We know that you care how your information is used, and we appreciate your trust that we will use it carefully and sensibly. This notice describes our privacy policy (in human-readable terms). By visiting and using our site, you are accepting the privacy policy described below. (See “Complete Policy” below for full legalese.)
- What Personal Information Do We Collect?
- Information You Provide. We receive and store information you enter. For example, when you search for an item on our site, or when you supply information such as your email address. You can choose not to provide certain information, but then you might not be able to take advantage of some of our features. We use the information that you provide for such purposes as responding to your requests, customizing future shopping offers for you, improving our website, and communicating with you. Where you have requested to receive such communications, we may also contact you with weekly newsletters and occasional promotions, from which you may easily unsubscribe at any time.
- Cookies: Like many websites, we use “cookies” because they help us show relevant content to our website visitors and advertise based on these interactions. Cookies are small programs that are transferred to your hard drive that allow our site to recognize you and to provide you with a customized shopping or browsing experience. If you leave a comment on our site you may also opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year. We don’t use any of the data collected for profiling or other secondary purposes and we do not sell it to anyone – ever. However, if you do not want us to use cookies during your visit, you can easily disable them by going to the toolbar of your web browser, and clicking on the “help” button. Follow the instructions that will prevent the browser from accepting cookies, or set the browser to inform you when you receive a new cookie. In addition, you may visit this and other websites anonymously through the use of utilities provided by other private companies.
- Analytics Information: Every computer has an IP (Internet Protocol) address. IP addresses of computers used to visit this site are noted. In addition, we may automatically collect other information for statistics tracking purposes such as browser types, operating systems, and the URL addresses of sites clicked to and from this site. We use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect this standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. All of this information is transmitted and stored securely, and kept private.
- Comments: When visitors leave comments on this site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
- Embedded Content From Other Sources: Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website. Our site also may display embedded ads by Google. For information on how Google processes data, see this page: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
- How Do We Use Your Information?
- Customized Browsing & Shopping. We use your information to better serve you by providing a customized shopping experience. As noted above, you may “opt-out” of this customization, or even visit and browse anonymously.
- We may employ other companies and individuals to perform some functions on our behalf. Examples include sending e-mail, and processing email subscriptions and product delivery. They have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes.
- Special Offers. We may send you special offers from time to time, unless you choose to “opt-out” of receiving such offers. In addition, we may also send you special offers from other companies. Again, you may “opt-out” at any time. If we send you offers from other businesses, we do not share your personal information with them. The offers come directly through us. Please see the “Email Subscriptions” section in #4 below.
- Comments: Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
- Business Transfers. As we continue to develop our business, we might sell or buy stores or assets. In such transactions, customer information generally is one of the transferred business assets. Also, in the unlikely event that we are acquired, customer information will be one of the transferred assets.
- Law Enforcement. If we receive a lawful court order to release account or other personal information then we will comply with the law. We will also release information when necessary to protect the life, safety or property of others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations if required by law for fraud protection and credit risk.
- Data Storage
If you opt in to receive any of our guides, special offers, or newsletters on the site, we will retain your information as long as it is valid or until you opt out or unsubscribe. If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
- Email Subscriptions
As part of the registration process for our monthly e-newsletter, we collect a small amount of personal information. We use that information for a couple of reasons: to tell you about stuff you’ve asked us to tell you about; to contact you if we need to obtain or provide additional information; to check that our records are right and to check every now and then that you’re happy and satisfied. WE NEVER RENT, SELL, OR TRADE EMAIL LISTS WITH ANY OTHER ORGANZATIONS OR BUSINESSES FOR ANY REASON.
We use a third-party provider, GetResponse, to deliver our newsletter and weekly emails. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter. For more information, please see GetResponse’s privacy notice.
It is always your choice whether to receive emails or special offers from us or others. You may always opt out of any of our communications at any time via the link provided for this purpose at the bottom of each of our emails. Again, we will never share, sell, or otherwise provide your information to other advertisers or partners for any reason.
- Your Data Rights
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we edit, update, or erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
- Children
We do not sell products or services to children. If you are under 18, you may use this site only with involvement of a parent or guardian.
- Other Websites
Various Web sites may be linked to from this site. If you link to another site, your privacy depends on the policy of that site. We strongly urge you to check their privacy policy. Not all sites guarantee that they will not share your personally identifiable information with others. You may also wish to consult privacy guidelines such as those recommended by the Online Privacy Alliance (www.privacyalliance.org).
- Contact Us
If you would like to learn more about our privacy policy, or to access your personally identifiable information contained on our website, you may contact us for assistance through our Contact Form.
No portion of this website can be copied without written permission from the author.
