Who we are
Who “we” are is just me, Mark D. Hamill. I provide all the services for this site. I am a resident of Florence, Massachusetts USA. My website address is https://www.phpbbservices.com.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
The nature of my business is that to do work on your system I must have access to your system, so at some point to do the work you must send me credentials that I need. I ask that my clients use my secure authorization form to provide these details but you may opt to send these via email. Using the secure form is strongly encouraged to ensure the data is not read en route to me. If you send me an unsecured email, you are responsible for any breaches of privacy data that may occur.
Some clients prefer to send this message via other routes. This can be done through a text message, Skype or potentially other means. If you request this method, I will provide details on how you can send this information using these methods.
The content on the authorization form is sent encrypted to my GMail account. Google can tell if any part of the message was sent unencrypted and it shows no issues. Also, I have my GMail account set up for advanced protection. This means in order for me to login to GMail or use any part of my Google account, I must go through a two-step process. The second step is to connect with a physical security key that I keep on me or plugged into my computer that uses U2F public/private key technology. This is the most advanced security protection available and used by Google employees.
So you can have confidence that lacking possession of one of these physical keys and my Google account password no one can see the information you send me. I do recommend that after I have completed my work on your site to your satisfaction that you change the credentials you sent me. A data breach is extremely unlikely, but this approach ensures it won’t happen.
Minimally I collect any information you provide on this form, which typically includes your name, your email address, credentials to login to your forum, and FTP information to write files to your server. There are other fields you may choose to fill out with additional information, such as credentials to access your web host control panel.
I also have a secure service inquiry form you can use to send me a general inquiry. In the form you provide your name and email address. Other fields in the form do not request private information. I retain information on this form in GMail.
Information I retain
I do retain your emails in GMail because I frequently get requests for tweaks or new task orders and it saves time if your access credentials haven’t changed.
I do not retain any passwords you send me in a password manager.
If at the conclusion of our work together you request that I purge any emails containing confidential information or any data files I have on you or your site I am happy to do so.
Generally I retain your emails indefinitely unless you request otherwise. As I work with many clients, these emails provide historical information on our conversations. I use these from time to time to refresh my memory on the work I did for you. Should you need additional work or tweaks to work recently completed, having the information on file makes it straightforward in most cases to provide speedy service.
My security practices
I use a Mac and keep it regularly updated
I do not place spyware or any malicious software on my site, at least not intentionally. My site is periodically scanned to see if there are any known security issues. If any such issues are found, I do my best to fix these expeditiously.
If you have any additional questions or concerns please feel free to email me.
I do not provide privacy data to third parties
I do not identify my clients unless they publicly state that I am their client or they give me permission to identify them as clients. This is not something I solicit. Of course, if ordered by a United States court I would have to provide any information that falls within the scope of a court’s order.
I do not sell or give out a list of any information I collect about my client such as their names, email addresses and websites.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
Analytics
Your use of this website is tracked by various web analytics packages. This gives me insight into how people are using this website. Your usage is captured by Google Analytics, AddThis and StatCounter. However it does not provide any personally identified information. It does track your IP (internet protocol) address and records some information in the HTTP headers you send. From this these analytics packages infers your likely location, country of origin, browser, machine and similar data.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
