Privacy Policy

This privacy statement discloses our purposes and methods for online collection and use of information on AVForums.com.

Our contact details

AVForums.com is owned and operated by M2N Limited. Our postal address and contact email link are on our Contact us page.
Types of information collected

Generally, personal information is not collected from visitors to AVForums. However, in order to access certain special services, personal information is requested when you register an account.

Categories of data and its purposes

Personal identifiers supplied by you when you register an account

  • User name.  Displayed publicly. This is required and used to uniquely identify you when using the forums.  It is supplied when you register.  We do not require you to enter your real name, though some people choose to do so. The user name is not verified in any way.

  • Email address. Not displayed publicly. This provides us with a verifiable point of contact should legal questions arise in regard to content any visitor creates. Your email address is not displayed to the public.

  • Date of birth.  Optionally displayed publicly.  Can be 

    • hidden
    • showing the day and month
    • showing the day, month and year

This is required to ensure that we do not have children under the age of 13 registering and to ensure that we do not have minors trading in our classified adverts forums.  The DOB is not verified in any way.

  • Location.  This is required and used only to give context of your contributions to the community. It is not verified in any way.

  • IP address. Each time you visit AVForums when logged in to your account, a log of your IP address is recorded.  This log is kept for 365 days and is used by moderators/admin 

    • to see what country you are located in
    • to detect duplicate registrations (which is against our rules)

You are also invited to provide some additional information such as occupation and interests. This information is made available to other forum users to foster a sense of community. If you have any concerns about providing this information, simply leave the fields blank.

Cookies

Certain activities on AVForums involve the use of "cookies" to facilitate your experience. This includes the ability to automatically log you into the website and show you the new forum discussions since your last visit. You have the option to turn these cookies off at any time by updating your browser settings. If your browser doesn't support cookies, or if you have cookies turned off, these preferences will not be set.
For full information on our use of cookies, please read our Cookie Policy.

Change consent.

How we get the information and why we have it

All of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for the purposes of operating your forum membership.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful basis we rely on for processing this information is your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time by asking for your membership to be deleted. You can do this by contacting us here.

What we do with the information we have

We use the information that you have given us in order to operate your forum membership. We will not share this information with anyone.

Disclosure of personal information

AVForums does not disclose your personally identifying information to any third parties for any purpose without your prior consent unless required by law to do so.

It's also important to be aware that when you voluntarily provide personal information (e.g., last name, address, phone number) in a posting on the forum, that information is publicly available and may be used by someone in a manner unintended by you. For that reason, we discourage the offering of any personally identifying information within the forum itself.

How we store your information

Your information is securely stored digitally on the AVForums database servers hosted by Nimbus Hosting in the UK.

Data retention policy

Your personal information is stored in your AVForums membership account. We keep your AVForums account until it is deleted. Sometimes we delete inactive accounts. We will also delete your account if you request it to be deleted by contacting us here.

What happens when your AVForums account is deleted?

If we delete your account, we will dispose of your information using the delete process in the Xenforo forum software we use. This process removes your user record and all the associated information such as private conversations. Your information will be removed from all the database backups once 30 days have passed from the process being initiated. In addition, your displayed user name in your messages on the forum will be changed to 'Deleted Member ' plus the deleted account ID. This process is non reversible.

Use of Skimlinks

AVForums uses Skimlinks to monetise selected links to retailers' websites posted in the forums. Links are redirected through Skimlinks for tracking purposes and you can read their privacy policy here. Skimlinks provides an opt-out service for users who do not wish for their usage data to be used for advertising targeting purposes. This opt-out is accessible here.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

  • Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
  • Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
  • Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
  • Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances.
  • Your right to object to processing - You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
  • Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Please use this form if you wish to make a request.

How to complain

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.
The ICO's address:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113


Privacy for children

Although AVForums is generally targeted at an adult audience, we welcome the participation of younger users with their parents' consent. We strongly recommend that users under 18 years of age refrain from offering any personal information either in their user profile or in the forums themselves, and we encourage parents to stay involved in the online life of their children.

Cyber bullying

AVForums operates a zero tolerance policy toward online bullying. If any member has a concern about any message they see on the website, they can report that content and our moderating team will investigate. We expect members of our community to treat each other with respect. The rules for using AVForums can be found here.

Changing or updating personal information

If members wish to update or change their profile on AVForums, they may click here.

If you have questions regarding your information, please contact us.

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