Rachel Poli - Privacy Policy

Who we are

Our website address is https://rachelpoliauthor.com.

Please read this privacy policy which explains how I collect and use your personal data. Your data may be provided through this website when you comment or sign up for my newsletter. This privacy policy will explain my use of any and all data collected through this website or social media.

This policy pertains to this website only – RachelPoliAuthor.com – including any of my social media platforms and my newsletter. This policy does not carry over to any third-party websites, even if I provide the links. (Please read the Third-Party Links Disclaimer below.)

Please read this privacy policy thoroughly and all the way to the end. Should there be anything you disagree with, please exit this website immediately.

Copyright

All content on this website is copyrighted to Rachel Poli. All rights reserved. No part of this website including images and text may be copied or reproduced anywhere without the written consent of the owner and creator, Rachel Poli.

Data collected and used

Interacting with this site will lead to some of your personal data being collected and stored.

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 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, etc.)
Transaction information through Patreon should you choose to become a patron of The Merry Writer Podcast on Patreon.com. This is all done through PayPal and the information includes the monetary amount pledged, your name, email address, the date the transaction was made, and a transaction ID.

Ways your data is collected

Commenting on any post or page on this website (through your WordPress account or any social media account)
Akismet (an anti-spam program which is enabled to check for spam comments)
Contacting me through Google Forms
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.)
Signing up for my newsletter through Mailchimp (this includes your name, email address, and [optional] website URL)
Pledging to The Merry Writer Podcast (through Patreon.com)
Analytical information from WordPress.com’s general stats (country location of the user, search terms, posts/pages most viewed, etc.)
Cookies (more information on Cookies below)

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

How your data is used

I do not share personal information with third parties. Your personal information is strictly confidential and will be deleted after a reasonable period of time. I do not store information collected from your visit to this website for any use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies provided by Site Grounds and WordPress. Please note, you are free to turn off cookies at any time by modifying your internet browser settings.

I will use your data in a few ways

Responding to ways you’ve communicated with me (through comments on this website or emails sent through the Google contact forms.)
Sending you newsletters to your email address through MailChimp (Please note: you only get on my mailing list if you subscribe and provide me with your information. You are free to unsubscribe to these emails easily and at any time.)

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

What rights you have over your data

If you have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

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 collected from you. Please note: I may need additional information from you should you request this. Your personal information collected from this website should be confidential between me (the owner of this site) 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 newsletter, you can easily unsubscribe and your information will be automatically deleted. (Please note: Any information collected automatically through WordPress I am not able to delete. 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 have had their personal data stored and do not want it to be. Please see below for more information.

Data protection of minors

This website is free to be viewed and is safe for all ages including minors (children under the age of 16). It is not my intent to collect personal data from minors. If personal data is collected from minors, there should be consent from a parent or guardian. Parents and guardians are free to contact me to request the 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 email 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.

Cookies

This website 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 settings. A cookies notification should pop up at the bottom of the screen when first accessing my website.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

Please note: this website requires cookies to be enabled in order to function properly. For more information about cookies and their usage, please click here.

Third-party links

This website includes 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 website.

I only link to third-party websites that I have personally used, found helpful, and have deemed safe to share. Click on these links at your own risk.

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 the visitor has 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.

Email list

This website has a mailing list through MailChimp. Subscription to this list is completely optional and free. Should you choose to sign up, you will provide me with your name, email address, and (optional) website URL. This information will be strictly used to send you a monthly email and will not be shared with anyone.

Entering competitions and giveaways

Any competitions or giveaways held on this blog will require participating users to provide their names and email address in order to enter. By entering, you are consenting to be contacted via the email you have provided. Winners may be required to provide a snail mail address should the prize for a giveaway be a physical item.

All information provided to me when entering a competition or giveaway will be held by me in confidentiality until a valid winner is chosen and has accepted the prize. After that, all information provided by all entrants will be deleted.

Payment

Payment is collected through this website. Any payment collected is used to go back into this blog. It’s what helps keep the website up and running to make the website better as well as provide more content. Money is collected in a few different ways.

WordAds – advertisements on the blog (see below for more information)
Affiliate Links (see below for more information)
Services
Patreon

Services

I offer various freelance services through my business, Spilled Ink Media. Should you reach out to me for these services, personal data will be collected such as your email address among other information depending on what you provide to me and what services you are looking to hire me for.

Patreon

Patreon is a membership platform that makes it easier for creators to get paid. I accept pledges through Patreon for The Merry Writer Podcast. All pledges made through Patreon go to my PayPal.

Advertising

This website uses WordAds. WordAds is an advertising optimization platform for WordPress sites. WordAds automatically places advertisements on my blog and allows me to earn a small revenue from these advertisements based on the number of visitors to this website.

Please note: I am not responsible for any information collected by these advertisements should you click on any of the ads. I am also not responsible for any information collected by the use of cookies (if additional cookies are used to create more targeted advertising).

Affiliate links and usage

This website contains affiliate links. This means should you buy something through these links I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Any posts that contain affiliate links will be stated at the beginning of the post. I do not link to anything I have not personally used or liked.