• Membership Drive Contest
• Message Boards BEING CHANGED OVER
• Pics/translation of Ken's Birthday Card

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time, and it is your responsiblity to check it regularly.

Overview

Ken Watanabe Worldwide Fans maintains a strict privacy policy. Private information about you will not be divulged to any 3rd party without your express consent. Some examples of express consent are:

• choosing to be listed in the "PenPals" column in Watanabe Zensen (newsletter mailed to fan-club members)
• writing an article for the Watanabe Zensen (requires your name and country or name and country)

Any publication will never connect your "personal information" (name, address) with "online personal information" (Username in forum, email). If some theoretical or actual online or offline publication (for example, a list of users contributing to some activity) would make more sense using your "personal information", it will not use your "online personal information" and vice-versa. There is one possible exception to this...read Other Activities near the bottom of this page.

This website does not collect any personally identifiable information about you without your express consent (for example, if you fill out an online form). Your browser may set cookies when images and pages load, which do not contain any peronally indentifiable information. In most cases, you can customize your browser's cookie-acceptance policy to "allow", "block" or "prompt" (ask) for any specific website without any ill effect. However, you will need to allow cookies to use features that require user registration (for example, the forum, The Front). In that case, minimal information (usually Username , Password and IP address) is used to verify your identity and keep you logged into the service. Such information, along with that in your account, may be viewable to those responsible for maintaining the service, and will only be used for those purposes.

Fan-Mail

• Correspondence addressed to Ken
• Correspondence addressed to KWWF that is obviously fan-mail (intended to express your compliments to Ken)

Fan-mail may be passed along to Ken or his agents or agencies "as is", and also may be published. If something is truly intended only for my eyes or for KWWF but you think it may be interpreted as fan-mail (for example, we have been discussing a movie together and your comment is intended as part of that discussion but not as fan-mail), let me know by writing "not for public view" or similar phrase on the correspondence. Fan-mail might be published:

• in Watanabe Zensen, the fan-club newsletter
• on the fan-club website

Online Forms

Most information submitted in online forms is destined for reproduction in Watanabe Zensen and/or the website and/or for relaying to Ken through his agents or agencies. The destination should be obvious from reading text on the page describing the form and from the form itself. Be aware that using some forms may require information that will not actually be reproduced (email, KWWF MemberID, etc.). Below is a partial list of online forms and their purposes:

• Fan mail -- passed along to Ken as is, reproduced in newsletter and/or on website with name and country
• Reviews -- reproduced in newsletter and/or on website with name and country
• Articles -- reproduced in newsletter and/or on website with name and country
• PenPals -- name, address, languages and hobbies reproduced in newsletter
• Q & A -- reproduced in newsletter and/or on website with name and country
• Found Articles -- currently no personal information reproduced unless specified or I recieve permission from you; if this changes you would be able to tell from the online form

Communication Features

Below is a partial list of current or theoretical future features that allow fans and members to communicate with one another online:

• Forums/Message boards
• Chats (e.g., IRC = internet relay chat)
• Groups/Mailing lists
• Guestbooks
• File-sharing utilities
• Collaboration utilities (for working together on projects via computer)

Most Communication Features require the creation of a unique user account (registration). That is solely at the discretion of the person running the feature. Communication Features can be set to be open only to registered members, only to registered and approved members or open to anyone. They can also be set to have one rule for reading and another for posting (for example, anyone can read but you must register to post). For example, the fan-club forum, The Front, is open only to fan-club members and requires registration.

Please be aware that anything you post or pass along via Communication Features may be viewable by other registered users or the general public. Please safeguard your personal identity when using such features, and supervise children when they are using such features. Do not give your account details to anyone, except those parties responsible for maintaining your account. If you suspect a crime is occuring or being attempted, report it immediately to the proper law enforcement authorities.

Other Activites

It is possible that you may choose to participate in certain activities with other members or the fan club as a whole that would require you to reveal information you normally wouldn't. If you do, you do so at your own risk. One likely example would be a person helping to organize a fan-club gathering, if it would be necessary for members both to contact that person online and to know their name at the gathering. You will be notified if that is the case.

External Links

It is likely you will encounter many links leading to external sites (not part of kenfans.us). Ken Watanabe Worldwide Fans is not responsible for the content, legality, maintainance or privacy of external sites. If KWWF uses a service hosted on and maintained by an external site (for example, Yahoo! groups) and that service requires registration, you must use your own judgement when determining if you feel secure providing registration information to such services. It is recommended you take into consideration the reputation of such services, who will see your information and its intended use.

KWWF Staff

KWWF staff can consist of the fan-club president, moderators and admins in forums and groups, and editors of the newsletter Watanabe Zensen and the website.

Moderators may be exposed to certain information (such as usernames, your posts, and IP addresses) and responsible for certain activities in forums and groups, such as approving messages, viewing "whispers" (a feature in some forum software where only a specified user can view "whispered" text you post for them...but moderators and admins will usually see it), deleting inappropriate messages and reporting illegal activity. Admins may be exposed to your full account details for the purpose of maintaining the service. Both moderators and admins are identified as such in the forums themselves.

The fan-club president will have access to most or all fan-club registration information, online account registration information (this may be limited in some external services) and written and electronic correspondence for the wide-ranging purpose of all fan-club activites, including online services and fan-club publications. Any other staff the president assigns may have access to some or all of the same information, depending on their duties. In some cases, you may be able to contact such staff directly.