MountainViews privacy policy

General

MountainViews will not pass on any user personal details such as email address to other parties short of legal compulsion to do so.  MountainViews may show statistics per user about comments, photos or GPS information where these are publicly lodged and available on the site.  For example, MountainViews may show information about mountains climbed per person.  Where any of the foregoing statistics include names, they will be listed under the user's nickname, unless the user has entered and authorised the use of their full name.

For unenrolled users of the website we do not hold personal data such as email address, location etc. A limited amount of statistical information is recorded.

Cookies

See separate cookies policy.

MountainViews notice re GDPR.

MountainViews holds little personal information for logged in users on those that use our website, mostly email address, location and background information.  We do not pass on such personal information to other parties apart from our use of two internet services, one from Google Analytics and another from PayPal.  The other party’s use of information is described below.

The Personal Data we process and why we process it

Email address:

We hold the email address that you gave us to:

1. mass mail the monthly newsletter or occasional supplements to the newsletter (during the year 2018, which was typical, just one supplement was sent)
2. automatically respond when you do certain things, for example if you enrol or post a comment an automatic email will be sent to you in relation to this
3. automatically notify when certain things occur, for example where you have requested notification that particular sorts of comments are posted
4. individually contact you in relation to any postings you may have made for example for the purpose of correction of the posting
5. individually contact you in relation to other business of the website or the MountainViews committee, for example in relation to the production of our larger magazines or providing awards
6. provide a messaging service to allow members contact other members without recipients receiving your email address

Name and nickname.

We hold the nickname you gave us when you enrolled to:

1. Allow us to refer to you by nickname on the website, for example to welcome you when you return to it or for use with the newsletter
2. Allow other logged in users to see your profile
3. Provide lists of users in relation to the function of the website for example the “Hall of Records” which shows users’ nicknames combined with the number of places they have logged visiting.
4. It is possible for you to optionally give us your real name which may be shown in place of the nickname in some parts of the website, but only if you have also indicated that you wish this to happen. You can remove your real name and/or withdraw permission to show your real name at any time.

Location.

Optionally you can give us a grid reference for where you are based in Ireland.  The purpose of this is to provide certain reports and features such as the “100 Local Summits” report which need your location. 

Shared tracks also provide location information for where you were on a specific occasion.  The purpose of this is to describe routes. You can optionally choose to limit the detail of shared tracks, for example to omit when exactly they were made.       `

Background information.

Optionally you can provide us with background information which currently consists of the decade you started hillwalking in, the year you were born in, your gender and any clubs you are a member of.  In future we may add to this background information.  This information, if provided, is used to:

1. Provide statistics for use in analysing the membership and making the website more relevant
2. Provide information viewable by other logged in members in the profile.

Other information you provide.

Optionally you may choose to provide other information while using the website. For example to log places you have visited, routes you have completed, information about places, GPS tracks you have shared, general forum comments, ratings you make about other contributions etc.  Some but not all of this data is personal data. We hold this data to:

1. provide the main services of the website such as comments on places, annotated maps
2. provide reports such as the list of Recent Contributors

Information automatically gathered.

Basic information about your accesses to the website are recorded.  The information held is about when you accessed the website and the number of pages viewed.  The purposes of holding this information are:

1. Use in public reports to indicate interest in the website such as in the profile.
2. Statistical use by the website to provide a better service.

Newsletter

If you receive our monthly newsletter it's because you enrolled in the past.   Each newsletter contains a link which gives you the opportunity to unsubscribe from future bulletins and you can opt out at any time.  Control of this is separate and different from the notification messages options.

Notification messages

If you receive notification messages which appear monthly, weekly or daily it is because you enrolled in the past.  Each notification email contains a link which gives you the opportunity to modify or unsubscribe from future notifications.  Control of this is separate and different from the newsletter options.

Access to information and exercising your rights

Most of the information we hold on enrolled users is available in the user profile. (“Settings” top right on the website) and you can access or amend almost all of the personal data held by us through this.

If you cannot obtain or amend the data that you wish through the above, you can also request to exercise any of your rights under the GDPR (ie, the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and to object to processing) with respect to your personal data processed by us, at any time, by simply emailing admin@MountainViews.ie 

Sharing Policy

MountainViews does not share personal information with other people or organisations. We do sometimes share statistical information such as the averaged position of summits derived from user supplied data.

Use of Google Analytics

We use a tool called “Google Analytics” to collect information about use of this website.  Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit this website, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other websites they used prior to coming to this website. We use the information we get from Google Analytics only to improve this website. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this website, rather than your name or other identifying information. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. Although Google Analytics plants a permanent cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this website, the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this website is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to this website by disabling cookies on your browser, though doing so may prevent some other parts of the website operating. The website’s use of Google Analytics is configured to anonymise IPs as far as possible.

Use of PayPal
We use PayPal as a service to enable donations or other payments to the website community.  PayPal requires a number of personal details from users of this service including name, address, phone number, email address, payment amount.  They also necessarily require payment credentials such as credit card numbers or PayPal passwords.  PayPal have their own terms of service and privacy statement which users are required to accept.  MountainViews is notified of personal details but does not get any information about payment credentials.  MountainViews hosted website does not store any personal details received from PayPal such as name, address or phone number.   Details of payments (not payment credentials) are however available to authorised members of the MountainViews committee such as the Treasurer.  Donations made to MountainViews are controlled by the MountainViews committee.

Changes to this policy.

MountainViews may make changes to this privacy policy when necessary.