Privacy

 

For your safety and online security, below you will find information regarding the WordPress.com privacy policy.  This information is provided to inform you of how your data is collected and stored when visiting and interacting with my website, melissamclaughlinheartsong.com.  This blog, melissamclaughlinheartsong.com, is a WordPress.com website, it is not self-hosted, so when you provide your data in order to interact with this site it is managed through their systems.  Therefore, if you have questions that are not answered in the information provided below, please contact WordPress.com directly.  Links to their policies are below.

Your data may be provided through this blog when you comment, or follow links to online places outside the blog.  This policy pertains to this blog only, melissamclaughlinheartsong.com, including any of my social media platforms. I invite you to please read this privacy policy thoroughly.  Should there be anything you disagree with, please exit the blog.  I am not responsible for the republishing of content found on this blog onto other websites or media without my permission.

This policy does not carry over to any third party blogs/websites, even if the links are provided as an option. (Please read the Third-Party Links Disclaimer below.)

Data Collected and Used

Interacting with this blog will result in some of your personal data being collected and stored.  Names and email addresses are submitted by users on the contact form. This email is used to reply to you and may be stored on a third-party email server. Email addresses are collected for the purpose of subscribing to blog posts by email.  If you are a non-Wordpress user, I will be able to see the emails and they are stored on WordPress in order to fulfill your subscription request. There is an ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of all emails sent and you can use this to unsubscribe at any time.

Data Collected May Include

  • Name (full name or username)
  • Email address
  • Country location of users
  • Your IP address
  • User agent (operating system and web browser type & version)
  • A referring URL (how you came to find my blog)
  • Posts and pages you visit
  • An exit URL (the website you leave my blog on)
  • Search terms used to find the website or used on the website
  • Links clicked on this website
  • Your blog/website URL
  • Your WordPress ID (should you interact on this website while logged into WordPress)
  • Your social media ID (should you interact on this website through Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.)

Ways Your Data is Collected:

  • Commenting on any post or page on this blog (through your WordPress account or any social media account)
  • Akismet (an anti-spam program which is enabled to check for spam comments)
  • The contact form, if and when it is used (this will include your name, email address, website URL, how you found my blog, why you’re reaching out to me, and the content of your message)
  • Signing up to follow this blog (this will store your WordPress ID and/or email address. You will receive automatic emails from WordPress.com whenever a new post is released on this website. You are free to cancel these emails as well as unfollow the blog at any time.)
  • Analytical information from WordPress.com’s general stats (country location of user, search terms, posts/pages most viewed, etc.)
  • Cookies (more information on Cookies below)

How Your Data is Used

Your personal information is not shared with third-parties.  Information is not collected about your visit to this blog other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies provided by WordPress.com, which you can turn off at anytime by modifying your Internet browser’s settings. The Automatic privacy policy is here (Automatic is ‘behind’ WordPress.com). I will only use your data when responding to ways you’ve communicated with me (through comments on this blog or emails sent directly to my email address.)

Your Safety & Rights

You have the right to know what personal data is collected and are free to reach out to me for the following:

  • Access – You may reach out to me and request to know which personal data I have received from you. Please note: I may need additional information from you should you request this. Your personal information collected from this blog should be confidential between me, the owner of this site (WordPress), and yourself. I do not want to send this information to the wrong person.
  • Corrections – Please reach out to me if any of your information is incomplete or inaccurate so that I can correct it.
  • Deletion – You are free to reach out to me and request I delete your information should you feel there is no reason for me to have it anymore. In certain cases, you are able to delete the information yourself. For example, if you are subscribed to my blog, you can easily unsubscribe and your information will be automatically deleted. Please note: I am not able to delete any information collected automatically through WordPress. I believe WordPress is working on something to allow its users to delete such information from a person’s visit. When that comes into effect, I will update this privacy policy as such.
  • Protection of Minors – Parents and guardians are free to reach out if they feel their children under the age of 16 has had their personal data stored and do not want it to be. Please see below for more information.

Data Protection of Minors

This blog is free to be viewed by all ages including minors. I do try to ensure that the content on this blog is safe for all ages, including children under the age of 16. It is not my intent to collect personal data from minors. If personal data is inadvertently collected from minors, there should be consent from a parent or guardian. Parents and guardians are free to contact me to request removal of this personal data.

Data Breach

A data breach is an unauthorized access to confidential information or personal data. It compromises the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of that information. This means your personal data may be in jeopardy through the fault of Internet glitches, hacking, viruses, etc. Should this incident ever occur, I will reach out to you, via a blog post, within 48 hours of discovering the issue, with details on what you should do to protect your information and we’ll work together to ensure it does not happen again.

The Use of Cookies

This WordPress.com blog uses cookies by default. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored on your computer/web browser when visiting this website. You are not obligated to consent to their use and are able to freely disable cookies from your Internet browser’s settings. A cookie notification should pop up at the bottom of the screen when first accessing my blog. Please note: this blog requires cookies to be enabled in order to function properly.

For more information about cookies and their usage, please click here.

Newsletter

This blog does not have a mailing list.

Entering Competitions & Giveaways

Any competitions or giveaways notified of on this blog will be subject to the Privacy Policies on the original blog(s)/website(s).

Advertising

This is currently an ad-free site under WordPress.com’s personal plan. I do not use Google Analytics for this site at this time. Please note: I am not responsible for any information collected by any pop-ups or advertisements should you click on any ads that may appear. I am not responsible for any information collected by the use of ads or cookies.

Affiliate Links Usage

This blog does not use affiliate links, however, original sites linked to within reblogs or linking posts, may use them.  In this case, it means that should you buy something through their links they will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps them keep their blog/website up and running.

Non-affiliated links that are used on my blog include:

  • Amazon
  • links to other blogs/websites outside of mine

I am not responsible for any data collected through their affiliate links once you leave my blog.

Third-Party Links

Reblogged / linked to, or, original posts, may include links to third-party websites. By clicking on these links you may be allowing third-party websites to collect data about you. I am not responsible for any third-party websites or information they collect from you.  You are responsible for reading their privacy policies once you leave my blog.

Contact Me for More Information

If you have any comments, concerns, or questions about this policy, you are free to contact me at any time using my contact page.

Privacy Policy Change Log

This privacy policy has been in effect since May 2018.  It may be updated and changed at any time without notice.