Privacy Policy

[tilbakestaend]

Given it seems to be a point of contention but others haven't asked, is there any indication that notable changes will be made to the current RD privacy policy? Can we expect the same level of transparency, the ability to opt-out of personalized ads, and the same restrictions put on the information advertisers can access for profiling outside of the RD website?

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

is there any indication that notable changes will be made to the current RD privacy policy?

First of all thanks for your question. There will be a few minor updates to the privacy policy because of the introduction of a few cool features to the site in the future. But of each change to the privacy policy you will be informed because consent needs to be given by law.

Can we expect the same level of transparency

Yes, and not just because I think we need to be open and honest but also because the law requires to be transparent. It's basically good practice.

the ability to opt-out of personalized ads

Always, if you don't wish to see personalized ads you can always change your preferences.

the same restrictions put on the information advertisers can access for profiling outside of the RD website?

Could you please elaborate a bit on that so I fully understand your question?

 

[tilbakestaend]

First of all thanks for your question. There will be a few minor updates to the privacy policy because of the introduction of a few cool features to the site in the future. But of each change to the privacy policy you will be informed because consent needs to be given by law.


Yes, and not just because I think we need to be open and honest but also because the law requires to be transparent. It's basically good practice.


Always, if you don't wish to see personalized ads you can always change your preferences.


Could you please elaborate a bit on that so I fully understand your question?

Thanks for the response, hopefully the way I worded things didn't come across as accusatory - I figured being that direct would help put things into perspective for those who are feeling cynical.

Specifically, I was referring to the first paragraph of the Advertising section in the privacy policy -

"For these partners, we put additional restrictions on how your data can be used to prevent it from misuse. For instance, we do not allow these partners to take information we have collected for profiling and personalising ads on other sites."

Will that still be the way RD handles our data moving forward?

Looking forward to seeing those new features and the growth of RD as a whole, hopefully the negative responses don't take anything away from what I can only imagine is an exciting time for you and the team~

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

hopefully the negative responses don't take anything away from what I can only imagine is an exciting time for you and the team~

It's absolutely fine. The responses are actually very positive so far so I am really happy to read and hear that. Indeed very exciting times and we are just getting started.

Of course there will be users feeling cynical but that's not new. Every change we have introduced here in the last (almost) 17 years has been met with resistance from a small minority, that's very normal and okay. Keeps me sharp as well

Myself and the new hands joining this project will just have to work even harder to prove them wrong and I am up for that

first paragraph of the Advertising section in the privacy policy

The way the site works today (and I see no reason now why that would chance moving forward) is that we only store very basic data of our users (username, email, d.o.b., IP address and any other extra information the user puts in his or her user profile or they leave on our game servers while taking part during online races we host in the club).

For example this is all the data RD collects on my forum account, displayed in xml format

Essentially the same kind of data that is displayed in my profile page besides email and dob if you do not wish to show this. This data xml is just being used here on the platform.

We do use some javascript for Google Analytics (GA) tracking and for our advertisement network to perform a process called headerbidding that runs before serving an advertisement. This is pretty much the standard on most of the websites on the internet nowadays.

Regarding GA: We have always enabled the anonymisation feature for IP addresses when it was optional and that it is now the only option in newer versions of Analytics and that we don't set any user specific metrics at the moment.

Hope this helps?

 

[tilbakestaend]

It's absolutely fine. The responses are actually very positive so far so I am really happy to read and hear that. Indeed very exciting times and we are just getting started.

Of course there will be users feeling cynical but that's not new. Every change we have introduced here in the last (almost) 17 years has been met with resistance from a small minority, that's very normal and okay. Keeps me sharp as well

Myself and the new hands joining this project will just have to work even harder to prove them wrong and I am up for that


The way the site works today (and I see no reason now why that would chance moving forward) is that we only store very basic data of our users (username, email, d.o.b., IP address and any other extra information the user puts in his or her user profile or they leave on our game servers while taking part during online races we host in the club).

For example this is all the data RD collects on my forum account, displayed in xml format

View attachment 642245
Essentially the same kind of data that is displayed in my profile page besides email and dob if you do not wish to show this. This data xml is just being used here on the platform.

We do use some javascript for Google Analytics (GA) tracking and for our advertisement network to perform a process called headerbidding that runs before serving an advertisement. This is pretty much the standard on most of the websites on the internet nowadays.

Regarding GA: We have always enabled the anonymisation feature for IP addresses when it was optional and that it is now the only option in newer versions of Analytics and that we don't set any user specific metrics at the moment.

Hope this helps?

Fantastic, thank you for taking the time to write out such in-depth response, above and beyond. ~

I think that fully clears up any questions anyone might have regarding the privacy policy or concerns about our data.

Best of luck moving forward, and of course congratulations.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Thank you @tilbakestaend