Privacy Notice

Hi! You are reading this because you care about your privacy and so do I! I try my best to let you know what happens to your data to the best of my knowledge, and here’s a summary:

  1. In the sign-up form on the right sidebar, your email and name is entered into a mailing list which I use Mailchimp as the platform. Basically, instead of individually emailing everyone, the platform allows me to do so easily and the platform also allows me to track certain statistics such as whether you open my email or click on the urls within the email. Mailchimp also has its own privacy and terms.
  2. Affiliate links – As of the date of this notice, I use (i) Amazon affiliate links and this means that if you click on a link, you will be directed to Amazon’s website to the relevant product that is sold on Amazon. I am not able to see who click the link (at least I don’t know how!), but I can see the number of clicks and whether there is an eventual purchase made (which I will earn a small commission from your sale around 2.5% to 7%, in accordance with Amazon affiliate program fee structure). Amazon announced that its services are compliant with the EU GDPR here
  3. Google Analytics – As of the date of this notice, I did not insert any tracking that link to you as a user of the site, i.e. I’m just collecting general user statistics like how many users, page views and from which country. Read Google GDPR-compliance here.
  4. WordPress has plug-ins, including Jetpack, that collects information that you have provided such as in contact me (form), comments, follow or subscribing to comments or the blog, and your interaction with my website such as your search query. WordPress also collects some information automatically, such as:
  • Technical Data from your computer etc: We collect the information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available about visitors to a Site, such as the IP address, browser type, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information.
  • Visitor Interactions: We collect information about a visitor’s interactions with a Site, including the “likes” and “ratings” left by visitors to a Site using WordPress.com or Jetpack.
  • Location Information: We may determine the approximate location of a visitor’s device from the IP address. We collect and use this information to, for example, tally for our Users how many people visit their Sites from certain geographic regions. If you’d like, you can read more about our Site Stats feature for WordPress.com sites and Jetpack sites. (As of the date of this notice, I did not enable their site statistics)
  • Akismet Commenter Information: We collect information about visitors who comment on Sites that use our Akismet anti-spam service. The information we collect depends on how the User sets up Akismet for the Site, but typically includes the commenter’s IP address, user agent, referrer, and Site URL (along with other information directly provided by the commenter such as their name, username, email address…oh, and the comment itself, of course).
  • Information from Cookies and Other Technologies: A cookie is a string of information that a Site stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the Site each time the visitor returns. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on Sites. Automattic uses cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help identify and track visitors and Site usage, and to deliver targeted ads when ads are enabled for free WordPress.com sites or when ads are enabled on a Site through WordAds or Jetpack Ads (see the “Other Tools” section below for more details). For more information about our use of cookies and other technologies for tracking, including how visitors can control the use of cookies, please see our Cookie Policy. (As of the date of this notice, I did not enable Jetpack Ads).

If you wish for your data to be removed, please email mommarcie[at]gmail.com and I will try my best to see how to remove from you from the mailing list and comments, and if the plug-ins or external sites have a way to delete your data at their end. I do not intentionally provide your email or name to any third party, other than the above services that I use. I use Wordfence plugin to monitor the site’s security (their GDPR compliance here), and if there is any data breach, I will let you know in 72 hours. (I have not requested for your private data, other than your email or name.)

How WordPress Use Visitor Information

We use information about Site visitors in order to provide our Services to our Users and their Sites. Our users may use our Services to, for example, create and manage their Site, sell products and services on their Site, flag and fight comments from spammers, and collect information through polls, quizzes and other surveys.

In addition to the above, we use some information about Site visitors who are also our Users as described in our Privacy Policy.

We may also use and share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify any individual. For instance, we may publish aggregate statistics about the use of our services.

How WordPress Share Visitor Information

We may share information collected about Site visitors in the limited circumstances spelled out below:

  • Subsidiaries, Employees, and Independent Contractors: We may disclose Site visitor information to our subsidiaries, our employees, and individuals who are our independent contractors that need to know the information in order to help us provide our services to our Users and their Sites, or to process the information on our behalf. We require our subsidiaries, employees, and independent contractors to follow this Privacy Notice for information about visitors that we share with them.
  • Third Party Vendors: We may share Site visitor information with third party vendors who need to know this information in order to provide their services to us. This group includes vendors that help us provide our services to our Users and their Sites. We require vendors to agree to privacy commitments in order to share information with them.
  • Legal Requests: We may disclose Site visitor information in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request. For more information on how we respond to requests for information, please see our Legal Guidelines.
  • To Protect Rights, Property, and Others: We may disclose Site visitor information when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Automattic, our Users, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if we have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, we 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 our business by another company, or in the unlikely event that Automattic goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, Site visitor 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 Notice would continue to apply to Site visitor information and the party receiving this information may continue to use this information, but only consistent with this Privacy Notice.
  • Information Shared Publicly: Information that visitors choose to make public is–you guessed it–disclosed publicly. That means, of course, that information like visitor comments and “likes” are all available to others, including information about the visitor that is displayed in connection with a comment or “like” (such as a visitor’s WordPress.com username and Gravatar). We provide a “firehose” stream of public data (including comments) from Sites 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.