Privacy Policy

Last Updated: March 16, 2022

25. This Privacy Policy is included by reference in the Disclaimer, and as such, the paragraph numbering is a continuation of the numbering from the Disclaimer, the previous paragraphs of which form the basis for interpretation of this Privacy Policy.
    
26. This Privacy Policy applies to the Corporate Websites and Promoted Websites as defined in the Disclaimer.
    
27. Data that gets collected by the Corporate Websites and/or Promoted Websites.
    Company collects the following data:
    1. Company collects anonymous site usage statistics to understand how many unique visitors use the Corporate Websites and/or Promoted Websites, what pages/posts/content is most useful, and to defend against automated attacks, spamming, etc.
    2. Additionally, when Surfers leave comments on the site, Company collects the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent.
    3. Additionally, Company may offer a free or paid membership on one more of the Corporate Websites and/or Promoted Websites, and those sites will gather and track user login information, personal profile data, contact information, billing information and other data used to configure or deliver the services which a Surfer or Customer might be provided.
    4. Additionally, when Surfers shop or Customers make a purchase, Company will gather and track information about the contents of the cart, order status, shopping history, coupon codes/promotions, and other data used to help the Consuming Parties complete their transaction, track fulfillment, obtain support and have historical access to their transactions (e.g. purchases, support).
    5. Additionally, if Surfers become Authors, Company will gather and track the content configured and posted by the Author and any additional information needed to manage the Author’s permissions and enable publishing/managing content.
    6. Additionally, Company may make use of CloudFlare or similar content distribution network (CDN) and/or caching mechanisms. Information gathered and managed by these types of services is beyond the scope of this Privacy Policy.
    7. Additionally, an anonymized string created from a Surfer or Author’s email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of a comment, the profile picture of the associated Surfer/Author is visible to the public in the context of the comment.
    8. Additionally, Company utilizes products and services for affiliate marketing, such as Amazon Affiliate, ClickBank, ImpactRadius, CommissionJunction and other marketing and targeting services. These services should not gather any personal information, they should only add tracking information to a Surfer’s browsing such that Company can receive credit for any referrals. These services might also provide Company with data they have gathered about Surfers through means beyond Company’s control.
    9. Additionally, if any Author/Surfer uploads images to the website, if the image contains “embedded location data” (“EXIF GPS”), that data will be collected. Other Surfers/Authors can download and extract this data, therefore Company encourages Surfers/Authors to remove this data from their images before sharing them.
    10. Additionally, this website uses cookies.  Company does not collect the data contained in these cookies – the data is stored within the  respective Surfer’s  browser and is only used to manage that Surfer’s user experience.
        
28. Embedded Content
    Company or Surfers might share embedded content.  This is content that lives on servers outside of the Corporate Websites and is subject to the Privacy Policy and/or other Terms of Use of the source website that hosts (or houses) the embedded content. For example, if a YouTube video is shared on this website, and a Surfer plays that video, then YouTube’s privacy policy applies to that content as it is not controlled by Company.
    
29. Analytics
    Company gathers metrics regarding page visits, affiliate link conversions and other non-personal metrics.
    
30. Data Retention
    There is no set retention period for data Company collects.  Company may delete this data at any time as it deems necessary from time to time. In general, data is retained long enough to provide the capabilities, goods or services which rely on the data collected. Data may also be retained to provide The Collective Parties with a proper user experience, and/or provide relevant historical records (e.g. previous purchases, previous statements, previous payments, previous returns, previous customer service communications, etc).
    
31. Data Sharing
    Company only shares the data it collects when sharing is required to fulfill a specific service. For example, Company might send comments through a third party spam detection system.  Where this is the case, Company does not sell that information to the third-party and it is not to be retained and used for any other purpose than to fulfill the immediate services requested.
    
32. As a general rule, Company protects The Collective Party’s data and only shares the minimum amount of data necessary to fulfill a specific, requested purpose. Data collected directly by Company is never sold or traded.
    
33. Contact Information
    Company can be reached at [email protected]. For inquiries specific to the Privacy Policy, include the word “privacy” (not case-sensitive) in the subject of the email.
    
34. Data Protection
    Data is protected in transit by use of forced SSL encryption. Data collected by Company is not encrypted at rest by default, but sensitive data such as passwords and credit card numbers are either encrypted at rest or are stored by a third-party service provider upholding industry security standards.
    
35. No Undisclosed Individual Profiling
    Company does not engage in undisclosed individual profiling. In general, data collected is used to aggregate and show popularity and trends, but not to track a specific individual’s habits, unless clearly disclosed otherwise.  Conversely, Company cannot offer personalized experiences, cannot suggest products at a personal level, cannot offer any predictive or intelligence-based services unless disclosed. Surfers shall have the option to opt-out of any profiling capability; however, they will also opt out of any benefits that capability could offer to them.
    
36. Data Rights
    1. The Terms of Use contain a section outlining multiple copyright provisions which influence data rights.
    2. In general, Company operates firmly on the premise that each Surfer’s personal data belongs to them; however, published data, once shared to the internet and possibly promoted through third party systems or crawled and indexed by search engine bots, likely will exist beyond the Corporate Websites and/or Promoted Websites. Therefore, this data will exist beyond the control of Company. Also, some data must be retained for legal reasons. For example, Company must keep accurate accounting records, and therefore cannot purge a Customer’s purchase history.
    3. As such, Company will, at any Surfer’s request, delete any personal data that exists within the Corporate Websites and/or Promoted Websites with the exception of data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal and security purposes.
    4. Any Surfer may also request a copy of their personal data as maintained by Company including data the Surfer has provided to Company by contacting Company via the email address provided. It does take time to query for and compile such a request. Company may, in its discretion, charge a reasonable “data compilation” fee to compile this information. Surfer must show proof of identity, demonstrate proof account ownership and pay the requested fee before Company will share the information requested.