Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
Franchise Openness Project
May 2008
Introduction.
At the Open Franchise Foundation (the "OFF"), your privacy is very important and we strive to earn and keep your trust. This document discloses the privacy practices for our web sites, openfran.org, openufoc.com, openufoc.org, ufocproject.org, openfdd.org, openfdd.com, freefdd.org, freefdd.com and associated systems and services. Please take a few minutes to read this document to learn more about our privacy policy.
The Franchise Openness Project (the "Project") is committed to making its constantly growing collection of documents and other forms of digital content (the "Collections") freely available to researchers, historians, scholars, and others ("Researchers") for purposes of benefit to the public. The Project offers access to some of its Collections mainly by allowing Researchers to access its Unix machines. This open approach is somewhat like the situation in a public library, where staff and patrons might see who else was in the library and a bit of what they were working on. When Researchers using the Collections log on to the same Unix machine using different accounts, some sharing of information may take place. While the Project endeavors to enforce its Terms of Use (http://www.openfran.org/about/terms_of_use) and maintain standard computer security, it is important for both those who visit the site ("Visitors") and Researchers (collectively, "Users") to be aware of the open nature of the Project.
The Project may make changes to this policy from time to time and will notify you of such changes by posting an updated date in the Terms, Privacy, and Copyright link at the bottom the home document of the FOP's Web site (the "Site"). Your continued use of the Site and/or the Collections constitutes your acceptance of any changes to the Privacy Policy concerning, but not limited to, both previously and prospectively collected information.
What Personal Information May the Project Have on Its Computers and Systems?
Because the Project uses standard Web logging in its Web servers, our Web server may automatically recognize the domain name of each Visitor, each Visitor's IP address, what Web document the Visitor requests, and the time of the request, along with a variety of information supplied by the visitor's browser. See www.microsoft.com and www.mozilla.com for information about the Microsoft Explorer and Mozilla based browsers, and see www.apache.org for details about Web logs.
In addition, the Project may collect the email addresses and messages of those who communicate with it via email or who enter email addresses in forms.
The Project may collect personally identifying information when a Researcher registers for access to the Collections, including the Researcher's name, address, telephone number, and email address, and the Researcher's proposal for using the Collections.
The Project may use "cookies" to track Users' activities on the Site and in the Collections. Cookies are small files that a server transfers to the hard drive of someone who visits a site and that the server can access when the person returns to the site.
The primary sources of content for the Collections are publicly accessible documents that were collected and donated by third parties, but the Project will expand on such sources through its own collection activities. For instructions on removing a particular set of documents included in the Collections, please see our policies and procedures for document removal.
The communications between you and the Project may pass through many machines, operating systems, programs, browsers, Web servers, networks, routers, Ethernet switches, service providers, proxy servers, intranets, the public phone system, or other devices (collectively, "Devices") on your premises, at the Project, and in between. Some of these Devices create logs of activities that are recorded on computer systems.
What Might the Project Do With the Information on Its Computers?
The Project has no present intention to charge for access to the Collections. The Project may transfer the information on its machines, including personally identifying information, into the Collections. The Collections are made available to researchers and may be made available on the Site, or provided to third parties, for any use, without limitation. For instance, parts of the Collections are now in the collections of the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and public web servers such as CALEASI.
Advances in data mining technology may make it possible to discover more personally identifiable information or profiles in the Collections.
The Project may disclose any information it collects from Users if the Project believes in good faith that such action is reasonably necessary to enforce its Terms of Use or other policies, to comply with the law, to comply with legal process, to operate its systems properly, or to protect the rights or property of itself, its Users, or others.
It is possible that the computers at the Project could become compromised by others and that the information on the FOP's computers could be collected and disseminated without the knowledge or consent of the Project. While the Project endeavors to block "crackers" from breaking into its machines, the Project is not responsible or liable for any such unauthorized uses of the Project or its data.
How to Update Researcher Registration Information.
Researchers can help the Project maintain the accuracy of their information by notifying the Project of any changes in their address, title, phone number, or email address. Contact the Project by email at info@openfran.org to see, update, or delete your information.
For More Information.
If you have any questions or comments regarding these terms and policies or the FOP's data collection practices, please contact the Project at info@openfran.org or
Franchise Openness Project
PO Box 25514
Scottsdale, AZ 85255
phone 480-264-0050
Policy Changes.
In summary, we believe strongly in respecting your privacy and your wishes about the use of your personal information. While we may need to change this policy from time to time as new situations arise, we will never change our commitment to protecting your confidentiality and informing you of how we intend to use any information you provide to us. Our most up-to-date privacy policy will always be posted here.
Thank you to archive.org for inspiring the structure of our policies.