Updated: 01 January 2024
I, Shawn P. Mitchell, have updated my privacy policy to provide clear and direct language surrounding the information I collect, what I use it for, and the few situations in which I share it with others.
I want you to feel comfortable in using my website. I take your privacy seriously and I’ve implemented fair and ethical information practices.
By using my website, you are accepting the practices described in the below privacy policy, including my use of cookies and similar online tools. If you do not agree to the terms of this privacy policy, please do not use my website.
The Information I Collect
Personal Information
When you sign-up for my emails or similar products on my website, you voluntarily supply personally identifiable information about yourself.
The personal information I collect and store may include but is not limited to the following types of information about you:
- Contact information, including your first and last name, and email address.
- Occupation information, including your company name, company type, your title, and any other information you directly provide to us via registration.
Unless explicitly stated at the time of collection, personal information is not shared directly with any advertisers.
You can unsubscribe from my emails at any point via the link provided in each message I send.
Non-Personal Information
When you use my website, I collect additional non-personally identifiable information.
This includes, but is not limited to, data about your device, browser, operating system, your IP address, general location information, page information, and the date and time of each request you make to my website.
This non-personal information may be collected through various technologies, including but not limited to server logs, cookies, and web beacons.
I may use information gathered across my network of websites, social media channels, and other products to create a single user record.
Additionally, I may use or combine information that I collect or receive from outside third-party sources to enhance, expand, and check the accuracy of our records.
How I Use Information
I use your data for the following purposes:
- Provide you with access to the content and services I produce.
- Analyze demographic or behavioral data to improve or personalize the products I offer to you.
- Provide you with more relevant advertising content.
- Post your user generated content and comments to the sites as you request.
- To respond to any emails or requests you directly make to me.
- For my own marketing purposes.
- For my statistical, research, record-keeping, and reporting purposes.
- To monitor my products for compliance with my Terms of Use and to protect the security of my network.
- To comply with the law.
- For any other purpose identified at the time of collection.
I will not use the information provided to me in ways unrelated to the ones described above.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site, I collect the data shown in the comments form. I also collect 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: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
When I Share Information
I may share information collected about you under the following conditions:
- With your consent, after letting you know what information will be shared, and with whom.
- This includes cases where I share your personal data with one of my advertisers or partners.
- To third party service providers helping me provide, improve, and market my products and services. Examples include but are not limited to:
- My email service provider which I use to send my emails.
- Online analytic tools such as Google Analytics which provides data about website usage.
- Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
- With government entities as needed to provide my services and where required by law.
- To investigate, respond to, or resolve problems or inquiries (including law enforcement or legal requests) or protect, enforce, or defend my rights, assets and/or interests.
- To prevent or respond to a violation of any law, regulation, or my Terms of Use, or as necessary to protect and defend my network security.
Use of Cookies
Like many websites, I use cookies, web beacons and similar technologies to record your preferences, track the use of my website and your exposure to my online advertisements. I may also use these technologies to monitor traffic, improve products and make it easier and/or more relevant for your use. For example, I may recommend articles similar to the ones you’re reading or display advertisements that you haven’t already seen.
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but, if you prefer, you can usually modify your browser setting to disable or reject cookies. If you delete your cookies or if you set your web browser to decline cookies, some features may not work or may not work as designed.
Some browsers make it possible for you to signal that you don’t want your Internet browsing activity to be tracked. Since the Internet community hasn’t reached a consensus on how to honor these signals, I don’t take action on Do-Not-Track requests at this time.
Online Advertising Partners
I allow third-party advertisers to display advertisements on my site and in my products. These third-party advertisers and related ad-serving companies may use cookies alone or in conjunction with tracking technologies such as web beacons to collect information about you when you use my products.
I will not provide these online advertisers with access to any personally identifiable information you may have provided to me without your consent. Advertisers may, however, use persistent identifiers to track your internet usage across other websites in their networks beyond my website. While I will not provide these advertisers with personally identifiable information, they may already possess personally identifiable information about you, obtained from other sources, and may be able to combine that information with information behavioral data collected when you use my website. For example, whether you engaged with their advertisement when it was displayed.
I do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies, how they may be used, or the information they may collect and I am not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of those third parties.
Data Retention
I will retain your Personal Data for as long as otherwise necessary to provide you with the Services. I will also retain your Personal Data in a secure backup system for a reasonable period of time in order to assure reliable service and as necessary to comply with my legal obligations, resolve disputes, protect my network security, and enforce my agreements.
Where I no longer need to process your Personal Data for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, I will delete your Personal Data from my systems.
Where permissible, I will also delete your Personal Data upon your request.
Third Party Websites
My Properties may contain links to third-party websites or mobile applications. Please be aware that I do not control these linked websites and that this Privacy Policy does not apply to those websites.
Children
My Properties are not intended for children under the age of 16, and I do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16.
Changes to My Privacy Policy
I may change this privacy policy from time to time. I will post changes in this policy, and suggest that you periodically revisit this policy to stay informed of any changes.
Security
I take reasonable measures to help protect data I collect from unauthorized access and use. I cannot, however, fully eliminate security risks associated with the storage and transmission of Personal Data.
Contact Me
If you have questions regarding my privacy policy, please contact me on my contact page.