How We Collect and Use Information
All information we collect is used only by us. It is not ever sold to a third party or made available for sale. Our primary use is to understand our customers and provide an engaging and valuable experience with our products.
We use the information we collect or receive, such as your email address, to communicate directly with you. We may send you emails containing newsletters, promotions, and special offers. If you do not want to receive such email messages, you will be given the option to opt out or change your preferences. The opt-out opportunity is presented at the bottom of every email you receive from us–it is called UNSUBSCRIBE. Click on that button and you will no longer receive emails from us.
We also use your information to send you emails related to your interactions with our Services (e.g., account verification, purchase and billing confirmations and reminders, changes/updates to features of our Services, technical and security notices).
Identification of Terms:
Throughout this document we use the word “Services” to describe the content or engagement we provide our users. This includes, but is not limited to: email newsletters; promotional emails; contests; free downloads, purchases of books or short stories; social media interactions on our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Goodreads, Instagram, and Linked-In accounts and other social media accounts that may be added at a later date.
Identification of Inter-related Companies:
Jody Wallace is an author, speaker, and editor. Her websites include www.jodywallace.com, www.meankitty.com, www.meankittyediting.com, and www.crochetpeen.com. All information about her books are presented on jodywallace.com.
We collect the following types of information about you:
Information you provide us directly:
We ask for certain information such as your first name and e-mail address when you sign up for our newsletter emails. We may also retain any messages you send through our Contact page and any subsequent emails you send to Jody Wallace via her author emails. We use this information to operate, maintain, and provide to you the features and functionality of the services we provide. These Services include: newsletter mailings, emails about special promotions, a variety of social media interfaces, and blog comments. Your name is not published publicly unless you choose to do so when commenting on a public blog, our Facebook or Twitter page.
Information we may receive from third parties:
We may receive information about you from third parties. For example, if you sign up for an email list on jodywallace.com you will be added to my email list for newsletters and other correspondence about my products, services, events and the like.
If you purchase a book through a link on this website, your purchase will be handled by the vendor you select (e.g., Amazon, Kobo, Nook, Apple, Google Play). They maintain their own separate information about you that is NOT shared with us.
If you use a third-party connection, for example, through Facebook or Twitter by “following,” “liking,” Jody Wallace or Meankitty pages or profiles, that third party may pass certain information about your use of its service to me. This information could include, but is not limited to, the user ID associated with your account (for example, your Facebook UID), an access token necessary to access that service, any information that you have permitted the third party to share with us, and any information you have made public in connection with that service. You should always review, and if necessary, adjust your privacy settings on third-party websites and services like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. before using them to link to other places or to purchase items.
Analytics information:
We may directly collect analytics data, or use third-party analytics tools and services, like Google Analytics, to help us measure traffic and usage trends for our web pages, email newsletters, promotions, and social media connections. These tools collect information sent by your browser or mobile device, including the pages you visit and other information that assists us in improving the Service. These services do not identify you by name. We collect and use this analytics information in aggregate form such that it cannot reasonably be manipulated to identify any particular individual user.
Log file information:
I run a secure site with scanning, virus checks, malware identification, etc. As part of that set up, Log file information is automatically reported by your browser or mobile device each time you access our Services. When you use our Services, our servers automatically record certain log file information. These server logs may include anonymous information such as your web request, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, referring / exit pages and URLs, number of clicks and how you interact with links on the Service, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed, and other such information.
Clear gifs/web beacons information:
When you use any services, we may employ clear gifs (also known as web beacons) which are used to anonymously track the online usage patterns of our Users. In addition, we may also use clear gifs in HTML-based emails sent to our users to track which emails are opened and which links are clicked by recipients. The information allows for more accurate reporting and improvement of the content we provide you.
Device identifiers:
When you access this site through a mobile device (including but not limited to smart-phones or tablets), we may access, collect, monitor and/or remotely store one or more “device identifiers,” such as a universally unique identifier (“UUID”). Device identifiers are small data files or similar data structures stored on or associated with your mobile device, which uniquely identify your mobile device. A device identifier may be data stored in connection with the device hardware, data stored in connection with the device’s operating system or other software, or data sent to the device by windtreepress.com or maggielynch.com. A device identifier may convey information to us about how you browse and use our site. A device identifier may remain persistently on your device, to help you log in faster and enhance your navigation through our site.
Sharing of Your Information
We will not rent or sell your information to any third parties except as noted below:
- Who we may share your information with: We may share your information with third-party business partners and Trusted Users for the purpose of providing our Services to you. For example, we use MadMimi and MailerLite to handle our email list and newsletters. Third party business partners will be given limited access to your information as is reasonably necessary to deliver the product, and we will require that such third parties comply with this Privacy Policy, or operate under a similar privacy policy.
- Who can see User Content: Any User Content that you voluntarily disclose (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, on blogs open to public reading) and make available to your friends or the public cannot be removed by us. Check your settings carefully and be aware of how your posts are being made public or not. Once you make a post on one of our blogs or comments pages, or Facebook or Twitter feeds, User Content may not be completely removed even though it has been deleted from the site. It is possible that content will remain viewable in cached and archived pages of Internet search engines and on other sites that have republished us, or if other Users have copied or saved that information. If you do not wish your User Content to be available to the public, please don’t post it to our blogs, comment pages, or social media sites which are all public.
- Who can see your IP address: If you post User Content on any public site we provide (i.e., my blog), your IP address will be published with your User Content in order to attribute your contribution to the site. This way the website owner has the ability to review IP addresses of users to reduce abusive behavior.
Instances where we are required to share your information:
We will disclose your information where required to do so by law or subpoena or if we reasonably believe that such action is necessary to (a) comply with the law and the reasonable requests of law enforcement; (b) to protect the security, quality or integrity of our Sites; and/or (c) to exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of our Users, or others.
Sharing certain service type information we collect about you:
We may share certain service type information, including information obtained through tools such as cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data and clear gifs (such as anonymous usage data, referring/exit pages and URLs, platform types, number of clicks, etc.): (i) with our third-party business partners for the purposes described in the section above on “How We Collect and Use Information.” We may also aggregate or otherwise strip data of all personally identifying characteristics and may share that aggregated, anonymized data with third parties.
Links to Other Websites and Services
We are not responsible for the practices employed by websites or services linked to or from our blogs, comment pages, or social media sites, including the information or content contained therein. Please remember that when you use a link to go from one of our Sites to another website, our Privacy Policy does not apply to third-party websites or services. Your browsing and interaction on any third-party website or service are subject to that third party’s own rules and policies. We are not responsible and we do not have control over any third parties that you authorize to access your User Content. If you are using a third-party website or service (like Facebook, Twitter, Google groups, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google Books, Apple Books, etc.), and you allow such a third-party access to your User Content, you do so at your own risk. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information we collect by other means (including offline) or from other sources other than through the Site.