Privacy Policy

Preamble

Chart-Formations.com is wholly owned, operated and controlled by Straight A's Trading 27 (PTY) LTD, a private company registered in Cape Town, South Africa (registration number: 2003/020022/07)

Chart-Formations.com is and has always cared greatly about the privacy of our readers. We are aware of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) that came into effect on May 25th, 2018, and it is our sincere desire to be in full compliance with these regulations.

On this page, you will find all the information related to user data, explained fully, and as clearly and plainly as possible. We regularly reference the GDPR to better provide context to our stance.

Data We Collect

The data we collect on you as a Chart-Formations.com user depends on how you use the site. In this section, we will cover all the different types of personal data (as per the definition of the GDPR) that we collect and explain why we collect it, while the sections below will explain how we use that data, how long we retain it for, and how you can access and modify it.

Server Logs

The Chart-Formations.com servers are hosted at WinHost, which collects several pieces of information in their server logs: hour of connection, partial IP address (more on this below), page requests, etc. This information is collected from all users who access the site.

The IP address has the last 2 octets removed as soon as we receive it, thus providing anonymity, and making it so that, in reality, we do not see or store any actual, usable IP addresses in our logs. The remaining (first) part of the IP address is useful to us because it allows us, among other things, to observe the behavior of the Google "bots" that crawl our pages, thus helping us improve our search engine optimization.

Google Analytics

We use a website analytics app from Matomo Analytics on Chart-Formations.com in order to monitor our traffic. It consists in a javascript program, executed by your browser, that collects different types of non-personal information and sends it to Matomo. From this data, traffic statistics are drawn up by Matomo Analytics, which we then have access to. The data Matomo Analytics collects includes:

  • Internet browser type and version;
  • previously browsed page (where you came to the site from);
  • hour of connection;
  • number of pages visited;
  • time spent on each page.

When we say that this information is non personal, we mean that it is impossible for us to correlate the behavior of any given user that makes up the statistics of Matomo with the actual identity of a user. We have no way to access the raw information collected by Matomo Analytics, and can only view the statistics.

These statistics are vital to the short and long-term operation of the website, since without them we would be unable to evaluate which guides perform well, optimize search engine ranking visibility, and so on.

In terms of the GDPR, Matomo Analytics is a "data processor", and they are obliged to make sure that they conform to the regulations, through their own privacy policy.

Furthermore, we have configured Matomo to not process any personally identifiable information (PII). You can read more about that here, but in short it means that your PII, including your name, email address, IP address, and location, has been anonymized and generalized prior to its use and storage.

Forum / Premium Accounts

If you create a forum account, you provide us with an e-mail address as part of the registration process.

Also, all forum users have their IP addresses logged by the forum software.

The e-mail addresses and IP addresses are only visible to our website administrators, our community managers and our forum administrators.

If you use your forum account to create an Chart-Formations.com Premium subscription, then you also provide us with a first and last name as part of the Premium subscription process. This information is only visible to our website administrators.

Payment information for Premium users is not collected or otherwise accessible to Chart-Formations.com. All payments are done through Braintree, a subsidiary of PayPal, who are the ones who have access to this information, and who are obliged to comply with the GDPR.

All third-party javascripts are disabled when using a Premium account (with the exception of external tools to provide tooltips, but these do not collect data), so they cannot collect any data from you at this time. Please note that this requires you to be logged into your Premium account when accessing the website.

On the sign-up page for Premium, we occasionally use Hotjar to collect data on how our visitors use this page to try and improve it (to build heatmaps or poll visitors and ask them why they did not finish registration). See their privacy policy for more information. In Hotjar's options, we asked not to collect location data during recording and to not send or record any of the fields where user can input sensitive information, such as credit card details. Hotjar has its headquarters in Malta, which is part of the European Union, and is subject to the GDPR.

Communications

If you communicate with us, either through e-mail at one of the Chart-Formations.com e-mail addresses or through forum private messaging, we may maintain a record of this communication. We also may maintain a record of the posts you make on our forums, including in comments.

How We Use Your Data

In short, Chart-Formations.com will never sell the information listed above to anyone.

We may share some of the information above either with the express consent of the user, or in one of the following scenarios.

  • when required to do so by law;
  • in order to defend our rights and interests in response to claims made against us;
  • when it is necessary to diagnose and repair technical issues on the website.

Forum user IP addresses are only used to be able to reasonably manage the forum community (enforcing bans on users who try to circumvent a ban by creating a new account, ensuring that we do not receive multiple contest entries from the same user, etc.).

Forum (and Premium) user e-mail addresses, as well as the first and last names of premium users, are never shared with anyone, and only used internally for the management of the forums and the Premium system.

We will never send you e-mails unless you specifically choose to opt in to such a feature, or unless we are legally obligated to do so (such as to notify you in case of a data breach).

Data Retention

Forum account e-mail addresses are maintained for the duration of the existence of the account, and for 1 year after that, while forum connection IP addresses and posting history is maintained for the duration of the existence of the account and, once the account is no longer active, for 1 year from the time of posting. This last part is required by French law, to which we are subject.

First and last names of Premium users are maintained for the duration of the existence of the Premium subscription.

Control Over Your Data

As part of our efforts to provide you with the required means to exercise your rights of access, rectification, erasure, and restriction, you can always e-mail us at privacy@chart-formations.com for any data-related matters.

This is also the e-mail address you should use if you wish to delete your forum account. Aside from this, the User Control Panel of your forum account gives you ample control about the private information that you wish to share with us.

How We Protect Your Information

The security of your information is important to us. Chart-Formations.com implements safeguards to protect the information we collect. However, no website or Internet transmission is completely secure. We urge you to take steps to keep your personal information safe, such as choosing a strong password and keeping it private, as well as logging out of your user account, and closing your web browser when finished using Chart-Formations.com on a shared or unsecured device.