At Baubles and Yarn, we are committed to protecting the privacy of our visitors. This Privacy Policy outlines the types of information we collect, how we use it, and the steps we take to safeguard your personal data.
1. Information We Collect
We collect different types of information for various purposes to provide and improve our service to you.
- Personal Data You Voluntarily Provide:
- 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: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
- Contact Forms: If you contact us via a contact form, we collect the information you provide, such as your name, email address, and the content of your message, to respond to your inquiry.
- Newsletters/Subscriptions: If you opt to subscribe to our newsletter, we will collect your email address to send you updates, new posts, and relevant information. This service is typically handled by a third-party provider, whose privacy policy would also apply.
- Non-Personal Data (Automatically Collected):
- Log Files: Like many other websites, Baubles and Yarn makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and possibly the number of clicks. This information is used to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.
- Cookies: Our website uses “cookies” to enhance your experience. These are small files placed on your computer’s hard drive through your web browser (if you allow) that enables the site’s or service provider’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information.
- 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.
- We may use cookies to understand and save your preferences for future visits, keep track of advertisements, and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.
- You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies via your browser settings. Like most websites, if you turn your cookies off, some of our services may not function properly.
- 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. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these external sites.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for various purposes, including:
- To operate and maintain our website.
- To improve, personalize, and expand our website content and features.
- To understand and analyze how you use our website.
- To send you newsletters or other communications if you have subscribed.
- To respond to your comments, questions, and inquiries.
- To detect and prevent spam or malicious activity.
- To compile anonymous statistical data about site usage.
3. Sharing Your Personal Data
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer your personally identifiable information to outside parties without your consent, except in the following limited circumstances:
- Service Providers: We may share your data with trusted third-party service providers who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or serving our users (e.g., website hosting, analytics providers, email service providers). These parties agree to keep this information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.
- Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court order or a government agency).
4. 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.
- For users that contact us via a form, the submission data may be retained for a reasonable period to allow us to adequately respond to your inquiry and for record-keeping purposes.
- Data collected via cookies and analytics is retained according to the policies of the respective third-party services (e.g., Google Analytics).
5. Your Data Protection Rights
Depending on your location and applicable data protection laws, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- Right to Access: You have the right to request copies of your personal data.
- Right to Rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or complete information you believe is incomplete.
- Right to Erasure: You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
- Right to Restrict Processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- Right to Object to Processing: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- Right to Data Portability: You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information below.
6. Where Your Data Is Sent
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. Data collected through third-party services (e.g., Google Analytics, email marketing platforms) may be processed on servers located outside of your country, potentially in countries with different data protection laws.
7. Security
We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you enter, submit, or access your personal information. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
8. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
9. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at baublesandyarn@gmail.com.