Privacy Policy

Who we are:

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

What personal data we collect and why we collect it:

When visiting the site, your IP address and the time and length of your visit.  These details are collected and sent with only those details to WordPress (as we use Akismet and Jetpack for statistics), various social media sites (if you interact with our like/share buttons or follow me), or if you leave a comment.

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 anonymized 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 is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media:

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Contact forms:

If you submit your details to our comment form, it is processed and sent through the contact form system we use.  It is not stored on the server but is instead sent to my email, processed, then, once finished, filed, or deleted, depending on need.  This is handled as any other email communication is and is entirely confidential.

Cookies:

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in 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.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, 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.

If you edit or publish an article, 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 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 tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Who we share your data with:

Our Analytics are Jetpack and we use AWstats, via Cpanel, which is our server software.  Due to the nature of this, we cannot link your IP addresses with your email address, as many people do not have a static IP address: we cannot tell who you are simply based on your IP address – that may tell us which ISP (your internet service provider) or mobile provider you use, the State you live in, and if required, if there are further interactions on site, we can tie this information to your site.  But, as IP addresses are mostly anonymized when logged in our data, we cannot delete this from our files.  This is covered under GDPR – this isn’t data that would be stored and used to allow you to use the site – it simply occurs from visiting.

How long we retain your data:

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

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, which is not limited to your IP address and time of visit.

Where we send your data:

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.  If you like or share posts, your information will be sent via the social media network in question.  If you use Gravatar, your email will be anonymized, and sent to the server, to allow your gravatar (If you have one) to appear.

Your contact information:

I can be contacted, for requests for removal or your comment data on my contact form.  Please select the drop-down option that says ‘GDPR or other requests’.  It will be processed within seven working days.  If you do not hear from me, please email my host at [email protected] and they will get in touch with me to help, especially in cases your email has accidentally been lost in spam.

How we protect your data:

We take data protection seriously.  Our host runs an up-to-date firewall, and the policies of the company require that we keep our sites updated regularly.  Whenever an issue with anything we use is disclosed, we take action as soon as we can.  We also keep a firewall in place and keep those rules updated.

What data breach procedures we have in place:

If WordPress is breached at any time, or there is the possibility of any hacks present, our host investigates, and if we discover any data (such as email addresses) is compromised, we will let you know by email.  It is important to note that we do not hold any passwords or other items for you, but are aware that your name, IP, and email are stored along with your comments, even though your email address is not disclosed next to your comment.  These notices will say ‘Notice of possible breach – site hack’ along with any details we can give you.  This information disclosure will not add you to a regular email.

What third parties we receive data from:

We use both Automattic and MailChimp, so may receive data from them, for the optimal function of those sites.

What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data:

Our data is automated through our spam processing system.  We do no other profiling.  We can see by your IP address where you are.  If you search our site, it is logged and we may use it to write future articles, as we might with comments.

Industry regulatory disclosure requirements:

I am an affiliate with Amazon – certain links MAY contain Amazon affiliate links, and will be possibly localized, depending on the plugin or link system we use.  This localization is based on an automatic rule that we do not control – we are not told where you go or the IP address of people who have clicked on the affiliate links themselves.  Amazon doesn’t provide IP or other personally identifiable information of purchasers, so we cannot see who purchases on our links.  We do earn an affiliate fee.  It does not influence our content on site.  I do share my own books and anything else of interest that links with the theme of my blog.

All guest posts will be clearly marked.  We do not accept advertorial articles at any time, and our guest posts, though possibly monetized via the content the author of these articles provide, will contain a disclaimer at the end, to explain any affiliate links.