Privacy

At Linkatopia, we take your privacy seriously. We encourage you to share your links with your friends and even the rest of the world but at the same time we know that you probably don't want to share everything.

There are privacy options for both your profile and your links, and all of them are easy to use. We know of no other site that lets you share exactly what you want to share and hide exactly what you want to keep to yourself.

Why Linkatopia is safer than your browser

When you store your bookmarks in your browser, they are there for anyone else to see. Do other people have access to your computer at work or at home? Do you share a computer with other family members, friends, or students? Do you ever take your computer in for repairs? Linkatopia is a much safer place for your bookmarks and favorites.

Cookies and logging in

When you log in, your password is encrypted before it is sent over the internet. All passwords in our database are encrypted so they cannot be read, even by us. If you forget your password, you can request an email with a code to reset your password.

When you log in, a random encrypted key is created and stored in your browser as a "cookie". The key allows you to stay logged in between different browser sessions until you log out. This system enables advanced features like the ability to receive "friends only" RSS feeds. You are encouraged to enable all cookies from Linkatopia. If you worry about "third party" cookies, you can disable all cookies then enable only those cookies originating from linkatopia.com.

IMPORTANT!!
If you log in on a public computer like at a library, or internet cafe, remember to LOG OUT when you are done. Otherwise, the next person who uses that computer could have access to your account!

Profile privacy

The following options have to do with your Linkatopia account.
They are located in: Edit Profile > Privacy Settings.

• Account Privacy
  This setting controls the visibility of your account on Linkatopia. If you set your account to "shared" or "private", your page will not appear on the site at all.
  
  If you want your friends to be able to see your page, select "shared" and add each one of your friends to your friends list. To do this you can either visit each friend's page and click [add as a friend] or click [edit friends] on your own page and enter each one of their usernames.
  
  If your account is "private" or "shared", your links will not appear in searches, your tags will not counted for the "popular tags" list, and you will not appear in the "Recent Posts" list on the welcome page.
  
  Having your profile public lets you be a part of the community, share links with other public members, and promote your own web sites.
• Friends List Visibility
  This setting controls the visibility of your friends list. For students and teens we recommend that you set this to "shared" so that only you and your friends can see each other's friends lists. This way, strangers won't be able to see who your friends are and pretend to know them. Test this by logging out and visiting your page.
• Statistics Visibility
  Again, for students and teens, we recommend that you set this to "shared" so only your friends can see when you logged in last and how many links you have. The only reason to leave your statistics public is if you want people to know that you log in regularly to keep your links up to date.

Link privacy

Each time you save or edit a link, you have 3 privacy options:

• public
  Select this option to share a link with the world. Your notes and your username will appear with the link. Tags associated with all public links are counted to create the "popular tags" list.
•  shared
  Select this option to hide a link from everyone except the people in your friends list. The link will not appear in searches and will not be counted for the "popular tags" list. Remember not to add people to your friends list unless you want them to see all of your "shared" links.
•  private
  Select this option to hide a link from everyone except you. No one in your friends list can see a private link. The link will not appear in searches and will not be counted for the "popular tags" list.
  
  Members who save links that may not be appropriate for minors are encouraged to keep those links set to "private" or "shared". Please keep Linkatopia a nice place for everyone.

Tag privacy

If you don't want all of your tags to be visible, you can set one of these privacy options for each tag:

• public
  This is the default. Normally, people who can see your profile, can see all of your tags. If your profile is public and your tags are public, they are counted for the "popular tags" list.
•  shared
  Select this option to hide a tag from everyone except the people in your friends list. Links with a shared tag become shared links and are hidden from the public and can only be seen by your friends.
  
  REMEMBER:
  Links with a shared tag are only shared if they don't have any other public tags.
•  private
  Select this option to hide a tag from everyone except you. No one in your friends list can see a private tag. Links with a private tag become private links and can only be seen by you.
  
  REMEMBER:
  Links with a private tag are only private if they don't have any other shared or public tags.