Polices Part 8: Privacy Policy
Help Policies8
Every command you type into Aardwolf, all your communications, and everyaction you take, may all be logged and/or viewed by a high-level imm. In
short, you cannot guarantee any privacy on any channel. If something is
very personal to you, it is recommended that you take it off the MUD.
This sounds much worse in theory than in actual practice. Aardwolf has a
limited number of Immortals, all of which are very busy; logging commands
takes up system resources; and, frankly, you're just not that interesting.
However, any/all of the following situations are possible:
* You are being logged/watched because you are suspected of cheating/
harassing others, or you are communicating with someone being watched.
* A particular command you are using is logged. Often this is because a
command is particularly sensitive, or may be bugged.
* Someone has asked an imm to snoop them while they read a personal note.
Imms can NOT read personal notes not specificly to them, but if someone
receives a threatening or harassing note, they may ask an Imm to watch
them while they read it.
As far as in-game actions are concerned, once again, if something is personal
to you and you would be embarrassed if an imm were to see it, take it
offline.
Real-life information holds a much higher level of privacy. Expect the
following:
* If your email is marked private, imms will not give it to other players.
* If you have donated to Aardwolf and a personal check/paypal account was
involved, your personal details are absolutely private. In fact, to
prevent conflicts of interest, we don't even keep track of who donated
what; the only indication that someone donated at all is their donation
pin. Donations do not exempt them from any type of punishment.
* Your IP address and ISP information is private and will not be used for
anything other than identification, UNLESS you are spamming, hacking, or
otherwise attacking Aardwolf or its server. The information is not
shared with non-Immortals for any reason.
* Your password is encrypted and your pfile secure. No system is 100%
secure, but as many precautions as practical are taken to keep Aardwolf
secure - up to the point of even having a separate server for email/DNS/
web services. However, as a precaution, do NOT use a password you use
elsewhere- particularly for sensitive real life activities such as home
banking or VPN access.
Every mud has these abilities and faces these challenges to keep information
secure. If they claim they don't, they're lying. This helpfile is not
intended to scare anyone, just to lay out the facts and be open with
everybody up front.
If you have any questions, feel free to note 'imm' on the personal board.