Weaving Worlds, Word by Word

Privacy policy

1. Introduction

1.1 We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of the visitors to dlkoontz.com.

1.2 This policy applies where we are acting as a data controller with respect to the personal data of our website visitors; in other words, where we determine the purposes and means of the processing of that personal data.

1.3 In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to Debra Koontz Roberson. For more information about us, see Section 13.]

2. Credit

2.1 This document was created using a template from SEQ Legal (https://seqlegal.com).

3. How we use your personal data

3.1 In this Section 3 we have set out:

(a) the general categories of personal data that we may process;

(d) the legal bases of the processing.

3.2 We may process data about your use of our website and services (“usage data“). The usage data may include your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency and pattern of your service use. The source of the usage data is our analytics tracking system, our website security platform and our comments management system, all administered by the WordPress plugin, JetPack. This usage data may be processed for the purposes of analysing the use of the website and services. The legal basis for this processing is monitoring and improving our website and services.

3.3 We may process information that you post for publication on our website (“publication data“). The publication data may be processed for the purposes of enabling such publication and administering our website and services. The legal basis for this processing is your consent when submitting information through our website comments facility.

3.4 We may process information contained in any enquiry you submit to us regarding goods and/or services (“enquiry data“). The enquiry data may be processed for the purposes of offering, marketing and selling relevant goods and/or services to you. The legal basis for this processing is to legitimately respond to your enquiry or request.

3.5 We may process information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our email notifications and/or newsletters (“notification data“). The notification data may be processed for the purposes of sending you the relevant notifications, blog posts notifications and/or newsletters. The legal basis for this processing is your consent to receive notifications from us when you sign up for email notifications, blog post notifications and/or newsletters.

3.6 We may process information contained in or relating to any communication that you send to us (“correspondence data“). The correspondence data may include the communication content and metadata associated with the communication. Our website will generate the metadata associated with communications made using the website contact forms. The correspondence data may be processed for the purposes of communicating with you and record-keeping. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business and communications with users.

3.7 We may process any of your personal data identified in this policy where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the protection and assertion of our legal rights, your legal rights and the legal rights of others.

3.8 We may process any of your personal data identified in this policy where necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, or obtaining professional advice. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper protection of our business against risks.

3.9 In addition to the specific purposes for which we may process your personal data set out in this Section 3, we may also process any of your personal data where such processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

3.10 Please do not supply any other person’s personal data to us, unless we prompt you to do so.

4. Providing your personal data to others

4.1 We may disclose your personal data to any member of our group of companies (this means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and all its subsidiaries) insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes, and on the legal bases, set out in this policy.

4.2 We may disclose your personal data to our insurers and/or professional advisers insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, obtaining professional advice, or the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure.

4.3 We may disclose your personal data as outlined in section 3 to our suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary to properly administer our website and business and communications with users.

4.4 Financial transactions relating to our website and services are handled through PayPal’s payment services. All transactions take place on their servers and are subject to their privacy policies and practices. You can find information about the payment services providers’ privacy policies and practices at https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.

4.5 In addition to the specific disclosures of personal data set out in this Section 4, we may disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person. We may also disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure.

5. International transfers of your personal data

5.1 In this Section 5, we provide information about the circumstances in which your personal data may be transferred to countries outside the United States.

5.2 The hosting facilities for our website are situated in the United States.

5.3 Your website usage data, publication data, enquiry data, notification data and correspondence data may be transferred outside of the United States by third parties in the process of facilitating our website and email marketing services. These third parties may include services pertaining to email marketing delivery, website comment spam protection and website analytics. In addition, if you elect to use social sharing buttons on our website, you will be leaving our website and sharing information with those third party social media services who may send data outside of the United States.

5.4 You acknowledge that personal data that you submit for publication through our website or services may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use (or misuse) of such personal data by others.

6. Retaining and deleting personal data

6.1 This Section 6 sets out our data retention policies and procedure, which are designed to help ensure that we comply with our legal obligations in relation to the retention and deletion of personal data.

6.2 Personal data that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.

6.3 We will retain your personal data as follows:

(a) Your publication data will be retained for as long as the website page or post it is associated with is published.

(b) Your notification data will be retained for as long as you maintain an active subscription with us, or for as long as we continue our email marketing services. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in the footer of the message you receive or here: https://dlkoontz.us11.list-manage.com/

6.4 In some cases it is not possible for us to specify in advance the periods for which your personal data will be retained. In such cases, we will determine the period of retention based on the following criteria:

(a) the period of retention of your usage data will be determined based on Jetpack’s usage and retention policies. You can view them here: https://jetpack.com/support/wordpress-com-stats/#data-visibility-and-retention

(b) the period of retention of your enquiry and correspondence data will be as long as is necessary to serve your request and maintain our records.

6.5 Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section 6, we may retain your personal data where such retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

7. Amendments

7.1 We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.

7.2 You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy.

8. Your rights

8.1 In this Section 8, we have summarised the rights that you have under data protection law. Some of the rights are complex, vary by country, and not all of the details have been included in our summaries. Accordingly, you should read the relevant laws and guidance from the regulatory authorities for a full explanation of these rights.

8.2 Your principal rights under some data protection laws are:

(a) the right to access;

(b) the right to rectification;

(d) the right to restrict processing;

(e) the right to object to processing;

(f) the right to data portability;

(g) the right to complain to a supervisory authority; and

(h) the right to withdraw consent.

8.3 Depending on your country of citizenship or state of residence, you may have the right to confirmation as to whether or not we process your personal data and, where we do, access to the personal data, together with certain additional information. That additional information includes details of the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned and the recipients of the personal data. Providing the rights and freedoms of others are not affected, we will supply to you a copy of your personal data. The first copy will be provided free of charge, but additional copies may be subject to a reasonable fee. You can request a copy of your personal data at any time by notifying DebraKoontzRoberson@gmail.com.

8.4 Depending on your country of citizenship or state of residence, you may have the right to have any inaccurate personal data about you rectified and, taking into account the purposes of the processing, to have any incomplete personal data about you completed. We will honor any requests to rectify inaccurate personal data we have that pertains to you.

8.5 In some circumstances you may have the right to the erasure of your personal data without undue delay. Those circumstances may include: the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed; you withdraw consent to consent-based processing; you object to the processing under certain rules of applicable data protection law; the processing is for direct marketing purposes; and the personal data have been unlawfully processed. However, there are exclusions of the right to erasure. The general exclusions include where processing is necessary: for exercising the right of freedom of expression and information; for compliance with a legal obligation; or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

8.6 In some circumstances you have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data. Those circumstances are: you contest the accuracy of the personal data; processing is unlawful but you oppose erasure; we no longer need the personal data for the purposes of our processing, but you require personal data for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; and you have objected to processing, pending the verification of that objection. Where processing has been restricted on this basis, we may continue to store your personal data. However, we will only otherwise process it: with your consent; for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims; for the protection of the rights of another natural or legal person; or for reasons of important public interest.

8.7 Depending on your country of citizenship or state of residence, you may have the right to object to our processing of your personal data on grounds relating to your particular situation, but only to the extent that the legal basis for the processing is that the processing is necessary for: the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of any official authority vested in us; or the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party. If you make such an objection, we will cease to process the personal information unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

8.8 Depending on your country of citizenship or state of residence, you may have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes (including profiling for direct marketing purposes). If you make such an objection, we will cease to process your personal data for this purpose.

8.9 Depending on your country of citizenship or state of residence, you may have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes on grounds relating to your particular situation, unless the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out for reasons of public interest.

8.10 To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal data is:

(a) consent; or

(b) that the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract,

and such processing is carried out by automated means, you have the right to receive your personal data from us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. However, this right does not apply where it would adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.

8.11 If you consider that our processing of your personal information infringes data protection laws, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority responsible for data protection. If you are a EU citizen, you may do so in the EU member state of your habitual residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement.

8.12 To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal information is consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.

8.13 You may exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal data by emailing DebraKoontzRoberson@gmail.com

9. About cookies

9.1 A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

9.2 Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

9.3 Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

10. Cookies that we use

10.1 We may use cookies for the following purposes:

(a) authentication – to identify you when you visit our website and as you navigate our website;

(b) personalization – to store information about your preferences and to personalise the website for you;

(c) security – as an element of the security measures used to protect user accounts, including preventing fraudulent use of login credentials, and to protect our website and services generally;

(d) analysis – to help us to analyse the use and performance of our website and services.

11. Cookies used by our service providers

11.1 Our service providers use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your computer when you visit our website.

11.2 We use JetPack to analyze the use of our website. The information gathered relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website. JetPack’s privacy policy is available at: https://jetpack.com/support/privacy/

12. Managing cookies

12.1 Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can however obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:

(a) https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en (Chrome);

(b) https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences (Firefox);

(d) https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies (Internet Explorer);

(e) https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411 (Safari); and

(f) https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy (Edge).

12.2 Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.

12.3 If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.

13. Our details

13.1 This website is owned and operated by Debra Koontz Roberson.

13.2 Our principal place of business is at P.O. Box 111, Screven, GA 31560.

13.3 You can contact us:

(a) by post, to the postal address given above;

(b) using our website contact form;