Personal Information

Registered users of the CBD website, including those wishing to participate in on-line discussion fora, may be requested to provide personal information during the registration process. The Secretariat may use this information to respond to requests, or to contact visitors via mail, e-mail or phone to inform them of new features developed on the site. (however, an option to “opt-out” of the notification process is provided during registration). The Secretariat does not provide this information to third parties.

Non-Personal Information

In addition to any personal information that you may provide, the CBD web server may use technology to collect technical information such as your Internet protocol (IP) address, your computer's operating system, your browser type, your traffic patterns on the CBD site and the address of any referring Web sites. This information is used by the Secretariat to improve the services provided through the website. The Secretariat may make available aggregate statistics about traffic patterns and related site information as part of its reporting function, but these statistics will not include any information that permits personal identification.

Security

Please note that while there are always risks associated with providing personal data, whether in person, by phone or over the Internet, and no system of technology is completely safe, or "hacker- proof", the Secretariat has, to the best of its ability, taken appropriate measures to prevent and minimize risks of unauthorized access to, improper use of, and to maintain the accuracy of your personal information. For example, encryption technology is used when collecting or transferring sensitive data such as passwords.

Visitor identification

information is captured from visitors to the CBD website?

From time to time, information may be placed on your computer to allow the CBD web server to identify you. This information is commonly known as "cookies". If you have set your browser to accept cookies, the CBD Web server may use an extended log file format that captures: date and time of visit, refer address (location from which a visitor comes to the CBD), type of Internet browser, and visitor’s IP address. (Each computer that connects to the Internet is assigned a unique number, an IP Address, for identification purposes). The log file does not capture a visitor's email address.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a series of data characters that is placed by a Web Server into the browser's application folder on your computer. Once placed onto your machine, the cookie will allow the web site (in this case, the CBD) to "recognize" you as a unique individual. Cookies are used only to view information on your hard drive that was put there by a cookie from this Site (e.g. the date the website was last accessed from your computer).

Can I stop the CBD from collecting this information?

Cookies are stored on your computer and not on this site. If you do not wish to receive cookies, or want to be notified of when they are placed on your computer, you may set your web browser’s security level to carry out this function (please review your web browser documentation for more information on how to do this). You may also delete cookies from your hard drive.

Why does the CBD use cookies?

The use of cookies is a standard practice and many web sites use them. Cookies are used by the CBD website to achieve two goals. The first is to show the Secretariat how and when visitors use the website, to enable its continuous improvement. Secondly, in some instances, cookies are used to give the website the opportunity to associate individual visitors with their information profiles. For example, cookies permit users to log in and out of different discussion forums automatically, without the need to reenter passwords, thus saving time.

What happens when I leave the CBD website to visit a linked Web site?

When you leave the CBD website to visit any linked site, the only information that may be transferred to the third party is the fact that you came from www.cbd.int (the refer address). This practice allows the third party to monitor its own Web site traffic, but does not provide them with any information about you. You should consult the privacy policies at those sites to determine how your inform