Raptor Services

Our Privacy Policy is written to meet the requirements of Australia's federal "Privacy Act", so please take the time to read how we work to ensure your privacy:-

Site and Server log files

We collect data and HTTP protocol elements through site and server access logs.  This is standard with any web server and most content management systems, is not personally identifiable, and is used for Web site development and system administration.  The type of information collected includes browser type, IP address, date and time of visit, where you came from, where you went and what you downloaded while visiting the site.  The information is stored on a secure server, and in a password-protected database.

Computor Security

We minimize the risk of your details being accessed by malicious users/software, by mainting up-to-date antivirus and anti-hacker software on our computor system.  We also avoid use of email software commonly targeted by virus programs.

Retention of Records

Being a registered business with quality assurance and other legal obligations, we retain an electronic file system of all emails sent and received, as well as other electronic documents such as receipts/invoices.  Once the matter you contact us about, or the type of documentation filed has passed the statute of limitations period, your details are permanently deleted from our computor system.

Financial Transactions

We use PayPal for all financial transactions, therefore we do not store information relating to a client's financial details (eg. credit card number, expirary date etc) on our server.  PayPal does send us an electronic receipt when payments are made, and clients are assured that these contain no credit card details - only the client's name, purchase amount and transaction ID.  These details are used for tax accounting purposes, and are stored in a secure electronic file system (see computor security & retention of records).

Please be sure to visit PayPal for further information regarding their privacy policy and security of customer records.

Website/database backups

Prior to commencing any work on a client's site, we perform a complete website/database backup (if there are existing files/entries).  This is an essential safety measure when working with existing sites - to guard against catastrophic loss due to human error or software malfunction.  Clients are assured that the copy of their site's files are only used for site restoration purposes, and for the purpose of developing their new site.  Once our work is completed and the client is satisfied with the final website, these files are permanently deleted from our computor.

Email contact form

Your email address will only be used in relation to the matter you write to us about.  It will not be sold, rented/leased to or otherwise given to others without your express permission - unless required to by law.  Due to the nature of email, sending information via the internet remains entirely at your own risk, and we will not be responsible for any unauthorized interception, use and disclosure of this information.  We use a mail-form as it affords some protection against spam bots and malicious users (see computor security & retention of records).

Newsletter subscribers

Subscribers to our newsletter are assured that their details will not be sold, rented/leased to or otherwise given to others without their express permission - unless required to by law.  Minimal personal details are required to subscribe, and these details are stored in a secure database accessible only by the owner of Raptor Services/webmaster.  Receipt of our newsletter is a voluntary opt-in choice, and subscribers may cancel at any time using the unsubscribe button on our website.  We do not purchase subscriber lists, nor do we engage in spamming activities.

Client confidentiality

Client confidentiality is extremely important to us, therefore we do not provide any personal names/email addresses for the purpose of referee reports, nor do we list website names/urls or images of client sites in a "portfolio" of work - unless we have permission to do so.  Clients always retain the right to withdraw this permission at any time, without reason - by simply contacting us using our site contact form.  We may provide an overview of the work we've done in broad, non-identifying generalizations - eg. large international construction company.

Cookies

This site may have 3rd party advertising that may result in tracking cookies being placed on your computer.  These are for the purposes of tracking affiliate program memberships, and while we make every effort to ensure we deal only with reputable organizations, we cannot be held responsible for their inappropriate use of cookies.

Any pop-up ads responsible for cookies when visiting this site are time-delayed exit consoles associated with the previous site you visited, or have been triggered by browser enhancements such as HotBar.

Favicon

Some webmaster sites have recognized that visitors may have concerns that the favicon.ico file is a way for webmasters to detect if you have bookmarked a site that has this file located on it, and that bookmarking such a site can be exploited in some way.  The icon file itself is harmless, and is simply a substitute for the default HTML page icon that normally appears next to the page name.  When a site is bookmarked, if no favicon.ico file is present an error report occurs in the server's log files, and if a favicon.ico file is present when the site is bookmarked, then an entry in the access logs shows that this file was called.  Please be assured that we don't exploit this feature of the browser, as we're tickled pink that you think enough of our site to bookmark it!

Other security measures

The software used to run this site is kept updated and patched for any security weaknesses identified.  Of course, this is no guarantee against malicious attackers.

Can you be traced?

Effectively, yes you can - and unfortunately there are some nasty people out there who will try to abuse inherent weaknesses in internet technology.  Through our log files we could possibly trace you to your IP address, based on when you visited this site or sent an email - but we don't know how to do this, and we've got better things to do with our time.  Based on your web site's address, you could also be traced via the internet's whois search facility - but that's something we all accept when registering a domain name.  Tracing anyone who visited this site would only ever be done when required by law, and would be conducted by the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

Additional information

If you have any further questions regarding our Privacy Policy, or would like to suggest additional information that may be relevant - please contact us with the details.