Privacy Policy

Who we are

Our website address is: http://barbarahowewriter.com.

What we are

This site is constructed on a platform that combines layers of numerous standard components, such as a UNIX-like operating system, a web server, a database subsystem, etc., fronted by an installation of WordPress. Almost all of these components have been tuned to effect the desired blog. No effort was expended to insure or confirm that (a) the standard components work as claimed by their respective suppliers, (b) the standard components have not been corrupted by others, or (c) the tuning has not exposed a vulnerability. In setting up this site none of the standard components have been modified to enhance or reduce any form of data collection.

This site does not transact any commercial dealings and as such has no facility to request, recognize, retain, collate, or share any identification data other than an email address. This absence of that facility also means that the site cannot prevent such data being revealed by user actions (such as embedding an SSN in a comment).

The currency of this site is awareness. This site seeks to further awareness of reading, of books, and especially books by Barbara Howe. A visitor to this site need only be concerned by how we could trade information for greater awareness, as in giving an email address to MailChimp to arrange for the delivery of notifications about books and blog postings.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site, the standard tools collect the data shown in the comments form along with the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

WordPress may produce an anonymized string created from the provided email address (also called a hash) to be provided to the Gravatar service to see if it has a corresponding account.

If a comment is approved, and WordPress gets a profile picture from Gravatar, that profile picture is visible to the public in the context of the comment.

Media

While WordPress has facilities for uploading of media files, we strongly discourage the practice on this site, and accept no responsibility for the consequences of such attempts.

Contact forms

We have configured this instance of WordPress to allow a visitor to request email notifications of the availability of new material. That form results in transmitting to MailChimp the email address provided.

Cookies

WordPress advises us that the normal operation of the package uses cookies in, at least, the following ways:

  1. A visitor who leaves a comment on our site may opt-in to using cookies to save the name, email address and website. These are for convenience so that a visitor does not have to fill in those details again when leaving another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
  2. If a visitor has an account and logs in to this site, a temporary cookie will be set to determine if the browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when the browser is closed.
  3. When a visitor logs in, WordPress will also set up several cookies to save both login information and screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If the visitor selects “Remember Me”, the login cookies will persist for two weeks. When the visitor logs out, the login cookies will be removed.
  4. If a visitor edits or publishs an article, an additional cookie will be saved in their browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of said article. It expires after 1 day.

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.

Analytics

Submitted comments, along with the standardly included metadata, are manually examined for suitability. Metadata (such as an originating IP address) is frequently used in preparing blacklists (of sources to automatically reject) and whitelists.

The current understanding of the fundamentals of computer system deny the possibility that this site, or any site for that matter, can undo or mitigate any exposure a visitor has committed elsewhere. For example, this site cannot prevent the NSA from intercepting as clear text all of their transmissions on the Internet.

Who we share your data with

As mentioned above,

  • When you request it, we share your email address with MailChimp, and
  • WordPress stores some data in cookies, which can be scraped by other sites.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All 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.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, 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.

See Also

For more information, see: