Privacy Policy

Purpose of the collection of private information

Thermal-Fluids Central limits the collection of personally identifiable user data for purposes of enhancing the public accountability of the articles. For example, when investigating abuse on a project, including the suspected use of malicious "sockpuppets" (duplicate accounts), vandalism, harassment of other users, or disruptive behavior, the account information may be used to identify the source(s) of the abusive behavior. This infomation may be shared by administrators who are charged by their communities with protecting the projects.


While the visitors of Thermal-Fluids Central are not required to register to view or read content, their IP address may be used to provide site statistics. Our website statistically samples raw log data from visitors. These logs are used to produce the site statisitcs pages; the raw log data is not made public.


The log data may also be examined by developers in the course of solving technical problems and in tracking badly-behaved web spiders that overwhelm the site.


Reading Articles

No information regarding visitors reading pages is collected other than that typically collected in server logs by web sites. Aside from the above raw log data collected for general purposes, page visits do not expose a visitor's identity publicly. Sampled raw log data may include the IP address of any user, but it is not reproduced publicly.


User accounts and authorship

Thermal-Fluids Central requires users to register in order to contribute to certain applications. Registered users are identified by their chosen username. Users select a password, which is confidential and used to verify the integrity of their account. Except insofar as it may be required by law, no person should disclose, or knowingly expose, either user passwords and/or cookies generated to identify a user. Once created, user accounts will not be removed. It may be possible for a username to be changed but we do not guarantee that a username will be changed on request.


Policy on release of server logs and other personally identifiable information

Server logs and other personally identifiable information are only shared with law enforcement officers and companies that have been subject to criminal abuse on Thermal-Fluids Central.