This privacy policy discloses the privacy practices for Absolute Bookishness (www.absolutebookishness.wordpress.com). This privacy policy applies solely to information collected by this website (“Site”). It will notify you (the Visitor or User) of the following:

What personally identifiable information is collected from you through the website, how it is used and with whom it may be shared.
What choices are available to you regarding the use of your data.
The security procedures in place to protect the misuse of your information.
What to expect as far as Privacy Policy changes
How your acceptance or refusal of these Privacy Policy terms are determined
How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

What Personal Information We Collect and Why

We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you (i.e. via the contact form or comment sections of post). We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.

We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request, e.g. to process a giveaway.

Comments

When users comment on this site, we collect the information displayed in the comment form, i.e. their name, email address, and website name/address. If you opt for further communications, we may contact you via email in the future to provide notifications about responses to your comments.

We also use Gravatar Hovercard. This feature will send a hash of the user’s email address (if logged in to the site or WordPress.com — or if they submitted a comment on the site using their email address that is attached to an active Gravatar profile) to the Gravatar service (owned by Automattic) in order to retrieve their profile image.

Comments and other content submitted to Akismet anti-spam service (also owned by Automattic) are not saved on our servers unless they were marked as false positives, in which case we store them long enough to use them to improve the service to avoid future false positives.

Contact Forms

When visitors complete the contact form, we collect the information displayed in this form, i.e. their name, email address, website name/address, and message to offer an appropriate response.

Akismet collects the contact form submission data — IP address, user agent, name, email address, website, and message — for the sole purpose of spam checking. The actual submission data is stored in the database of the site on which it was submitted and is emailed directly to the owner of the form (i.e. the site author who published the page on which the contact form resides). This email will include the submitter’s IP address, timestamp, name, email address, website, and message.

In addition to following by comment, visitors can follow via email or via social media applications/sites. Visitors who opt to follow by email, or subscribe to. Absolute Bookishness submit to the collection of their email address by WordPress.com to receive updates by email. Similarly, for those visitors who opt to follow via social media applications/sites, WordPress.com also collects data to render stats necessary for Absolute Bookishness to better understand how visitors interact with this site (e.g. to identify visitors and their website access preferences). We use this data to improve the site’s functions. Visitors maintain full control of all subscriptions and can unsubscribe at any time.

Cookies & Ads

If you access or use (i.e. click like or follow buttons) this site, our site host, WordPress.com (also owned by Automattic), may collect small bits of data stored on your computer/other devices when you access websites, which are called cookies. Your cookies may be used to personalize your experience (e.g.saving and auto-filling your name, email address, and website when necessary for your convenience so you do not have to do so repetitively). Your cookies may also be used to permit targeted, third-party ads to display–at the host’s discretion. (As a WordPress.com hosted blog, Absolute Bookishness has no control over the ads you see.)

Some of your cookies may also be used (via site first-party/third-party applications) to collect analytical data. We use this data to understand how users interact with this site (e.g. to identify and track visitors, their usage of Absolute Bookishness’s website, and their website access preferences). We also use this data to improve the site’s functions.

Absolute Bookishness visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using Absolute Bookishness’s website, with the drawback that certain features of Absolute Bookishness’s websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies. Find more details about WordPress.com’s cookie policy here. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by Absolute Bookishness and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.

Giveaways

We occasionally offer giveaways, including those supplied during blog tours we participate in, often via rafflecopter. To conduct these giveaways, we or third-party sites or partners collect data displayed in the giveaway forms (such as name, email address, physical address, social media data, etc.) necessary to determine compliance with giveaway rules and distribute prizes. By participating in giveaways presented on Absolute Bookishness’s website, you consent to data collection by first-party/third-party sites or applications necessary to host and conduct giveaways, and distribute giveaway prizes. This Privacy Policy covers the use of data collected for giveaways by Absolute Bookishness and does not cover the use of such data by any partners or third-party sites/applications (e.g. blog tour creators/sites, publishing companies/authors, publicists/PR agents, rafflecopter, etc.)..

Security

We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline.

Wherever we collect sensitive information, that information is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way. You can verify this by looking for a lock icon in the address bar and looking for “https” at the beginning of the address of the Web page.

While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only those who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, presenting giveaway prizes) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

Your Access to and Control Over Information

You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us via the email address provided on our website:

See what data we have about you, if any.
Change/correct any data we have about you.
Have us delete any data we have about you.
Express any concern you have about our use of your data.

Privacy Policy Changes

Absolute Bookishness may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and in Absolute Bookishness’s sole discretion. Absolute Bookishness encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. By using this site, you acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this privacy policy periodically and become aware of modifications. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.

Your Acceptance of These Terms

By using this site, you signify your acceptance of this Privacy Policy, and any changes to this policy that follow. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our site.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or if you feel that we are not abiding by this Privacy Policy, please contact us immediately at absolutebookishness@gmail.com.

This document was last updated on May 27, 2018.

For even greater details about the personal and non-personal information Absolute Bookishness (and Automattic/the enabled plugins) collects and uses, and how that data is used, see more below.

Activity Log

This feature only records activities of a site’s registered users, and the retention duration of activity data will depend on the site’s plan and activity type.

Data Used: To deliver this functionality and record activities around site management, the following information is captured: user email address, user role, user login, user display name, WordPress.com and local user IDs, the activity to be recorded, the WordPress.com-connected site ID of the site on which the activity takes place, the site’s Jetpack version, and the timestamp of the activity. Some activities may also include the actor’s IP address (login attempts, for example) and user agent.

Activity Tracked: Login attempts/actions, post and page update and publish actions, comment/pingback submission and management actions, plugin and theme management actions, widget updates, user management actions, and the modification of other various site settings and options. Retention duration of activity data depends on the site’s plan and activity type. See the complete list of currently-recorded activities (along with retention information).

Data Synced (?): Successful and failed login attempts, which will include the actor’s IP address and user agent.

Comment Likes

This feature is only accessible to users logged in to WordPress.com.

Data Used: In order to process a comment like, the following information is used: WordPress.com user ID/username (you must be logged in to use this feature), the local site-specific user ID (if the user is signed in to the site on which the like occurred), and a true/false data point that tells us if the user liked a specific comment. If you perform a like action from one of our mobile apps, some additional information is used to track the activity: IP address, user agent, timestamp of event, blog ID, browser language, country code, and device info.

Activity Tracked: Comment likes.

Contact Form

Data Used: If Akismet is enabled on the site, the contact form submission data — IP address, user agent, name, email address, website, and message — is submitted to the Akismet service (also owned by Automattic) for the sole purpose of spam checking. The actual submission data is stored in the database of the site on which it was submitted and is emailed directly to the owner of the form (i.e. the site author who published the page on which the contact form resides). This email will include the submitter’s IP address, timestamp, name, email address, website, and message.

Data Synced (?): Post and post meta data associated with a user’s contact form submission. If Akismet is enabled on the site, the IP address and user agent originally submitted with the comment are synced, as well, as they are stored in post meta.

Gravatar Hovercards

Data Used: This feature will send a hash of the user’s email address (if logged in to the site or WordPress.com — or if they submitted a comment on the site using their email address that is attached to an active Gravatar profile) to the Gravatar service (also owned by Automattic) in order to retrieve their profile image.

Infinite Scroll

Data Used: In order to record page views via WordPress.com Stats (which must be enabled for page view tracking here to work) with additional loads, the following information is used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID (if logged in), WordPress.com username (if logged in), user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code.

Activity Tracked: Page views will be tracked with each additional load (i.e. when you scroll down to the bottom of the page and a new set of posts loads automatically). If the site owner has enabled Google Analytics to work with this feature, a page view event will also be sent to the appropriate Google Analytics account with each additional load.

Jetpack Comments

Data Used: Commenter’s name, email address, and site URL (if provided via the comment form), timestamp, and IP address. Additionally, a jetpack.wordpress.com IFrame receives the following data: WordPress.com blog ID attached to the site, ID of the post on which the comment is being submitted, commenter’s local user ID (if available), commenter’s local username (if available), commenter’s site URL (if available), MD5 hash of the commenter’s email address (if available), and the comment content. If Akismet (also owned by Automattic) is enabled on the site, the following information is sent to the service for the sole purpose of spam checking: commenter’s name, email address, site URL, IP address, and user agent.

Activity Tracked: The comment author’s name, email address, and site URL (if provided during the comment submission) are stored in cookies. Learn more about these cookies.

Data Synced (?): All data and metadata (see above) associated with comments. This includes the status of the comment and, if Akismet is enabled on the site, whether or not it was classified as spam by Akismet.

Likes

This feature is only accessible to users logged in to WordPress.com.

Data Used: In order to process a post like action, the following information is used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID (on which the post was liked), post ID (of the post that was liked), user agent, timestamp of event, browser language, country code.

Activity Tracked: Post likes.

Mobile Theme

Data Used: A visitor’s preference on viewing the mobile version of a site.

Activity Tracked: A cookie (akm_mobile) is stored for 3.5 days to remember whether or not a visitor of the site wishes to view its mobile version. Learn more about this cookie.

Notifications

This feature is only accessible to registered users of the site who are logged in to WordPress.com.

Data Used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID, WordPress.com username, WordPress.com-connected site ID and URL, Jetpack version, user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code. Some visitor-related information or activity may be sent to the site owner via this feature. This may include: email address, WordPress.com username, site URL, email address, comment content, follow actions, etc.

Activity Tracked: Sending notifications (i.e. when we send a notification to a particular user), opening notifications (i.e. when a user opens a notification that they receive), performing an action from within the notification panel (e.g. liking a comment or marking a comment as spam), and clicking on any link from within the notification panel/interface.

Protect

Data Used: In order to check login activity and potentially block fraudulent attempts, the following information is used: attempting user’s IP address, attempting user’s email address/username (i.e. according to the value they were attempting to use during the login process), and all IP-related HTTP headers attached to the attempting user.

Activity Tracked: Failed login attempts (these include IP address and user agent). We also set a cookie (jpp_math_pass) for 1 day to remember if/when a user has successfully completed a math captcha to prove that they’re a real human. Learn more about this cookie.

Data Synced (?): Failed login attempts, which contain the user’s IP address, attempted username or email address, and user agent information.

Data Used: When sharing content via email (this option is only available if Akismet is active on the site), the following information is used: sharing party’s name and email address (if the user is logged in, this information will be pulled directly from their account), IP address (for spam checking), user agent (for spam checking), and email body/content. This content will be sent to Akismet (also owned by Automattic) so that a spam check can be performed. Additionally, if reCAPTCHA (by Google) is enabled by the site owner, the sharing party’s IP address will be shared with that service. You can find Google’s privacy policy here.

Subscriptions

Data Used: To initiate and process subscriptions, the following information is used: subscriber’s email address and the ID of the post or comment (depending on the specific subscription being processed). In the event of a new subscription being initiated, we also collect some basic server data, including all of the subscribing user’s HTTP request headers, the IP address from which the subscribing user is viewing the page, and the URI which was given in order to access the page (REQUEST_URI and DOCUMENT_URI). This server data used for the exclusive purpose of monitoring and preventing abuse and spam.

Activity Tracked: Functionality cookies are set for a duration of 347 days to remember a visitor’s blog and post subscription choices if, in fact, they have an active subscription.

WordPress.com Stats

Data Used: IP address, WordPress.com user ID (if logged in), WordPress.com username (if logged in), user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, country code. Important: The site owner does not have access to any of this information via this feature. For example, a site owner can see that a specific post has 285 views, but he/she cannot see which specific users/accounts viewed that post. Stats logs — containing visitor IP addresses and WordPress.com usernames (if available) — are retained by Automattic for 28 days and are used for the sole purpose of powering this feature.

Activity Tracked: Post and page views, video plays (if videos are hosted by WordPress.com), outbound link clicks, referring URLs and search engine terms, and country. When this module is enabled, Jetpack also tracks performance on each page load that includes the Javascript file used for tracking stats. This is exclusively for aggregate performance tracking across Jetpack sites in order to make sure that our plugin and code is not causing performance issues. This includes the tracking of page load times and resource loading duration (image files, Javascript files, CSS files, etc.). The site owner has the ability to force this feature to honor DNT settings of visitors. By default, DNT is currently not honored.