What This Policy Covers

This Privacy Policy applies to information that I collect about you when you use my website.

Throughout this Privacy Policy I’ll refer to my website, mobile applications and other products and services collectively as “Services.”

Below I explain how I collect, use, and share information about you, along with the choices that you have with respect to that information.

Creative Commons Sharealike License

This Privacy Policy was based off Automattic’s Privacy Policy and is licensed under a Creative Commons Sharealike License. You can grab a copy of this Privacy Policy and other legal documents on Github. You’re more than welcome to copy it, adapt it, and repurpose it for your own use. Just make sure to revise the language so that your policy reflects your actual practices. Also, if you do use the policy please include a link to myself and/or Automattic.

Information I Collect

I only collect information about you if I have a reason to do so–for example, to provide my Services, to communicate with you, or to make my Services better.

I collect information in three ways: if and when you provide information to us, automatically through operating my Services, and from outside sources. Let’s go over the information that I collect.

Information You Provide to Me

It’s probably no surprise that I collect information that you provide. The amount and type of information depends on the context and how I use the information. Here are some examples:

• Content Information: You may also provide me with information about you in published content, such as your comments or responses to polls. I will have that information, and so will anyone with access to the Internet if you choose to publish publicly. This might be obvious to you…but it’s not to everyone!
• Communications With Me (Hi There!): You may also provide me information when you communicate directly with me.
• Subscriber Information: If you subscribe to my website, you’ll be providing me with your username and email address, depending on what option you select.

Information I Collect Automatically

I also collect some information automatically:

• Log Information: Like most online service providers, I collect information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, IP address, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information. I collect log information when you use my Services.
• Usage Information: I collect information about your usage of my Services, such as which pages you visit and what you click on the page. I also collect information when you comment, such as your username and what page you commented on. I use this information to, for example, provide my Services to you, as well as get insights on how people use my Services, so I can make my Services better. I monitor comments for inappropriate or harmful comments for deletion.
• Location Information: I may determine the approximate location of your device from your IP address. I collect and use this information to, for example, calculate how many people visit my Services from certain geographic regions.
• Interactions with Other Users’ Sites: I collect some information about your interactions with other users’ sites while you are logged in to your account with us, such as your “Likes” and the fact that you commented on a particular post.
• Information from Cookies & Other Technologies: A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on websites and emails. I uses cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help me identify and track visitors, usage, and access preferences for my Services, as well as track and understand email campaign effectiveness and to deliver targeted ads. For more information about my use of cookies and other technologies for tracking, including how you can control the use of cookies, please see my Cookie Policy.

How And Why I Use Information

Purposes for Using Information

I use information about you as mentioned above and for the purposes listed below:

• To further develop and improve my Services–for example by adding new content that I think my users will enjoy;
• To monitor and analyze trends and better understand how users interact with my Services, which helps me improve my Services;
• To measure, gauge, and improve the effectiveness of my advertising, and better understand user retention and attrition;
• To monitor and prevent any problems with my Services, protect the security of my Services, detect and prevent illegal activities, fight spam, and protect the rights and property of myself and others, which may result in me declining the use of my Services;
• To communicate with you, for example through an email, solicit your feedback, or keep you up to date on me and my products; and

Legal Bases for Collecting and Using Information

A note here for those in the European Union about my legal grounds for processing information about you under EU data protection laws, which is that my use of your information is based on the grounds that:

(1) The use is necessary in order to fulfill my commitments to you under my Terms of Service or other agreements with you or is necessary to administer your account–for example, in order to enable access to my website on your device or charge you for a paid plan; or

(2) The use is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation; or

(3) The use is necessary in order to protect your vital interests or those of another person; or

(4) I have a legitimate interest in using your information–for example, to provide and update my Services, to improve my Services so that I can offer you an even better user experience, to safeguard my Services, to communicate with you, to measure, gauge, and improve the effectiveness of my advertising, and better understand user retention and attrition, to monitor and prevent any problems with my Services, and to personalize your experience; or

(5) You have given me your consent–for example before I place certain cookies on your device and access and analyze them later on, as described in Automattic’s Cookie Policy.

Sharing Information

How I Share Information

I do not sell my users’ private personal information.

I share information about you in the limited circumstances spelled out below and with appropriate safeguards on your privacy:

• Subsidiaries, Employees, and Independent Contractors: I may disclose information about you to my subsidiaries, my employees, and individuals who are my independent contractors that need to know the information in order to help me provide my Services or to process the information on my behalf. I require my subsidiaries, employees, and independent contractors to follow this Privacy Policy for personal information that I share with them.
• Third Party Vendors: I may share information about you with third party vendors who need to know information about you in order to provide their services to us, or to provide their services to you or your site. This group includes vendors that help me provide my Services to you (like payment providers that process your credit and debit card information, fraud prevention services that allow me to analyze fraudulent payment transactions, postal and email delivery services that help me stay in touch with you, customer chat and email support services that help me communicate with you), those that assist me with my marketing efforts (e.g. by providing tools for identifying a specific marketing target group or improving my marketing campaigns), those that help me understand and enhance my Services (like analytics providers), and companies that make products available on my websites (such as the extensions on WooCommerce.com), who may need information about you in order to, for example, provide technical or other support services to you. I require vendors to agree to privacy commitments in order to share information with them. Other vendors are listed in my more specific policies (e.g. my Cookie Policy).
• Legal Requests: I may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request. For more information on how I respond to requests for information please contact me.
• To Protect Rights, Property, and Others: I may disclose information about you when I believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Automattic, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if I have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, I may disclose information related to the emergency without delay.
• Business Transfers: In connection with any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of my business by another company, or in the unlikely event that I goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events were to happen, this Privacy Policy would continue to apply to your information and the party receiving your information may continue to use your information, but only consistent with this Privacy Policy.
• With Your Consent: I may share and disclose information with your consent or at your direction. For example, I may share your information with third parties with which you authorize me to do so, such as the social media services that you connect to your site through my Publicize feature.
• Aggregated or De-Identified Information: I may share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify you. For instance, I may publish aggregate statistics about the use of my Services and I may share a hashed version of your email address to facilitate customized ad campaigns on other platforms.
• Published Support Requests: And if you send me a request (for example, via a support email or one of my feedback mechanisms), I reserve the right to publish that request in order to help me clarify or respond to your request or to help me support other users.

Information Shared Publicly

Information that you choose to make public is–you guessed it–disclosed publicly.

That means, of course, that information like your comments and “Likes” are all available to others.

Public information may also be indexed by search engines or used by third parties.

Please keep all of this in mind when deciding what you would like to share.

How Long I Keep Information

I generally discard information about you when I no longer need the information for the purposes for which I collect and use it–which are described in the section above on How and Why I Use Information–and I am not legally required to continue to keep it.

For example, I keep information regarding referers, the geographic regions of site visitors, indefinitely in order to analyze traffic and the effectiveness of my advertisements.

Security

While no online service is 100% secure, I work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so, such as monitoring my Services for potential vulnerabilities and attacks.

Choices

You have several choices available when it comes to information about you:

• Limit the Information that You Provide: You may opt to limit the information you provide me by not commenting or sending me messages.
• Set Your Browser to Reject Cookies: You can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before using my website, with the drawback that certain features may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

Your Rights

If you are located in certain countries, including those that fall under the scope of the European General Data Protection Regulation (AKA the “GDPR”), data protection laws give you rights with respect to your personal data, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the rights to:

• Request access to your personal data;
• Request correction or deletion of your personal data;
• Object to my use and processing of your personal data;
• Request that I limit my use and processing of your personal data; and
• Request portability of your personal data.

If you would like to contact me, scroll down to How to Reach Me. EU individuals also have the right to make a complaint to a government supervisory authority.

Controllers and Responsible Companies

All of your personal data is controlled by Automattic and their companies. For more information as to how they control your data, please reference their privacy policy.

How to Reach Us

If you have a question about this Privacy Policy, or you would like to contact me about any of the rights mentioned in the Your Rights section above, please contact me.

Other Things You Should Know (Keep Reading!)

Transferring Information

Because my Services are offered worldwide, the information about you that I process when you use the Services in the EU may be used, stored, and/or accessed by individuals operating outside the European Economic Area (EEA). This is required for the purposes listed in the How and Why I Use Information section above. When providing information about you to entities outside the EEA, I will take appropriate measures to ensure that the recipient protects your personal information adequately in accordance with this Privacy Policy as required by applicable law. These measures include:

• In the case of me based entities, entering into European Commission approved standard contractual arrangements with them, or ensuring they have signed up to the EU-US Privacy Shield; or
• In the case of entities based in other countries outside the EEA, entering into European Commission approved standard contractual arrangements with them.

You can ask me for more information about the steps I take to protect your personal information when transferring it from the EU.

Ads and Analytics Services Provided by Others

Ads appearing on any of my Services may be delivered by advertising networks. Other parties may also provide analytics services via my Services. These ad networks and analytics providers may set tracking technologies (like cookies) to collect information about your use of my Services and across other websites and online services. These technologies allow these third parties to recognize your device to compile information about you or others who use your device. This information allows me and other companies to, among other things, analyze and track usage, determine the popularity of certain content, and deliver advertisements that may be more targeted to your interests. Please note this Privacy Policy only covers the collection of information by myself and does not cover the collection of information by any third party advertisers or analytics providers.

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, I may change its Privacy Policy from time to time. I encourage visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. If I make changes, I will notify you by revising the change log below, and, in some cases, I may provide additional notice (such as adding a statement to my homepage). Your further use of the Services after a change to my Privacy Policy will be subject to the updated policy.

That’s it! Thanks for reading.

Change log

 

• June 6th, 2018: Original Policy implemented
• June 19th, 2018: Link to Automattic corrected, addition of subscriber information section