Introduction
Breast Nexus is committed to safeguarding the privacy of our forum members and visitors. This policy sets out how we store and use your personal information.
The policy applies to those who have registered an account with us and to guests who visit and view the forum but who have not completed an account registration. By using this website you expressly agree to this privacy policy and to the data privacy practices described here. If you do not agree you should not use our website.
The policy is divided into the following sections.
(A) Forum Cookies
A cookie consists of information sent by a web server to a web browser, and stored by the browser. The information is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. This enables the web server to identify and track the web browser.
Like most websites, the forum uses cookies and all visitors to the forum are advised of our use of cookies when first arriving on the website.
The forum uses two types of cookies, session cookies and persistent cookies. It uses persistent cookies to identify you when you visit and to distinguish you as a website visitor from other users of our website. It uses session cookies to open and close a session (for example, to allow login to and logout of the site). Persistent cookies are stored on your computer until deleted, but session cookies are deleted from your computer when you close your browser.
Most browsers allow you to deny/disable cookies very easily, but blocking all cookies in this way will have a negative impact upon the usability of this website and in particular make it impossible for forum members to login to the forum.
Both forum members and guests should be aware that refusing cookies prevents the forum from displaying to you which topics you been read. As this is a generally expected feature of internet forums, disabling this function may be considered inconvenient to you and negative to your user experience.
For more information on how the forum uses cookies please refer to our Cookies Policy.
(B) Data Collection
The forum collects both personal data and aggregated data.
Personal data, or personal information, refers to any information about an individual from which that person could be identified.
Aggregated data refers to statistical data which is used to better understand how our visitors are using the site and to improve site performance. On many websites aggregated data is derived from personal data, but the aggregated data we collect on this site is not derived from personal data and could not be used to reveal your identity, either directly or indirectly.
On this website we collect and store the following kinds of personal information:
(1) the email address that you provide to us for the purpose of registering with us and for the purpose of subscribing to our email notifications and/or newsletters. You can access the email address we hold for you in your User CP (control panel) and amend it at any time.
(2) information about your visits to and use of the forum, such as your IP address including therefore your internet service provider and your geographical location, your browser type and version, your computer operating system, your referral source, the length of your visit, your page views and your forum navigation.
(3) any other information that you choose to provide, such as personal information revealed through your username, avatar, profile, forum posts, private messages and emails. You must have a username to register an account, but you are not required to enter any profile details in order to use the forum.
(C) Data Use
We may use your personal information to:
(1) improve your browsing experience by personalising the forum.
(2) send you email notifications which you have specifically requested. If you are subscribed to any such email notifications you are free to unsubscribe at any time.
(3) administer the forum, i.e. send you messages from the forum admin. These newsletters can also be used for service messages, e.g. to inform you about changes in the privacy policy, terms and conditions, etc.
(4) send you marketing communications relating to the businesses of carefully-selected third parties which we think may be of interest to you. You provide your consent for these processing activities by checking the box stating that you agree, either as part of the account registration process or at any subsequent time. You can also opt out at any time, by unchecking the box in your account settings which you can access in your User CP (control panel).
(5) deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you regarding the forum.
We will not under any circumstances provide your email address to any third parties for the purpose of direct marketing or for any other commercial purpose.
Of the above items only (1) is applicable to guests and not to members, so if you prefer not to have your personal data used in the other ways you should not join the forum. You are always welcome to view the forum as a guest and are not obliged to register as a member. Most of our site visitors are guests and not forum members.
If you are registered as a member, please be aware that your username and any additional content you provide through your profile, incuding your date of birth if specified, are fully visible to other members. Your username, your avatar and your forum posts are of course fully visible to anyone visiting the forum.
(D) Forum Posts
Please note that if you post personal information in the forum you do so at your own risk, including the risk of abandoning any privacy rights you had in such information (as we are obviously unable to prevent the use or misuse of such information by others once you have published it on the worldwide web).
However, please note that certain personal information posted in the forum is often removed by the forum staff. In particular any email addresses and telephone numbers which are posted in the forum are likely to be quickly removed by the forum moderators.
Regarding your forum posts, you agree to grant to the site a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual license to have the posts visible on the site and to reproduce, distribute, transmit and create derivative works of them, without any right of rescission whatsoever as under our registration agreement you have given this up for any postings submitted to the site. This means that you cannot revoke permission for Breast Nexus to publish and to allow others to have derivative rights to content once you have yourself made it public, and you should be aware that in any event Breast Nexus loses direct control over such content when it is published on the open internet. You also agree under our registration agreement that you shall have no recourse against the site for any alleged or actual infringement or misappropriation of any proprietary right in your postings.
If a forum post by another member includes information that could be considered invasive of your privacy it is likely to be removed by a forum moderator as being against the forum's terms of use, as stated in our registration agreement. If not you are free to contact a moderator and ask for the relevant material to be removed. We take no responsibility for the content of messages posted, other than to remove them from the forum where considered appropriate, and we cannot be held liable for the content of any messages posted.
Forum posts often contain links to other websites. We have no control over such third party websites and have no responsibility for their privacy policies or their practices.
(E) Data Security
Breast Nexus is committed to protecting your privacy by storing your data securely and by regularly testing our security measures. We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach.
All the data you provide us with is stored securely without any exceptions and this website also uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology to prevent any data you send us from being intercepted.
We will take all reasonable technical and operational measures to prevent the disclosure of your registration email address and any other email address that you subsequently use. Your stored email address cannot be accessed by the forum moderators and is therefore not generally available to them.
Unfortunately, no data can be guaranteed to be 100% secure on the internet and accordingly, and despite our efforts, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us and have no responsibility or liability for the security of information transmitted via the internet, including any act of hacking in which your data is compromised.
You play an important role in keeping your information secure, as you are responsible for choosing your password and keeping it confidential. Please use a strong password in order to protect your account and guard it carefully. You can change your password at any time in your User CP (control panel).
If you forget your password, you can use the "lost password" option available after you click on "Login", which requires you to submit your email address in order to have a new password generated. Please note that if your registered email address is no longer valid you will not be able to reset your password in this way.
(F) Data Disclosure
We will not under any circumstances provide any of your personal information to a third party for the purpose of direct marketing or for any other commercial purpose.
We may disclose information about you to the extent that we are required to do so by law, in connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings or to provide the information to anyone who we believe may successfully apply to a court for the disclosure of the information.
If you disclose personal information yourself by posting it in the forum you do so at your own risk, as mentioned in section (D) above.
Personal information may also be passed to other members by using the forum's private message and email systems. As private messages are private they are not visible to the public or to members of the forum other than those a specific message was sent to. Emails sent through the forum are also private and do not disclose the sender's email address to the recipient, using the forum's email address instead. The forum moderators do not have access to your private messages or to any record of your emails.
If you disclose personal information about yourself by private message or email you do so at your own risk, as you are dependent upon the recipient respecting your privacy. However, if the contents of a private message or email are posted in the forum you may ask a moderator to remove it.
All information that we hold is stored and processed in the USA which is the country in which the forum is located. We will not transfer any of your personal information to any other country without your express consent being sought and given at the time.
(G) Data Control
For those of our visitors in the EU, the control and processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR).
Breast Nexus is both the data controller and the data processor for all the websites which we operate, including this site, www.breastnexus.com. There are no other parties involved.
The GDPR requires us to always have a lawful basis for the collection and processing of your personal information. The lawful basis for most of the information we collect is that the processing is necessary for the legitimate interests pursued by the Data Controller, Breast Nexus, which is authorised by GDPR article 6(1)(f).
The lawful basis for other information that we generally collect is clear consent from you to process your information, which is authorised by GDPR article 6(1)(a). This applies where you have chosen to opt in to receiving communications from us, as described in section (E)(4) above. If you have given us this consent you are free to revoke it at any time.
In addition we may process your personal information if it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation or to defend a legal claim, which is authorised by GDPR article 6(1)(c), or if processing that data is necessary to protect someone, which is authorised by GDPR article 6(1)(d).
We will hold your personal data securely for as long as you are registered as a member of the forum and usually for a further 3 years following cessation of membership. We may vary the length of time for which we keep personal data if in any specific case it is considered necessary by the data privacy manager, who will list and monitor such special cases using a data retention schedule.
(H) Your Rights
The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) provides you with the following legal rights over the storing and processing of your your personal information.
To ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
To ask for a copy of your personal data in a machine-readable format.
To know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it.
To ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you.
To object to your personal data being used for direct marketing purposes.
To object to your data being used in a way which infringes your human rights.
To ask for your personal data to be deleted if we don't require it any longer.
To ask us to limit or restrict the of processing of your personal data.
To withdraw your consent at any time to the processing of your data.
If you have created an online account with us and would like to update the information you have provided to us, you can access your account via your UCP (user control panel) to view and make changes or corrections to your information.
Please note that these rights don't apply to personal information that you have made public yourself by posting on our forums.
(I) Requests
We will comply with any requests to exercise your rights in accordance with the GDPR. Please note, however, that there are a number of legal limitations to these rights, and there may be circumstances where we are not able to comply with your request. If we are unable to comply with a request we will notify you of the specific legal reasons for this or demonstrate to you that we have compelling legitimate grounds which override your rights.
In the event of you making a request to exercise your rights under GDPR, providing you currently have access to your own forum account it usually isn't necessary to further identify yourself when contacting us. If we do require any further verification of your identity then we will inform you before processing your request.
If you exercise your right to restrict the of processing of your personal information, where we are are using it in a specific way you wish to discontinue, it will be understood that you do not wish your data to be further processed in that way, but that you do want us to continue to store it.
If you exercise your right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal information, in any circumstances where we are relying on your consent for the processing, then the withdrawal of your consent will take immediate effect. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent.
If you exercise your right to ask for your personal information to be deleted, where you feel that we do not require it any longer, we will proceed to delete that information immediately unless there are other interests in that information which we hold to outweigh your right to deletion, such as legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings.
For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, you can consult the EU's GDPR website at https://gdpr-info.eu/. You can also contact the supervisory authority for data protection issues in your own country for further assistance and to report any concerns you have regarding your privacy or the handling of your personal information.
(J) Contact
If you have a query on any aspect of this privacy policy or the handling of your personal information, including any requests to exercise your rights under GDPR, please contact us by email at admin@breastnexus.com
You can also contact the forum moderators, either by private message or email. In addition if you wish to bring a particular post to the attention of the moderators, you can use the 'report' button found at the bottom right of every post in the forum. This is generally the most effective means of communication with the forum moderators, as unlike private messages and emails these reports are immediately visible to the whole of the forum staff.
The forum contains many links to other websites, including advertising banners. We have no control over such third party websites and have no responsibility for their privacy policies or their practices. However, we value any feedback about these third party sites and you are welcome to contact us with information or your views about any site that we link to (including if a specific link does not work).
Our policies and procedures are continually under review and for that reason we may update this privacy policy at any time by posting a new version on the site. We may make small, inconsequential changes to this policy with or without notice to you, so you may want to check this page from time to time to ensure you're happy with any changes which may have been made. Substantive changes to this policy may be sent to forum members by private message if they are subscribed to receiving admin messages and to anyone who submits an email request to the data privacy manager.
This privacy policy was last updated on 12 December 2021.