Privacy Policy
How Alba Technicians looks after your personal information.
Last updated: October 2026
We respect your privacy and only collect what we need to run the forum. This page explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have.
1. Who we are
Alba Technicians is a community forum for technicians in Scotland, run by an individual volunteer. For any privacy question, contact us at admin@albatechnicians.org.uk.
2. What we collect
- Account details: your email address, username, nickname and password. Your password is stored in a scrambled (hashed) form, so we can't read it.
- Your content: the posts, discussions, reactions, private messages and profile information you add to the forum.
- Technical information: such as your IP address and the date and time of your activity, which the forum software records to keep the site running and secure.
- Cookies: small files the forum uses to keep you logged in and remember your preferences, such as day or night mode.
3. Why we use it
- To create and manage your account and let you take part in the forum.
- To send notifications you've asked for, and essential messages such as password resets.
- To moderate the forum, keep it secure and deal with misuse.
We use your information to provide the forum you signed up for and to keep it safe and running. We don't use it for advertising and we don't sell it.
4. Who can see it
- Your username, nickname, avatar and public posts can be seen by other visitors, depending on the forum's settings.
- Your email address is not shown publicly. Only the admins can see it.
- Private discussions are visible only to the people taking part and, where necessary for moderation or safety, the admins.
- We use a web hosting provider and an email service to run the forum and send notifications. They handle data on our behalf only to provide those services.
- We don't share your information with anyone else, unless the law requires us to.
5. How long we keep it
We keep your account information for as long as your account is open. If you delete your account, we remove your personal details. Posts you've made may remain on the forum without your name attached. Server logs and backups are kept for a limited time and then removed.
6. Your rights
Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:
- access the personal information we hold about you;
- have inaccurate information corrected;
- have your information deleted;
- restrict or object to how we use it;
- receive a copy of your data in a portable format.
You can export your account data or delete your account yourself from your account settings. For anything else, email us and we'll help.
7. Cookies
We only use the cookies needed to run the forum, such as keeping you logged in and remembering your settings. We don't use advertising or tracking cookies.
8. Complaints
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please contact us first so we can put it right.
9. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it was last changed.
Questions about your privacy? We'd be happy to help.
