If you are about to subscribe to my blog or newsletter website, email me, or contact me on social media (or if you have already done any of these things), you should read this notice. The general information about website security, links to third party websites and use of cookies applies to all visitors. This policy was last updated on 21 May 2018.
New General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) come into force on 25th May 2018. Although they are designed primarily for large commercial organisations, and we are a very small voluntary organisation, we take your privacy extremely seriously. That’s why we only ever ask you for the information we need, and we never sell lists or email addresses or share them with anyone else.
By subscribing to our blog you consent to having blog posts delivered to your email address. Our list of blog subscribers is managed via a plug-in on our website, and so the information is not exported to a third party provider. For details of our website security, see below.
By subscribing to our newsletter you consent to receiving details of newsworthy events and incidental information. We do not store your personal information. Instead, our list of newsletter subscribers is managed on a third party site called MailChimp. When you sign up to my newsletter, you consent that we can:
- Transfer your contact information to MailChimp
- Store you contact information in my MailChimp account
- Send you newsletters/emails from my MailChimp account
- Track interactions (e.g., click and open rates) for email marketing purposes.
All MailChimp forms collect your email address, IP address, and add their own timestamp which serves as evidence that you have provided consent. We do not have access to the distribution lists of other MailChimp users and they do not have access to mine. If you subscribe to our newsletter and use the ‘forward to a friend’ (FTF) link, this will allow you to share our email content with individuals who are not on our Distribution List. You can be assured that when you forward an email to a friend, MailChimp doesn’t store your friend’s email address, and it will not be added to our distribution list.
Read MailChimp’s Privacy Policy here.
If you provide us with your name and email address/other contact details on the understanding that we will sign you up to my blog or newsletter, you will receive an email asking you to confirm that you want to join the lists.
How can I unsubscribe?
You can stop receiving blog posts and newsletters at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions included at the foot of every blog post or email we send you.
Requests to Join my Mailing List
If you have either asked to join or have accepted a personal invitation to join one of our mailing lists, we will assume that by providing us with your email address, you are giving us consent to process your personal information.
Legitimate business interest
If you contact us via the contact form on our website or email us directly, we will simply reply, relying on lawful basis of processing (in other words, we will not ask for your consent before replying). We will not enter your details on any database without your consent, but your name and email address will automatically be stored as a ‘contact’ within my Gmail account. We may also store the email/email chain if it contains details we think we may need to refer back to.
Social Media
If you comment on my social media accounts or on You Tube, records of those transactions will be held by the relevant social media channels. We have access to databases of followers on Twitter and Facebook. In these instances, we are not the data processor. However, we use strong passwords and two factor authentication on these sites.
Minors
We do not knowingly collect or maintain personal information from individuals under 16 years of age, and no part of our website is designed or intended to attract people under the age of 16. Protecting the privacy of children is very important to us. If you are under 16, do not use or provide any information on the website or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address or any screen name or user name you may use. If we obtain knowledge that a user is under the age of 16, we will take steps to remove that user’s personal information from our databases.
How long will you keep my personal information for?
If you have subscribed to our blog or mailing list, you may unsubscribe at any time. If you do not open the emails we send you, we may delete your details in any case.
Your rights
You are entitled to ask us what information we hold about you and how we are processing that data. This is called a Subject Access Request. To file a request, simply use the contact form on our website. We aim to respond to all requests within 7 days. This would be provided via email, usually with a screenshot or other appropriate medium.
What if my personal information is wrong?
You can ask usto correct your personal information at any time.
Can I ask you to stop processing my personal information?
Yes. You can also exercise your right to request to be forgotten.
The right to be forgotten
If you unsubscribe from our blog or newsletter, your data will be automatically deleted.
You have the right to request to be forgotten. If you have used the contact form/emailed us, on receipt of your request, we will delete your data.
For social media, you have control of your own accounts and can change the settings so that we will no longer have access to your data.
Website security
Our website is managed by WordPress.com, which backs up information held on our website and runs regular security scans. Our website has an SSL Certificate. This activates the padlock and https protocol and allows secure connections from a web server to a browser. Typically, SSL is used to secure credit card transactions (although we don’t conduct sales from my website), data transfer and logins, and more recently is becoming the norm when securing browsing of social media sites.
We use strong password-protecting on my computer, website and social media. If my computer, website or social media accounts were compromised, we would notify you at the earliest opportunity, seek advice and take steps to follow that advice immediately.
Links to other websites
Our website, blog posts and newsletters contain links to other websites. Once you use these links, you will leave our website. We are not responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites. Please exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.
Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival 