Turnstone Geological Services

Privacy Policy

The Turnstone.ca web site (2001-) is an aggregation of original materials describing aspects of natural history, especially Earth and planetary sciences, plus a minor component of other topics. It does not incorporate interactive elements by which a visitor can post or leave comments, credit card or other data to the site (only by contacting Turnstone directly can a visitor choose to share information). It has a basic html architecture, and collects no user data from visitors to the site, other than their locations. The location is geographic, and does not include records that can be traced to an individual computer. Thus (unless obscured by use of a VPN or other user-controlled mechanism) the software will log the occurrence of a visit to the site, and the country where the visitor is located at that time. One additional level of location-specific data may appear, such as the state, province, county or city (etc) where the user was situated at the time of the visit.

No personal data, related to an individual, are collected nor retained by Turnstone. The only information related to a visit that is retained is location-related: these data are collected by the third-party applications supplied by StatCounter and Flag Counter, as seen on the front page of turnstone.ca. The results are seen, or are flagged, from the front page, and are aggregated in terms of time slots (StatCounter) and location from which turnstone.ca is accessed (Flag Counter). Turnstone has no control over the proprietory software by which these applications gather those data. Turnstone retains no traces by which the identity or personal data of a specific visitor can be revealed. The principal reasons for tracking visitors are to: 1) display their locations (on the front page) and 2) maintain records of the fluctuating volume of visits to the site.