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Privacy Policy

This page explains how we use information collected from users of the Billiards Forum and it's services.


Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains how we use information collected from users of the site and services.

Please read this privacy policy in its entirety before using the site or submitting any personal information. By using The Billiards Forum, you are accepting the practices described in this privacy policy.

In general, all information that is disclosed on or to The Billiards Forum becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to share any of your personal information. Read this privacy policy document in full before using The Billiards Forum. This policy may change from time to time. You are encouraged to review the privacy policy whenever you visit the site to make sure that you understand how any personal information you provide will be used.

Types of Information

"Personal information" is any information that we could use to identify an individual. It does not include personal information that is encoded or anonymized, or publicly available information that has not been combined with non-public information.

"Sensitive personal information" is information that meets the "personal information" criteria and also a) reveals race, ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, or b) concerns health or sex life, information about social security benefits, or information on criminal or administrative proceedings other than in the context of pending legal proceedings.

How We Collect Information

We collect information two ways:

  1. Information we get from your use of the network
  2. Information you provide to us directly.

Information we get from your use of the network is primarily non-personally- identifying information of the sort that web browsers, servers, and services like Google Analytics* typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the time of each visit. Other non-identifying information that we might have access to includes how you use the service (e.g., your search queries, click path, etc), your approximate location, cookies, etc.

We collect this non-personally identifying information in order to better understand how visitors use the site and services and where possible, to improve the user experience. For example, we may monitor the most common questions on The Billiards Forum to help identify popular cue sport topics. In some cases, we may publicly display information that is not personally identifying in the aggregate, (e.g. by publishing an article on the most popular brand of pool tables) or may provide it to third parties.

When you use The Billiards Forum, we also collect potentially personally identifying information in the form of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. We handle and disclose these addresses in the same way we handle other potentially personally identifying information as described below.

Information you provide to us directly. Certain visitors to The Billiards Forum choose to interact with it in ways that may require them to provide us with personally identifying information. The amount and type of information that is provided depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask users who sign up for an account on The Billiards Forum to provide a username and email address. We only collect as much information as is necessary or appropriate given the type of interaction. We do not disclose personally identifying information other than as described below. You can always refuse to supply personally identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent you from engaging in certain activities on the site.

If you send us a request, such as emailing us with a question or for support, we reserve the right to publish it, absent any personally identifying information, in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or help other users.

A cookie is a string of information that a website can store on a user’s device, and that the user’s browser provides to the website each time the user returns. We use cookies to help us track users’ use of The Billiards Forum and their preferences. If you do not wish to have cookies placed on your device, you should set your browser to refuse cookies, but should be aware that certain features of The Billiards Forum will not function properly without them.

The Billiards Forum is hosted in the United States and Administered from Canada.If you are outside the United States and/or Canada, you should know that any personally identifiable information you enter into The Billiards Forum will be transferred out of your country and into the United States (for hosting) and Canada (for administration and back up), and possibly to other countries. By using The Billiards Forum, you consent to such transfer, and are representing that you have the right to transfer such information outside your country.

We do not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If you believe that a child has provided us with personally identifiable information without the consent of his or her parent or guardian, please contact us at privacy@billiardsforum.com. If we become aware that a child under age 13 has provided us with personally identifiable information, we'll delete it as soon as is reasonably possible.

Information You Choose to Display Publicly on The Billiards Forum

Some users may elect to publicly post personally identifying or sensitive information about themselves in their normal use of The Billiards Forum website or services. This could occur through use of the optional user profile fields, the posting of comments, questions, or answers. Information like that, which is voluntarily posted in publicly visible parts of The Billiards Forum, is considered to be public, even if it would otherwise be considered to be personally identifying or sensitive. As such, it is not subject to the protocols listed below, because we don't control it; the user does. Additionally, voluntarily publicizing such information means that you lose any privacy rights you might normally have with regards to that information.

Information You Give to Other People

This Policy only applies to information collected by The Billiards Forum. It does not apply to the practices of companies that we don't own or control, or employees that we don't manage. The Billiards Forum contains links to third party websites, and any information you provide to those sites will be covered by any privacy policies they may have. Please be sure to read the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit. It is those sites' responsibility to protect any information you give them, so we can't be held liable for the wrongful use of your personally identifying information by those third-party sites.

How We Use the Information We Collect

Notice. When we collect your personal information, we'll tell you how we're using it, any types of third parties to which we might disclose it, (other than moderators or "agents," such as vendors or contractors, who are only processing such information for us or at our direction), and the choices we offer you to limit the use of your information. The way in which we provide notice is through this very privacy policy agreement document (which forms part of the terms of service of The Billiards Forum website).

We'll notify you before we use the information for something other than the purpose for which it was originally collected. If anything in this policy seems unclear, please don't hesitate to contact us, so we can address your question and possibly clarify this document.

Although most changes are likely to be minor, we may occasionally need to change this policy. If we do update it, we'll notify you either by posting the new policy on The Billiards Forum or by emailing you the changes or a link to the modified document, if we have your email address. In any case, the way we use information you provide will be covered by the privacy policy that was in effect at the time it was collected.

Here are some of the ways we may use personal information you provide us:

  • To allow you to register for an account profile or other services on The Billiards Forum, and to administer and process those registrations
  • To communicate with you about products, services and related issues
  • To evaluate the quality of products and services, and to enhance your experience on The Billiards Forum
  • To maintain and administer The Billiards Forum and comply with our legal or internal obligations and policies
  • We may share information with governmental agencies or other companies assisting us in fraud prevention or investigation. We may do so when: (A) permitted or required by law; or, (B) trying to protect against or prevent actual or potential fraud or unauthorized transactions; or, (C) investigating fraud which has already taken place.
  • To transfer information to others as described in this policy or to satisfy our legal, regulatory, compliance, or auditing requirements

Choice. Choice is all about making sure you have the ability to control how we share your personal information with others. We almost never share any of your personal information with non-agent third parties. We won't share your personal information with non-agent third parties unless we are required to do so by law, or if we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect our property, rights or those of third parties or the public at large. It is possible that we may, on occasion, buy or sell assets from or to other companies. If that should occur, user information is typically one of the assets that get transferred. Similarly, if The Billiards Forum or most of its assets were acquired, or in the unlikely event that we go out of business or enter bankruptcy, user information could be transferred or acquired. You should be aware that such events can occur, and that if it does, the buyer may continue to use your personal and non-personal information, but only as set forth in this policy. Other than in these rare circumstances, The Billiards Forum will not rent or sell potentially personally identifying information to anyone.

The Billiards Forum does not collect or share sensitive information with a non-agent third party, but if such a day should come, we will first give you the opportunity to explicitly consent to such disclosure or to any use of the information for a purpose other than the one for which it was originally collected or previously authorized.

If you are a registered user of The Billiards Forum and have supplied your email address, we may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what's going on with the website. We generally use The Billiards Forum website to communicate this type of information, so we expect to keep this type of communication to a minimum. If we do send you information that you did not expressly request, we will provide you with a way to request that you don't get any similar notices, such as a method to opt-out or unsubscribe.

Onward Transfer. Prior to providing agents with any personal information, we will obtain assurances that they will safeguard it in accordance with this policy. Examples of assurances that may be provided include a commitment that they will handle in the information in accordance with this policy. In the unlikely event that we should discover that an agent is using personal information in way that conflicts with this policy, we will take all reasonable steps to stop them immediately.

Security. All records containing personal or financial information are considered to be our property and are afforded confidential treatment at all times. We work hard to protect against the unauthorized access, use, alteration or destruction of personal or financial information.

Data Integrity. In addition to assuring you that we will protect your personal information, we also want to make sure that it is reliable, accurate, and up-to-date. In order to do that, we provide:

Access. Upon request, we will provide you with reasonable access to the personal information we collect about you. You will have the opportunity to correct, update, modify or delete this information by contacting us directly. Please note that some information may remain in our records even after you request deletion of your information as permitted by the Safe Harbor Principles. Additionally, there may be limits to the amount of information we can practically provide. For example, we may limit an individual's access to personal information where the burden or expense of providing access would be disproportionate to the risks to the individual's privacy or where doing so would violate the rights of others.

Third Party Ad Networks

This site displays advertisements for advertisers participating in the Google advertising program. This advertising program uses the "DoubleClick DART" cookie in the ads served by Google on this site. When users visit a page on The Billiards Forum, and either view or click on an ad, a cookie may be dropped on that user’s browser. The data gathered from these cookies will be used to help us better serve and manage the ads on our site(s) and across the web. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy. To recap, We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, you can contact us.

How we use Google Analytics

The Billiards Forum makes use of Google Analytics to help us understand how you use the site and services. This information is used to help us to continually improve the site and services. Google Analytics uses Cookies to collect and generate information about your visits to our site. These Services send data to Google’s servers in an anonymous form for processing. The following types of information are collected and used:

  • the originating IP address
  • the date and time of the request
  • the type of browser and device used
  • the page(s) visited
  • websites that referred you to our service

The use of these tools does not allow us or our analytics service providers to identify individuals. None of your personal, account, or form(s) information is sent to, or stored by Google.

You can opt-out of Google Analytics activity by setting your browser to notify you when a cookie is sent and block Google Analytics cookies if desired. Please consult your browser’s Help Menu for instructions. Visiting The Billiards Forum with Google Analytics cookies disabled will have no significant impact on your browsing experience.

Google currently offers a free Google Analytics opt-out tool for most modern versions of Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox and Opera.

By using these Services, you understand and accept that we are using Google Analytics. For more information on Google’s privacy policy, refer to the Google Analytics Privacy Overview.

How to Contact The Billiards Forum

If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about this privacy policy, or about how we handle your personal information, please contact us. We will work hard to investigate and resolve any complaints you might have.

* Google Analytics is a registered trademark of Google, Inc.

Privacy Policy

  • Title: Privacy Policy
  • Author: (Billiards Forum)
  • Published: 1/1/2006 11:00:22 AM
  • Last Updated: 4/21/2018 10:34:21 AM
  • Last Updated By: billiardsforum

Privacy Policy