Customer Data Privacy Policy at CTS

A Thought…

(Ars Technica letters on NASA’s refusing to require integrated end-to-end testing for the new moon-landing program)

Wickwick wrote: “Forgive me if I’m misunderstanding something, but if you’re testing "across multiple facilities," how can you be doing end-to-end testing?”

whiteknave wrote: “Simple. One end is in one facility, the other end is in another facility.”

mdrejhon wrote: “If you were testing a horse, you would have to saw the horse in half to test the front end and the rear end in distant facilities.

The horse will not function within the same nominal parameters if tested that way.”

Privacy Policy

All customer and participant information and data collected by Catskill Technology Services, LLC (CTS) will be protected and treated according to applicable laws and best industry practice. Should we become aware of any data breach which may have exposed potentially sensitive information, we will inform you (by email) as soon as possible.

e-mail addresses

Your e-mail address, however obtained by CTS (e.g., in the course of an inquiry, an online sale, or mailing list/newsletter subscription), will not be given, sold, traded, or otherwise transferred to anyone else without your explicit permission.

You may be asked at some point how you would like your e-mail address used. You may specify that you do allow it to be transferred to others, or that it be restricted to CTS-critical information (e.g., notification of serious bugs), or that you would like to receive CTS notification of new products and upgrades to products you've purchased, or to receive a newsletter. If you do not have the opportunity to specify how you would like your e-mail address used, CTS will assume that you want the most restrictive use. All optional uses, such as newsletters, will be explicitly opt-in.

If you sign up to a CTS mailing list (discussion group), your e-mail address will not be exposed to online viewers or subscribers. You may specify that you wish to receive "private mail" from others who wish to communicate directly with you. In this case, their e-mail will be remailed to you by CTS. It is up to you whether you give out your e-mail address to others, either in a discussion posting or in a private mail. CTS takes no responsibility for any consequences caused by your choosing to give out your e-mail address to others via private or public methods.

At any time you will be able to change the restrictions on the use of your e-mail address. CTS will retain customer e-mail addresses as needed for its purposes, subject to your restrictions on usage.

personal information

Customer personal information, such as shipping addresses, will not be made public, or transferred to others except as required by law or as needed to carry out an order (e.g., a label on a UPS package). Please note that shipping addresses (and other non-financial information in an online order) are transferred to a secure server (https, via SSL) and should be fairly secure against intercept by a third party. CTS may retain selected personal information for a period of time as required by law or for the purpose of completing an order. CTS may give you the option of our storing your shipping address as part of your account, for your convenience in placing future orders.

Warning: Be aware that there are many criminals out there who practice "phishing" to steal personal information. If you receive an unsolicited e-mail purporting to be from CTS or any agent who handles payments for us (e.g., PayPal), never click on a link or button in the e-mail. You may notice as you "hover" your mouse pointer over the link or button that the URL that your browser shows you is probably not who the link claims to be! Always type in the URL (or use a bookmarked one) of CTS or the financial agent's site and sign on to your account. Neither CTS nor any reputable financial agent will ever send out an e-mail asking you to give out information, with a link or button to connect to us. If we are having a problem with your order (e.g., a package is returned as undeliverable), we will e-mail you with instructions to go to the CTS site or send an e-mail, but we will not provide you with a link or button.

personal financial information

Sensitive financial information, such as credit card numbers or bank account numbers, are collected via a third-party secure server (https protocol, via SSL), such as PayPal. CTS does not obtain, handle, or retain this information. Before giving out financial information, be sure to check that you're on a secure server (https protocol) and your browser confirms that data is encrypted (e.g., a closed padlock or intact key icon). Any other financial information obtained by CTS in the course of its business will be safeguarded according to law and accepted best practices, and destroyed as soon as it is no longer needed (subject to retention periods specified by law or financial institutions).

cookies and javascript

Some parts of the CTS site may place "cookies" on your browser, to facilitate movement between pages, maintain a session, maintain a shopping cart, and so on. These cookies are vital to the proper functioning of the site, and if you disable cookie use in your browser, the site may not function properly. CTS does not deploy "tracking" cookies or other potentially privacy-invading items, without your explicit approval. That is, you will be asked for permission for us to drop tracking cookies (or for us to give permission to Third Parties to do so) before such cookies are placed on your system.

This site makes extensive use of Javascript for its functionality. You are always free to disable Javascript, but you should be aware that the site will likely not function properly if you do so.

other privacy concerns

If you have signed up for various services on this site (forum, shop, etc.), CTS will of course be storing some personal information of yours. By providing this information, you are consenting to our collecting it, whether or not the signup or registration page explicitly says this. We currently do not screen out or limit children (under 13, in most jurisdictions) signing up without parental consent, but will do so in the future, if legally required to. If your situation changes, and you wish for us to "forget" you, you may contact us and make such a request. We will need to verify your identity (such as through your email address or IP address), so that random troublemakers can't go deleting you for their amusement. Your account information will be deleted as soon as possible, provided that doesn't conflict with statutory data retention requirements or good accounting principles.

By giving us personal identifying information for public display, such as your name (actual name or screen name) or avatar for a forum, you are consenting to our collecting and using it. You can always go into your account information and remove or change your avatar or screen name, if you wish. CTS will normally not permit bulk removal of posts that you have made, as this really scrambles a forum. If you (or your child) have foolishly made public sensitive information, and the edit window has passed for you to edit or remove a post yourself, contact us with a request for a moderator to edit or remove post(s). This will be done at the discretion of CTS, and there is no guarantee that this can be attended to within a certain time. CTS is not responsible for any consequences resulting from your posting personal information to a public place, such as a forum or product review. Think before you publish!

Personal information gathered for the purpose of making a purchase, whether for a shopping account or for a one-off purchase, will be retained as necessary for statutory data retention requirements or good accounting practices. By giving us this information, you are consenting to our gathering it. We keep only necessary information — we're not really interested in your literary tastes or your sexual fetishes, even if you volunteer them some place. If there is no further need for such information, it will eventually be destroyed. You may request that it be removed sooner, but there is no guarantee that this can be attended to within a certain time.

special rules for forums

Please see the "Forum Rules" page for the forum, for additional material that is a supplement to this material. Most of it deals with forum (discussion group) etiquette, but it touches on privacy concerns.

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