I take the privacy of my readers and subscribers seriously and I am fully committed to maintaining the privacy of any information (personal data) that you provide, ensuring that it is held securely, used appropriately and only retained for as long as is necessary. This privacy policy sets out the data I collect, how it is used, who it is shared with and how it is protected, as well as your rights. For your information, my website is hosted by WordPress.com, which has its own privacy policy through its parent company Automattic, as noted below.

 

Types of personal data I hold and how it is used

Follower and subscriber information: When you subscribe to receive my blog posts via email, your email address is added to my email marketing list and you will automatically receive an email notification of each new blog post that is published. You may at times also receive other email communications regarding news, relevant content or services that I am providing.

By subscribing to KatrinaMegget.com you are consenting that your email address be held and used by myself for communications with yourself.

For followers through WordPress.com Reader, I do not hold email addresses for these accounts. This information is stored by WordPress.com according to its privacy policy.

 

Site comments: When you comment on a blog post, I collect your name and email address. There is an optional field for website address. Comments are held for moderation and manually approved for publication. Your name will appear on the published comment, but your email address will not be published. The email address is required to notify you of any responses to your comment or any new comments against the specific blog post (if you tick the box for this optional notification). Your email address is also required in the case your comment requires a private response from myself.

 

Contact form submission: If you complete the ‘contact me’ form on my website, you will be asked for information including name, email address, website and comments. These details are required to respond to your request.

 

Website analytics: When you visit my website, statistics are collected by WordPress.com through the Jetpack website traffic feature. Jetpack is a company under WordPress.com’s parent company Automattic.

Statistics are generated from technical data from a visitor’s computer or device – such as IP address, browser type, language preference, referring site, date and time of access – and visitor interaction data. This information provides statistics on WordPress.com reader followers, page views, unique visitor numbers, likes, comments, referrer sites, and the countries visitors are viewing my website from. These statistics help highlight popular posts and traffic to improve my blogging and the user’s experience. For privacy reasons, most search terms used to find my site are not revealed by search engines.

WordPress.com stats do not identify individual visitors. The statistics collected by WordPress.com are covered by Automattic’s privacy policy. More information about the data Automattic collects about a website’s visitors can be found here.

 

Information from cookies and other technologies: Cookies are small data files placed on a visitor’s computing device, which allows WordPress.com to recognise a particular device or browser as a returning visitor and can inform actions and preferences such as page views and liked posts. In line with EU cookie law, when you first visit my website, a cookie control box will be displayed at the bottom on the page allowing you to choose whether to allow cookies or not.

Automattic and WordPress.com uses cookies and other technologies to help identify and track visitors and site usage. For more information about Automattic’s use of cookies and technologies, including how visitors can control the use of cookies, please see Automattic’s cookie policy.

 

I do not share or sell any personal information collected by my website to third-parties unless I have your consent or are required by law to do so.

It is important, however, to point out that my website host, WordPress.com does collect the above information regarding followers, subscribers, and visitors to my blog. WordPress.com processes this information on behalf of its users (i.e. me) and in accordance with its user agreements. You can read more about the data WordPress.com collects here.

WordPress.com and Automattic may also use and share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, in that is could not be used to identify any individual. As an example, WordPress.com and Automattic may publish aggregate statistics about the use of their services, which may be shared with contractors, third-party vendors or for legal requests. More information can be found in Automattic’s privacy notice.

 

How I protect your personal information

Your personal information, as outlined above, is stored in electronic form on the WordPress.com content management system specific to my site, which is password protected. Aggregated information on my site statistics is also stored in electronic form on the WordPress.com content management system. Storage of cookie data and site statistics are covered in accordance with Automattic’s privacy policy as outlined above.

When a new person subscribes to my blog, comments on a blog post or contacts me via the online contact form, I am notified by email, access to which is password protected. These emails notifications, apart from those via the contact form, are deleted after they have been actioned.

 

You have a right to…

Unsubscribe from the email notifications of new blog posts. The link to unsubscribe is included in the footer of the email notifications subscribers receive. WordPress.com Reader followers can unfollow my blog at any time by clicking unfollow. The email addresses of people who unsubscribe will be removed from the WordPress.com content management system and will no longer receive email notifications.

Request the deletion of any comments you have made next to a blog post. This can be done by contacting me through the contact form online.

Require that any incomplete or incorrect information held about you be rectified. This can be done by contacting me through the contact form online.

Request access to your personal data that has been saved about you as a result of visiting my site. This can be done by contacting me through the contact form online.

 

Any queries regarding this privacy policy or your personal data, can be directed to me through my online contact form.

If you are dissatisfied, you have the right to raise a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk.