Tor Forum Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 2024-03-01

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your data in an open and transparent manner. This privacy policy sets out how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information when you use our forum.

The Tor Forum is hosted by the Tor Project system administrator team, and the service privacy policy is displayed below.

What information do we collect?

We collect information from you when you register on our site and gather data when you participate in the forum by reading, writing, and evaluating the content shared here.

When registering on our site, you may be asked to enter your name and email address. You may, however, visit our site without registering. Your e-mail address will be verified by an email containing a unique link. If that link is visited, we know that you control the email address.

When registering and posting, we record the IP address that the post originated from. We also may retain server logs which include the IP address of every request to our server.

Other information that we may collect:

Your name, title, location, and any other information you choose to provide in your user profile.
At the server level, our app container webserver collects access logs for operational purposes, but we anonymize these logs by removing IP addresses to protect your privacy.
Application Logs: While we anonymize IP addresses at the server level to enhance privacy, our application logs (such as Discourse’s production.log) still record IP addresses for operational and security purposes. The access logs are kept for 7 days on the server.
In the case of errors, we may collect IP information, which is rotated regularly: 2 weeks for webserver logs and 1 month for application logs.

What do we use your information for?

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:

To improve our site - we continually strive to improve our site offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you.
To improve our user support - your information helps us to more effectively respond to your user support needs.
To improve our forum, products and the services we offer based on feedback and interactions.
To communicate with you, including sending notifications and responses to your inquiries.

How do we protect your information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you enter, submit, or access your personal information.

We collect only the minimum amount of information necessary for the forum to function and for us to address any issues.
Access to your personal data is limited to trusted individuals and Tor core contributors with administrator-level access.
We employ security measures to protect your information and keep our systems up-to-date.

What is your data retention policy?

We retain the personal information you provide in your user profile for an undefined amount of time, as well as the IP addresses used for registration and last login. Backup retention details are managed according to our internal policies, and specific inquiries can be directed to Tor Project system administrator team for more information.

If you wish to delete your forum account, we offer an anonymization option that removes all personal information from your account but retains your posts to preserve the integrity of forum discussions.

Do we use cookies?

Yes. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow). These cookies enable the site to recognize your browser and, if you have a registered account, associate it with your registered account.

We use cookies to understand and save your preferences for future visits and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.