A. What information will the site record about me?
  B. Does the site have a privacy policy and is it sufficent for me?
  C. Can I trust the site owner and operators honesty and security policy?
  D. How can I defend myself against misuse of given data?

While the vast majority of sites are not very specific regarding these subjects we have chosen to be.

A. "What information will the site record about my visits?"
BizAsia's statistics system automatically records some information from each visitor. This is

- time of login
- the visitor's IP-address (the address of the server you are connecting from)
- what browser the visitor is using
- what page was linking to us.

This information is recorded by virtually every web-site on the planet, and the related statics-packages (like 'Analog', 'Web-trends' and 'MK-stats') are standard tools offered by any provider as a part of a hosting package. It does not identify the single visitor nor gives information about his particular usage of the site.

We of course also record the information you freely choose to give us by submitting any form. We do not record any other infomation whatsoever.

B. Does the site have a privacy policy and is it sufficent for me?
BizAsia privacy has a very strict privacy policy to protect users against unwanted and/or unexpected side-effects of using our services.

1. We explicitly tell you what kind of services we will provide you with. You will not receive any other services unless you yourself accept to recieve this/these service(s).

   In particular:
   We do not under any circumstance give any information specific to you (including but not limited to your e-mail, name, chosen topics of interest etc.) to any third part for whatever reason with the single exception of a court order.

2. Any information submitted by you can at any time be altered/erased completely by the user. With the exception of your e-mail address and your user-id and password itself no record is kept of earlier information.

3. If this activity is sold the new owner must agree to maintain the above policy. Before such a take-over we will inform every subscriber two weeks before the new owner get access to our stored data. Only potential buyers with an untarnished reputation and history of business will be considered.

"What if I forget my password but did not allow for sending it to me in an e-mail - am I bound to receive mail etc. forever?"
No. In case a user forget his username/password combination and did not allow for username/password to be sent by e-mail he/she can request his account to be deleted. The procedure is the following:

1. The user sends a mail to BizAsia with a request to have the account terminated. The return address must be identical to the address used for the account.
2. BizAsia sends mail back confirming to have received the request. This mail contains a code. The user must reply to this mail with the word "Yes" following this code.
3. When BizAsia receives this mail the users account is deleted.

C. Can I trust the site owner and operators honesty and security policy?
U5 has been running web-operations for years and the managing director must sign this policy. We do not believe that business built on anything else than honesty and integrity has any real chance of growing, not the least in a world where information gets around so easily.

U5 is leading in security-issues on web-servers. We do everything we can to keep our data safe. This involves secure transfer, encryption of user data, operation over secure shells, storing data in directories with limited access and any further method we can find and apply.

At the same time we readily admit that no system is perfectly secure, and that we can not guarantee 100% for submitted data. We further advice you never to trust any company who claim they can. See our Terms of Use.

"It is my duty and responsibility to ensure that all users of BizAsia.com are protected by the above privacy policy."

Soren "Frank" Munch
Man. Director,
U5com Co., Ltd. Thailand

1. If you need to stay anomyous you can choose to not use your normal e-mail address but apply for one of the many free web-based e-mail addresses on the net. This will allow you to use a service without committing your own e-mail address.

   Be aware, however, that other business will trust such addresses less that a 'real' address related to your business. A letter from 'sales@mybusiness.com' will get much more attention than 'mybusiness@yahoo.com'.

2. Use a special e-mail address for each website you are using services on. This is easiest if you have your own domain name so mail with many prefixes will come to you. Example: If I want to subscribe to the services from "VeryGoodServices.com" (fictive name) I use the name very_good_services@my-own-domain-name.com.

   If I never use this address for anything else I can draw my own conclusions the day I receive unexpected mail sent to it.

3. Use a site that exclusively uses secure forms for sensitive information. Not only does that protect your data on the way to the site - it also shows a genuine concern regarding security from the site operator.

4. Is there a particular reason for the site to ask you about the things it does? Do they explain why? They should if the reason is not obvious.

5. If a site does not specify a privacy policy that suits you - or have none at all - don't use it.