Cookies Policy
What Are Cookies?
Cookies are small pieces of information which websites place on your device’s hard drive. They record how you interact with and move around a website. Cookies can analyse a website’s traffic and can sometimes be used for marketing and advertising purposes. Almost all websites use cookies and cookies are often essential to enable websites to function properly. When you return to a website, cookies can improve your experience of that site by using the information they obtained during your previous visits. Cookies do not harm your devices.
How Does this Website Use Cookies?
This website uses cookies to track how you interact with and move around the site. This is so we can provide a better user experience by, for instance, seeing which pages and posts are especially popular.
To help analyse this website’s traffic, cookies have been placed on it by Google Analytics, which will track and record your interactions with our site. Google Analytics is an extremely common tool used by a large number of websites to help them understand their traffic. You can learn more about Google Analytics’ privacy policy, and the ways in which they use cookies and analyse and use your data, here.
If you leave a comment on our site, you may choose to allow the site to save your name, email address and website. This process will be done using 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.
This site contains a contact form. If you choose to submit data through this form, cookies may be used to remember your details for future correspondence.
This site also includes forms enabling you to opt-in to an email newsletter. Cookies may be used to help the site to remember if you have already opted in and to decide whether to show you certain notifications connected with the newsletter.
Our email newsletter service provider, MailerLite, uses cookies, unique identifiers, web beacons and similar tracking technologies, which may affect how it interacts with the data of people who sign up for our email list. You can learn more about Mailerlite in the Email List section in the Privacy Policy below. You can read Mailerlite’s privacy policy here.
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the same way it would if you were on those sites.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor and track your interaction with their embedded content, in the same way they would if you were on those websites. If you have an account with one of these websites and are logged in, this may also affect the way that site processes your interactions with its content on our site.
Other third parties – for instance, the makers of plug-ins and WordPress themes, and social media companies – may, for various reasons, place cookies on this site. For example, this site contains social media buttons. For these buttons to work properly, social media companies – such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest – need to place cookies on our site.
If you leave this site via a link, button or social media icon, the cookies and privacy policies of the sites you go to will then apply. When you leave our site, we can accept no responsibility for how the websites you go to deal with your data. If you have any concerns, you should consult the privacy policies of those sites.
When you first arrive at our website, you will see a bar informing you that this website uses cookies. When you click on ‘accept’ – or show your acceptance by continuing to use the site – a cookie is attached to your hard drive to remind the website that you will not need to see this bar for a while.
If you edit or publish an article on our site, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after one day.
If you need to log in to place your article – or you visit our log-in page for any other reason – we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser. When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select ‘Remember Me’, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
What Should I Do If I Don’t Want to Be Tracked by Cookies?
If you do not wish to have cookies track and record your interactions with this – or any other – website, there are tools you can use in your web browser. Most browsers – including Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari – have options by which you can refuse to accept all cookies, though this would probably not be a good idea as this may prevent you from visiting or fully enjoying certain websites. These browsers also have options to refuse cookies that share information with third parties and to erase any cookies that your browser has picked up. Please check the settings of your favoured browser for more details.
Privacy Policy
We take our responsibility to respect your privacy extremely seriously. We collect the absolute minimum of data about you in order for our site to function and to provide a positive user experience, and we do not collect any sensitive data.
We endeavour to treat any data we collect from you in a legal, responsible, fair and ethical way and to comply with the relevant legislation, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
For the purposes of the GDPR, we, at https://www.davidcastleton.net/, are the Data Controller. Under the GDPR, we could also be considered Data Processors.
Below we explain what data this site may collect from you, why it is collected, who it might be shared with and how the data is handled. We also outline the rights you have concerning any data we hold about you.
Please note that our Privacy Policy – and the Cookies Policy above – may be updated from time to time. It is your responsibility to check the policies for updates if you have any concerns.
How Might My Data Be Collected and Dealt with?
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 anonymised 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 may be made visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Our comments section uses cookies. (see Cookies Policy above)
Media
Some of the embedded media from third parties on our site may use cookies, which can track and monitor how you interact with that content. (see Cookies Policy above)
If you upload images to this website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to this website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Contact Form
This website contains a contact form by which you can submit enquiries to our site. In order to do this, you will need to tick a checkbox giving us permission to store and use the data you submit on the form. Please note that the contact form may use cookies (Please see Cookies Policy above).
Email List
Visitors to this website have the option of signing up to an email newsletter. Those who sign up will be asked to give their consent – via an email double opt-in process – to receive emails suggesting blog posts, articles, books and other content they might enjoy and keeping them up-to-date with news about the author David Castleton. The vast majority, if not all, of the content suggested in the emails will be by David Castleton.
Only those who sign up to receive the newsletter – and confirm this via the double opt-in – will be sent it. We do not send our newsletter to anybody who has not given their permission by going through this process. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the emails. If you unsubscribe, we will remove you from our email list and you will no longer be sent the newsletter. Under the GDPR, however, we can – after you unsubscribe – send you emails dealing with administrative, legal or customer service issues or disputes if this is absolutely necessary.
Those signing up are only asked to give an email address. The newsletter is delivered in partnership with the email list provider MailerLite, which will be informed of the email addresses of those who sign up. MailerLite will monitor and record how participants interact with the emails we send them – for example, whether you open the emails, click on links within them or unsubscribe – and MailerLite will make some of that information available to us. We use Mailerlite to manage our email marketing subscriber list and to send emails to our subscribers. MailerLite is a third-party provider, which may process your data using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our newsletter. You can read MailerLite’s privacy policy here.
We may – at some point in the future – use our email list and other information this website has collected to help us with our marketing on social media. This marketing will not be excessive and the vast majority, if not all, of it will concern blog posts, articles, books and other content by the author David Castleton. If we choose to do this, we will ask for your consent via a tick box either sent to you in an email or appearing on an opt-in form.
We will not share your email address, sell or rent it. We will not provide any information we have collected to any third parties with the intention of letting them use it in their own marketing operations or in the marketing operations of other companies. Our email marketing operations comply with the GDPR and the CAN-SPAM Act.
Cookies and Third Parties
This website contains cookies, some of which enable third parties to track aspects of how you move around and interact with this site. For more details, please see the Cookies Policy above.
To help us provide a better user experience, your interactions with this website are tracked by Google Analytics. Social media companies – for example, via the social media icons – also place cookies on this site. Other third parties – such as plug-in and WordPress theme manufacturers and our email list service provider Mailerlite – may place cookies on it.
Almost all websites use cookies and we solely use cookies for the purpose of improving our website’s performance and your user experience and suggesting content you might enjoy. We only allow reputable third parties to place cookies on our site.
Most internet browsers (see Cookies Policy above) give you the option of wholly or partly refusing cookies.
Who Do You Share My Data with?
As mentioned above, some third parties – such as Google Analytics and social media companies – may have access to data concerning how you move around and interact with our site.
This site uses Google ReCAPTCHA v3 technology to prevent bots entering spam into our forms, such as comments forms and the contact form. The use of Google reCAPTCHA v3 is very common and it is employed on a large number of websites. This technology analyses web users to decide whether they are humans or bots and then makes it more difficult for bots to gain access to forms. Google provides us with a general overview of the information gathered in this way to help us improve our security and stop bots and spam.
You can learn more about Google ReCAPTCHA v3 here and read Google’s Privacy Policy here and Terms of Service here.
If you opt into our newsletter, our email list provider MailerLite will be informed of the email address you have given us. We may possibly in the future use our email list and data collected on this site for our (small-scale) social media marketing operations, but we will not do this without your consent. (Please see the Email List section above.)
We will never sell or rent any data we have collected about you. We will never share your data with spammers or with any disreputable companies or organisations. We will not provide information we have collected to any third parties with the intention of letting them use it in their own marketing operations or in the marketing operations of other companies. We do not collect, store or share any sensitive information about you. (see below)
What Data Might Be Collected about Me on This Site?
This site collects the minimum amount of data about you in order to function and provide a high-quality user experience. The data collected might include your IP address; the type of internet browser you use; your name, email and website (should you choose to enter them on our forms); and any other information you willingly submit to this website via comments, forms or contributing content.
Third parties (see above) might use cookies to collect information about how you move around and interact with the website, how you interact with embedded third-party content (such as videos), the type of device you use, the country you are in, the browser and internet service provider you use, your IP address and user ID, and where you have arrived at the website from. (For example, from social media or a Google search)
What Data Will You Not Collect about Me?
We will not collect or store any sensitive information about you. This includes information concerning your race, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, health, genetics and biometrics, sexual orientation, and criminal record. The only possible exception to this rule might be if you yourself willing place such information on the site, such as by writing an article or leaving a comment.
How Long Will You Retain My Data?
Generally, we do not keep your information for any longer than we need to. When information is collected by cookies, the cookies may expire at different times. (Please see the Cookies Policy above.) At present, the personal data from this website which is sent to Google Analytics is deleted after 26 months.
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. You do, however, have the right to ask for comments and other data to be deleted (see below).
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All registered users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
Under the GDPR, you can ask to see what data this website holds on you at any time and you have the right to demand that this information is deleted or amended. (see below)
What Rights Do I Have over My Data?
You can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
If you would like to see the data we hold on you or to ask for your data to be deleted, please contact us via this website’s contact form. You will then need to go through a brief email verification process before we comply with your request.
You also have the right to ask us to amend any data we hold about you that you think might be incorrect. To request this, please get in touch via our contact form.
How Do You Protect My Data?
We take the security of this website extremely seriously, by using robust security plug-ins and making sure the site is regularly updated. This website has an SSL certificate and an https web address. This means that information is secure and encrypted as it travels to and from the site.
If this website is hacked – or if information the site holds is lost, stolen or compromised in any way – we must, under the GDPR, report the incident to the authorities within 72 hours and inform any individuals affected immediately. The only exception to this rule is if the data loss or breach is considered harmless and poses no threat to any individual’s data.
Age Limits
Please note that this website is aimed at an adult audience. If you are under 16-years-of-age, please do not submit data to this website or interact with it in any way without the consent of a parent or guardian.
Contact
If you have any questions – or would like to raise any concerns – about any aspect of our Privacy and Cookies Policy, please email us via this contact form.