Privacy Policy

What This Policy Covers

This Privacy Policy applies to information that I collect about you when you:

Use my website
Subscribe to my newsletter

Below I explain how I collect, use, and share information about you, along with the choices that you have with respect to that information.

Information I Collect

I only collect information about you if I have a reason to do so — for example, to communicate with you or to make my content better.

I collect this information from two sources: if and when you provide information to me, and automatically through viewing my website. Let’s go over the information that I collect.

Information You Provide to Me

It’s probably no surprise that I collect information that you provide to me directly. Here is an example:

Communications with me: You may also provide me with information when you comment on blog posts or sign up for my newsletter. When you communicate with me via form, email, blog post comment, or otherwise, I store a copy of our communications.

Information I Collect Automatically

I also collect some information automatically:

Log information: Like most online service providers, I collect information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, including the browser type, IP address, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information. I collect log information when you use my website — for example, when you comment on a blog post.
Usage information: I collect information about your usage of my website. I use this information to, for example, get insights on how people use my website so I can make my website better, and understand and make predictions about user retention.
Location information: I may determine the approximate location of your device from your IP address. I collect and use this information to, for example, calculate how many people visit my website from certain geographic regions.
Information from cookies & other technologies: A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on websites and emails. I use cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help me identify and track visitors, usage, and access preferences for my website, as well as track and understand email campaign effectiveness and to deliver targeted ads. For more information about my use of cookies and other technologies for tracking, including how you can control the use of cookies, please see my Cookie Policy.

How and Why I Use Information

Purposes for Using Information

I use information about you for the purposes listed below:

To ensure quality, maintain safety, and improve my website. For example, by monitoring and analyzing how users interact with my website so I can create new content that I think my users will enjoy or make my website easier to use.
To place and manage ads in my advertising program. For example, to place ads on my website as part of my advertising program and understand ad performance.
To market my website and measure, gauge, and improve the effectiveness of my marketing. For example, by analyzing the results of my marketing campaigns and understanding and forecasting user retention.
To protect my website, myself, and the public. For example, by detecting security incidents; detecting and protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; fighting spam; complying with my legal obligations; and protecting my rights and intellectual property.
To fix problems with my website. For example, by monitoring, debugging, repairing, and preventing issues.
To customize the user experience. For example, to personalize your experience by serving you relevant notifications and advertisements for my website, recommending content through my Reader post suggestions, and providing blogs and content for your reading pleasure.
To communicate with you. For example, by emailing you to ask for your feedback or keep you up to date on my website and blog posts. If you don’t want to hear from me, you can opt out of marketing communications at any time.

Legal Bases for Collecting and Using Information

A note here for those in the European Union about my legal grounds for processing information about you under EU data protection laws, which is that my use of your information is based on the grounds that:

(1) The use is necessary in order to fulfill my commitment to you under the applicable terms of service or other agreements with you; or

(2) The use is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation; or

(3) The use is necessary in order to protect your vital interests or those of another person; or

(4) I have a legitimate interest in using your information — for example, to provide and update my website; to improve my website so that I can offer you an even better user experience; to safeguard my website; to communicate with you; to measure, gauge, and improve the effectiveness of my advertising; and to understand my user retention and attrition; to monitor and prevent any problems with my website; and to personalize your experience; or

(5) You have given me your consent — for example before I place certain cookies on your device and access and analyze them later on, as described in my Cookie Policy.

Sharing Information

How I Share Information

I share information about you in limited circumstances, and with appropriate safeguards on your privacy. These are spelled out below:

Subsidiaries and independent contractors: I may disclose information about you to subsidiaries and independent contractors who need the information to help me provide my website or process the information on my behalf. I require subsidiaries and independent contractors to follow this Privacy Policy for any personal information that I share with them.
Third-party vendors: I may share information about you with third-party vendors who need the information in order to provide their services to me, or to provide their services to you. This includes vendors that help me provide my website to you ; those that assist me with my marketing efforts (e.g., by providing tools for identifying a specific marketing target group or improving my marketing campaigns, and by placing ads to market my website and intellectual property); those that help me understand and enhance my website (like analytics providers); those that make tools to help me run my operations (like programs that help me with task management, scheduling, word processing, and email and other communications); other third-party tools that help me manage operations; and companies that make products available on my website who may need information about you in order to, for example, provide technical or other support services to you. I require vendors to agree to privacy commitments in order to share information with them. Other vendors are listed in my more specific policies (e.g., my Cookie Policy).
Legal and regulatory requirements: I may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request.
To protect rights, property, and others: I may disclose information about you when I believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Perfect Peace Publishing, LLC, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if I have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, I may disclose information related to the emergency without delay.
Business transfers: In connection with any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of my business by another company, or in the unlikely event that Perfect Peace Publishing, LLC goes out of business or enter bankruptcy, user information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events were to happen, this Privacy Policy would continue to apply to your information and the party receiving your information may continue to use your information, but only consistent with this Privacy Policy.
With your consent: I may share and disclose information with your consent or at your direction. For example, I may share your information with third parties when you authorize me to do so.
Aggregated or de-identified information: I may share information that has been aggregated or de-identified, so that it can no longer reasonably be used to identify you.
Published support requests: If you send me a request for assistance (for example, via a support email or one of my other feedback mechanisms), I reserve the right to publish that request in order to clarify or respond to your request, or to help me support other users.

Information Shared Publicly

Information that you choose to make public is — you guessed it — disclosed publicly.

That means information like your “Likes” and comments on my website are all available to others — and I hope they get a lot of views!

Please keep all of this in mind when deciding what you would like to share publicly.

How Long I Keep Information

I generally discard information about you when it’s no longer needed for the purposes for which I collect and use it — described in the section above on How and Why I Use Information — and I’m not legally required to keep it.

Security

While no online service is 100% secure, I work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so. I monitor my website for potential vulnerabilities and attacks.

Choices

You have several choices available when it comes to information about you:

Limit the information that you provide: If you leave a comment on my website, you can choose not to provide the optional profile information.
Opt out of marketing communications: You may opt out of receiving promotional communications from me. Just follow the instructions in those communications or let me know.
Set your browser to reject cookies: You can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before using my website, with the drawback that certain features of my website may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

Your Rights

If you are located in certain parts of the world, including some US states and countries that fall under the scope of the European General Data Protection Regulation (aka the “GDPR”), you may have certain rights regarding your personal information, like the right to request access to or deletion of your data.

European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

If you are located in a country that falls under the scope of the GDPR, data protection laws give you certain rights with respect to your personal data, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the rights to:

Request access to your personal data;
Request correction or deletion of your personal data;
Object to my use and processing of your personal data;
Request that I limit my use and processing of your personal data; and
Request portability of your personal data.

You also have the right to make a complaint to a government supervisory authority.

US Privacy Laws

Laws in some US states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia, require me to provide residents with additional information about the categories of personal information I collect and share, where I get that personal information, and how and why I use it. You’ll find that information in this section (if you are a California resident, please note that this is the Notice at Collection I am required to provide you under California law).

In the last 12 months, I collected the following categories of personal information, depending on the services used:

Identifiers (like your name, contact information, and device and online identifiers);
Internet or other electronic network activity information
Geolocation data (such as your location based on your IP address);
Audio, electronic, visual or similar information (such as your profile picture, if you uploaded one);
Inferences I make (such as likelihood of retention or attrition).

You can find more information about what I collect and sources of that information in the Information I Collect section above.

I collect personal information for the business and commercial purposes described in the How and Why I Use Information section. And I share this information with the categories of third parties described in the Sharing Information section. I retain this information for the length of time described in my How Long We Keep Information section.

In some US states you have additional rights subject to any exemptions provided by your state’s respective law, including the right to:

Request a copy of the specific pieces of information I collect about you and, if you’re in California, to know the categories of personal information I collect, the categories of business or commercial purpose for collecting and using it, the categories of sources from which the information came, and the categories of third parties I share it with;
Request deletion of personal information I collect or maintain;
Request correction of personal information I collect or maintain;
Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information;
Receive a copy of your information in a readily portable format; and
Not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your rights.

Right to Opt Out

I never directly sell your personal information in the conventional sense (i.e., for money).

I may share your information as necessary with third-party service providers to provide my services to you. To the extent that I share your information with certain advertising, marketing, or analytics vendors, this can be considered a “sale” or “share” in certain U.S. States, which you may have the right to opt out of.

You can learn more about this sharing and how to opt out by clicking the “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” link in the footer of my website. Note that in some instances this link will only display to individuals visiting my site from within the relevant states.

My opt-out is managed through cookies, so if you delete cookies, your browser is set to delete cookies automatically after a certain length of time, or if you visit sites in a different browser, you’ll need to make this selection again.

I also respect the GPC browser signal and will treat it as a valid means of communicating your desire to opt out.

I do not collect or process your sensitive (and potentially sensitive) personal information except where it is strictly necessary to provide you with my service, where the processing is not for the purpose of inferring characteristics about you, or for other purposes that do not require an option to limit under California law. I don’t knowingly sell or share personal information of those under 16.

Your Information & Personalized Advertising

I show ads and the revenue these ads generate allows me to earn revenue to support and grow my business. As part of my advertising program, I use cookies to share certain device identifiers and information about your browsing activities with my advertising partners, and those advertising partners may use that information to show you personalized ads.

The personal information I share includes online identifiers; internet or other network or device activity (such as cookie information, other device identifiers, and IP address); and geolocation data (approximate location information from your IP address). These disclosures may be considered a “sale” or “share” of information under some US state privacy laws. I do not sell (or share) information through my ads program that identifies you personally, like your name or contact information.

Contacting Me About These Rights

You can usually access, correct, or delete your personal data using your account settings, but if you aren’t able to or you’d like to contact me about one of the other rights, please email brianabass@authorbrianabass.com.

When you contact me about one of your rights under this section, I’ll need to verify that you are the right person before I disclose or delete anything. You can also designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf by giving me written authorization. I may still require you to verify your identity with us.

Appeals Process for Rights Requests Denials

In some circumstances I may deny your request to exercise one of these rights. For example, if I am legally required to maintain a copy of your personal information I may deny your request to delete your personal information.

In the event that I deny your request, I will communicate this fact to you in writing. You may appeal my decision by responding in writing to my denial email and stating that you would like to appeal. All appeals will be reviewed by an internal expert who was not involved in your original request. In the event that your appeal is also denied this information will be communicated to you in writing.

If your appeal is denied, in some US states (Colorado, Connecticut, and Virginia) you may refer the denied appeal to the state attorney general if you believe the denial is in conflict with your legal rights. The process for how to do this will be communicated to you in writing at the same time I send you my decision about your appeal.

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, I may change my Privacy Policy from time to time. I encourage visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to the Privacy Policy. If I make changes, I will notify you by revising the change log below, and, in some cases, I may provide additional notice Your further use of my services after a change to my Privacy Policy will be subject to the updated policy.

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