USE OF THE SITE AND PRIVACY POLICY

Bob the Alien's Tour of the Solar System features a number of ways to enable visitors to ask a question, leave a comment, and offer input about the site or its contents. Other information about visits to this website is also collected for internal research and development purposes. Below is a list of the ways information is collected, why it is collected and how that information is used.

BOB THE ALIEN'S GUEST BOOK: This page enables visitors to leave a comment about their visit to this website. Information requested is the visitor's name, e-mail address, homepage address, location (city) and a comment. None of these fields are compulsory. Once a guest book comment is submitted, the comment gets e-mailed to the website publisher before appearing on the website. The publisher checks the content of the message to ensure suitability for other visitors, and may edit the message if some of the content is not appropriate or not allow the entire submission to be published to the guest book. If a visitor leaves personal information such as a phone number or home address in their message, this information will be deleted. If the comment gets published to the website, information published alongside the comment will be the name, e-mail address, homepage address, and location of the visitor as given by that visitor. Again, none of this information is actually needed for the comment to be published, so if you don't want anybody to know your name, your e-mail address or where you live, don't leave it - just leave a comment saying how great this website is! When comments are submitted, the IP address of the computer the visitor is using is also submitted to the website publisher. This IP address is not displayed on the website, is not publicly accessible, and is not sold or distributed to outside parties. Repeated unsuitable comments from any particular IP address will result in users of that IP address being prevented from leaving comments in the Guest Book.

BOB THE ALIEN'S MESSAGE BOARD: This forum allows visitors to discuss topics relating or appropriate to the website. Visitors can choose to become registered users of the Message Board, in which case they will have to provide a username, password and a valid e-mail address. During the registration process, other information may be provided, and users registering are given the option of what information is visible to other visitors. The Message Board is provided by an independent company which states its terms and conditions before registration to the Message Board. You do not have to become a registered user to leave a message in the Message Board, and you do not need to leave your name. Message Board comments are not checked before being submitted to it. The Message Board is checked on a daily basis so any comments which are offensive/inappropriate are deleted and the IP address of the computer which made that comment is barred from leaving future comments. Registered users making offensive/inappropriate comments will also be immediately barred from leaving future comments.

WEB POLL: Bob the Alien's Tour of the Solar System may feature polls asking visitors for their opinion about a topic (for example, "Do you believe in aliens?"). To submit their opinion, visitors must choose one or more options from a list of given options (e.g. "Yes", "No", "I don't know"). The visitor's answer will be added to previous answers to give a general opinion of the topic. Visitors do not leave any personal identifying information about themselves.

ASK AN ALIEN: This website gives visitors the option to ask Bob the Alien a question they may have about the Solar System. The question and answer will then appear in the Ask an Alien section. To submit a question, visitors must send an e-mail to askanalien@bobthealien.co.uk The page requests the visitor asking the question to leave their name, age and location. This information is not needed for the question to be answered; it is requested so Bob knows how to word the answer to the question, and also to give the website publisher a general idea of the average age and location of users of the website for its future development. Visitors are told that they will be sent a personal e-mail with the answer to the question. The question and answer will also appear on the website, along with the visitor's name, age and location if provided. The visitor's e-mail address will not be published on the website.

SPACE QUIZ: This website features a number of multiple choice quizzes designed to test visitor's knowledge about space. At the start of the quiz, the user is asked for their name and e-mail address. A name is required but an e-mail address is not. Previously, a thank you e-mail was sent to people who took the quiz along with the correct answers, plus an e-mail was sent to the website publisher with visitor's given name, e-mail address and answers to the questions so that a general idea of user's knowledge could be obtained, therefore influencing future development of the site. Currently this information is not provided to the website publisher, so he does not know the names and e-mail addresses of any users of the quiz, apart from the names listed in the top ten. Thank you e-mails are also no longer sent out to users. After completing the quiz, the user is told their score. They can view the top ten to see if their name is on it. If the top ten is already full of people who have scored 100%, the user's name will not be added to it. The top ten is periodically deleted. Any unsuitable names in the top ten will be deleted immediately. If an e-mail address is provided by the user, it will not be published on the top ten.

E-MAILING BOB: Visitors are able to send e-mails to Bob's e-mail address: bob@bobthealien.co.uk He makes every effort to reply to messages sent to him if the person sending the e-mail is asking a question or requests a response. The e-mail addresses of anybody who sends Bob an e-mail is kept strictly confidential and is not distributed or sold to outside parties. If Bob receives a question which may be suitable for the Ask an Alien section, in his response, Bob will also ask permission for that question and the answer to feature in Ask an Alien. 

SITE COUNTER/TRACKER: Like most websites on the Internet, Bob the Alien's Tour of the Solar System uses site counters and trackers to keep a record of the number of visits to the website, the length of the visit and their global location or time zone. Other information provided is also the operating system of the user, their screen resolution, their ISP, their internet browser, their language and the site that brought them to this site. The user's IP address is also provided. This information is only available to the website publisher. Visitors to the website will only see the number of visitors on the site counter, and if they click on it, they will be taken to the site counter provider's website. This information is used to give the website publisher a broad idea of the usage of the website to enable future development of it. No personal identifying information is provided to the publisher through any site counters or trackers used. The tracker also does not provide information about other websites the user has visited (apart from the one that sent them to the site) or visits after leaving the site. The Site Counter and tracker used on Bob the Alien's Tour of the Solar System is provided by Site Meter.

If you have any further questions about using this website or its privacy policy, please send them to bob@bobthealien.co.uk

(c) Caverswall Palace Productions 2006