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Information Security
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Search Vibrationdamage.com
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Security of Information on Vibrationdamage.com
Visitors to any Internet site should keep in mind that their connections are, for the most part, inherently insecure, unless encrypted in a "secure connection". Such connections, whose URL's (Internet addresses) are of the form "https://...", are used by PayPal and others who collect sensitive personal information (e.g. addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers), but not normally so on other, public service sites, like Vibrationdamage.com, which neither collect nor store online such information.[2] Connections to the site are fully SSL-encrypted, using web-standard, 128-bit public key-private key (SSL/TLS - Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security) encryption. Such encryption of connections to Vibrationdamage.com provides visitors with a high degree of security, both in viewing the site and in submitting information to the site on our HTML forms (CVDG Registration, Visitor Comments and Damage Report forms)
Internet e-mail and web access can also be compromised unless encrypted. Most modern email clients communicate securely using SSL/TLS. It is well-known that governmental organizations monitor such e-mail regarding illegal activities, again with ISP cooperation. Unless you're a terrorist or mobster or the like, chances are that your e-mail communications and web uses are safe, so long as the people you communicate with, or provide information to, exercise basic care in protecting that information. We collect basic information from HTML forms on a few of Vibrationdamage.com's pages. Those form pages are fully encrypted, just as with any other page on the site. Those who fill out the form to register and download the free PDF version of the Construction Vibration Damage Guide for Homeowners (CVDG) are NOT asked for street addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, account numbers or any other personal information, aside from name and city or town of residence. We use the information which we do collect for copyright protection and research on vibration damage prevalence and causes. The information downloaders submit on that form, or any other form on Vibrationdamage.com, is not stored on the site in any way. There are NO personal information databases of any sort present among the site's online files which might be "hacked". Why We Reject Some E-mail Addresses We do not accept GMail, YahooMail and Hotmail and similar email addresses with "mail" in the address for free registration and download of the CVDG. When we have accepted these in the past, far too many of them have been characterized by attempted fraud (use of false names and locations, failures to accept license agreement, etc.). For this reason, we have had to institute a review of all form submissions before providing the download link. People who provide false information on the CVDG registration form are permanently banned from getting it free from us, as such false information invalidates our use of it in our scientific research. Such visitors must read the site for much of the same information. Most people have, or can get, several e-mail addresses, including those from their Internet Service Provider, as well as cell phone providers. Thus, there is no absolute need for anyone to use an e-mail address from the banned domains to download the free CVDG. We hope our visitors will understand the need for this limited ban. Aside from a response to a CVDG download and registration submission and answers to any questions you pose to us, you will NOT receive spam or any other sort of email from Vibrationdamage.com, as a result of providing an acceptable e-mail address on the CVDG free version download/registration form. How We Use Information From Forms In slight recompense for lost ad income caused by free CVDG PDF downloads, we ask for some basic information about the downloader of the CVDG PDF version and the reason for download on the download form. The submitted information from the forms is used only for research, copyright protection and site improvement purposes. We occasionally use aggregated numbers from form submitters to explain in the CVDG certain issues surrounding vibration damage. No personally identifiable information obtained from these forms is shared with others in any fashion nor do we sell or provide email addresses to others. We use the information in aggregate (i.e. total numbers of registrations meeting various criteria related to vibration damage), not as individual records. All information submitted on Vibrationdamage.com's HTML forms or sent to us by email becomes the property of the site owner. Ads Ads on Vibrationdamage.com are provided by Google Adsense, which controls their content. We have no influence over them nor do we endorse the products or services which are advertised, although we hope our visitors will find them useful occasionally. How We Use Server Logs As with virtually all other Internet web site servers, our site's server, run by a commercial server company, keeps access logs for all visits to the site. These logs contain the date and time of access, the IP address (Internet Protocol computer number) of the visitor, the file(s) viewed and on which files the visitor entered and left the site. These are not personally identifiable, except by law enforcement under court order, and with cooperation of your ISP. We examine the server logs to find out which pages are most viewed or least viewed. This information helps us to carry out improvements to the site. Security of the CVDG and CVDG Pro PDF's can sometimes contain viruses, just like program files. Both the free CVDG and CVDG Professional Edition PDF's are checked with up-to-date antivirus software before they are made available to the public. Nonetheless, we recommend you check downloaded files of any type with your own antivirus program before you open them, if you have any concerns about them. We maintain unique checksums (ways of determining authenticity of files) for every edition of the CVDG and CVDG Pro, to allow us to ascertain if the PDF's have been altered after leaving our control. Purchasing the CVDG Pro
If you don't get your purchased CVDG Pro copy by email within 24 hours, please check your Spam or Trash folders for it (an email with the Subject, "Your CVDG Pro order"). ISP's using Microsoft Server software use a very poor method of excluding spam called "IP reputation". Since most web sites in the world run from so-called "virtual server" software, in which a hundred or more sites share an IP address, if one of those sites misbehaves, all of them are tagged as spam sources by IP reputation. In that case, our email with the attached CVDG Pro may be delayed or blocked. Contact us and we'll solve the problem. More Information Our Site Policies document has much more information on how we run the site and serve our visitors.
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E-mail to drzeigler@vibrationdamage.com or send online questions or comments about Vibrationdamage.com.
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Vibrationdamage.com is a free resource for those who have experienced damage in their homes or other structures as a result of vibration from construction
activities. It is a public service site whose goals are scientific and educational. We hope to aid others facing damage from construction or other man-made causes, who may not have the knowledge or financial resources to understand
the causes of, document, report, carry forward and resolve a claim for damages.
If you click on the green lock icon of your browser address bar (shown at right), you may see a message to the effect that the content is "mixed" and
may be insecure. This is not a fault of the page on Vibrationdamage.com, but, rather, results from the fact that we provide https://... type links to other domains which may or may not be SSL-encrypted. Those sites which have
implemented encryption will usually automatically transfer you to the encrypted version from our link. In those examples, you will see a green lock icon in the browser address line for that site. You will still be able to access the sites which are not
encrypted from our link, but those connections to other, unencrypted domains will be less secure. 
