Updated 5/20/2018

We value your privacy. Really, we do. We get enough spamy emails ourselves to know we don’t want anyone adding us to a list we didn’t actually subscribe to.

Therefore, we want you to breathe easy knowing that we will never use, rent, sell, give away or in some other fashion make use of your email or WordPress username for any purpose than to deliver you the content from our blogs. (We won’t even email you about upcoming books — you’ll have to subscribe to each of our own personal websites for that!).

Seriously…we take your privacy…well…seriously.

That said, there is some information we collect in order to provide you content and a pleasant web experience, and it’s only information you provide freely:

Subscription to Our Blog

When you subscribe, we collect your email address and/or WordPress username (if you’re a WordPress user). That’s it. When we post a blog, you receive it. Want to unsubscribe? Click the link at the bottom of any post you receive via email. If that doesn’t work, email Justine with your WordPress username or your email address and she’ll take care of it.

Comments

To allow for discussion, you have the opportunity to post comments on this website. The information collected includes your name, email address, IP address, and your comments. If you ever wish to have your comments removed, send Justine a quick note and she’ll remove them.

To protect our site from spam, your information is compared with a list of known spam senders by Akismet, an Automattic company. The information Akismet collects 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). We don’t do anything with this data.

Website Activity Tracking

Our site is hosted by WordPress, which does collect minimal data to make your epxerience on our site enjoyable, including:

• Technical Data from a Visitor’s Computer and Etcetera: 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.

In addition, Google and other search engines track website visitors. This is something that happens whenever you use the internet. If you do not want to be tracked, please consider using a private browser window.  The information that these search engines store is not traceable to one individual and so is very generic in nature. We do not store or use this information.

Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this Site to ensure the integrity of the registration process and to personalize the Site. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a Web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. For example, the cookie notice on this site will place a cookie on your computer when you accept it. Then it won’t ask you if you approve of cookies again for a month. This simplifies the process of delivering relevant content, eases site navigation, and so on. When you return to the Web site, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the site’s features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Many Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of this or other Web sites you visit.

Changes to this Statement

We may occasionally update this privacy statement. When we do, we will also revise the “last updated” date at the top of the privacy statement. For material changes to this privacy statement, we will notify you by placing a prominent notice on the home page of my Web site. We encourage you to periodically review this privacy statement to stay informed about how we am helping to protect the personal information we collect. Your continued use of the service constitutes your agreement to this privacy statement and any updates.

A Note to International Users

This Site is hosted on WordPress servers that are located all over the world; however, all user data is stored in the United States. If you are accessing the Site from outside the United States, by providing your information to the Site, you are consenting to the transfer of your information to the United States for processing and maintenance in accordance with this Privacy Notice. You are also consenting to the application of United States law in all matters concerning the Site.