Privacy and Data Protection

Your Privacy on Bicycles Network Australia

Bicycles Network Australia has always followed an ethical approach to protecting personal information and does not share or sell personal information. Bicycles Network Australia does not collect or store sensitive information on the website such as private addresses or financial information.

The website operates under Australian Law (NSW) and predominantly serves Australian visitors but welcomes visitors and forum participation from people beyond Australia. For international visitors, Bicycles Network Australia follows GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) for transparency and this page documents how data is used. 

Who We Are

Bicycles Network Australia is an online resource (bicycles.net.au) which publishes cycling news and information and hosts a public discussion forum on cycling. This is a ‘free site’ and there is no charge or cost to view or to participate in the Australian Cycling Forums. Bicycles Network Australia is operated by Christopher Jones of Signale Pty Ltd (Sydney, Australia). The website is supported by writers who provide content and by forum moderators. Read further information about Bicycles Network Australia.

Privacy Notice / Data Protection

When you visit this website, some information is stored by your web browser (cookies) and some is stored by this website. Your privacy is respected and individual website visitors are not identified, all due care is taken to protect any data which is provided and data is not sold or shared.

Cookies are small files stored by your web browser on your computer which save information about your visit to the website – you can delete the cookies for this website at any time within your web browser and change your settings regarding how cookies are handled. The cookies are not used to provide personal information.

When you visit this website, logfiles are automatically created which record the following information: IP Address, date and time, files accessed and pages viewed. This information is purely used for statistics and to manage the website and identify errors / problems so that they can be resolved. The logfiles are automatically rotated and depending on server ‘load’ the logfiles are typically permanently deleted yearly.

This website includes links to external websites. If you access an external site or service which is no longer part of this website and they may a different policy regarding personal data. This website and operators have no control over external sites or services.

This website operates a newsletter and for subscribers, the email and (optional) name are stored. We use a double-opt-in process to confirm the subscription and recipients can unsubscribe at any time. Subscriber information is not sold or shared.

Website visitors can make comments to articles published on Bicycles Network Australia and provide an email address, a name and optionally a website address. When a comment is manually or automatically approved, the comments are published along with the name and website address. The email address stored but is not published.

For participation in the Australian Cycling Forum, an email address is required along with a username of your choice. Forum participants are required to read and agree with the terms when they choose to register and the double-opt-in confirms the registration. No personal information is required or published however forum members can chose to share personal or identifying information. For forum participation and comments, the associated ip address for each ‘post’ is recorded permanently and visible to administrators. The IP address is used to block or ban spammers or individuals breach the forum rules.

Forum Newsletter and Notifications
By default, members in the forum receive news and notifications. Settings and notifications can be changed in the account settings and the forum newsletter and notifications disabled. Edit your Forum Global Settings Forum Notification Settings

Storage and security
Website files and content is stored on decentralised servers in Sydney, Australia with Amazon Web Services and in addition to content, log files and backups are saved. This website use the SSL encryption protocol.

Services: Google Analytics, Advertising and Affiliate Links
This website uses Google Analytics which is used to create statistics and Google Advertising services. Google stores the statistical data on its servers. The compiled statistics are only used internally to gain general insights how visitors use and access the website and are not used to identify visitors. Google however can record the activity of individuals and influence there interaction on other websites and services.

Further information on data stored by google is published here.
If you have a google account, you can adjust your settings.

Bicycles Network Australia does not track user behaviour to target advertising. Some advertising may only be displayed to people in a specific geographic location which is determined by google however but does not identify a person or any private details to Bicycles Network Australia. If an advertisement or affiliate link is clicked, this is recorded for statistics however the person is not identified and no personal information is recorded or stored by Bicycles Network Australia. A third party advertiser may be able to record that a visitor or customer has arrived from Bicycles Network Australia though no personal data is transferred or shared between Bicycles Network Australia and the retailer.

Services: Amazon Web Services Hosting
Bicycles Network Australia uses AWS (Amazon Web Services) and website data, logs and archives are stored on decentralised servers in Sydney, Australia. AWS confirm that all services comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). AWS confirm that the are compliant with CISPE (Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe) Beyond the strict security to prevent unauthorised access to server data and assets, the public facing services on Bicycles Network Australia use SSL to enhance security.

Emails
Emails sent to bicycles.net.au email addresses may be stored and are treated as confidential unless an email is defined as a group email, marketing, press release, public information or includes a request to publish or share content.

External Websites and Services
External search engines regularly copy and store public comments or forum posts permanently. Bicycles Network Australia has no access or control over these external services. External services including, but not limited to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, Youtube, Add This.

Each service has a different policy and Bicycles Network Australia has no control responsibility for data or access to these external sites and services. As a publicly accessible website, unqualified and malicious services or entities may access and save public information from Bicycles Network Australia and store, manipulate and reproduce this without authorisation. While Bicycles Network Australia actively attempts to prevent and limit this, there is no control or responsibility over these services or entities.

Data Breaches
All reasonable action is taken to protect personal data and content including automated and manual prevention along with warning of threats. No guarantee however is provided to provided in the event of an unlawful or malicious attack and theft of data. In the unlikely event of a breach, affected forum members will be notified.

Request information or data removal Bicycles Network Australia does not fall under the jurisdiction of European Union law however provides website visitors and forum members with the opportunity to enquire about data which is stored and request removal.

For questions or to request removal of data, please email privacy@bicycles.net.au