BASEF Privacy Statement

We are committed to respecting the privacy of our Web site's visitors. This page summarizes the privacy policy and practices of the Bay Area Science & Engineering Fair (BASEF) and it's website.

Automatic Non-Personal Data Collection

Our web site may automatically record some general information about your visit, such as:

• The Internet domain for your Internet service provider, such as "company.com" or "service.ca" and the IP address of the computer accessing the Web site.
• The type of browser (such as "Netscape version x" or "Internet Explorer version x") you are using.
• The type of operating system you are using (such as Macintosh, Unix, or Windows)
• The date and time you visit our site and the Web pages that you visit on our site.

Use of Automatic Non-Personal Data

We use this information for statistical analysis, to help us make our site more useful to visitors, and to help solve any access problems our visitors may have. We make no effort to link this data with the identity of individuals.

Personal Data Collection

Personal data is collected from you only if you choose to provide that information to us, by completing one of our online forms and submitting it to us. We do not use techniques that collect information from you without your knowledge. If you choose to complete and submit an information form (project registration, judging, etc.), we will also record the date and time you submitted the form, and the website you connected from. This information helps us with Date and Time stamping of Registrations, and to solve any problems that may appear with our online registration processes. If you choose to send us electronic mail, we will keep a record of your email, so we can respond to you, and provide you with other relevant information.

Use of Personal Data

Personal information will only be used for the purpose for which it was collected, or for a use consistent with that purpose. These purposes include:
- the carrying out of an annual Regional Science Fair (RSF) activity, including the assessment of eligibility, judging of projects, assignment and delivery of awards, and conducting of student activities.
- communication of RSF information, including future RSFs.
- publicity of RSF results.
We also summarize RSF project, student, judge and volunteer information in ways that make it no longer personal. We then use these summary statistics in various ways, to assist us with future fair planning, fund raising, affiliation requirements, etc.
We do not disclose your information to other organizations or individuals without your permission (except as required by law).

Verification and Approval of Personal Data

We require that all student and project information be validated by signed approval forms, from both a Parent/Guardian and a School Sponsor (Teacher / Principal). Information not verified in this way is not retained.
A subset of approved data for registered students and their projects is provided to School Sponsors. They are asked to identify any errors in the data, as a further check.
Contact information (email and regular addresses, telephone numbers, etc.) may be used in the course of carrying out our fair activities. If we determine that this information is incorrect, we will remove related personal information from our records.
On an annual basis, we contact all volunteers and judges to confirm their continued interest in BASEF. Records are removed from our judges and volunteers databases upon request, or after a sufficient period of time has elapsed with no response.

Protection of Personal Data

Our web site has security measures in place to protect against loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. At an appropriate time, all records are removed from our website, and retained only by BASEF members with legitimate need to use collected information in carrying out the activities of the RSF.

Use of Cookies

We do not use "cookies" to track how our visitors use our site.

Links to Other Sites

The BASEF website (basef.mcmaster.ca and it's aliases) contains links to other web sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any other web sites.

Questions?

If you have additional questions on this topic, please contact us at basef@mcmaster.ca or through one of the other methods described on our Contacts page.

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Statement from time to time. Last revised: January 2002.