Moonlit Rail ™
Privacy Policy
This Moonlit Rail ™ web site fully respects the privacy rights of each of its visitors.
Unless legally compelled to release information under court order, information this site possesses about specific visitors or individuals will never be sold, rented, transmitted or divulged in any fashion to any third party.
Data Collected by This Site
Whenever a visitor to this web site accesses content on the site, the web server fielding the request logs the content accessed along with the date, the time, the network "IP Address" from which the visitor made the request, and any additional information the visitor's web browser opted to send along — typically the type and version number of the browser, the operating system, and occasionally the type of computing device.
Some visitors have an account on Moonlit Rail ™ into which they may "sign in". Fairly obviously, their account information is stored on the system. Attempts at signing "in" and "out" are logged, which can be correlated to the system web log mentioned above.
Usage of Cookies
This site employees cookies that hold information within the web browser to assist visitors. Here are the cookies that are currently employed by the site:
- When a visitor with an account on the site "signs in", a cookie holds a session identifier validating the sign-in. This type of cookie is known as a "session cookie" because the cookie goes away whenever the browser is closed (or when the visitor signs out).
- Another cookie holds information on the "page style" that a visitor can select from the navigation menu. This allows the visitor to navigate from one page on the site to another without having to change the page style each time.
Anonymity
Visitors to this site with an account on the site into which they "sign in" typically lose their anonymity when accessing the site: the web server log can be used to correlate their sign-in with anything else that was accessed. Nonetheless, having an account on the site is no guarantee that the true identity of the account holder can be known.
Visitors to this site who do not have an account remain effectively anonymous. Although the web server log may track the web browser by its "IP Address", there is no correlation between the web browser device and any entity who may be using it.
How the Collected Data is Used
Individual entries from the web server's log are used to identify issues with the web server (such as failed attempts to field a request for a web page) and the site itself (such as references to missing pages).
Otherwise, the web server log data is summarized into an aggregate used principally to determine which portions of the site are used the most. Some content is more popular to visitors from a specific geographic area (as identified by their browser IP addresses). It is hoped that periodic analysis of this aggregate data will help improve the site.
Data Never Collected by This Site
Many web sites (particularly ones receiving advertising revenue) issue what are known as "tracking cookies". Often, these cookies come from third party "analytics" companies whose web servers are accessed (unbeknownst to the innocent web surfer) via innocuous or hidden references contained within the content of the visited site. Moonlit Rail ™ believes the use of hidden third-party references to be a very questionable practice, and the use of tracking cookies even more so.
So long as Moonlit Rail ™ remains free of any outside advertising, visitors can rest assured that no tracking by any third party "analytics" company will ever be employed, nor will the visitor's web browser ever be issued a behavioral tracking cookie. (As mentioned above, the only cookies employed by this site are those used to store a visitor's logged in session and site preferences.)
In the event that outside advertising is employed on this site in the future, careful consideration will be given to the privacy implications when selecting an advertising partner; this privacy policy document will be updated to reflect any such change.
Updates To This Policy
This document may be updated at any time without prior notice.
In addition to this privacy policy, the requisite legal notices page has been provided for completeness.