Privacy Policy

This auction site is provided in partnership by two organizations:

• "Manitoba Children's Museum", who is operating this auction and all proceeds raised will go to that organization.
• RealDecoy is the company that build, maintains and hosts RealAuction.

Each organization has its own privacy policy on how and why it collects personal information.

Manitoba Children's Museum's Privacy Policy

PREFACE

Your personal information is only collected, used and disclosed by [Manitoba Children's Museum] in accordance with this Privacy Policy, and only that information which
is needed to run the auction is collected.

Please Note: This system does not ask for nor require credit card information or SIN
information. Only winning bidders need provide payment information, which is
not handled through the realauction.ca website. If you are the winning bidder,
do not send credit card information over email.

[Manitoba Children's Museum] collects this personal information solely for the purposes of managing
the online auction service and maintaining responsible commercial relations
with you, including but not limited to payment, delivery, and marketing. This
information may also be used by [Manitoba Children's Museum] to notify registrants about
future auctions.

CONSENT

Your personal information will not be used for any other purpose without your
consent. If you wish to withdraw consent, or have any questions or concerns
about our information-handling practices with respect to this site, you may
contact the auction administrator at [ekangas@childrensmuseum.com].

RealDecoy's Privacy Policy

PREFACE

RealDecoy respects the privacy of visitors to this website and those who participate in the auctions that occur on it.  Your personal information is only collected, used and disclosed by RealDecoy in accordance with this section of the Privacy Policy.

You can visit this auction site without telling us who you are or revealing any information about yourself.  Personal information is collected when you specifically and knowingly provide it by registering for an auction.

DEFINITIONS

"RealDecoy" – The company that built and maintains this website (www.realauction.ca).  It has no hand, other than technical support, in the operation of this auction.

"Client" – The organization that is conducting this auction, their staff, and any other person authorized by this organization to administer the auction.

"Item" – An item that is up for auction on the realauction.ca website.

"Personal Information" – Any information that can be used to distinguish, identify or contact a specific individual.  The type of information found on a business card (name, business title, business address) or publicly available information, such as a public directory listing of your name, address, telephone number and email address, is not considered to be personal information under the law.

"Registrant" – A user who has registered with this site to participate (i.e. bid) in an auction.

"System" – The sum of the RealAuction technology, including code, scripts, database, etc.

"System Administrator" – Any RealDecoy staff member tasked with maintaining or upgrading the site, or is responsible for the operation and security of the server.

"User" – A participant or public observer of the auction site.

REALDECOY’S ACCESS TO PERSONAL INFORMATION

RealDecoy requires personally identifiable information for site security and maintenance/upgrade purposes.  RealDecoy has access to all the auctions that are running on the www.realauction.ca website.

Personal information can be accessed through a password-protected administrative section of each auction website.  The client has access to this section in order to administer the auction and system administrators have access for security and maintenance purposes only.  The database where personal information is stored can only be directly accessed through a secure shell command interface to which only RealDecoy has access.

Personal information stored in the database is erased at the request of the client when the auction is complete.

No Cross-Auction Sharing

The realauction.ca website may run several auctions at once, each with its own directory.  Private information from each auction sub-site is stored independently from the others and there is no facility for one client to access another’s information.  Furthermore, RealDecoy does not pass personal information from one client to another—either through this system or through other means.

TECHNOLOGY USED

Counters

There is a counter in the database of how many times each item is viewed.  This does not store any personally identifiable information about the viewer.  This information persists for the duration of the auction.

Member Table:

The following information is stored for each user that signs up:

All of these fields except password are available to the system administrator and the client.  All fields except registration date and when a user’s information was last updated are available to the user.  Note that only the login name is available to other users of the system.  That is, users do not see information about other users of the system except for their login name and the amount they bid for an item.  Other than that, all users are anonymous to one another.

Reports

The system can generate a number of reports, including a comprehensive list of users, bid histories of an item or a user, a summary of completed items, and more.  Some of these reports can be exported and downloaded as Excel files.

All of these reports are generated "on the fly" and there is no record or file stored on the server when these reports are generated.  This method prevents an unauthorized user who may gain access to the server from being able to see a user’s personal information.

MEASURES TAKEN BY REALDECOY TO ENSURE INFORMATION SECURITY

RealDecoy treats the security of private information stored on the server with a great deal of care: the same infrastructure that powers the auction site powers the corporate services for the company.

• Server operating system – The server operating system is updated as security related patches are released, and only services required for the proper operation of the server are enabled.  The Linux operating system is used due to its superior security track record.
• Server hosting facility – The server is hosted in a secure hosting facility with round-the-clock security.  All visitors are required to sign-in and sign-out and be accompanied by security at all times while in the facility.
• Server monitoring – The server is regularly monitored for intrusion or abnormal behaviour.  Daily log monitoring reports are emailed to the system administrator.
• Development server – RealDecoy uses separate development and production servers for upgrades to the system.  This allows new code to be tested prior to deployment without risking personal information.
• OWASP-aware development – The system is developed to follow the Open Web Application Security Project top ten guidelines for application security.
• Encrypted access to server – The server team uses Secure Shell to encrypt maintenance related activity on the server.  This means that the commands and tasks performed by the system administrators pass through a secure tunnel and cannot be intercepted by a third party.
• Passwords – Passwords are hashed using MD5 technology.  Primary keys are 32 character strings which make it harder for someone to track which users have made bids on what items.