PRIVACY POLICY for website of author V.S. Kemanis; https://www.vskemanis.com
Last updated June 4, 2018
The following Privacy Policy governs the online information collection practices of the website https://www.vskemanis.com (the “Site”) of author V.S. Kemanis (“we” or “us”). This Privacy Policy has been adopted to address concerns about the online use of Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”), which US privacy law describes as information that, on its own or with other information, can be used to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context.
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your PII on the Site. By visiting and using the Site, you agree that your use of our Site is governed by this Privacy Policy. In our discretion, we may make changes to this Privacy Policy without notice to any party, and any such modified Privacy Policy will be posted to this Site with the date it was last updated.
Please note that this Privacy Policy only affects PII you have provided us through your use of this Site, and does not affect personal information, if any, obtained by us through other activities not connected to this Site.
Information Collection, Use, and Sharing
We only have access to/collect PII that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you through your use of the Site. We will not sell, rent, or distribute your PII to anyone outside of our organization. We may employ individuals to administer the Site, to provide services on our behalf related to the Site, or to assist in analyzing the functionality and performance of the Site. Such individuals may have access to your PII solely for those purposes and are obligated not to disclose or use your PII for any other purposes.
Contact Form
When you contact us through the contact form found at https://www.vskemanis.com/contact/, we collect your name and email address. This information is collected and kept solely for the purpose of responding to your specific comment or query. We do not use the information submitted through the contact form for any other purpose. We use the plugin Contact Form 7 to generate the contact form, and we use the plugin Flamingo for storing the form submissions. When you contact us through the contact page, you are asked to confirm “I’m not a robot” through the Google Invisible reCAPTCHA widget. Your use of the Invisible reCAPTCHA is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Google Terms of Use.
Subscribing to VBlog
In order to receive VBlog posts by email, a user is required to provide an email address. This information is not shared with anyone and is used only to email VBlog posts to the user. Your email address is stored at the list server that delivers VBlog emails and can be accessed only by administrators of this Site who help manage that list in order to deliver those emails. All VBlog emails include an unsubscribe link. You can remove yourself at any time from the email list by clicking on the unsubscribe link.
Visitors who post comments on the blog are required to give their name and email address, and they may, but are not required to, give a website address (Uniform Resource Locator or URL). The user’s name and, if provided, the user’s website, are displayed with the comment. The user’s email is not displayed but retained by the Site for the purpose of honoring the visitor’s choices with respect to receiving updates on comments and making future comments. All visitor comments are checked through the automated spam detection plugin Akismet. If the comment is left by a visitor who is logged into WordPress.com, or whose email address is attached to an active Gravatar profile, the visitor’s Gravatar profile image will be retrieved. Automattic is the company that provides the services Akismet and Gravatar. Click this link to read the privacy policy of Automattic.
If you leave a comment on a blog post, the comment and its metadata are retained by the Site indefinitely. Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily make your personal information available for viewing by third parties online—for example, by writing a comment on a blog post—that information can be seen, collected, and used by others besides us. We cannot be responsible for any unauthorized third-party use of such information.
To process subscriptions to VBlog, the Site collects basic server data, including the subscribing user’s Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request headers, the Internet Protocol (IP) address from which the subscribing user is viewing the page, and the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) which was given in order to access the page. This nonpersonal information is used for purposes of monitoring and preventing abuse and spam.
Links
This Site includes links to other websites which provide information and access to products and services offered by third parties whose privacy policies we do not control. When you access another website by clicking a link from this Site, the use of any information you provide while visiting such other website is governed by the privacy policy of the operator of the website you are visiting. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such other websites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave this Site and to read the privacy statements of any other website that collects PII.
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 tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged into that website. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such other websites.
Log Data
Like most website administrators, we collect and store information that is generated automatically as you navigate online through the Site. Log files record information such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, WordPress.com user ID and user name (if logged in), visiting and referring URLs, browser type and language, Internet Service Provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, page navigation, and country code. We gather this information to track Site visitor movement in the aggregate, and to gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. Our goal in gathering this information is to learn how the public is using our Site. IP addresses that are recorded by our log files are not linked to any PII. In addition, we use third party services such as Google Analytics that collect, monitor and analyze data. Click here for more information about the specific types of data collected by Google Analytics. This Site has enabled a feature of Google Analytics to Anonymize IP addresses.
Cookies
We also may use a standard feature found in browser software called a “cookie” to enhance your experience with the Site. Cookies are small files that your web browser places on your hard drive for record-keeping purposes. By showing how and when visitors use the Site, cookies help us identify how many unique users visit us and track user trends and patterns. Also, functionality cookies are used to remember a visitor’s blog and post subscription choices if, in fact, they have an active subscription to VBlog.
Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any PII on our Site. Your browser is probably set to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies. If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our Site will not function properly when you view them. For further information about cookies, click here to read Automattic’s Cookies Policy.
Do Not Track (DNT)
Do Not Track (DNT) is a feature in web browsers and websites that asks advertisers and other web software providers to not track individuals’ browsing habits. This Site has the ability to honor the DNT settings of visitors and not track their activity on this Site (i.e. post and page views). Currently, however, DNT is not honored by this Site.
Children’s Privacy
We encourage parents and guardians to monitor and participate in their children’s online activities. No information should be submitted to this site by users under 13 years of age, and users under 13 years old are not allowed to subscribe to VBlog. Where appropriate, we may ask you to indicate your age to verify compliance with this policy. We do not knowingly collect information from users under 13 years of age. No PII about or from children should be provided on the Site. This Site is not designed for children. If you are a minor, please secure the permission and guidance of your parents or guardian before using this Site.
Contacting Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your PII stored on this Site, you may contact us at https://www.vskemanis.com/contact/.