With thanks to Writers’ HQ, supreme writing commanders, glorious leaders, and excellent but tiny overlords, who have verily granted me permission to use their splendid Privacy Policy.
The gist of it:
This is a tiny, overstretched business, and I don’t have the time or energy to do anything nefarious with your data. It’s not that I’m not evil – I’m just too tired to think up a malevolent plot to steal your identity. I collect and store the info needed to serve you.
Cookies:
Yes, this site use cookies because that’s kinda how the Internet works. If you don’t want delicious home-baked chocolate chip scripts, then you need to block cookies on your browser, but don’t come crying to me when nothing does what it’s supposed to.
Stalky visitor tracking:
Look, I’m following you, ok? Wordpress lets me see my site stats because they’re cool, but also to see what stuff people are looking at so I can write more of the stuff you like. All I see is that a person or many people have interacted with my website in a particular way. You can mess with me by doing something totally unexpected on the website and skewing my stats. Or you could do something way more fun and useful with your time LIKE CREATING.
Amazon affiliate:
I am part of the Amazon affiliate program. I’m supposed to say “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases” here. Translation: Links to Amazon will often be an affiliate link, meaning I may receive a portion of sales if you choose to purchase from that link. I only tell you about the good stuff, I’m not spamming or scamming you. Amazon offers too many items for me to resort to recommending anything subpar.
Data storage:
I store your data in a few different places and use it in a couple of different ways. You ready for this?
Depending on how you interact with me, you might want to check out these websites’ privacy policies as well. I use WordPress (website/blog interaction), MailChimp (email newsletter interactions), Gmail (individual email interactions), Patreon (for patrons), HubSpot CRM (customer interaction), and social media (if you chat with me there). You can check out their privacy policies to see how they handle your data.
WordPress shows me my followers and links to their blog if they follow me through WordPress or their email address is they follow by email.
MailChimp collects the email address of individuals who subscribe to my newsletter. It may also track their name as well. If you’re signed up for my newsletter, I can see which emails are opened and which links were clicked, so I know what content is most enjoyed by readers so that I can do better for you. You can unsubscribe anytime through the link at the bottom of every email.
Gmail stores the email address of those who email me. Sometimes I may store the name as well. Any email correspondence may be saved.
Patreon stores the email address, mailing address, names, and pledges of any patrons. I use this information to contact patrons with the rewards for their tiers.
Facebook and Twitter are my social media sites. Similar to WordPress, I have access to analytical tools to see how many people engage with a certain post, and how many people like or unlike my page.
HubSpot CRM is the bulk of my customer data storage. If we have personal private interaction (email, messaging, phone) I may add it to my customer management system to ensure I follow through on the discussion. Whether that’s mailing a purchased book, sending a link to a post, or inviting you to a class you requested more info on, this customer management system helps me keep track of what I owe you. I may keep your name, email, phone, mailing address, social media profiles, customer history, and/or conversations, but I only store the info you’ve given to me and only for the purpose of serving you better.
None of these things store any super personal data about you unless you voluntarily give it, but probably they nab your IP address, not that I’d know where to look for it or what to do with it.
Email newsletters:
If you sign up for my newsletter, I’ll send you a newsletter once a month. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe button in every email. Your name and email address are stored securely in MailChimp.
MailChimp automatically adds tracking things to links so if you click on a link I KNOW. If you open an email I KNOW. If you ignore me I KNOW. The most important thing about this is I have neither the time nor inclination to actually look at or do anything with these stats.
Your right to be deleted:
If you want to go undercover, contact me to delete all the info I have on you from my system while agonizing over what I could have possibly done wrong.