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By FreeToastHost
Effective May 25, 2018
Your Privacy Matters
FreeToastHost 2 is a free website provider, content management system, and email list server for the exclusive use of Toastmasters clubs and districts in good standing. Use of this system is strictly for purposes of Toastmasters related activities and business. We take privacy very seriously and it is our intention to be transparent about the data we collect about you, how it is used and with whom it is shared.
This Privacy and Cookie Policy applies when you use our website system or email list server (described below). We offer our users choices about the data we collect, use and share as described here.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Data We Collect
- How We Use Your Data
- How We Share Information
- Your Choices & Obligations
- Other Important Information
Introduction
We are a free website provider, content management system, and email list server for the exclusive use of Toastmasters clubs and districts in good standing. Toastmasters clubs and districts use our system and services to greatly simplify the effort needed to produce a good website while additionally making use of custom FreeToastHost provided functionality for club operations and communications. Our Privacy and Cookie Policy applies to any Member, District Leader or Visitor making use of our websites, our email system or other FreeToastHost provided services.
Our registered users ("Members" or "District Leaders") share their contact information to communicate with other Members and District Leaders, engage with other Members or District Leaders in their club or District, sign up for meeting roles online, post and view relevant website content, and learn new communications and leadership skills in the Toastmasters educational programs. Content and data on some of our Services is viewable to non-members ("Visitors").
We use the term "Designated Countries" to refer to countries in the European Union (EU), European Economic Area (EEA), and Switzerland.
Services
This Privacy and Cookie Policy applies to your use of our Services.
This Privacy Policy applies to www.toastmastersclubs.org, all sub-domains of www.toastmastersclubs.org, the FreeToastHost support website (support.toastmastersclubs.org), FreeToastHost websites using a user-registered custom domain, and associated communications and services ("Services"), but excluding services that state that they are offered under a different privacy policy.
Data Controllers and Contracting Parties
Your personal data is stored on and controlled by our FreeToastHost server located at IP address 50.19.253.65
As a Visitor or Member of our Services, the collection, use and sharing of your personal data is subject to this Privacy and Cookie Policy and updates.
Change
Changes to the Privacy Policy apply to your use of our Services after the "effective date."
FreeToastHost ("we" or "us") can modify this Privacy and Cookie Policy, and if we make material changes to it, we will provide notice via email, or by other means, to provide you the opportunity to review the changes. If you object to any changes, you may request deletion of your FreeToastHost website.
You acknowledge that your continued use of our Services after we publish or send a notice about our changes to this Privacy and Cookie Policy means that the collection, use and sharing of your personal data is subject to the updated Privacy and Cookie Policy.
1. Data We Collect
1.1 Data You Provide To Us
You provide data to create a FreeToastHost website (website administrator's contact information) and Members / District Leaders provide data as part of being registered with the club or district website, respectively.
Registration
To create a FreeToastHost website you need to provide data including your name, email address, and the club or district number that you are requesting a website for as the new website's administrator. Upon approval by recognized club or district "authorities" (e.g., email address on toastmasters.org), the administrator will receive an email via the provided email address containing link to set their administrator password. The website administrator is a "superuser" role recognized by the FreeToastHost system for administration of club / district websites. Only one registered website administrator is recognized by the system, but the website administrator has the ability to delegate certain administrator functions to club / district officers.
The website administrator is a distinct role recognized by the system and does not have a profile, per se, as the role is associated with the regular club or district website maintenance and administration. The website administrator does not have to be a registered Member / District Leader in the website.
To become a registered users of a FreeToastHost website as a Club Member or District Leader, you generally need to provide your name and email address, at a minimum to the club / district website administrator or their delegate to be entered into the website. You can optionally provide a phone number that is only visible to other registered users of the website. When you are registered, you can gain access to other club members / district leaders contact information by requesting a new password link be emailed to you when you log in.
You can still use the website if you do not provide an email address, but you will experience fewer benefits from using the website if you do that. You would not be able to receive emails from the club / district distribution lists, you would not be able to receive emailed meeting agendas, and you would not be able to receive notifications from the website intended to be of benefit to you. The system does contain a number of settings available via your Member Profile to enable you to control which notifications you would like to receive and which you do not want to receive.
Once you have obtained a Club Member / District Leader password for your club / district website, you can access and edit your member profile to optionally add additional details about yourself and set your website usage preferences.
Profile
You have choices about the information on your profile, such as a secondary email address, your phone number, your Toastmasters member number, your email preferences, your social media links, a short biographical summary, and your photo. You don't have to provide additional information on your profile; however, profile information helps you to get more from your website, including facilitating familiarity and communication with other club members / district leaders, enabling you to easily sign up for Toastmasters meeting roles, and helping your club or district attract other members and district leaders. It's your choice whether to allow your name, biographical information, and photo to be listed on the club/district's Meet Our Members web page—by default, that is disabled. Please do not post or add sensitive personal data to your profile.
By default, when a new member or district leader is added to a FreeToastHost website, the "Allow Administrator Edits to my Profile" setting is enabled to allow the member to quickly be added to the system (with the administrator's assistance). However, once the member is registered in the system, gets their password, and obtains access to their member profile, this setting can be disabled to prevent further changes to the profile by the website administrator or their delegate. If the member chooses to leave this setting enabled, they will be notified whenever someone other than themselves has edited their profile.
1.2 Data From Others
Website Content
You and others may post content that includes information about you (as part of web pages, meeting agendas, meeting notices, forum posts, comments, member emails, and videos) using our website system. FreeToastHost does not make use of this information for any reason other than to compose web pages for your club / district website.
Contact Information
We may receive personal data (including contact information) about you when you complete the Contact Us form or send messages using our email services.
Toastmasters International
We may receive publicly available contact information from Toastmasters International (e.g., information published on Find a Club pages).
1.3 Service Use
We log your visits, use of our websites, use of our email services, and file uploads to our websites. If your club / district has elected to use Google Analytics, then the pages you visit on the website will also be logged via that service.
We use log-ins, cookies, device information and internet protocol ("IP") addresses to identify you and log your use.
1.4 Cookies and Other Similar Technologies
We collect data through cookies and similar technologies.
As further described in our Cookie Policy, we use cookies and similar technologies (e.g., HTML5 local storage and device identifiers) to recognize you and/or your device(s) on, off and across different websites and devices. We also allow some others to use cookies as described in our Cookie Policy (e.g. Google Analytics). You can control cookies through your browser settings and other tools.
1.5 Your Device and Location
We may receive data from your devices and networks, including location data.
When you visit our websites, we receive the URL of the site you came from. We also get information about your IP address, proxy server, operating system, web browser and add-ons, device identifier and features, and/or ISP or your mobile carrier.
1.6 Messages
If you communicate through our email services, those communications are logged for troubleshooting purposes. (All emails through the system are logged.)
We collect information about you when you send, receive, or engage with messages in connection with our websites and email services.
1.7 Other
We are often improving the FreeToastHost website system, which means we get new data and create new ways to use data.
Our system is dynamic, and we often introduce new features, which may require the collection of new information. If we collect materially different personal data or materially change how we use your data, we will notify you and may also modify this Privacy and Cookie Policy.
2. How We Use Your Data
We use your data to provide, support, personalize and develop the FreeToastHost Website System and email services.
How we use your personal data will depend on which website features you use, how you use those website features and the choices you make in your website settings member profiles. We use the data that we have about you to provide custom websites and personalize user experiences, including email, including with the help of automated systems and inferences we make, so that they can be more relevant and useful to you and others.
2.1 Services
Our services provide free websites, custom Toastmasters-focused functionality (e.g., meeting agendas), and email communications for Toastmasters in good standing.
We use your data to authorize access to our Services.
Websites for Toastmasters Clubs and Districts
Using our website template, we provide websites filled in with your custom content for a appealing website that represents your club or district.
Custom Functionality
FreeToastHost provides some custom functionality such as online meeting agendas that are intended to simplify Toastmasters club operations. You are not obligated to used this custom functionality—it can be disabled.
Email Communications
We provide an email list server that supports email distribution lists and officer email addresses. You can also create custom email addresses and distribution lists.
2.2 Communications
We contact you and enable communications between Members. We offer settings to control what messages you receive and how often you receive some types of messages (e.g, meeting notifications).
We will contact you through email or messages viewable when you log in to your website. We will send you messages about the availability of our services, security, or other service-related issues. We may also send messages about system updates, reminders, documentation updates, and useful forum posts from our support forums. Please be aware that you cannot opt-out of receiving service messages from us, including security and legal notices.
2.3 Developing Services and Research
We continue to develop our system and may collect usage data or conduct surveys to determine how to best use our limited resources for further development.
Service Development
We use information, including public feedback, from our support forums, database queries, and user surveys to inform our decisions about how to further develop the FreeToastHost website system in order to provide you and others with a better, more intuitive and personalized experience and facilitate good communications.
Surveys
Polls and surveys may be conducted by us and others through our support forums. You are not obligated to respond to polls or surveys, and you have choices about the information you provide.
2.4 Customer Support
We use data to help you and fix problems. We may collect debugging information in testing logs when troubleshooting a problem that could include personal information. This debugging information is flushed from the system regularly.
We use the data (which can include your communications) to investigate, respond to and resolve complaints and FreeToastHost system issues (e.g., bugs).
2.5 Aggregate Insights
We use data to generate aggregate insights. This is typically done via database queries to determine what settings have been changed from the default settings.
Clubs and districts may collect additional information via services such as Google Analytics which tracks what web pages are being accessed.
2.6 Security and Investigations
We use data for security, fraud prevention and investigations.
We use your data (including your communications) if we think it's necessary for security purposes or to investigate possible fraud or other violations of our Terms of Use Agreement or this Privacy and Cookie Policy and/or attempts to harm or mislead our Members, District Leaders or Visitors.
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Browser cookies and FreeToastHost
What are cookies?
Cookies are small bits of text, sent by a website to your browser, for storing on your computer. They contain a website address, an expiry date, and a line of what often looks like garbage.
Why do we use them?
FreeToastHost uses cookies to tell whether or not you are logged in. Every time you view a page, it will check to see if the cookie it sent earlier "says" you are logged in. If it doesn't, you see only what the general public can see.
Your browser can be setup to refuse to store cookies. When this happens, the website has no way of knowing whether or not you're logged in. Therefore, it's going to be unhappy about letting you do anything that logged-in people can do, such as view agendas and make changes.
So, if you want to do these things, you need to allow your browser to accept cookies from toastmastersclubs.org.
Signs that your cookie settings may need changing:
- You can't login.
- You can't stay logged in.
- You can't save changes.
If these things are happening, you may need to change your cookie settings to "allow cookies", or to "allow cookies from toastmastersclubs.org" if you prefer that.
The exact details of how to do this vary, depending on which browser you are using.
Changing cookie settings
For Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Opera, Safari, Chrome (PC), Chrome (OSX), iDevices:
http://www.wikihow.com/Enable-Cookies-in-Your-Internet-Web-Browser
For Microsoft Edge:
For iPad:
https://www.lifewire.com/enable-cookies-on-ipad-5224808
For mobile browsers:
Private browsing
Do not use private browsing.
Private browsing causes problems with iPad Safari and most other browsers, such as being unable to open the admin console.
If you've changed cookie settings and things still aren't working properly, make sure that private browsing is turned off.
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How to properly set things up if you are using a custom domain name (moderately complicated)
This document provides a basic overview of setting up DNS records via your custom domain registrar's website and generic instructions usable for most registrars.
NOTE: This document does contain some advanced technical content. While we intend to carefully explain this topic, there is no way to make it less technical. If you are not very computer savvy, or have some trouble understanding this document, please post a Support Request in the FreeToastHost Support Forums, and we will guide you through properly configuring your DNS settings.
Basic Overview
When using a custom domain name, you must set up what are referred to as "DNS records" via your custom domain registrar's website. This is not optional--it is required for proper functioning when using a custom domain name with your FreeToastHost website. "DNS" stands for Domain Name Service, and your registrar uses this information to properly route website traffic and emails using your custom domain name to the FreeToastHost server for processing. For example, if someone types in www.myclubdomain.org to get to your club's website, the request actually goes to your registrar *first* that you registered the custom domain name with, and then the registrar uses the DNS records that you entered to figure out how to direct that person's computer to the proper web server to show the web page. In this case, that server would be the FreeToastHost server. In the DNS records, the FreeToastHost server is identified by its IP address, 50.19.253.65, which is an alternative numeric way to identify a "place" on the internet.
Using DNS lets us access servers connected to the Internet with easy text based aliases instead of a their actual IP (network) address (= a collection of numbers). These aliases are linked to a 'domain'. For example www.toastmasters.org is the website for the toastmasters.org domain. It's actually hosted on a web server connected to the Internet at IP address 54.201.217.242, but DNS covers that up for us. When you configure the DNS settings with your registrar's website, you are essentially telling it how to match up your custom domain name with the FreeToastHost server.
Anyone can register and own most Internet domains, as long as they're not already taken. (In a sense, your registar is essentially a "broker" of custom domain names--they cannot "sell" something that is already taken.) To reiterate - the domain (name) is the toastmasters.org part in the example above, the www part is the alias for the domain's web server. Most working domains also have an email server, to handle all the email sent to addresses that end @that.domain.
If you do not correctly set up the DNS records with your registrar, people will have problems getting to your website and members will have problems sending email. If you are not very technically savvy, having difficulties, and/or your registrar isn't included in our list of registrars below that we have instructions for, then you should contact your registrar's customer service and provide this document to them. You're paying for your domain name, after all, and most registrars' customer service people are used to working with less technically savvy users. If you are still having difficulties after contacting the registrar, then please post in the FreeToastHost support forums and ask our support team to coach you through the process of getting the DNS records set up properly.
Lastly, keep in mind that your registration for your custom domain name will likely expire at some point, possibly when someone else is the website admin. Please do yourself and them a favor and enter all the relevant registrar information and the expiration date for your custom domain name in the Registrar Information box on the Basic Settings tab of the Admin Console for future reference.
What are the basic DNS Settings required for a Custom Domain?
In the simplest terms, using your registrar's Domain Name Servers, you need 4 DNS records:
(Substitute your custom domain name for domain.ext below.)
3 Class A
- domain.ext A 50.19.253.65 (This directs internet traffic using your custom domain name to the FreeToastHost server.)
- www.domain.ext A 50.19.253.65 (This lets you use www. with your custom domain name.)
- mail.domain.ext A 50.19.253.65 (This is used with the MX record below to enable email to get to the FreeToastHost server for processing.)
1 MX record for mail
- domain.ext MX-10 mail.domain.ext (This tells the registrar how to direct email to an email address containing the custom domain name.)
By Brian McDonald
(edited by Steve James)
Generic instructions for changing your registrar's DNS Settings
It's a two-part process to use your custom domain with your FreeToastHost website and email:
- You need to configure the DNS records via your registrar's website to direct Internet users' computers to the FreeToastHost servers for your domain's website and email.
- Because the FTH 2 servers host multiple TI websites and their associated email, FreeToastHost needs to know what your custom domain is. This ensures users typing www.domain.ext into their browsers get to see your website on the FreeToastHost servers and that your domain email is handled properly.
Step-by-step:
1. Configuring your domain's DNS records:
1.1 As indicated in the FreeToastHost admin console, you need to 'own' a domain already or have registered a new one. Owning here means:
a) You have the right to use the domain,
and
b) You're able to change its DNS records.
Getting a new domain is as easy as Googling 'domain names' and selecting a domain registrar - there are plenty of them!
Your domain name can be chosen, paid for, set up and managed all online - all for a fairly low cost.
WARNING: If you've already using your domain for your existing club website and/or for the domain's email, make sure your new FreeToastHost website is ready to go before making any DNS changes. Soon after you make the changes your previous website and any previous email services (including stored emails) will no longer be directly available. Your website and email will subsequently be handled by FreeToastHost.
It's a good idea to plan a definite time for the changes and let your fellow club members know beforehand what's happening and when.
1.2 You need to create or change four DNS records so they read as below - i.e. to point to the FreeToastHost server (substitute your domain name for domain.ext below):
| Record Type |
Entry | IP Address/URL |
|---|---|---|
| A | domain.ext | 50.19.253.65 |
| A | www.domain.ext | 50.19.253.65 |
| A | mail.domain.ext | 50.19.253.65 |
| MX | 10 | mail.domain.ext |
Almost all domain registrars or hosting providers have some kind of web-browser accessible control panel, where you can create or change DNS records quickly and easily. You'll need to familiarise yourself with how your particular control panel works before you start.
1.3 You'll normally be changing existing records, since almost all domain names will already have some/all of these records set up. Even a newly registered domain may have the www A record set up, to point at the registrar's holding web page.
1.4 Now you need to be patient … although you've just changed the records on the DNS server that holds the definitive ('authoritative' in DNS-speak) configuration of your domain, it can take many hours for the changes to be 'shared' around the Internet - in this case to reach the DNS servers FreeToastHost uses; typically anything from 2 hours to 24 hours.
2 Changing your FreeToastHost settings:
2.1 Open the FreeToastHost Admin Console. Scroll to the bottom of the Basic Settings tab and enter your domain name (remember - without any prefix like 'www', just the domain name) in the Custom Website Domain box. Save the entry.
2.2 FreeToastHost will then check if it is aware of your DNS changes yet. If not you'll get the error message that starts "This domain is not yet pointing to the IP address 50.19.253.65. …". Try saving your domain name again, after waiting a while (say 2 hours). And again … Eventually FreeToastHost will recognise your DNS changes and you'll get the "Success! Information updated …" message.
2.3 Enter your Registrar information including login information and domain expiration date in the Registrar Information box for future reference. Save the entry.
2.4 Job done! Your domain is now using your FreeToastHost hosted website and mail services.
Contributed by Ian Read
Speak Easy At Martlesham
(Edited by Steve James)
3 Changing your FreeToastHost settings when you've changed to a different domain name:
Because you won't know who is going to see the old version or the new version until maybe 72 hours have passed, it's not a good idea to make domain name changes just before a meeting.
How does this work with a particular registrar?
If you are having difficulty figuring out how this works with your own registrar, ask them for help. You are a paying customer and entitled to support.
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