Privacy Policy

This is a new Privacy Policy going into effect on January 3, 2018.

Your privacy is critically important to me. I have a few fundamental principles:

  • I am thoughtful about the personal information I ask you to provide and the personal information that I collect about you through this website.
  • I store personal information for only as long as I have a reason to keep it.
  • I aim to make it as simple as possible for you to control what information is shared publicly (or kept private), indexed by search engines, and permanently deleted.
  • I aim for full transparency on how I gather, use, and share your personal information.

Below is Automattic Inc.’s privacy policy, which incorporates and clarifies these principles.

 

This Privacy Policy applies to information that we collect about you when you:

  • comment on the blog
  • follow the blog via email or WordPress Reader.

Throughout this Privacy Policy I’ll refer to this website and mobile applications 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.

Please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to any of our products or services that have a separate privacy policy.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact me nancy.gedge@gmail.com

Information I Collect

We only collect information about you if we have a reason to do so–for example, 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 our services, and from outside sources. Let’s go over the information that we collect.

Information You Provide to Us

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

  • Public Profile Information: If you have an account with WordPress, I collect the information that you provide for your public profile. For example, if you have a WordPress.com account, your username is part of that public profile, along with any other information you put into your public profile. Your public profile is just that–public–so please keep that in mind when deciding what information you would like to include.
  • Content Information: Depending on the Services you use, you may also provide me with information about you in the draft and published content for your website. For example, if you write a comment that includes biographic information about you, I will have that information, and so will anyone with access to the Internet, if you choose to publish the post 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 respond via the comments in this blog.

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. 
  • Usage Information: I collect information about your usage of our Services. For example, I collect information about the actions that users perform on a site–in other words, who did what, when and to what thing on this site (e.g., [WordPress.com username] deleted “[title of post]” at [time/date]). I  also collect information about what happens when you use our Services (e.g., page views, support document searches at en.support.wordpress.com, button clicks) along with information about your device (e.g., mobile screen size, name of cellular network, and mobile device manufacturer). I use this information to, for example, provide our Services to you, as well as get insights on how people use my Services, so I can make our Services better.
  • 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.
  • 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 e-mails. WordPress uses cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help us identify and track visitors, usage, and access preferences for our Services, as well as track and understand e-mail campaign effectiveness and to deliver targeted ads. For more information about our use of cookies and other technologies for tracking, including how you can control the use of cookies, please see here for information on WordPress.com and here for information on Jetpack.

Information We Collect from Other Sources

I may also get information about you from other sources. For example, if you create or log into your WordPress.com account through another service (like Google) or if you connect your website or account to a social media service (like Twitter) through the Publicize feature, we will receive information from that service (such as your username, basic profile information, and friends list) via the authorization procedures used by that service. The information I receive depends on which services you authorize and any options that are available.

I may also get information from third party services about individuals who are not yet users, which WordPress may use, for example, for marketing and advertising purposes.

How I Use Information

I use information about you as mentioned above and as follows:

  • To monitor and analyze trends and better understand how users interact with my Services, which helps me improve my Services and make them easier to use;
  • To monitor and protect the security of our Services, detect and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities, fight spam, and protect the rights and property of Automattic and others.

Sharing Information

How I Share Information

I do not sell our users’ private personal information.

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

  • As Required by Law: I may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request. For more information on how we respond to requests for information about WordPress.com users, please see  Legal Guidelines.
  • To Protect Rights and Property: I may disclose information about you when we 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 Nancy Gedge 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 our Publicize feature.
  • Aggregated and 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, we may publish aggregate statistics about the use of our Services.
  • Published Support Requests: And if you send us a request (for example, via a support email or one of our feedback mechanisms), I reserve the right to publish that request in order to help me clarify or respond to your request or to help us 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 public profile, posts, other content that you make public on your website, and your “likes” and comments on other websites are all available to others–and we hope you get a lot of views! WordPress provides a “Firehose” stream of public data (like posts and comments) from sites that use our Services to provide that data to Firehose subscribers, who may view and analyze the content, but do not have rights to re-publish it, publicly. 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.

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.

Choices

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

  • Limit the Information that You Provide: If you have an account, you can choose not to provide the optional account information, profile information, and transaction and billing information. Please keep in mind that if you do not provide this information, certain features of our Services may not be accessible.
  • Limit Access to Information On Your Mobile Device: Your mobile device operating system should provide you with the ability to discontinue our ability to collect stored information or location information via our mobile apps. If you do so, you may not be able to use certain features (like adding a location to a photograph, for example).
  • Opt-Out of Electronic Communications: You may opt out of receiving promotional messages from us. Just follow the instructions in those messages. If you opt out of promotional messages, we may still send you other messages, like those about your account and legal notices.

Other Things You Should Know (Keep Reading!)

Transferring Information

By accessing or using the Services or otherwise providing information to me, you consent to the processing, transfer, and storage of information in and to the U.S. and other countries, which may have rights and protections that are different from those in your home country.

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. Please note this Privacy Policy only covers the collection of information by me and does not cover the collection of information by any third party advertisers or analytics providers.

 

One More Thing: This Policy Is Available Under a Creative Commons Sharealike License

This privacy policy was made available under a Creative Commons Sharealike license. It was copied, adapted and repurposed it for my own use.  Credit :  Automattic .

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, I may change my Privacy Policy from time to time. I encourage visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to the Privacy Policy. If I make changes, we 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 or). Your continued use of the Services after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your consent to such change.

Change log