You agree, through your use of this forum, that you will comply with all Laws of the Independent Order, including, when applicable, the Roleplay Rules. Material that is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any law of the United Kingdom is prohibited and may be deleted. You also agree not to post any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this forum. The full Criminal Code can be found here.

You remain solely responsible for the content of your posted messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Independent Order and its hosts. You agree to adhere to our image usage policy, using images created by yourself or where you otherwise have permission to use such images, and that if you do not do so we may supply your details to a third party should legal action be taken.

You note that you will, as part of this process, have to agree to a separate privacy policy.

As our service provider is based in the UK we are bound by the General Data Protection Regulations insofar as it applies in the UK (UK GDPR). The UK GDPR applies to the Independent Order as a Data Controller.

Data we collect

The types of data we collect are:

• Data you supply: We collect information from you when you voluntarily provide such information, such as when you register for the forum or edit your profile. Information we collect may include but not be limited to username, email address, and any messages, images, or other content you post on or send via the forum.
• IP address/hostnames: We collect your IP address, hostname and your most recently-viewed page.
• Cookies: a text file containing bits of information (such as your username and password), in your browser's cache. This is ONLY used to keep you logged in/out.

Basis for processing

We have two principle bases for processing your data:

• Consent: You are required to agree to terms and conditions prior to registering on the forum, which gives us explicit consent to process your data. You are also required to check a box to confirm you are happy with our privacy policy and our use of cookies.
• Legitimate interest: For some data we collect, such as IP addresses and forum posts, we have a legitimate interest in collecting such data, including:
  • Providing a safe and enjoyable user experience,
  • Protecting intellectual property; and
  • Protecting our users.

Your rights

According to the UK GDPR, each individual has the right to: be informed, access, rectification, erasure, restricted processing, data portability and object. This post will outline how we intend to allow members to exercise their rights under this Regulation.

The right to be informed

The right to be informed encompasses our obligation to provide ‘fair processing information’, typically through a privacy notice. It emphasises the need for transparency over how we use personal data.

This topic constitutes our general privacy policy.

The right of access

The right of access means you have the right to: confirmation that their data is being processed and access to your personal data.

Your data is being processed. All data we have is accessible via your profile. If you want us to provide you with additional information (such as your IP address), then please use the contact email above.

The right to rectification

This gives you the right to have your personal data rectified. Personal data can be rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete.

The right to erase

The right to erasure is also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’. The broad principle underpinning this right is to enable you to request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing.

On the forum, this can be dealt with by requesting to delete your account. A deletion will have to be approved by an administrator to protect against accounts being deleted maliciously.

In the case of a full deletion, please note that post content is not subject to the ‘right of erasure’. All posts from a deleted account will be anonymised so no trace will be left to the post author, however, any identifiable information in posts themselves won't be automatically deleted. Posts can be individually deleted or edited by yourself, or an administrator at your request, to remove identifying information.

The right to restrict processing

You have a right to ‘block’ or suppress processing of personal data. When processing is restricted, we are permitted to store the personal data, but not further process it.

Our data processing is as restricted as possible. Processing generally requires you to act on our website, therefore not using the website will cease such processing.

The right to data portability

This allows you to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across different services. This allows you to move, copy or transfer personal data easily from one IT environment to another in a safe and secure way, without hindrance to usability.

Ultimately all posts you make, unless made in a restricted forum where you have lost access, and other information you provide are all accessible. You are also able to export all data about you on the forum from within your profile, this includes both profile information and posts. As it stands, certain data (such as IP addresses) are not included, if you want us to provide you with additional information (such as your IP address), then please use the contact email above.

The right to object

You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority (including profiling), direct marketing (including profiling), and processing for purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics.

We do not generally process data for these purposes.

More information on your rights can be found here. Any formal requests under this policy should be made to [email protected]. All emails must come form the email associated with your account.

Data breaches

In accordance with UK GDPR, if we become aware of a data breach, we are obliged, within 72 hours, to notify any users involved. As we do not believe such a breach would result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals, breaches will not be reported to the supervisory authority.

Discord

The Independent Order is not the data controller for our Discord server, as we are not responsible for the processing of personal data. However Discord maintains the same privacy policy for all users which is (to the best of our understanding) UK GDPR compliant. You can read their privacy policy here.

Where information is processed

Information is primarily processed in the United Kingdom, however may be processed on servers outside the United Kingdom where necessary.

Supplying data to third parties

In certain circumstances we may be required to supply your data to a third party, such as a prosecuting authority or where otherwise legal action would be taken against The Independent Order. You will be notified if such a request is made.

Other provisions

As our data processing does not possess a high risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals, we are not required to undertake a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), nor are we required to appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO). We reserve the right to reveal information we hold about you (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of this forum, in accordance with the laws of the United Kingdom.

We also reserve the right to make changes to this privacy policy. For the latest news on changes to this Privacy policy, see here.