Transgender Zone and Certain advertisers, may use cookies, these pages are used to offer discounts or record click-thrus - they are set to appear only once in 24 hours if cookies are enabled. Both the cookies and the embedded code provide non-personal statistical information about visits to pages on the site and to advertisers.

What is a cookie?
When you enter a site your computer will automatically be issued with a cookie. Cookies are text files that identify your computer to our server. Cookies in themselves do not identify the individual user, just the computer used. Many sites do this whenever a user visits their site in order to track traffic flows. You can find out more on cookies and the law below.

Cookies themselves only record those areas of the site that have been visited by the computer in question, and for how long. Users have the opportunity to set their computers to accept all cookies, to notify them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time. The last of these, of course, means that certain personalised services cannot then be provided to that user.

NB: Even if you haven't set your computer to reject cookies you can still browse our site anonymously until such time as you register for any Transgender Zone services.

Submitting personal information
In general, any information you provide to the Transgender Zone will only be used within the Transgender Zone. It will never be supplied to anyone outside the Transgender Zone without first obtaining your consent, unless we are obliged by law to disclose it. We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as you use the service you have requested, and remove it in the event that the purpose has been met, or, in the case of a membership, you no longer wish to continue with your registration as a member. Where personal information is held for people who are not yet registered but have taken part in other services (eg competitions), that information will be held only as long as necessary to ensure that the service is run smoothly. In some instances we ask that people sign our release form for podcasting, use of personal images or audio/visual/music production. Full details are within that form when you sign it.

If you are notified on a Transgender Zone site that your information may be used to allow the Transgender Zone to contact you for "service administration purposes", this means that the Transgender Zone may contact you for a number of purposes related to the service you have signed up for. For example, we may wish to provide you with password reminders or notify you that the particular service has been suspended for maintenance or notifying you of improvements to the service or new services on Transgender Zone site or if you sign up specifically to receive such promotional information, e.g. the Transgender Zone Newsletter/Mailing List.

Users under 18
If you are under 18, please get your parent/guardian's permission beforehand whenever you provide personal information to the Transgender Zone website. Users without this consent are not allowed to provide us with personal information.

Cookies

Cookies are set by web sites that you visit and stored by web browser applications (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc.) to remember information relating to the web site, and your activity on that site.  The major uses of cookies are normal and necessary to keep track of your visit (or 'session') - for example to allow you to build a shopping basket or to log in to an online account.

Cookies are either 'session cookies' or 'permanent cookies' (also called 'persistent'), though even permanent cookies can expire after a while.  Often a web site will just use cookies to store a 'token' to recognise a visitor rather than actually storing potentially personal data in the cookie.  Some sites may store personal data in a cookie on the computer (or smart-phone etc.) you use - and so you may want to consider whether the computer you are using could be used by others.

Most web sites used 'first party' cookies to remember information for their own benefit, however there may be in addition some 'third party' cookies stored for third party services used on the site.  Third party services can include tracking web site statistics, and tracking online advertising, Transgender Zone advertising partners may set such cookies when clicked.

Cookies Used

The new EU directive on websites and how they handle cookies and implicit and explicit consent for them, the cookies set by Transgender Zone are necessary for the provision of our forum and this site. Refusal of cookies on the forum for example would mean you having to login on every page you visit. A cookie saves your this trouble as it remembers who you are.

How to find and control your cookies

If you're using Firefox:
On your Task Bar, click:
1. Options,  then
2. Privacy
3. 'Remove individual Cookies'
4. Look in the list for transgenderzone.
5. Beside the name will list the cookies used.

If you're using Internet Explorer 9:
1. Open Internet Explorer by clicking the Start button . In the search box, type Internet Explorer, and then, in the list of results, click Internet Explorer.
2. Click the Tools button , and then click Internet options.
3. Click the Privacy tab, and then move the slider to a position between the top and bottom so you're not blocking or allowing all cookies.
4. Click Sites.
5. In the Address of website box, type a website address, and then click Block or Allow.
As you type, a list of webpages that you've already visited will be displayed. You can click an item in the list and it will be displayed in the Address of website box.
6. Repeat step 5 for each website you want to block or allow. When you're finished, click OK.
7. Move the slider back to the position it was originally in, and then click OK.

If you're using Google Chrome:
1. Click the wrench icon tools menu on the browser toolbar.
2. Select Settings.
3. Click Show advanced settings.
4. In the "Privacy" section, click the Content settings button.
5. In the "Cookies" section, you can change the cookies settings.

If you're using Apple Safari:
1. If you are concerned about cookies, you can set how you want Safari to handle them.
2. Important: Changing your cookie preferences or removing cookies in Safari may change or remove them in other applications, including Dashboard.
3. Open Safari if it is not already open.
4. Choose Safari > Preferences, and then click Privacy.
5. In the “Block cookies” section, specify if and when Safari should accept cookies from websites. To see an explanation of the options, click the Help button (question mark).
6. If you want to see which websites store cookies on your computer, click Details.
7. If you set Safari to block cookies, you may need to temporarily accept cookies to open a page. Repeat the above steps, selecting Never. When you’re done with the page, block cookies again, and then remove the page’s cookies.

More Help

About Cookies
All About Cookies
Information Commissioners Office
Cookies
Advice for the public