Long story short, I hate it when people mess with my privacy. I’m sure you do, too!
So I collect your information only with your consent when you provide your name and email to comment on my blog posts or subscribe to my mailing list.
The information you provide when you subscribe will be used to provide updates and marketing via email. You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from me or by contacting me directly at elizabethdaghfal@elizabethdaghfal.com.
Neither I nor this blog shares personal information with third parties. Nor do I store any information about your visit to this blog other than to analyze and optimize your content and reading experience through the use of cookies. You can turn off the use of cookies at anytime by changing your specific browser settings.
I am not responsible for republished content from this blog on other blogs or websites without my permission.
Want to Read the Long Version? Here goes…
Who am I?
“My name is Ned…” No–that’s from Dr. Seuss. With five kids of my own, I’ve read him a few thousand times, and lines from his books pop into my head as random responses. (Obviously random, because who would expect to see him quoted in a Privacy Policy’s boring legalize. *wink*)
In truth, my website address is: https://elizabethdaghfal.com, with the subtitle “Lessons in the Little Things.” I’m a writer, teacher, speaker, and I am not currently paid to endorse any product or idea on this site.
What personal data do I collect and why do I collect it?
Basically, very little. Keep reading for specifics…
Comments
If you comment on my site, I collect the data shown in the comments form. My spam detector temporarily grabs your IP address and browser user agent string to stop spammers.–I’m okay with comments that don’t agree with me. I’m not okay with spam. (I’m also not okay with comments that are abusive or slanderous to others. I retain the right to decide what abusive or slanderous means in relation to comments on my site. Fair warning: If you use foul language in your comment, I will probably edit the words out.)
It’s up to you if you give me your real name, nickname, or John/Jane Doe. But a real email just prevents more of that spam stuff. Of course, I’d never publish your email address with your comment. You may, however, have the option of connecting to your own website.
Also good to know, commenting on my site won’t subscribe you to my newsletter list. That’s a different form–super easy to fill out, and may get you a free gift, but completely separate.
And when you comment, an anonymized (i.e. anonymous) string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you’re using it. (The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here.) After approval of your comment, if you usually use your Gravatar, your profile picture will be visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Media
If you upload images to my website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. (Good practice to avoid that anywhere!) Other visitors to the website could download and extract any location data from images on the website. Meaning they could figure out where you took the picture–and potentially, where you live, work, go to school, exercise… That’s a privacy violation you can avoid by turning off location data on your camera.
Contact forms
Similar to comments, what you put on the form is what I know. And what you contact me for is how I’ll respond. Contacting me doesn’t sign you up for anything unless you ask to be signed up. For my records, I keep track of who contacted me and why, but that info goes no further than my spreadsheet. If you want me to delete that, just contact me.
You can include whatever name or information you want in contacting me. However, if you want a response, a correct email that you check regularly is helpful.
I will treat all your information with respect and honor.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on my site, you may be able to opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so you don’t have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
Also, if you have visited my site previously, I use a caching plug-in to speed up your experience so you don’t have to wait for everything on the site to reload. You can delete your cache at any time by clearing browser data in your browser settings.
Embedded content from other websites
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 you as the visitor 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 tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website. Check their policy notices to know how they use it.
Analytics
Through Google Analytics, I check where my readers are located and what their demographics are, e.g. gender and general age. This just helps me know who I’m appealing to–and, I guess, who I’m not. (Super helpful for sending to agents and publishers when I’m pitching them my story ideas.)
I can also see what posts/pages you visit, the general time you check it, and, sometimes, how long you read it (although that isn’t always accurate. Phooey!)
But I don’t actually know who you are. Gender, general age, and location is pulled from your IP address or info you provided when you set up your computer, but I don’t see that IP address. You as a consumer and reader have the right to block info that Analytics collects on this site: Opt-in to let me know generalities about you. Block it to remain a click of the wind.
Who do I share your data with?
No one!
I take privacy seriously. My list is my list. If you sign up for my newsletter, I may email you if I’ve found something or someone I think you’ll be interested in.
But I would never give your information to them unless you specifically asked me to.
How long do I retain your data?
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so my site can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. (Your first comment is directly and manually approved by me. Future ones are then recognized and posted automatically.)
For users that subscribe, my website also stores the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their own personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information. And by “administrators,” I basically mean me.
If, at any point, you want me to unsubscribe you or delete your information/comments, just contact me.
What rights do you have over your data?
If you have left comments on my site, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data I hold about you, including any data you have provided to me. You can also request that I erase that same data. This does not include any information I am obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where do I send your data?
I have an automated spam detection service. Visitor comments are checked through that to be sure you aren’t just loading websites for nefarious purposes. (Nefarious–that’s one of those words that sounds just like it means, huh?)
And there’s also that automatic Gravatar check that I talked about above, seeing if your picture or symbol should be displayed by your comment.
Otherwise, I don’t send it anywhere.
My contact information
You can email me anytime at elizabethdaghfal@elizabethdaghfal.com or use my contact form. I will do my best to respond asap. In most cases, that will mean within 24 hours.
You can also contact me through my Facebook page, Not there yet: @lessonsinthelittlethings.
How do I protect your data?
I have a secure site (shown by that locked graphic in the address bar)–I actually changed hosting plans to make sure I could have one. If you’ve trusted me enough to contact, comment, or subscribe to my site, I want you to know your information is safe.
What data breach procedures do I have in place?
Thankfully, you won’t be giving any passwords, credit cards, or social security numbers to comment or subscribe to my site. But no one wants their email spammed by a data breach!
I chose my hosting plan carefully for a company that takes security as seriously as I do. However, if I find there IS any data breach and you have subscribed or commented to my site, I will contact you immediately through email to let you know.
What third parties do I receive data from?
As discussed earlier, Google Analytics tells me general demographics of my visitors, and I am informed on the number of times my posts are shared on social media platforms, although not who did so.
What automated decision making and/or profiling do I do with user data?
If I have previously approved a comment from an email address, that email address will be recognized for any future comments, and those comments will be automatically approved (unless I manually “unapprove” them.) If you chose to comment with a different email address, I will need to manually approve the comment the first time.
“Profiling” would only include recognizing how well a particular post did with a particular gender, age, or geographical location and writing something similar in the future. Of course, who knows–if I note a huge following from England, I might spell a few words the British way. (For some reason, I already struggle to keep the “u” out of words like “Saviour.”)
Industry regulatory disclosure requirements
It’s important to remember you are accessing this website through a browser like Google. They track online usage for the purpose of ranking sites on browser searches through SEO (search engine optimization) and collecting info on a visitor’s device and behavior. This is not just with my site. They do so across devices and marketing channels.
And, of course, ads are generally how these companies make their money. This allows us to browse for free, but you know how it works. You search for a particular topic one day, and an hour later, you’re receiving ads for that very thing. (Once I just talked about something with a friend, and it showed up in my Facebook feed. *gasp*)
On my site, I do not currently display ads, nor am I paid to suggest any product or idea. However, browsers will still keep track of usage for SEO, etc…
I sincerely hope you enjoy my posts enough to share them on social media. But since, you can share them, companies like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. , of course, keep track of that activity. I personally can only see how many shares I have per post from the site, not who shared it. (So feel free to leave me a comment if you were one of the ones who did.)
You do have the right to lodge a complaint with supervisory authorities about this or any other site in regards to your data. However, if, at any point, you believe I have not acted within these privacy promises, I would ask that you first contact me so I can do my best to rectify the situation.