Privacy Policy

Privacy notice for visitors to my site

Welcome to Occassions4Life! Back in 2018, when I travelled through New Zealand and Australia during my Sabbatical, I decided to note down my adventures and experiences in a travel blog. Below is a summary of my privacy policy that informs you what personal information we may collect and how it may be used.

Information collected about visitors to my site

I collect information about visitors to this site in a few different ways – I collect certain information that the visitors provide to my site (e.g. information that you voluntarily submit like comments, …) and some information is collected automatically.

Information a visitor provides to my site

I’ll start with information that visitors provide directly to my site, which primarily happens when visitors type into a text field on a site, like a comment field or a sign-up form. Here are the most common ways in which a visitor directly provides information to my site:

  • Follower and Subscriber Information: When a visitor signs up to follow or subscribe to a Site using Jetpack or WordPress.com, I collect the sign-up information requested by the site, which typically includes an e-mail address.
  • Site Comments: When a visitor leaves a comment on my site, I collect that comment, and other information that the visitor provides along with the comment, such as the visitor’s name and e-mail address.
  • Other Information Entered on the Site: I may also collect other information that a visitor enters on the site – such as a contact form submission, a search query, or site registration.

Information automatically collected from my site

I also automatically collect some information about visitors to my site. I’ve listed examples below:

  • Technical Data from a Visitor’s Computer and Etcetera: I collect the information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available about visitors to my 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: I collect information about a visitor’s interactions with my site, including the “likes” and “ratings” left by visitors to a site using WordPress.com or Jetpack.
  • Location Information: I may determine the approximate location of a visitor’s device from the IP address. I collect and use this information to, for example, tally  how many people visit my site from certain geographic regions.
  • Akismet Commenter Information: I collect information about visitors who comment on my site that uses the Akismet anti-spam service. The information I collect typically 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 addres, … and the comment itself, of course).
  • Information from Cookies and Other Technologies: A cookie is a string of information that a site stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the site each time the visitor returns. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on sites. I use cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help identify and track visitors and site usage. For more information about the use of cookies and other technologies for tracking, including how visitors can control the use of cookies, please see Automattic’s Cookie Policy.

How I use visitor information

I may use information about site visitors in order to operate and maintain the website and its services, flag and fight comments from spammers, and collect information through polls, quizzes and other surveys. To send you administrative communications, such as administrative emails, confirmation emails, etc. and to respond to your comments or inquiries.

I may also use and share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify any individual. For instance, I may publish aggregate statistics about the use of my site.

How I share visitor information

I may share information collected about site visitors in the limited circumstances spelled out below:

  • Third Party Vendors: I may share Site visitor information with third party vendors who need to know this information in order to provide their services to me. This group includes vendors that help me provide my services to my site.
  • Legal Requests: I may disclose site visitor information in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request.
  • Information Shared Publicly: Information that visitors choose to make public is–you guessed it–disclosed publicly. That means, of course, that information like visitor comments and “likes” are all available to others, including information about the visitor that is displayed in connection with a comment or “like” (such as a visitor’s WordPress.com username and Gravatar). We provide a “firehose” stream of public data (including comments) from Sites to provide that data to firehose subscribers, who may view and analyze the content, but do not have rights to re-publish it publicly. Public information may also be indexed by search engines or used by third parties.

Your rights

If you are located in certain countries, including those that fall under the scope of the European General Data Protection Regulation (AKA the “GDPR”), data protection laws give you rights with respect to your personal data, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the rights to:

  • Request access to your personal data;
  • Request correction or deletion of your personal data;
  • Object to our use and processing of your personal data;
  • Request that we limit our use and processing of your personal data; and
  • Request portability of your personal data.

If you would like to contact me about one of the above rights or for questions related to this privacy policy, please use the provided contact form.