Privacy

Privacy Policy

As a matter of principle, everyone should have the right to determine their own destiny. The basic perks range from the freedom of movement to the right to privacy.

In practice, though, things are not always quite so simple. The main problem is that one person’s liberty is another person’s restraint.

In the physical domain, for instance, your right to go where you please ends where your neighbor’s property begins. In the virtual sphere, your right to comment in a forum ends where the moderator considers the input to be inapt.

In a similar way, your license to go wherever you want and do whatever you please in cyberspace has to be balanced by the corresponding perks of other Netizens. As an example, the owners of Web sites want to determine what goes on at their hubs, and to know what their visitors are doing there.

Given this backdrop, there is in general a tradeoff between freedom and restraint. A prime example lies in the matchup between privacy and transparency, whether in the world of bits or rocks.

In other words, there is no way to ensure complete freedom for all the parties concerned. The outturn is the lack of a solution to the issue of self-determination which will be wholly satisfactory to everyone at all times. For this reason, a medley of choices has to be made in the virtual sphere just as in physical space.

Happily for the visitor, the policy at this hub is to follow generally accepted principles of conduct while tending to be overly conservative on behalf of the user. A number of specific guidelines are as follows.

1. We will not ask for your personal information unless there is a vital reason to do so. As an example, you will have to provide a suitable address if you send us a message and expect to receive a response via electronic mail.
2. In certain cases – including any contact form you might fill out – we may ask you for some supplementary information such as your name if it seems fitting to do so. In particular, providing a name is the standard practice for a personal message from a human user, although the nicety is often disregarded in a mass mailing from a spam generator.
3. We may follow the customs of other respectable sites in keeping track of your interactions at this hub. The purpose of the observation is to gather statistical information. An analysis of the traffic can help us in tweaking the site in order to enhance the functionality and convenience for the sake of all visitors.
4. In line with our general principles, it is not our policy to sell or give away personal information such as your email address.
5. We will not disclose your personal information for any other reasons, except possibly in the case of abnormal complications. An example in this vein is a formal writ from a law enforcement agency in connection with an official investigation.
6. We will use the information that you submit, such as your email address, solely for the reasons you have specified. An example is sending you updates of the contents of this site via email in response to an explicit request from you.

To sum up, our policy is highly conservative in matters of personal privacy.

The discreet stance stands in stark contrast to the liberal bent in terms of the contents of the site. As a proponent of innovation and growth, we are hugely flexible and open-minded when it comes to accepting novel trends and progressive lifestyles.

At first blush, the contrasting precepts set forth above could appear to be inconsistent and incompatible. In reality, though, we view the duo of guidelines to be complementary rather than neutralizing.

More precisely, one of our liberal views is the right of the individual, within reason, to determine their own destiny. That credo includes the right to privacy and the freedom to enjoy an abundance of solitude without wanton disturbances from external sources. In particular, everyone should be free to make their own choices, including the extent to which personal information is employed at a site or divulged to other parties.

Given this policy, any personal details that you provide will not be used against you as a cover for chintzy advertising, cheesy spam, or any spurious material unrelated to the original purpose in releasing the information. In that sense, at least, you will receive less from this site than you might otherwise expect.

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